SDFM The Business of Defense
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Malware from smartphones is a growing danger to enterprise networks, according to new research from Juniper Research. They say users are more aware of security concerns than ever, but doing less about them. Juniper says as many as 80 per cent of smartphones aren't protected from malware.
October 10, 2013 -
Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee are nearing agreement on a cybersecurity bill. It's meant to encourage companies to share cyber threat information with each other and the government. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu reports.
October 09, 2013 -
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said the longer we wait on cybersecurity legislation, the worse it gets for cyber attacks on the U.S.
October 09, 2013 -
This week on AFGE's "Inside Government" Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul discusses the government shutdown's impact on U.S. manufacturing. North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, retired AFGE SSA Local 3509 member Michael Gravinese and American Postal Workers Union Local 1078 member Louis Forrisi also appear from the recent North Carolina AFL-CIO Convention.
October 09, 2013 -
Your agency's chief information security officer has a problem that might not have a solution. The online ecosystem of apps and mobile devices is creating a perfect storm of incoming threats and financial challenges. Hord Tipton, executive director of the information security non-profit (ISC)², is the former chief information officer of the Interior Department.
October 09, 2013 -
DoD's Health Management Systems Modernization Program seeks input from vendors on the current capabilities of electronic health records in the commercial market. The Defense Intelligence Agency issued a draft request for proposals in late September for the multiple-award Enhanced Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) contract, which could be worth $6 billion.
October 09, 2013 -
Microsoft is making good on its promise to reward hackers that find security flaws in its software. The company has given its first 100-thousand-dollar bounty to cybersecurity researcher James Forshaw, who works for London-based Context Information Security. Microsoft says Forshaw came up with a new exploitation technique. The details are a secret until Microsoft can successfully address it. It says Forshaw's discovery will help Microsoft develop defenses against entire classes of cyber attacks.
October 09, 2013 -
Microsoft wants to up its presence in the hotly contested federal cloud computing market. It launches a dedicated, government-only cloud. That means the facilities are located in the continental United States, and staffed by U-S citizens. Only data and applications of federal, state and local agencies will be housed there. In a blog post, Microsoft's cloud chief Satya Nardella says the Windows Azure US Government Cloud has already received federal security approval. It was granted provisional authority to operate under the General Services Administration's FedRAMP program. Nardella says federal customers are among the most demanding.
October 09, 2013 -
The Pentagon pays out $100,000 within three days of a soldier's death. But it says the shutdown means there is no authority now to pay the money. Payments for deaths occurring after 11:59PM on September 30, 2013, are NOT payable during shutdown. Members of Congress expressed outrage Tuesday that families of fallen U.S. military personnel are being denied death benefits.
October 09, 2013 -
The bill would conform, mostly, with the House's most recent Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Both the House and Senate bills are trying to find common areas to incentivize private sector companies to share information on any malicious code their firms encounter, both by providing them with liability protections that would shield them from lawsuits that could otherwise follow from sharing information with competitors or with the government, and by convincing them that federal agencies are capable of securely communicating threat information between the private and public sectors.
October 09, 2013 -
Sanjay Castelino, vice president at SolarWinds, will discuss how your agency can benefit from a concept call Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. October 8, 2013
October 09, 2013 -
A federal grand jury has indicted 13 members of a key Internet hacking group for a wide-ranging series of cyber attacks. The defendants are part of Anonymous. They are accused of targeting governments, trade associations, financial institutions and other entities - any site that goes against the Anonymous philosophy of making all information free for everyone, without regard for copyright laws or national security concerns.
October 08, 2013 -
Technical flaws are holding back the National Security Agency from deploying its gigantic new data center in Utah. The Wall Street Journal reports, for more than a year the facility has been hit by a series of fires and explosions caused by electrical arcing. In some instances, the jolts destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. An N-S-A spokeswoman says the problem has been mitigated through testing. The Army Corps of Engineers oversees construction. A spokesman there says the contractor is fixing the problem. But that account is disputed by an independent Corps investigator. The data center covers a million square feet and has so far cost 1 point 4 billion dollars.
October 08, 2013 -
Nominations are open for The People Who Made a Difference In Security in 2013. The SANS Institute will recognize the winners December 16th at the SANS Cyber Defense Initiative conference in Washington. Nominations are open until November 8th. You can find details at Federal News Radio dot com, slash In Depth. DC, SANS plans on celebrating the most dedicated and innovative "People Who Made a Difference in Security in 2013."
October 08, 2013 -
Three Americans and a Panamanian Air National Guardsman were killed in a plane crash in northern Colombia October 6th near the border of Panama. Two Americans survived the crash and were rescued by Colombian military forces and taken to a hospital in Bogota. The DH-8 aircraft, contracted by the U.S. government to provide detection and monitoring of drug trafficking routes in the coastal region of Central America as part of Operation Martillo, lost communications over the Western Caribbean before crashing near the city of Capurgana. There is no indication the plane was shot down.
October 08, 2013