• U.S.: China orchestrating broad cyberattack campaign against U.S.

    The Obama administration accused China’s military of orchestrating a campaign of cyberattacks against American government computer systems and defense contractors for the purpose of identifying “military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.” Cyber experts estimate that about 90 percent of all cyberattacks in the United States originate in China, but these estimates have typically been offered by private-sector experts. The Pentagon’s annual report to Congress, released Monday, is the first government document specifically and explicitly to assert that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is behind a sustained, systematic campaign of cyberattacks on the United States in an effort to gain a strategic advantage over the United States. The report also pointedly notes that Chinese investments in U.S. companies aim to help this cyberattacks campaign.

  • McCaul to draft cybersecurity bill

    House Homeland Security chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said he was drafting his own cybersecurity bill, which will define the role of DHS  in sharing information with private companies about cyber threats. McCaul hopes to agree on a compromise with the White House, which threatened to veto the bill.

  • U.S., China in high-level military talks

    Representatives of China and the United States met on Monday for the highest-level military talks between the two counties in almost two years. In the meeting, a senior Chinese general pledged to work with the United States on cybersecurity because the effects of a major cyber attack “may be as serious as a nuclear bomb.”

  • White House threatens to veto House cybersecurity bill

    The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the cybersecurity bill drafted by the House of Representatives. The house is expected to vote on the bill later this week. The cybersecurity bill died in the Senate last August after the White House said it would veto the bill.

  • U.S. Army weak on mobile devices security

    The U.S. Army has developed a mobile strategy to guide its adoption of mobile devices. A Department of Defense audit found that the Army has been lax in developing security guidelines for the use of the thousands of mobile devices now in service, and that these already-weak and insufficient security guidelines are inconsistently implemented.

  • China, U.S. to team up on cybersecurity

    Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Saturday that China and the United States will join forces to start a working group on cybersecurity.Kerry’s announcement follows several attempts for a dialogue on the topic between the two sides.

  • Proposed budget shows DHS will have to do with less

    The administration’s proposed 2013 budget shows that DHS will have to do with less: the department $39 billion is $625 million less than the department’s2012 budget, and, in addition, the department has committed to save an additional $1.3 billion by reducing administrative costs. Among the big-ticket items in the new budget: $714 million for a state-of-the-art animal disease lab; $494 million to fund research and development in cybersecurity, explosives detection, and chemical/biological response systems; and $221 million for 1,600 additional Border Patrol agents.

  • DHS, international tech-crime investigative body, partners on cybersecurity

    The High Technology Crime Investigation Association (HTCIA) said it would team up with DHS Stop. Think. Connect. Campaign’s National Network. The partnership will promote awareness of cyber security to industry, university, and government organizations nationwide.

  • House Intelligence Committee to work on cybersecurity bill in camera

    The House Intelligence Committee will meet next week in order to draft a  cybersecurity bill, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but will not allow media members or the public to sit in on meetings during the process.

  • DHS seeking student hackers

    DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano  on Tuesday said that due to “new and rapidly growing threats” of a cyberattack, hundreds of college-age hackers are needed to help deal with the massive number of daily incursions into the nation’s electrical grid and other critical infrastructure.

  • Draft cybersecurity bill to increase penalties for hacking substantially

    A draft of a cybersecurity bill circulating among House Judiciary Committee members would strengthen a computer hacking law. The draft would stiffen penalties for cyber crimes and establish a standard for companies to tell consumers when their personal information has been hacked. The bill would also change an existing law, making a cyber crime attempt punishable as an actual offense.

  • Obama: at least some Chinese cyberattacks on U.S. are “state sponsored”

    In an interview to be aired today on ABC News, President Barack Obama said that some, but not necessarily all, cyberattacks on U.S. firms and infrastructure originating in China were “state sponsored.” Obama stressed the need to avoid “war rhetoric” when discussing cyberattacks, and renewed his calls for Congress to strengthen cyber security while protecting civil liberties.

  • Napolitano testifies on cybersecurity executive order

    Two Senate panels questioned DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday at a hearing on President Obama’s cybersecurity executive order and what issues need to be addressed in cyber legislation. “We simply cannot afford to wait any longer to adequately protect ourselves,” Said Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

  • Tech companies, telecoms clash over cybersecurity executive order

    Last August a cybersecurity bill died in Congress amid partisan bickering. On 12 February this year, President Obama packed many of that bill’s elements into a cybersecurity executive order. To make the order more acceptable to some of its congressional and industry critics, the president introduced an exemption which would take large technology companies off the list of companies subject to the new cybersecurity standards. This exemption placated some of the original cybersecurity bill’s critics, but angered others, chief among them telecommunication companies.

  • New trends in cybersecurity and information security education

    The Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association (FISSEA)promotes cybersecurity awareness, training, and education. The annual meeting,to be held 19-21 March 2013 at NIST headquartersin Gaithersburg, Maryland, is geared toward both new and seasoned security officers, IT managers, information security educators and researchers, cybersecurity trainers and teachers, and those involved in instructional design and curriculum development.