• Washington State, Microsoft sue cyber fear mongers

    Washington State has one of the nation;s toughest anti-spyware laws, and the state attorney general joins with Microsoft to sue companies which use fear to sell security products

  • Web browsers affected by Clickjacking

    US CERT issues a warning about a new cross-browser exploit technique called “Clickjacking”; clickjacking gives an attacker the ability to trick a user into clicking on something only barely or momentarily noticeable; thus, if a user clicks on a Web page, they may actually be clicking on content from another page

  • Stolen laptops "broadcast" their location to rightful owners

    Huskies researchers develop a software tool which uses the Internet as a homing beam; if the thief uses the stolen laptop to connect to the Internet, the owner receives information on the laptop location (and Macintosh owners also recvied a picture of the thief)

  • U.S.-based computers launch most cyberattacks in 2008

    Computers, or hackers, based in the United States launched most of the cyber attacks in the world between January and September 2008; China-based computers were in second place, and Brazil came in third; United States also led in the number of computers compromised

  • Satellite phone company Iridium acquired for $591 million

    Iridium made a name for itself for going bankrupt eight years ago and being bought for $25 million; it later donated satellite phones to first responders in the aftermath of Katrina; now it is being acquired for half a billion dollars

  • GPS vulnerable to spoofing

    GPS technology is ubiquitous in civilian and military applications; Cornell University researchers raise uncomfortable questions by demonstrating how GPS navigation devices can be readliy duped by transmission of fake GPS signals that receivers accept as authentic ones

  • Cyber Storm II drill shows ferocity of virtual attack

    In March governments from Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States ran the largest-ever cyber war games, Cyber Storm II; the drill tested critical infrastructure including dam walls, telecommunications, and government computer networks

  • NATO in major anti-terror drill

    NATO will hold a two-week comprehensive anti-terrorrism drill in Sardinia; 15 nations, 10 agencies will coordinate land, air, sea, space assets in an effort to smooth communication, information sharing, and operational execution

  • Briefly noted

    Aussie cyber security needs work… D.C. policy carry iPhones… Surveillance radar in Indonesian straits… HUD awards Iowa critical infrastructure funds…

  • "Thought helmets" for silent, secure communication among soldiers

    U.S. Army funds research into helmets with embedded sensors which “read” a soldier’s thoughts (well, brain waves) and transmit them, telepathy-like, to their intended target

  • Keep IT security simple

    New study of corporate security breaches says that 87 percent of all security breaches could have been avoided “if reasonable security controls had been in place at the time of the incident”

  • Briefly noted

    Debating whether DHS should have cybersecurity responsibilities… FDA revisits refused foods issue… DoD tests contractors’ ID cards

  • USPS to deploy IPv6-capable video surveillance

    The U.S. Postal Services wants to increase security inside the more than 40,000 post offices around the country; it will install IPv6-capable CCTV systems — complying with the federal government encouragment of agnecies to migrate to IPv6

  • U.K. start-up develops file-sharing monitoring tool

    Businesses can face serious consequences from illegal file sharing which takes place on their network, whether the files contain confidential client data or copyrighted material; new tool helps companies monitor file sharing

  • GAO: U.S. computer emergency readiness team is not ready

    Government Accounting Office criticizes US-CERT for lacking “a comprehensive baseline understanding of the nation’s critical information infrastructure operations” and for not exhibiting “aspects of the attributes essential to having a truly national capability,” among other things