U.S. officials have largely ruled out North Korea as the origin of a computer attack last July that took down U.S. and South Korean government websites. But, authorities aren\'t much closer than they were a year ago to knowing exactly who did it, or why. Early analysis of the fast-moving \"denial of service\" attacks pointed to North Korea since code used included Korean language. Experts say agencies are better prepared today, but that many government and business sites remain vulnerable to similar attacks.
The so-called \"continuous monitoring\" of systems is becoming a hot topic in government. That\'s because under federal guidelines, agencies must report how they protect their information systems, plus, agencies are now required to submit real-time data about the state of their networks. Continuous monitoring doesn\'t mean systems have to be watched every minute. Even now, some agencies are able to monitor their systems through international networks at least once a day.
A new study that finds 80-percent of I-T managers expect network-born threats to increase over the next year. Perhaps even more troubling, more than half of managers told netForensics their organization was not budgeting enough, or recruiting enough new talent, to counter any added cyber-threats. Almost 25-percent of respondents said they saw a decrease in staff size in the last year. More than half of the managers polled did however say their organization was more secure now than it was a year ago.
A software trade association has produced a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity framework to help guide governments\' security efforts worldwide. Officials with the Business Software Alliance say it\'s needed to help countries put together policies that will thwart the many kinds kinds of cybersecurity threats that exist. Working with the private sector and prosecuting cyber-criminals are key parts of the framework.
DHS will oversee and provide assistance to civilian agencies to improve how they protect their computer networks. White House cyber coordinator Schmidt says the goal of the memo is to make sure agency roles and responsibilities are clear. Schmidt also calls for more valuable public-private partnerships.
There are some real concerns coming from several directions over the program.
This week, the show features two speakers from the Management of Change conference, which took place in Philadelphia earlier this year. Encore Presentation
The answer isn\'t so simple, finds a new report. Report author Jody Westby, Adjunct Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon CyLab explains.
This week, we bring you the Best of In Depth. Listen to a past conversation with former e-gov administrators Karen Evans and Mark Forman.
Be open and stay secure. Learn more in today\'s cybersecurity update.
GAO questions cloud computing security, DISA lease woes slow cybercommand