• CybersecurityCybercriminals Use Pandemic to Attack Schools and Colleges

    By Nir Kshetri

    From Aug. 14 to Sept. 12, 2021, educational organizations were the target of over 5.8 million malware attacks, or 63% of all such attacks. Ransomware attacks alone impacted 1,681 U.S. schools, colleges and universities in 2020. Globally 44% of educational institutions were targeted by such attacks.

  • CybersecurityU.S.: Russia of Stonewalling on Cybercrime

    By Jeff Seldin

    U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials say that U.S. warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over shielding cybercriminals holed up in Russia appear to have made little impact.

  • Cybersecurity educationTeaching Vehicle Cybersecurity

    University of Detroit Mercy recently received a $1.12-million award from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to establish the Regional Vehicle Cybersecurity Institute, a regional-based, cybersecurity consortium. “Without an increase to the workforce now, the cybersecurity risk to DoD and commercial ground vehicles will keep falling further behind the increasing threats from actors in multi-domain contested environments,” said one expert.

  • Election interferenceGermany Warns Russia over Cyberattacks Related to 26 September Election

    Berlin blames Russian government hackers for a recent wave of cyberattacks related to Germany’s 26 September general election. “These attacks could serve as preparations for influence operations such as disinformation campaigns connected with the parliamentary election,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said.

  • Infrastructure protectionCritical Infrastructure Security Summit

    The Defense Strategic Institute (DSI) will hold its 2021 Critical Infrastructure Security Summit on 22-23 September 2021. The symposium will focus on defending and creating resilient systems to protect the U.S. critical infrastructure from outside threats and other dangers.

  • Cybersecurity educationNew Program: Hardware-Cybersecurity Education

    Many commonly reported cyberattacks focus on computer software vulnerabilities. But what about computer hardware? As complex global supply chains are stressed by the pandemic, risks increase of corporate or state espionage via hardware, such as malicious “trojan” circuits hidden on a motherboard by a shady third-party vendor.

  • Cybersecurity educationCybersecurity education to Help Communities Become More Cyber-Secure

    The NSA helps fund programs aiming to develop a community-wide K-12 cybersecurity program, support local industry and government to be more cyber resilient, and help local academic institutions to develop cybersecurity programs for students.

  • China watchChinese Hackers Used Cyber-Disguising Technology against Israel: Report

    By Forest Cong

    Beginning in January 2019, UNC215, a Chinese government digital spy group, had hacked into Israeli government networks after using remote desktop protocols (RDPs) to steal credentials from trusted third parties.

  • SurveillanceWhat is Pegasus? Explaining How the Spyware Invades Phones and What It Does When It Gets In

    By Bhanukiran Gurijala

    Pegasus is a spyware that can stealthily enter a smartphone and gain access to everything on it, including its camera and microphone. Pegasus is designed to infiltrate devices running Android, Blackberry, iOS and Symbian operating systems and turn them into surveillance devices.

  • ARGUMENT: Strengthening cybersecurityThe Van Buren Decision Is Good News for Cybersecurity

    In June, after years of uncertainty, the Supreme Court finally shed some light on the meaning of a notoriously vague law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Timothy Edgar writes that one problem with CFAA was that some courts had interpreted the CFAA’s language so broadly. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s technically informed opinion, which narrowed the scope of CFAA, was a win for civil liberties — and also a victory — not a loss — for cybersecurity. Moreover, Barrett’s opinion “offers a model for how to interpret computer crime laws.”

  • CybersecurityTurning Error Detection into “Secret Language” for Enhanced Data Security

    A Sandia Lab researcher, researching software error detection, has develop a method to enhance the protection of digital content like email and social media messaging.

  • EncryptionChip with Secure Encryption to Bolster Fight against Hackers

    Researchers have designed a computer chip that implements post-quantum cryptography efficiently. Such chips could provide protection against future hacker attacks using quantum computers.

  • ARGUMENT: Water systems securityWater Systems Vulnerable to Cyberthreats

    In February, a hacker tried to manipulate the water utility’s computers in Oldsmar, Fla. so that the level of lye in the water would be raised. Joel Griffin writes that “had the perpetrator not been caught…. this cyber-attack could have resulted in actual physical harm to residents and potentially even deaths. The simplicity of this cyber-attack … also illustrates the gravity of the situation facing water utilities,” as they try to implement contemporary IT security solutions to decades-old equipment ad operational technology.

  • CybersecurityU.K., U.S. and Australia Publish Advice to Fix Global Cyber Vulnerabilities

    A joint advisory from international allies is offering advice for the most publicly known software vulnerabilities. The cyber agencies share details of the top 30 vulnerabilities routinely exploited by malicious actors in 2020.

  • Pegasus affairIsrael Tries to Limit Fallout from the Pegasus Spyware Scandal

    Israel has been trying to limit the damage the Pegasus spyware scandal is threatening to do to France-Israel relations. The Moroccan intelligence service used the software, made by an Israeli company with close ties to Israel’s defense and intelligence establishments, to spy on dozens of French officials, including fourteen current and former cabinet ministers, among them President Emmanuel Macron and former prime minister Edouard Phillipe. It would not be unreasonable for the French intelligence services to assume that there was a measure of Israeli spying on France involved here, with or without the knowledge of the Moroccans. Macron, in a phone conversation with Israel’s prime minister Naftali Bennett, pointedly asked for an explanation.