• 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”

  • QinetiQ North America to provide cybersecurity services to DOT

    QinetiQ North America (QNA) was awarded a new task order by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to provide cybersecurity services to protect the U.S. transportation and control systems and critical infrastructure

  • NSA launches cyber operations academic program

    The NSA has launched National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations Program; the program is intended to be a deeply technical, inter-disciplinary, higher education program grounded in the computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE), or electrical engineering (EE) disciplines, with extensive opportunities for hands-on applications via labs and exercises

  • DHS forced to release list terms it monitors on social media

    Following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Electronic Privacy Information center (EPIC), DHS was forced to release its 2011 Analyst’s Desktop Binder; the binder, among other things, contains a list of words DHS uses as triggers of suspicious communication when the department’s analysts monitor social media

  • Malware intelligence system allow organizations to share threat information

    As malware threats expand into new domains and increasingly focus on industrial espionage, researchers are launching a new tool to help battle the threats: a malware intelligence system which will help corporate and government security officials share information about the attacks they are fighting

  • How govt. can achieve IT savings, innovation

    Innovative shifts in technology can springboard government into a new era of efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency;  lawmakers urged to focus not only on technology infrastructure to achieve savings and efficiencies, but also consider how the government procures and delivers

  • SAIC Launches Inaugural Utah Cyber Defense Challenge and Symposium 2012

    SAIC will lead a Utah statewide cyber competition and symposium designed to raise cyber awareness across government, academia, and industry; the Utah Cyber Defense Challenge and Symposium (UCDC) 2012, to be held 1 June