• How real is the threat of cyberattack on the United States?

    Some experts compare the economic impact of a major cyberincident to the 2003 Northeast blackout, which cut service to fifty million people in the United States and Canada for up to four days; economists place the cost of that event between $4.5 [billion] and $10 billion — which they regard as a blip in the $14.2 trillion U.S. economy

  • House sponsors of the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act hopes for quick Senate approval

    The The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act by an overwhelming majority; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says: “When you’re talking about science and technology and national security….those are elements we should all be able to work together (on); Democrat, Republican, and that’s what we saw on the House floor”

  • Hackers to compete for $100,000 for smartphone, browser hacks

    Hackers will compete for a $100,000 in prizes for exploits that successfully penetrate Apple’s iPhone 3GS, Research in Motion’s Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running the most recent version of Symbian, and a Motorola phone running Google’s Android

  • U.S. cyberattack drill exposes unsettling vulnerabilities

    Experts, including current and former officials, conduct a cyberattack-on-the-U.S. drill; the results show that the peril is real and growing; no grand plan emerged, but the group did agree to advise the president to federalize the National Guard, even if governors objected, and deploy the troops — perhaps backed by the U.S. military — to guard power lines and prevent unrest

  • LGS on Lockheed Martin team for $31 million DARPA cyber assurance contract

    LGS selected by Lockheed Martin as a subcontractor for a 31 milllion dollar DARPA-funded contract to develop cyber procedures which will provide military untis with dynamic bandwidth allocation

  • New group calls for holding vendors liable for buggy software

    The group released draft language it advises companies to incorporate into procurement contracts between user organizations and software development firms; SANS Institute, Mitre also release 2010 list of Top 25 programming errors

  • Critical infrastructure companies targeted by malware

    Companies in the critical infrastructure sector, such as oil, energy, and chemical industries, experienced a higher percentage of malware in 2009 than organizations in other sectors – much, much higher: more than 350 percent more than other industries

  • McAfee: China leads world in hacked computers

    A new study finds that more personal computers in China — about 1,095,000 computers — than in any other country have been hacked to make them zombies, then grouped into botnets to engage in massive e-mail attacks on Web sites; the prevalence of botnets is a sign of how vulnerable computer networks are to infiltration

  • ShockWave cyberdrill will see former officials manage cyberattack on U.S.

    Simulated cyberattack to test government response to nation-wide cyberattack on the United States; the purpose of the drill is to see how officials in key government positions would react to a real-time cyberattack, and to evaluate the split-second decisions they may be required to take to deal with it

  • NIST issues expanded draft of its smart grid cyber security Strategy for public review

    The coming Smart Grid will offer efficiency and savings, but also new cybervulnerabilities; NIST has issued the second draft proposal of its smart grid cybersecurity requirements; the document identifies more than 120 interfaces that will link diverse devices, systems, and organizations engaged in two-way flows of electricity and information and classifies these connections according to the risks posed by a potential security breach

  • Oak Ridge develops powerful intrusion detection systems

    The attack analysis program uses machine learning to increase effectiveness; ORCA effectively sits on top of off-the-shelf intrusion detection systems, and its correlation engine processes information and learns as cyberevents arrive; the correlation engine supplements or replaces the preset rules used by most intrusion detection systems to detect attacks or other malicious events

  • Group aims to set standard for cloud security

    A new consortium aims to provide a Common Assurance Metric (CAM) that will consist of objective, quantifiable measurements; it will draw from existing standards, which are often industry specific, to provide an international, cross-sector approach

  • FBI wants two year retention for ISP data

    Since 1986 U.S. phone companies have been obliged to keep records of who makes calls, who they call, when they call, and how long the call lasts; Now, the Feds want to include Web activity tools; it is not clear is whether the FBI means which Web sites are visited or the specific URLs

  • U.S. scientists get free cloud free access

    Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide free access to cloud computing resources for select NSF-funded researchers for the next three years; those selected will get to use remote Microsoft Azure data centers full of Windows/Dell servers and storage so that they can run compute-intensive algorithms on masses of data

  • U.K. police looking for PC crime breathalyser

    U.K. e-crime cops turn to technology to boost frontline forensics; the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) is looking for “digital triage” tools that would give frontline police with little training in digital forensics the ability to search for anything from text in e-mails relating to stolen goods to illegal images