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NSA, other spy agencies enlisted in effort to address cyber vulnerability
Prepare for another heated NSA-domestic spying debate: The Bush administration issues secret directive on 8 January — informally known as the “cyber initiative” — expanding the intelligence community’s role in monitoring Internet traffic; the goal is to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies’ computer systems
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Estonian student convicted for 2007 attack against Estonian Web sites
A 20-year-old Estonian student has been fined $1,642 for launching a cyber attack which crippled the Web sites of banks, schools, and government agencies
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OMB wants privacy review details in FISMA reports
U.S. government agencies will have to provide more details about the privacy reviews they conduct as part of annual reporting in compliance with FISMA
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SPARQL is a new, format-independent query technology
Many successful query languages exist, including standards such as SQL and XQuery, but they were primarily designed for queries limited to a single product, format, type of information, or local data store; SPARQL is the key standard for opening up data on the Semantic Web, and the goal of the Semantic Web is to enable people to share, merge, and reuse data globally
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Swiss move on quantum cryptography
Ensuring effective data security is the next challenge for global data networks; quantum cryptography offers such effective security; the Swiss national election in October 2007 provided first real-life test of the technology, and Swiss now move to implement it in security-sensitive sectors of the economy
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Reviewing -- and fixing -- Open Source code security holes
Popular open source projects such as Samba, the PHP, Perl, Tcl dynamic languages, and Amanda were found to have dozens or hundreds of security exposures; some are quicker than others in fixing the problem
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A new Wi-Fi security worry: Sidejacking
Two hackers’ tools — Ferret and Hamster — “sidejack” machines using Wi-Fi and accesses their Web accounts; Hamster hacks the cookies and URL trail left behind by a Wi-Fi user, and the attacker then can pose as the victim and read, send, and receive e-mail on his or her behalf
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U.S. forces in Europe pay more attention to cybersecurity
Greater reliance on cyberspace by the U.S. military offers many benefits, but also introduces many vulnerabilities; the 5th Signal Command creates cyber cells to monitor and improve cyber security
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Cisco release global security report
Security threats and attacks have become more global and sophisticated; as the adoption of more and more IP-connected devices, applications, and communication methods increases, the opportunity emerges for a greater number of attacks
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700 MHz auction attracts 96 bidders
By February 2009, TV broadcasters will have to vacate the 700 MHz so they can offer digital-only TV, as mandated by Congress; FCC will hold an auction for the coveted vacated spectrum, and 96 bidders — the usual suspects, but also Paul Allen, Chevron, and others — have been accepted (there were also 170 incomplete applications)
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Phishing attacks escalated in 2007
Gartner survey finds that $3.2 billion was lost due to phishing attacks in 2007; 3.6 million Americans lost money in phishing attacks in the twelve months ending in August 2007, compared with the 2.3 million who did so the year before
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Quantum communication over long distance, flawed networks possible
Chinese scientists offer possible breakthrough in quantum communication — overcoming the problem of quantum entanglement between photons at long distances; the scientists show a quantum-communications network in which producing entanglement over a long distance is conceptually possible
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Dutch health insurance database easily accessible
The Dutch Vecozo medical database is used by Dutch health care workers to make payments easier and to check Dutch medical insurance data; trouble is, at least 80,000 people are able to search the database, which contains personal information about nearly every Dutch citizen
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Fiber optics no obstacle to cyber crime
Fiber optics are an ideal transmission medium, and the length of cable installed around the globe is estimated at more than 300 million kilometers; fiber optic networks are employed by many banks, insurance companies, enterprises, and public authorities as their communication backbone, supporting critical business activities; fiber optic cables are as vulnerable to hacking as traditional copper wires
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China suspected in hacking attempt on Oak Ridge National Lab
In October about 1,100 employees at the Oak Ridge National Lab received versions of seven phishing e-mails which appeared legitimate; eleven employees opened the e-mails’ attachments, which enabled the hackers to infiltrate the Lab’s system and remove data; Last week DHS circulated memo to security experts pointing to China as the source of the October hacking at the weapon lab
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More headlines
The long view
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Ransomware Attacks: Death Threats, Endangered Patients and Millions of Dollars in Damages
A ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a company that processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and deals with 1 in 3 patient records in the United States, is continuing to cause massive disruptions nearly three weeks later. The incident, which started on February 21, has been called the “most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system” by the American Hospital Association. It is just the latest example of an increasing trend.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
Autonomous Vehicle Technology Vulnerable to Road Object Spoofing and Vanishing Attacks
Researchers have demonstrated the potentially hazardous vulnerabilities associated with the technology called LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, many autonomous vehicles use to navigate streets, roads and highways. The researchers have shown how to use lasers to fool LiDAR into “seeing” objects that are not present and missing those that are – deficiencies that can cause unwarranted and unsafe braking or collisions.
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.