• Protecting your laptop -- even when it is asleep

    In the age of WikiLeaks, Russian hacks and increased government surveillance, many computer users are feeling increasingly worried about how best to protect their personal information — even if they aren’t guarding state secrets. Luckily, there is a solution: Hypnoguard, powerful new software developed by Concordia researchers to safeguard data even when computer is in sleep mode.

  • Army issues “Hack the Army” challenge

    Army Secretary Eric Fanning announced plans to launch the federal government’s most ambitious “bug bounty” challenge, known as “Hack the Army.” Building off the Army’s previous “Hack the Pentagon” program earlier this year and similar initiatives advanced by private sector companies, the Army will offer cash rewards to hackers who find vulnerabilities in select, public-facing Army Web sites. unlike the Hack the Pentagon program, which offered hackers static Web sites that were not operationally significant as targets, Hack the Army will offer dynamic exchanges of personal identifiable information, sites considered critical to the Army’s recruiting mission.

  • Cybersecurity policy ideas for a new administration

    A new report, Cybersecurity Policy Ideas for a New Presidency, published by the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), aims to help the Trump administration prepare to tackle the complex challenge of cybersecurity. “This brief brochure reviews ideas we hope the incoming Trump administration will consider as it develops a new cybersecurity agenda,” the authors write. “We lay out options and programs — some simple, some less so — that the president should consider at each step in his first term.”

  • Nation-state made “conscious effort to influence U.S. election” by leaking Clinton's e-mails: NSA chief

    Hillary Clinton’s e-mails were leaked to WikiLeaks in a “conscious effort” by a nation state to influence the U.S. election, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) has said. Admiral Michael Rogers, who also commander of the US Cyber Command, told a Wall Street Journal conference: “There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind, this was not something that was done casually, this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. This was a conscious effort by a nation state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.”

  • DHS releases Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things

    DHS the other day issued a set of Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things (IoT), Version 1.0. These principles highlight approaches and suggested practices to fortify the security of the IoT. They aim to equip stakeholders to make responsible and risk-based security decisions as they design, manufacture, and use internet-connected devices and systems.

  • Germany launches broad cybersecurity strategy

    The German government on Wednesday adopted a new cybersecurity strategy to counter a rising number of threats targeting government institutions, critical infrastructure, businesses, and citizens. The new strategy was adopted in response to a dramatic increase in sophisticated cyberattacks originating in Russia and China. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, and Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere on Wednesday, warned that Russia would be using hacking and disinformation campaign in an effort to influence next year’s election in Germany.

  • Using hardware to fight computer viruses

    More than 317 million pieces of new malware — computer viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs — were created in 2014 alone, according to work done by Internet security teams at Symantec and Verizon. Malware is growing in complexity, with crimes such as digital extortion (a hacker steals files or locks a computer and demands a ransom for decryption keys) becoming large avenues of cyberattack. Fighting computer viruses is not just for software anymore, as researchers study how hardware can help protect computers too.

  • Germany worries about Russian cyberattacks influencing German election

    Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Russia could launch a cyberattack campaign in an effort to influence Germany’s general elections next year. “We are already, even now, having to deal with information out of Russia or with Internet attacks that are of Russian origin or with news which sows false information,” the German chancellor said. Hans-George Maassen, the director of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, issued a formal warning earlier this year, saying that that the German government, business, educational facilities, and critical infrastructure were under “permanent threat” from Russian cyberattacks.

  • Vanderbilt hosts student-teams hackathon this weekend

    More than 350 students from Vanderbilt University and Southern and Midwest schools such as Purdue, Georgia Tech, and the University of Illinois will work around the clock during VandyHacks, a hackathon, or invention marathon, beginning Friday evening 11 November and ending Sunday, 13 November.

  • Vulnerability flaws in some voting machines

    Voting security surface in every election round, but this time there is an additional worry: Russia’s hacking campaign in the run-up to Election Day has added a new dimension to the more traditional security worries. Experts say now is the time to take decisive action to protect the U.S. election system. “Starting on November 9, we really need to have a strong national conversation about what we’re going to do with our voting systems so that the next election we don’t have this same issue” one cybersecurity expert said.

  • Future mischief: Russia’s disinformation campaign will continue after elections

    The continuing dumping of e-mails which Russian government hackers stole from the Clinton campaign has led U.S. intelligence officials to worry that Russia will escalate its disinformation campaign after Election Day. A senior U.S. intelligence official said that Putin is not interested only in discrediting the legitimacy of Tuesday’s elections, but is eager to undermine the effectiveness of the next president, regardless of who he or she is. “Don’t think that the Russian activity was solely about the election, or about Trump,” the officials said. “It wasn’t. It was about their agenda, what they are trying to accomplish” in expanding Russia’s power and influence around the world.

  • U.S. readies retaliation if Russian disrupts Election Day

    Russian government hackers have interfered in the political process leading up to the 8 November elections by undermining the campaign of Hillary Clinton. In preparation for an American retaliation in the event Russia tries to change the counting of actual votes on election day, U.S. government cyber operatives have “penetrated” Russia’s telecommunications networks and electric grid. The penetration, and the sleeper malware left behind, would allow the United States to hit back in case Russian intelligence agencies do carry out a cyberattack on U.S. election systems on Tuesday.

  • FBI investigating fake documents targeting Clinton campaign

    The FBI, as part of a broader investigation into attempts by Russia to interfere in and influence the U.S. presidential election, is examining forged documents aiming to discredit and disrupt the Hillary Clinton campaign. Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware), who sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has referred one of the fake documents to FBI investigators, one of several documents handed over to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice for review in recent weeks. U.S. officials have been privately warning since August that the Russian government agencies orchestrating the hacking campaign could move beyond hacking the e-mail systems of the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign, to include posting fictional “evidence” of voter fraud or other disinformation in the run-up to Election Day.

  • Replacing vulnerable password with secure keystroke biometrics

    Lapses in computer security can be seen as downright negligent, in a time when major data breaches and leaks dominate international headlines on a regular basis. But it also draws attention to a more compelling question: just how secure are text-based passwords, really? Experts believe that there should be alternatives to the ubiquitous, text-based user authentication method – and that one such alternative is a new method of user authentication using keystroke biometrics.

  • Cyberwar: Growing worries about Russia hacking, disrupting the U.S. election

    The U.S. government is worried that Russian government hackers may try to hack and disrupt the upcoming presidential election. The U.S. intelligence community, DHS, and private cybersecurity experts have already identified a broad and sustained hacking effort by hackers working for two Russian government agencies aiming to undermine the campaign of Hilary Clinton and help Donald Trump. The United States has privately warned Russia in no uncertain terms that any attempt to manipulate vote counts would result in serious breaches — still, federal and state officials are focusing on five possible ways Russia may hack the election. Experts warn that Russia’s long-term goal is to undermine the American political system by disrupting and discrediting the election process, sowing doubts and suspicion, and providing “proof” for the conspiratorial beliefs about a corrupt political system in which the electoral process is “rigged” and where “international bankers” are conspiring to “steal” the election.