Infrastructure

Smart Grid would contribute to U.S. energy security and sustainability
New report from the Reform Institute examines benefits of a next generation electric power grid for national resilience and energy efficiency
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House's measures strengthen cybersecurity
House passes eight measures intended strengthen cybersecurity, promote greater sharing of unclassified information, and prevent the over-classification of information
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Hacker of U.S. defense computers about to be extradited to U.S.
Seven years ago Gary McKinnon, a U.K. citizen, hacked into 92 computer systems at the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense, and NASA; he said he was hoping to uncover evidence of UFOs; his string of appeals exhausted, he is to be extradited soon
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Hackers' attacks on U.S. government systems are frequent, serious
U.S. government computer systems under frequent and serious attacks by other governments and organizations; James Finch, assistant director of the FBI’s cybercrime division: “We’re not worried so much about the noisy attacks as we are about the quiet ones”
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Beckstrom: Networking security worth the money
Rod Beckstrom, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Center, tells Black Hat that “We want to invest in protocols because it may be some of the cheapest security dollars we can spend”
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Kaminsky offers details of DNS flaw
Dan Kaminsky tells Black Hat attendees about the DNS vulnerability he discovered a few months ago; “We have to get better about fixing the infrastructure,” Kaminsky said; “We got lucky fixing this bug but may not be so lucky next time.”
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New approach to virus protection
Wolverines researchers describe a new method of protecting computers against viruses by moving antivirus functionality into the “network cloud” and off personal computers
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Ensuring uptime at the Games
Technology glitches at previous Olympics have lead to problems such as the inability to feed competition results into official Web sites and media outlets; Chinese security officials must also contend with individuals and groups of hackers attacking systems during the Olympics
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Giant online security hole getting fixed, slowly
Serious DNS security flaw was discovered a month ago, a flaw which allowed criminals silently to redirect traffic to Web sites under their control; more details will be given at today’s Black Hat event
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FEMA's still struggles with IT security issues
DHS’s IG reports that “These issues collectively limit FEMA’s ability to ensure that critical financial and operational data is maintained in a manner to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability”
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Tuffin Technology's products win F&S award
Security and network operations are becoming increasingly complex. Large enterprises have multiple firewalls spread across different time zones and business units and are also required to comply with stringent regulatory requirements; Tuffin Technology offers management solutions to help businesses cope
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DHS releases national emergency communications plan
Seven years after 9/11, and three years after Katrina, DHS releases the U.S. first strategic plan aimed at improving emergency response communications
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Security flaws in online banking sites widespread
Researchers find widespread security flaws in online banking Web sites; these design flaws are not bugs that can be fixed with a patch; rather, they stem from the flow and the layout of these Web sites
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Five ways for humans to trigger a natural disaster
Most scientists now agree that human activity contributes to a long-term changes in global climate, with serious consequences for humans, animals, and plants; human activity, though, can also trigger sudden “natural” catastrophes
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Sharp increase in "zero-day" exploits
Cyber-criminals are adopting new automation techniques and strategies that allow them to exploit vulnerabilities much faster than ever before
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