• U.S. to adopt tougher stance toward China’s persistent cyberattacks

    The Obama administration let it be known that it is examining the adoption of a more assertive stance against China in response to a persistent cyber-espionage campaign waged by Chinese government hackers against U.S. companies and government agencies. The administration is preparing a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which will detail the cyberthreat, particularly from China, as a growing economic problem.

  • Chinese hackers attack the New York Times

    Since 2008, Chinese government hackers have been targeting Western news organizations to identify and intimidate their Chinese sources and contacts, as well as to anticipate stories that could hurt the reputation of Chinese leaders. Chinese hackers have repeatedly infiltrated the computer systems of the New York Times over the last four months, following an investigation by the paper that revealed that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings. Security experts hired by the Times have determined that the attacks started from the same university computers used by the Chinese military to attack U.S. military contractors in the past.

  • Chinese hackers infiltrate Wall Street Journal’s computer systems

    Chinese hackers with government connections have infiltrated the computer systems of the Wall Street Journal, in the second such Chinese attack on a major U.S. media outlet. WSJ says the hackers were trying to monitor its coverage of Chinese affairs.

  • Pentagon to bolster U.S cyberwar capabilities

    The Department of Defense is planning an expansion of the U.S. Cyber Command, and the Pentagon plans on recruiting thousands of code crackers, online security professionals, and hackers in order to assemble the nation’s largest cyber army ever.

  • Naturalized security threats retain their U.S. citizenship

    There is a surprising number of naturalized citizens in the United States who have been charged and convicted of serious national security crimes — including terrorism, espionage, and theft of sensitive information and technology — in the last several years. A new study compares the relative ease with which aliens naturalize with the difficulty in stripping them of citizenship, even when they prove to be national security threats who have gamed the system.

  • Sudan says Israel using electronically equipped vultures as spies

    Sudanese security forces have captures what they describe as an electronically tagged vulture which was dispatched by the Israeli military on a surveillance mission over Sudan; the Sudanese claimed the vulture was equipped with a camera, a solar-powered satellite uplink, and a GPS device; the Sudanese also claimed that the surveillance gear was produced by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and that it was stamped with the university’s logo

  • Huawei rejects U.S. “threat to national security” claims

    In October the United States House Intelligence Committee issued a report warning U.S. companies against using two Chinese companies, Huawei and ZTE, for their telecommunication technology needs; the report said that the firms may be too close to China’s Communist Party and its military’ the report also suggested their products and services could pose a threat to the security of the United .States; Huawei vigorously disputes both claims

  • DARPA’s program to reveal backdoors, hidden malicious functionality in commercial IT devices

    The scenario is one that information security experts dread: widespread dissemination of commercial technology which is secretly wired to function in unintended ways or even spy on its users; from this vantage point, mobile phones, network routers, computer work stations, and any other device hooked up to a network can provide a point of entry for an adversary; for the Department of Defense this issue is of great concern, and DARPA pland to do something about it

  • Kaspersky Lab working on a secure operating system for critical infrastructure

    Antivirus firmKaspersky Lab is set to make a major contribution to the security of critical infrastructure systems by developing an operating system specifically designed for such systems; the new operating system will protect information used in infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, transportation control facilities, gas and electrical systems,and other  facilities “criticallyimportant” to the economy and well-being of industrialized societies

  • Congressional panel says two Chinese telecom companies pose “national security threat” to U.S.

    A report by the House Intelligence Committee recommended that the U.S. government be barred from doing business with two Chinese telecommunications firms – Huawei and ZTE – and that American companies should avoid buying their equipment; a committee report said the two companies pose a threat to U.S. national security; installing these companies’ technology in U.S. communication network will not only allow these companies, acting on behalf of the Chinese military and intelligence, to steal sensitive national security information and trade secrets of private U.S. companies – it will also allow China to attack and paralyze large portions of U.S. critical infrastructure

  • Scenario-based gaming exercise to improve intelligence analysis

    Raytheon has created a scenario-based gaming exercise to study in depth the intelligence analyst’s tradecraft; the company says the goal is ultimately to help analysts produce the best intelligence products and streamline workflows

  • Obama blocks purchase of U.S. wind farms by Chinese company

    Last Friday President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon; Obama cited security risks for the action, making it the first time in twenty-two years that a U.S. president has blocked a foreign business deal

  • Former L-3 employee guilty of selling weapon secrets to China

    A federal court judge in Newark, New Jersey convicted Sixing Liu on six counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act as well as possessing stolen trade secrets, transporting stolen property, and lying to federal agents; Liu is was convicted of stealing thousands of electronic files detailing performance and design of guidance systems for missiles, rockets, target locators, and unmanned aerial vehicles in 2010

  • U.K.’s first research institute to investigate the science of cyber security

    A new U.K. academic research institute, aiming to improve understanding of the science behind the growing cybersecurity threat, was announced last week; GCHQ, the U.K. intelligence agency, says that the institute, which is funded by a £3.8 million grant, is part of a cross-government commitment to increasing the U.K. academic capability in all fields of cybersecurity

  • Bolstering e-mail security

    On the whole, security is not a primary concern for most day-to-day e-mails, but some e-mails do contain personal, proprietary, and sensitive information, documents, media, photos, videos, and sound files; the open nature of e-mail means that they can be intercepted and if not encrypted, easily read by malicious third parties