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NYC cyberattack simulation to spur Senate cybersecurity legislation
Last Wednesday, in an attempt to bolster support for cybersecurity legislation, the White House staged a mock cyberattack on New York City’s power supply for the Senate
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NASA official says hackers gained “full functional control”
Last week NASA officials disclosed details about the alarming extent that hackers were able to penetrate the agency’s networks
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Top LulzSec hackers arrested, leader turns them in
In the ongoing battle between law enforcement officials and hackers, authorities announced on Tuesday that they had arrested leading members of the hacktivist group known as LulzSec after their leader allegedly turned them in
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MIT, DARPA developing self-healing cloud network
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Pentagon’s advanced research arm DARPA are working together to create a self-healing cloud computing network that can defend against cyberattacks
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DARPA holds $40,000 competition to test social media in disasters
To better understand how emergency responders can leverage social media tools, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding the$40,000 CLIQR Quest Challenge
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Anonymous retaliates, takes down Interpol site
In retaliation for the arrest of twenty-five suspected members of the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, the group briefly took down Interpol’s website on Tuesday
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Cryptographic attack shows importance of bug-free software
Researchers have developed an attack that can circumvent the security OpenSSL should provide; the attack worked on a very specific version of the OpenSSL software, and only when a specific set of options were used
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HP wins $47M contract to support HSPD-12 implementation
On Monday the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced it had awarded Hewlett Packard a one-year contract worth as much as $47 million to support government-compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12)
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Cybersecurity firm discovers mutant computer viruses
Cybersecurity firm BitDefender recently announced that it had uncovered multiple instances of computer viruses infecting other viruses to create “Frankenware”
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DHS to work with Netherlands on cybersecurity
On Wednesday DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano signed a letter of intent to work with the Netherlands on several critical cybersecurity initiatives
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Helping software to help improve software
The earlier a problem is detected, the easier it can be solved; before implementing complex programs in a time-consuming process, computer scientists also want to know whether they will reach the desired performance
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House grills DHS for monitoring Twitter, Facebook
Earlier this year reports surfaced that DHS had awarded General Dynamic an $11 million contract to engage in monitoring of social networks; members of both parties including blasted DHS officials for potentially violating the First Amendment and collecting information on citizens engaged in protected political speech
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Quantum physics makes possible perfectly secure cloud computing
Computer data processing and storage are increasingly done in the cloud; the challenge in cloud-based system is to ensure that clients’ data stays private; researchers have now shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved with quantum computers
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Quantum technique for secret messaging
Quantum cryptography is the ultimate secret message service; new research shows it can counter even the ultimate paranoid scenario: when the equipment or even the operator is in the control of a malicious power
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Cell phone hackers can track your location without your knowledge
Using a cheap phone, readily available equipment, and no direct help from a service provider, hackers could listen to unencrypted broadcast messages from cell phone towers
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More headlines
The long view
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Ransomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.