• Virginia medical records hijacking -- update

    A hacker claimed to have broken into the Web site of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, encrypted more than 8 million patient records and 35 million prescriptions in the database, and then deleted the original data; the hacker sought a $10 million ransom for the password to decrypt the data; Virginia health agency says all of its files have been backed up and secured

  • New Orleans channel may have exacerbated post-Katrina floods

    Witness for the prosecution: New Orleans residents sue the U.S. government over a channel dug by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; computer models show that channel may have exacerbated post-Katrina floods

  • Mechanical stress leads to self-sensing in solid polymers

    Fighting Illini researchers develop force-sensitive polymers; when pushed or pulled with a certain force, specific chemical reactions are triggered in the mechanophores; such polymers may be used in aircraft components or bridges to report damage and warn of potential component failure, slow the spread of damage to extend a material’s lifetime, or even repair damage in early stages to avoid catastrophic failure

  • U.S. air traffic vulnerable to "serious harm" from cyber attacks

    New FAA report: “{U}nless effective action is taken quickly, it is likely to be a matter of when, not if, ATC [air traffic control] systems encounter attacks that do serious harm to ATC operations”

  • Hackers hold medical records hostage

    Hackers broke into a Virgina pharmaceutical clearinghouse Web site, deleted records of more than 8 million patients, and replaced the site’s homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records

  • Questions about possible sabotage of a Mozambique dam

    Four men were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to pour corrosive chemicals into turbines at the large Cahora Bassa hydroeolectric plant in Mozambique; technicians at the dam say plot would not have succeeded

  • NSA boss: U.S. needs unified cyber-command center

    Head of the secretive NSA tells Congress that the cyber-threats the United States faces require a centralized digital command center which will operate under the U.S. Strategic Command

  • China rising: the increasing threat of Chinese cyber-warfare

    The only way to stop the proliferating cyber-attacks against the United States and Western powers is to raise the political and economic cost to China in order to make it in the interests of the government of China to stop such attacks

  • Industry group urges creation of cyber czar post

    Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), a coalition of defense, intelligence, and IT security companies, urges President Obama to create a cyber czar post with cabinet rank

  • U.K. moves forward with comprehensive eavesdropping scheme

    The U.K. government announced last week that it was abandoning the plan to create a centralized super-database in which the personal information of Britons will be kept — but a £1 billion intelligence gathering project is moving forward; the scheme will monitor all all e-mails, Web site visits, and social networking sessions in Britain

  • Critics: Cybersecurity standards for grid do not go far enough

    Legislators introduce the Critical Electric Infrastructure Protection Act, would require FERC to issue updated regulations for the U.S. power grid within 120 days of enactment, but critics say the bill is too limited

  • Making quantum cryptography's promise a reality

    New research details how quantum communication can be made possible without having to use cryogenic cooling or complicated optical setups, making it much more likely to become commercially viable soon

  • KTN launches global information systems initiative

    Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network unveils roadmap to help achieve a global security network that will ensure that software and systems have security and privacy defined at project initiation and “implemented as a matter of course”

  • Experts: U.S. military's cyberwar rules "ill-formed"

    Experts panel criticizes U.S. plans for cyberwarfare as “ill-formed,” “undeveloped,” and “highly uncertain”; as a result, many nuances of cyberwar have remained poorly understood, even as the military actively prepares for it

  • Smart Grid offers savings, vulnerabilities

    A bill to be presented in Congress today aims to stop utility hackers; experts, legislators call for regulations on smart power meters to reduce new grid’s vulnerability to hacking