• DHS developing social media monitoring guidelines

    Given the critical role that social media tools like Facebook and Twitter played in the Arab Spring, DHS officials say they are now developing guidelines for gathering intelligence from these sources; “We’re still trying to figure out how you use things like Twitter as a source,” said DHS undersecretary Caryn Wagner; “How do you establish trends and how do you then capture that in an intelligence product?”

  • Cyberterrorism - The weapon of choice a decade after 9/11

    Scott Schober, the president and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems, warns of the growing threat from cyberterrorists; he writes that in ten years, “the terrorists’ weapon of choice may not necessarily be a 187,000 pound 767 jet loaded with fuel targeting” New York’s skyline, instead it will be pajama-clad hackers taking down an electrical grid, causing mass confusion in the aviation system, or targeting a nuclear power plant’s SCADA control system to create mass panic and chaos for millions

  • New iOS Forensic Toolkit circumvents iOS 5 security measures

    While Apple gave a minor facelift to the whole security system in iOS5, it made significant changes regarding keychain protection, replacing the encryption algorithm entirely; but criminals thinking they can thus use the latest iPhone and iPad devices to store information may want to think again, as a new information acquisition solution cracks the latest iOS5 security measures

  • Senior FBI official suggest creating alternative Internet

    With the number of cyberattacks on major corporations and government agencies on the rise, a top FBI official backed the call to create of a more secure alternative Internet

  • Electrical grid targeted by hackers

    The co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus warns that U.S. electrical grids are becoming increasingly attractive targets for hackers in a potential cyberwar

  • New partnership to promote cybersecurity education

    There will be a need of more than 700,000 new information security professionals in the United States by 2015; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that there will be 295,000 new IT jobs created in the United States by 2018 — many of which will require cybersecurity expertise; new partnership focuses on cybersecurity training and education

  • Cyber Challenge encourages teen hackers to seek security jobs

    In the eyes of the organizers of the Maryland Cyber Challenge and Conference, today’s hacker could be tomorrow’s cybersecurity hero; a recent two-day conference at the Baltimore Convention Center, which ended 22 October 2011, was part career fair, part talent show to give college and high school students an idea of how to turn their interest in computers into high-paying jobs

  • Sandia Labs seeking responses to cyberattacks

    To address the growing cyber threat, Sandia National Lab is increasing cybersecurity research over the coming year through a new Cyber Engineering Research Institute (CERI) which will coordinate with industry and universities and have a presence on both Sandia campuses in New Mexico and California

  • Hackers infiltrate Japan’s parliament

    In the latest round of high-profile cyberattacks on government institutions around the world, three computers in Japan’s parliament were infected with a virus and officials worry that sensitive information may have been stolen

  • New cloud continuity solution for SMBs

    Research by Contingency Planning, Strategic Research Corp., and DTI/PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the effect of downtime and data and application loss on small to medium enterprises caused 70 percent of small firms to go out of business within a year of the event; a new cloud-based continuity service addresses this problem

  • Government offers free cybersecurity protection tool for small businesses

    To help small businesses guard themselves against hackers and computer criminals, the U.S. government is offering a free online tool that helps business owners bolster their cyber defenses; the Small Biz Cyber Planner will help business owners create their own customized cybersecurity plans by answering basic questions about their company and its online presence

  • Stuxnet-clones easily created

    Initial reports regarding Stuxnet suggested that the code was developed by elite computer experts with the help of state support and highly secretive military intelligence, but security experts working in a laboratory setting have been able to recreate key elements of the worm in a short time frame with limited resources

  • 80% of U.S. small businesses have no cyber security policies in place

    The majority of small business owners believe Internet security is critical to their success and that their companies are safe from ever increasing cyber security threats even as many fail to take fundamental precautions, according to a new survey of U.S. small businesses

  • Anonymous targets child porn sites, releases names of 1,500 members

    Last week hackers from the hacktivist movement Anonymous took down more than forty child pornography websites and leaked the names of more than 1,500 members that belonged to one of the sites Law enforcement officials may have a surprising new ally in the fight against child pornography and those who distribute it

  • New Stuxnet-like virus hits Europe

    The dreaded Stuxnet worm, which was the first instance of a computer virus creating physical damage, may have spawned a dangerous new piece of malware; researchers at Symantec believe they have discovered a new computer virus that uses many of the same techniques in European computers