• Improved disaster resilience is imperative for U.S: report

    A new report from the National Academies says that it is essential for the United States to bolster resilience to natural and human-caused disasters, and that this will require complementary federal policies and locally driven actions that center on a national vision – a culture of resilience; improving resilience should be seen as a long-term process, but it can be coordinated around measurable short-term goals that will allow communities better to prepare and plan for, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse events

  • Novel network model to help in cyberwarfare, conservation, and disease prevention

    Computer networks are the battlefields in cyberwarfare, as exemplified by the U.S. recent use of computer viruses to attack Iran’s nuclear program; researchers develop a computer model which could help military strategists devise the most damaging cyber attacks as well as guard America’s critical infrastructure

  • New book confirms Israel behind killing of Iran nuclear scientists

    A book to be published today offers details about, Israel’s campaign to take out Iranian nuclear scientists, a campaign which is part of the Israel’s broader effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; the book also says that the cyber campaign against Iran’s nuclear program was an Israeli innovation, not an American one as recently reported; it was the brainchild of Israel’s military intelligence agency (AMAN) and Unit 8-200 — Israel’s equivalent of the eavesdropping, code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA) — and endorsed by the White House at Israel’s suggestion

  • Veterans of Israel’s secretive Unit 8200 head many successful high-tech start-ups

    Unit 8200 is Israel’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) or GCHQ in Britain; what sets the unit apart from its SIGINT counterparts in the United States and Europe is that it does almost all its research and development in-house; this means that, aside from interpreters and analysts, the unit is home to a huge cadre of engineers, technicians, and programmers; one result is that veterans of Unit 8200 have founded many of Israel’s successful high-tech start-ups

  • NATO prepares for a new, futuristic war

    NATO’s Operation Locked Shields, an international military exercise the military alliance conducted last month, was different from trasditional war games. There were no bullets, tanks, aircraft, ships, or camouflage face-paint. The troops involved in the exercise spent most of their time in air-conditioned rooms within a high security military base in Estonia. The exercise, a window into what a future war would look like, had one team of IT specialists detailed to attack nine other teams, located in different parts of Europe. The IT experts, working from their terminals in the Nato Co-operative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, created viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, and other Internet attacks, aiming to hijack and extract data from the computers of their “enemies.”

  • Cyberattack disrupts Iran’s oil production system

    The Iranian oil industrywas subject to cyber attack this past weekend,but the Iranian government saysit has contained and controlled the damage from the malware; this is the fourth known cyber attack on Iran’s civilian and military infrastructure

  • Dueling legislation over cybersecurity regulations

     

    Attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure may bring about a Katrina-like situation: no electricity, no fresh water, limited traffic control, severely curtailed emergency response, and more; about 85 percent of U.S. critical infrastructure is privately owned; two different cybersecurity bills in Congress envision different solutions to U.S. infrastructure’s cyber vulnerability

  • Cybersecurity firm discovers mutant computer viruses

    Cybersecurity firm BitDefender recently announced that it had uncovered multiple instances of computer viruses infecting other viruses to create “Frankenware”

  • DHS to work with Netherlands on cybersecurity

    On Wednesday DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano signed a letter of intent to work with the Netherlands on several critical cybersecurity initiatives

  • Justice Department appoints new CIO

    Last Friday the Justice Department appointed Luke McCormack as the agency’s new chief information officer

  • Lockheed Martin UK opens its U.K. cybersecurity center

    Lockheed Martin UK has officially opened its first Security Intelligence Center (SIC) at Farnborough; the role of the SIC will be detection, identification, and response to information security incidents; this is accomplished by bringing together three primary capabilities: pervasive sensors, data management, and analyst collaboration

  • DHS: Hackers did not cause Illinois water pump to fail

    Cybersecurity experts and critical infrastructure operators can rest a bit easier now that DHS investigators have determined there is nothing to suggest that hackers caused a water pump to fail in Springfield, Illinois

  • Pentagon confirms policy of military response to cyberatacks

    In a Pentagon report recently made public, the U.S. military confirmed that it would launch physical strikes in response to cyberattacks

  • Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure reach U.S.

    Most of the U.S. critical infrastructure is run by computers which are connected to the Internet; this makes them susceptible to cyber attacks; a few days ago the control system of a water pump in Illinois was taken over by a hacker’s remote command, and then deliberately destroyed; what critical infrastructure facilities will hackers — nerdy teenagers, terrorists, or intelligence operatives of other nations — target next?

  • Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure reach U.S.

    Most of the U.S. critical infrastructure is run by computers which are connected to the Internet; this makes them susceptible to cyber attacks; a few days ago, the control system of a water pump in Illinois was taken over by a hacker’s remote command, and then deliberately destroyed; what critical infrastructure facilities will hackers – nerdy teenagers, terrorists, or intelligence operatives of other nations – target next?