Recent Grants

Our nation faces unprecedented threats to the homeland from increasingly sophisticated criminal groups and nation-state actors. Tribal governments stand at the forefront of cyber defense. This partnership includes enforcing laws, assisting the federal government in securing borders and cyberspace, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations. Cybersecurity threats, including ransomware intrusions, and widespread software vulnerabilities affecting Tribal government systems and critical infrastructure are increasingly exploited by malicious actors, operating both domestically and abroad. To strengthen the essential partnership DHS maintains with Tribal governments in executing its mission, DHS is committed to supporting their efforts to combat cybersecurity threats and mitigate risks that endanger these vital functions.

Considering the risk and potential consequences of cyber incidents, strengthening the cybersecurity practices and resilience of Tribal governments is an important homeland security mission and the primary focus of TCGP. This program enables DHS to make targeted cybersecurity investments in Tribal governments, thus improving the security of critical infrastructure and improving the resilience of the services Tribal governments provide their communities. 

Priorities:

Cybersecurity Plan, Committee Membership List, and Charter

TCGP grant recipients are required to develop a Cybersecurity Plan, establish a Cybersecurity Planning Committee to support development of the Cybersecurity Plan, and identify projects to implement using TCGP funding. To support these efforts, recipients must prioritize the following activities using FY 2025 TCGP funds, all of which are statutorily required as a condition of receiving a grant:

• Establish a Cybersecurity Planning Committee;

• Implement or revise a Cybersecurity Plan.

Key Cybersecurity Best Practices for Individual Projects:

To keep pace with today's dynamic and increasingly sophisticated cyber threat environment, Tribal governments must take decisive steps to modernize their approach to cybersecurity. As tribes increase their cybersecurity maturity, CISA recommends they move toward implementing more advanced best practices, such as endpoint detection and response capabilities, as well as conducting regular penetration testing. To assist in the revision of tribal cyber planning efforts, the following Cybersecurity Best Practices are provided. As appropriate, the strategic elements listed in the table below should be included in FY 2025 individual projects:

• Implement multi-factor authentication;
• Implement enhanced logging;
• Data encryption for data at rest and in transit;
• End use of unsupported/end of life software and hardware that are accessible from the internet;
• Prohibit use of known/fixed/default passwords and credentials;
• Ensure the ability to reconstitute systems (backups);
• Actively engage in bidirectional sharing between CISA and Tribal governments in cyber relevant time frames to drive down cyber risk;
• Migration to the .gov internet domain.