• New book confirms Israel behind killing of Iran nuclear scientists

    A book to be published today offers details about, Israel’s campaign to take out Iranian nuclear scientists, a campaign which is part of the Israel’s broader effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; the book also says that the cyber campaign against Iran’s nuclear program was an Israeli innovation, not an American one as recently reported; it was the brainchild of Israel’s military intelligence agency (AMAN) and Unit 8-200 — Israel’s equivalent of the eavesdropping, code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA) — and endorsed by the White House at Israel’s suggestion

  • ACLU-sponsored app keeps police accountable

    A new app from the ACLU of New Jersey allows people securely and discreetly to record and store interactions with police, as well as provide legal information about citizens’ rights when interacting with the police

  • New Facebook app detects pedophiles, criminals

    Researchers have developed a new privacy solution for Facebook; the Social Privacy Protector (SPP), developed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) undergraduate students, can help parents adjust their children’s profiles in one click, prevent criminals from gathering valuable personal information, and keep teens safe from pedophiles

  • Mobile device necessitate “stateless” IT security architecture

    I n a new report, Forrester analysts say that to stay ahead of evolving mobile business requirements, security and risk (S&R) and infrastructure and operations (I&O) executives cannot rely on the old approach of end-to-end control over the data path, device, and applications; instead, they must embrace a “stateless” architecture in which IT decouples security controls from the devices and the infrastructure, derives trust dynamically, and avoids costly new investment of in-house applications and infrastructure

  • Sharp increase in cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure

    The number of reported cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure increased sharply – from 9 incidents in 2009 to 198 in 2011; water sector-specific incidents, when added to the incidents which affected several sectors, accounted for more than half of the incidents; in more than half of the most serious cases, implementing best practices such as login limitation or properly configured firewall, would have deterred the attack, reduced the time it would have taken to detect an attack, and minimize its impact

  • Infrastructure security market to reach $32.55 billion in 2012

    The global infrastructure security market, in terms of government spending, will reach a value of $32.55 billion in 2012; a new report says that spending on bolstering the cyber aspects of infrastructure security has little utility by itself unless the physical integrity of the infrastructure is also appropriately safeguarded

  • First successful "spoofing" of UAVs demonstrated

    A research team successfully demonstrated for the first time that the GPS signals of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, can be commandeered by an outside source — a discovery that could factor heavily into the implementation of a new federal mandate to allow thousands of civilian drones into the U.S. airspace by 2015

  • DHS FY2013 $5.75 billion IT budget request focuses on mobility, data center consolidation

    DHS FY2013 IT spending requests are roughly even with FY2012 levels, with emphasis on commodity IT, mobility, and data center consolidation; the overall 2013 DHS budget request is just under $40 billion; the department’s IT budget request is just over $5.75 billion; down from $5.79 billion in FY2012

  • DHS awards Unisys IT services contract with a total potential value of $3 billion

    Unisys among thirty companies to compete for task orders for infrastructure support and operations and maintenance services under $3 billion contract; Unisys shares were trading sharply higher Wednesday morning after the company released the news about the contract

  • nCircle’s new solution offers coverage for six SCADA suppliers

    Critical infrastructure is designated by DHS and the North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the assets, systems, and networks so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, and public health or safety; nCircle offers a security solution which covers vulnerabilities from six SCADA equipment suppliers

  • FTC charges businesses exposed sensitive information on P2P file-sharing networks

    The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged two businesses with illegally exposing the sensitive personal information of thousands of consumers by allowing peer to peer file-sharing software to be installed on their corporate computer systems

  • June is National Internet Safety Month

    Private organizations and government agencies collaborate in promoting June as National Internet Safety Month; the sponsors encourage all Internet users to follow three simple steps when connecting to the Web: STOP – THINK – CONNECT; the National Cyber Security Alliance also encourages Internet users to take a few moments to teach a young person about better online safety so that they use good judgment and behavior all-year long

  • New program to educate next generation of U.S. cybersecurity specialists

    University of Maryland and Northrop Grumman create a cybersecurity honors program for undergraduates; the program, Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES), will immerse undergraduate students in all aspects of the field to meet growing manpower needs in the nation and the State of Maryland

  • Veterans of Israel’s secretive Unit 8200 head many successful high-tech start-ups

    Unit 8200 is Israel’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) or GCHQ in Britain; what sets the unit apart from its SIGINT counterparts in the United States and Europe is that it does almost all its research and development in-house; this means that, aside from interpreters and analysts, the unit is home to a huge cadre of engineers, technicians, and programmers; one result is that veterans of Unit 8200 have founded many of Israel’s successful high-tech start-ups

  • Experts: Flame represents a new level of state-sponsored cyber attacks

    The latest cyber espionage malware, Flame, represents a new level of sophistication in state-sponsored cyberattacks; experts note that Flame circumvented anti-virus programs, and remained undetected between two and five years; one expert says: “[Flame] uses multiple exploit combinations so it is pretty significant that it hid itself, but maybe the best ones have not been discovered yet”; another expert says: “The failure to detect Flame means simplistic signature-based detection is obsolete”