• U.S. nuclear power plants bolster defenses against cyberattacks

    The threat to digital systems at the U.S. nuclear power plants is considerable — especially for new nuclear power facilities that would be built in the United States and throughout the world, as control rooms would employ digital systems to operate the plants; these state-of-the-art instruments and systems make them targets for hackers

  • Need for digital security spurs growth of cyber security field

    The growing need for digital security has made the shortage of cyber security professionals in the United States even more apparent, and the U.S. government is now engaged in a campaign to train, hire, and retain thousands of cyber professionals; the private sector is doing its share, too: Raytheon initiated the MathMovesU program in 2005, to inspire middle school students to consider math, science, and engineering education and careers; Raytheon awards more than $2 million annually in scholarships and grants to students, teachers, and schools nationwide

  • Quantum encryptionCommercial quantum cryptography vulnerable to attack

    Quantum cryptography is one of the most secure known means of transmitting data; in fact, it is often described as “unbreakable” because it relies on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle — observation causes perturbation: if a third party does intercept a quantum signal, this very interception changes the encryption key, making the tampering apparent to parties at both ends; researchers, though, developed and tested a technique exploiting imperfections in quantum cryptography systems to implement an attack