• Glaring gaps in network security, I

    Specialists in penetration testing take six hours to hack the FBI; hacking the networks of Fortune 500 companies takes much less time; even companies which have been Sarbanes-Oxley compliant for several years have been hacked within twenty minutes, with the hackers taking control of the business; these hackers proved they could actively change general ledgers and do other critical tasks

  • Is the Internet "Critical Infrastructure"?

    The Internet’s architecture is optimized to be cheap and ubiquitous; such a network is never going to be perfectly secure or reliable; transactions that absolutely have to be done correctly and on time need to be done on a dedicated network

  • Nigerian group threatens attacks

    Today is the one-year anniversary since Umaru Yar’Adua was inaugurated as president of Nigeria; MEND, the leading rebel group in the Niger Delta, said yesterday that it would launch a series of bombings against oil installations to mark the day

  • Grasshopper robot breaks high-jump record

    Researchers develop small - very small: it is 5 centimeters tall and weighs just 7 grams — hopping robot; swarms of such hopping robots could spread out to explore disaster areas, or even the surfaces of other planets

  • Power plants open to hacker attack

    Power plants, dams, and many other critical infrastructure assets are controlled by a system called supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA; a Boston technology specialist finds serious vulnerability in the system

  • Civilian nuclear facilities in Sichuan confirmed safe

    The Chinese government has identified 32 radioactive sources in the earthquake-devastated Sichuan area - hospitals, research centers, factories, but no power plants; 30 sources have already been located and removed; the two remaining sources have been cordoned off and are being excavated

  • Chinese lakes may burst

    Last Monday’s earthquake, and subsequent aftershocks, weaken large dam and raise fears of man-made lake bursting, causing massive floods in the already ravaged region

  • DHS awards $844 million to secure U.S. critical infrastructure

    DHS awards millions to bolster security fo rail, truck, and bus transportation; department says awards are strictly risk-based

  • An HSDW conversation with John Stroia, vice president, Government Security and Monitoring Solutions, Diebold

    Diebold has been adding “layers of protection” to its customers since 1859; Diebold provides one-stop shopping for technology-based electronic systems, software, and services, and the company is active in all four major security markets: financial; commercial (retail); enterprise (large corporations); and government

  • NATO to help Estonia’s cyber defense

    Last year Estonia became the first nation to suffer a systematic, sustained cyber attack that brought the Baltic nation’s infrastructure to halt; Russian nationalists, and probably agencies of the Russian government, were implicated in the attack; NATO wants to help

  • China lacks earthquake early-warning system

    Earthquake alerts are still in their infancy and few nations deploy them; China is one of the many countries which is yet to do so; such systems offer but a few seconds warning of a coming quake, but these few seconds may be enough to save many from death or injury

  • Worries about damage to Chinese dam

    Damage to a large Chinese dam near the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake raises worries about more troubles to come in the devastated region

  • The economics of cyber - and infrastructure -- security

    New book explores the economics of protecting cyberspace; the book “links our nation’s critical infrastructures across public and private institutions in sectors ranging from food and agriculture, water supply and public health, to energy, transportation and financial services,” says one of the authors

  • Scientists debate link between climate change and storm ferocity

    Cyclone Nargis, just before it smashed into Myanmar, suddenly changed gear from a Category One to a Category Four cyclone just before it made landfall; similar changes were noted in other recent tropical storms; are changes linked to global warming?

  • Reno urged to prepare for worse as earthquakes continue

    Scientists call on Reno residents to brace themselves for more earthquakes; more than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night