Announcing the January 2024 Fellows

Since our beginnings in 2015, TechCongress has strived to place technologists in Capitol Hill to positively impact the future of tech policy. With the rapid growth of A.I., social media platforms, cybersecurity threats, and other technological developments, the need for adequate tech policy is greater than ever. The 2024 Congressional Innovation Fellows will apply their technical expertise and insightful backgrounds to support federal policymakers in addressing current challenges and contribute to the creation of a better tomorrow.

We are honored to host such a talented and diverse group of fellows, and will be highlighting each fellow in our cohort in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned to learn more about our fellows’ journeys to TechCongress, their areas of expertise, and where they’ll be working during the fellowship.

Jack Cable: Money Over Morals: A Business Analysis of Conti Ransomware

Jack Cable authored the first in-depth peer-reviewed research into the Conti leaks. We mapped over $80 million in new payments to Conti.

This paper was published in December as part of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, for which we received the best paper award.

In February 2022, over 168,000 internal chat messages of the Conti ransomware group were leaked. Conti is one of the most prominent ransomware groups of all time. We sought to build a picture of Conti's (quite profitable) business based on on-chain analysis of Bitcoin payments.

To do so, we manually annotated all 666 Bitcoin addresses present in the leaks based on message context (our team included a native Russian speaker). We tag addresses as either a salary, reimbursement, or ransom payment address.

John Yaros: Idaho Dept. of Finance appoints Securities Bureau Chief

John Yaros was appointed as Securities Bureau Chief by the Idaho Dpt. of Finance

The Idaho Department of Finance announced John Yaros has been appointed the Securities Bureau Chief.

In this capacity, Yaros will manage a bureau of financial professionals who provide regulatory oversight for the more than 153,000 entities and individuals who are licensed or registered to offer securities and financial services to Idaho residents. While the securities bureau is focused on investor protection, education and enforcement of state securities laws, the bureau also licenses and regulates money transmitter companies, escrow companies and endowed care cemeteries.

RSA Conference 2023: The Future of Cyber Workforce - An Ecosystem View and Global Perspectives

Alumn Seeyew Mo was invited to participate in the RSA Conference 2023 as a panelist speaker.

The introduction of the US Cyber Workforce Strategy and EU initiative on cyber skills presents a critical opportunity to enable the workforce of the future – it also requires an entire stack, all hands on board approach. With new threats and requirements emerging, this panel of experts from government, industry and academia will distill latest developments and action needed to address these needs.