Cybersecurity

  • Building off a project to assess the nation's overall cyber capabilities, the Department of Homeland Security has begun drawing up plans for how it would respond in the event of a range of cyber emergencies affecting critical infrastructure.

    August 08, 2013
  • A recent briefing between the House Veterans Affairs Committee, VA IT executives and DHS ended with the lead majority staff member walking out before the meeting ended. The rising tensions between the House Veterans Affairs committee's majority and VA come as a report surfaced showing veterans are at a higher risk of identity theft than the average citizen.

    August 07, 2013
  • The council is restructuring to match the Obama administration's technology priorities for innovation, governance and cybersecurity. It will now operate with three main committees instead of five.

    August 07, 2013
  • The departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Treasury submitted suggestions to the White House on what incentives the government can offer to induce critical infrastructure providers to use the cybersecurity framework to improve their systems and networks. NIST is leading an effort to develop the framework with industry.

    August 07, 2013
  • Two London men have each been sentenced to two months in jail following contempt of court convictions for misusing the Internet while serving on a jury. One of them posted a Facebook message while the other used Google to search for extra information about the victims of a fraud case and later shared the information with other jurors. A 2010 UK survey by the Guardian found that about 12 percent of jurors involved in high-profile cases had supplemented courtroom evidence with Web searches.

    August 05, 2013
  • Both the White House and Congress have asserted that protecting the nation's resources from cyber-attacks is a top priority. Techworld is reporting enacting legislation designed to enhance security for critical infrastructure components such as water, power, telecom and transport facilities that is acceptable to both political parties has been a struggle. The problem political differences. But Cyber industry leaders have started to work on a voluntary standards and best practices platform to provide some level of security.

    August 05, 2013
  • Howard Schmidt, the former cybersecurity coordinator for the Obama administration, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss the growing market in zero-day detection

    August 01, 2013
  • The FBI hopes a new portal, iGuardian, will enable the FBI to help companies protect themselves against malware by creating a repository of cybersecurity breaches.

    July 31, 2013
  • A recent IG report said the State Department's Bureau of Information Resource Management's Office of Information Assurance lacks organization and lags in performance. The report made 32 recommendations for the office.

    July 25, 2013
  • Brendan Goode, the director of network security deployment in the National Protection and Programs Directorate in DHS, said 15 out of the initial 23 agencies expected to implement Einstein 3 have signed memorandums of agreements with the department. E3A will use both unclassified and classified indicators to understand risks and vulnerabilities of federal networks.

    July 22, 2013
  • Bruce McConnell announced today his intention to leave the Homeland Security Department in August after spending more than four years in an assortment of senior cybersecurity positions. He will be third senior ranking cyber official at DHS to leave since January.

    July 18, 2013
  • Cyber-attacks on banks are growing more frequent. Wall Street has just conducted a cyber-defense exercise called "Quantum Dawn 2,". During the drill, bank employees were stationed at their normal offices, and were emailed throughout the day with bits of information that could indicate an encroaching hacker attack. They monitored a simulated stock exchange for irregular trading and were pressed to figure out what was going on and how to react while sharing information with regulators and each other.

    July 18, 2013
  • Ever hear of the Multi-State Information Security and Analysis Center? It's a division of the Center for Internet Security. Their focus is cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for state, local territory and tribal governments. Their objectives iclude providing two-way sharing of information and early warnings on cyber security threats, dissemination of information on cyber security incidents, to promote awareness and coordinate training.

    July 18, 2013
  • Will exploit developers become potential targets of state-sponsored assassinations in the future -like the nuclear scientists in recent times? There's been some discussion in the "Tech" community regarding the legitimacy of using lethal force against civilian hackers. As a result some are wondering what the future might hold for exploit developers and other members of the cyber supply chain who are facilitating state-funded, offensive cyber operations.

    July 18, 2013

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