• CERT Australia promotes on network security

    Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department national security resiliency division says CERT Australia would be a two-way clearing house for notifications from local and international authorities, with responsibility for tracking down compromised machines in Australian domains

  • Top 10 information security trends for 2010

    Further adoption of cloud, social media, and virtualization technologies will continue to blur the network parameter; organizations — large and small — should consider a layered, centralized security solution that provides multiple security touch points within the network, rather than around it

  • New report: The line between cybercrime and cyberwar is blurred

    New McAffee cybersecurity report: “International cyber conflict has reached the tipping point where it is no longer just a theory, but a significant threat that nations are already wrestling with behind closed doors. The impact of a cyberwar is almost certain to extend far beyond military networks and touch the globally connected information and communications technology infrastructure upon which so many facets of modern society rely”

  • U.S. Army funds a new discipline: Network Science

    The U.S. Army gives Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York State $16.75 million to launch the Center for Social and Cognitive Networks; the new center will link together top social scientists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists with leading physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the search to uncover, model, understand, and foresee the complex social interactions that take place in today’s society

  • GAO: U.S. unready to face growing cyber threats

    A GAO reports says that cyber-threats facing federal networks and the U.S. critical infrastructure are becoming increasingly sophisticated; the number of attacks is exponentially growing (security incidents grew “by over 200 percent from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2008”), the report concludes that the United States is not optimally prepared to protect itself from such attacks

  • U.S. suspects terrorists are exploring counter-infrastructure cyber attacks

    A lack of security protections in U.S. computer software increases the likelihood that terrorists could execute sophisticated counter-infrastructure attacks in the future; DHS official says that if terrorists were to amass such capabilities, they would be wielded with “destructive and deadly intent”

  • Cyber threats now targeting traditional companies

    U.S. companies, even small and medium size, are more and more exposed to cyber threats from organized crime, foreign intelligence services, and probably terrorist organizations; 85 percent of U.S. critical infrastructure is owned and operated by private companies — and these companies are especially vulnerable to determined attacks which may ruin or seriously disrupt company operations

  • Raytheon's insider threat solution receives federal validation

    Raytheon’s SureView product is now FIPS 1402 Level 1 complaint; validation means that Raytheon’s enterprise monitoring and investigation tools may now be used by government agencies, including the Department of Defense, to protect sensitive government data in computer and telecommunication systems

  • Raytheon-led team to provide the Pentagon with network-security early warning system

    A team including Raytheon, General Dynamics, SAIC, Eye Street Software, and BCMC receives a $28 million contract to provide the Pentagon with an early-warning system for defense against cyber attacks on military networks

  • New York receives $3 million boost for cyber security

    The funding will help New York State’s Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination (CSCIC) conduct work with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC); the MS-ISAC is the first and only facility dedicated to state, local and territorial governments in the country and the funding is expected to enhance the center’s capabilities

  • New communication system to help protect soldiers in the field

    The new technology will use arrays of highly specialized antennas that could be worn by combat troops to provide covert short-range person-to-person battleground communications; the technology will lead to advanced wireless systems that would enable small squads of soldiers to share real-time video, covert surveillance data and tactical information with each other via helmet-mounted visors

  • CSC wins DHS IT infrastructure and cyber security task order

    CSC won a contract to provide information technology infrastructure and cyber support to the National Protection and Programs Directorate’s Office of Cyber Security and Communications; among other things, the company will design and build an expanded watch floor that will integrate national security capabilities from the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (US CERT) and the National Coordinating Center of the National Communications System

  • Growth trends in software security favor Beyond Encryption

    Irish company specializing in developing software for protecting sensitive data stands to benefit from growth trends in the global security software market; most encryption products rely on the user having to remember a password to unlock their data; the approach of Beyond Encryption is to have access controlled by an administrator so that the data is protected wherever it goes

  • Day of quantum communications in the theater nears

    The challenges so far with free space optical links, which use fibre optics for transmission, have been the turbulence or distortions from temperature differences that cause motion or wind in the atmosphere; researchers have established an optical link without distortion in test situations at a distance of 35km in stationary and flight situations

  • Counterfeit chips may hobble advanced weapons

    While most computer security efforts have until now been focused on software, tampering with hardware circuitry may ultimately be an equally dangerous threat; the Pentagon now manufactures in secure facilities run by American companies only about 2 percent of the more than $3.5 billion of integrated circuits bought annually for use in military gear