• Android phones more vulnerable to cyber attacks than Apple iPhone

    Android smart phones are more susceptible to hacking and viruses than Apple’s iPhone; the Android operating system is open source, allowing hackers to understand the underlying code; Apple iPhone may have a safer operating system, but it is not impervious to attacks; McAfee warns that 2011 will see hackers increasingly target mobile devices like Android phones, iPads, and iPhones

  • Pentagon revamps security in wake of Wikileaks

    There are 2.2 million people in the United States with access to one or more levels (confidential, secret, and top secret) of classified information; there are 854,000 people with top secret clearances — of which 265,000 are contractors; the 9/11 Commission recommended more sharing of information among agencies — but critics say that too much sharing is as risky as too little sharing

  • Government secrecy harder to maintain in the Internet age

    Among the likely consequences of WikiLeaks: threats of prosecution under the Espionage Act; proposed legislation that would make it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants; increased use of subpoena power to compel journalists to disclose confidential sources; the mainstream media, already experiencing an ongoing financial crisis, may be dissuaded from starting and continuing the long and expensive battle to obtain information that officials want to keep secret

  • Half of India's critical infrastructure providers cyber attack victims

    Symantec’s 2010 Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Survey findings reveal that nearly 50 percent of India’s critical infrastructure providers are victims of cyber attacks; the attacks are said to have become more frequent and increasingly effective

  • Germany reports "sharp rise" in China-originated cyberattacks

    Germany detected a sharp rise in serious cyberattacks in 2010; in the first nine months of 2010 there were some 1,600 such attacks recorded, compared to around 900 for the whole of 2009, plus most likely a considerable number that went undetected; Interior Ministry spokesman: “Germany is a very high-tech country with considerable experience and know-how, so of course others will naturally try to get hold of this knowledge—- China is playing a large role in this”

  • Stuxnet virus set back Iran's nuclear weapons program by two years: Langner

    Ralph Langner, top German computer security expert and the leading authority on Stuxnet, says Stuxnet was as effective in disrupting Iran’s nuclear weapons program as a direct military strike — but without any fatalities; the malware has set back the Iranian program by two years; expert says the Israeli military was the likely creator of the virus

  • WikiLeaks exposes tensions between "need to know" and "need to share"

    The WikiLeaks posting of stolen classified information has highlighted the tension between the strategy of “share to win” and the necessity to enforce “need to know”; share to win refers to the idea of getting information and intelligence out to the personnel who need it; need to know is about how information is shared, who has the information, for what purposes and for what period of time

  • Lawmakers urge Obama to expand State Department's cybercrime reach

    Lawmakers call President Obama to expand the U.S. State Department’s foreign policy mechanisms to address crime and security on the Internet; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) joined with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to author the International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act; this bill will hold foreign countries accountable for cybercrime committed on their soil

  • Senate bill would require minimum cybersecurity standards for Internet

    Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland) has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. government to work with the private sector to propose minimum standards for internet and cybersecurity safety; “Just as automobiles cannot be sold or operated on public highways without meeting certain minimum safety standards, we also need minimum Internet and cybersecurity safety standards for our information superhighway,” Cardin said

  • Former Goldman-Sachs programmer convicted of stealing source code

    A former Goldman-Sachs programmer faces fifteen years in prison after being convicted Friday of stealing the company’s high-frequency trade technology; the programmer was convicted of stealing the source code for Goldman-Sachs’ high-frequency trade technology — a market trading system described by Futures Magazine as “like day-trading on near fatal doses of amphetamines”

  • Car immobilizers no longer a problem for car thieves

    For sixteen years, car immobilizers have kept car thieves at bay — but that may now be changing; most cars still use either a 40 or 48-bit key, even though the 128-bit AES — which would take too long to crack for car thieves to bother trying — is now considered by security professionals to be a minimum standard

  • Microsoft partner in China trains hackers, steals 50 MB of U.S. gov't e-mail

    A Chinese security firm called Topsec got access to the Windows source under a 2003 agreement designed to help companies improve the security of the Microsoft operating system; the company, rather than help Microsoft make Windows more secure, worked closely with Chinese intelligence to exploit Windows weaknesses: they helped the Chinese government train hackers — and steal more than 50 MB of secret U.S. government e-mails; Topsec started out in 1995 with funding of just $4,400, and by 2002 had earnings about $440 million; it is now China’s largest provider of information security products and services

  • China's Huawei sets up U.K. cybersecurity center

    China’s top telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies has seen its plans for global expansion crimped by national security concerns among foreign governments; the company hopes that its Cyber Security Evaluation Center, opened last month in Britain’s Banbury, will allay those fears

  • DHS slowly moving government's Internet traffic to secure networks

    It will take several more years for the U.S. government fully to install high-tech systems to block computer intrusions, a drawn-out timeline that enables criminals to become more adept at stealing sensitive data, experts say; DHS is responsible for securing government systems other than military sites, and the department is slowly moving all the government’s Internet and e-mail traffic into secure networks — known as Einstein 2 and Einstein 3 — which eventually will be guarded by intrusion detection and prevention programs

  • U.S. State Department disconnects its computers from government-wide network

    In response to the leaks published by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Department of States disconnected its computer files from the government’s classified network; by temporarily pulling the plug, the United States significantly reduced the number of government employees who can read important diplomatic messages; the network the Department has disconnected itself from is the U.S. Defense Department’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), a system of dedicated and encrypted lines and servers set up by the Pentagon in the 1990s globally to transmit material up to and including “secret,” the government’s second-highest level of classified information; “Top secret” information may be shared electronically via the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS), another group of interconnected computer networks used by Defense and State to securely transmit classified information.