• U r pwned: text messaging as a hacking tool

    Text messages appear on mobile phones without any interaction from the user, and sometimes with limited interference from the cellular network operators — giving criminals an opening to break into those devices

  • 70,000 evacuated amid Texas chemical facility fire

    Fire at a chemical storage warehouse in Bryan, Texas has prompted the evacuation of about 70,000 people; officials plan for the evacuation of students at Texas A&M University in nearby College Station

  • McAfee acquires MX Logic to enhance cloud security

    McAfee acquires MX Logic for $140 million; MX Logic has 40,000 customers and four million end users; the deal is designed to bolster McAfee’s existing “security as a service” portfolio; McAfee, alongside Panda and Trend Micro, is among the most aggressive players in the security market in talking up the benefits of cloud-based architectures

  • Clampi virus targets businesses' financial accounts

    A new virus is spreading, specifically targeting companies’ financial accounts; at least 500,000 computers have been infected by Clampi since March

  • Fort Meade leads the competition for new U.S. cyber center site

    Defense Secretary Robert Gates is recommending the Defense Department create a new agency, U.S. Cyber Command, at Fort Meade, Maryland; if Fort Meade is chosen, Maryland will see the addition of as many as 50,000 government and contracting jobs, bringing in salaries of about $1.7 billion annually

  • Cyber-criminals targeting social networks

    Cyber-criminals are drawn to the wealth of personal information supplied by users of social networks

  • $7.7 million in stimulus funds for airport surveillance announced

    The stimulus package committed more than $3 billion for homeland security projects through DHS and GSA; of the $1 billion allocated to TSA for aviation security projects, $700 million is dedicated to screening checked baggage and $300 million is allocated for checkpoint explosives detection technology

  • Apple says jailbreaking may knock out transmission towers

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the U.S. Copyright Office to instruct Apple to allow “jailbreaking ” — that is, modification of the iPhone’s software without Apple’s approval; Apple responded that modifying the iPhone’s operating system could crash a mobile phone network’s transmission towers or allow people to avoid paying for phone calls

  • Addressing cloud computing confusion

    New report sheds light on federal government cloud computing progress; industry and government are at equal cloud adoption pace

  • Northrop Grumman opens new cybersecurity center

    Northrop opens its Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) in suburban Maryland; the center will monitor the company’s more than 105,000 clients and 10,000 servers worldwide; more than 1.5 billion daily cyber events that occur on the Northrop Grumman network

  • Defcon, Black Hat to open this week

    Leading cybersecurity events to open in Las Vegas this week; if you prefer security shows at which the speakers favor black T-shirts and dyed hair over suits and ties, and where goth-attired groupies and script kiddies hunkered over laptops line the hallways at all hours of the night, you should attend

  • U.S. cybersecurity efforts hobbled by shortage of cyber experts

    New study finds that the U.S. government’s ability to cope with the growing wave of cyber attacks on government networks is hampered by shortage of cybersecurity experts

  • Sandia researchers develop new water purification method

    Researchers substitute an atom of gallium for an aluminum atom in the center of an aluminum oxide cluster, creating a more effective process for removing bacterial, viral, and other organic and inorganic contaminants from river water destined for human consumption, and from wastewater treatment plants prior to returning water to the environment

  • U.S. considers cloud security standards

    Cloud computing is gaining among businesses, so the U.S. government says it may step up with a set of cloud-security standards to meet government requirements for protecting sensitive data

  • This product description will self-destruct

    Huskies researchers develop a tool to make online personal data vanish; after a set time period, electronic communications such as e-mail, Facebook posts, and chat messages would automatically self-destruct, becoming irretrievable from all Web sites, inboxes, outboxes, backup sites, and home computers