• U.S. - Australia announce cyber defense treaty

    Last week, the United States and Australia announced a mutual defense treaty that declared a cyberattack on one would result in retaliation by both nations; this new agreement appears to be the first instance of a mutual defense treaty in the cyber realm outside of NATO

  • Safeguarding the Internet of tomorrow

    The recommendations of a high-level cybersecurity summit held Belfast include developing self-learning, self aware cyber security technologies, protecting smart utility grids, and enhancing the security of mobile networks. The summit concluded that these are among the top research priorities needed to safeguard the Internet of tomorrow

  • Measuring effect of Wi-Fi attacks

    Researchers have developed a way to measure how badly a Wi-Fi network would be disrupted by different types of attacks — a valuable tool for developing new security technologies

  • The "lost decade" of cybersecurity: adversaries outpace cyber-defenses

    Anup Ghosh, the founder and CEO of Invincea, a firm that specializes in developing cybersecurity solutions, discusses the failures of the U.S. government in cybersecurity, emerging technologies that can help keep networks safe, and the havoc that terrorists can wreak via a cyberattack

  • General Dynamics teams up with Virginia Tech to bolster cybersecurity

    Defense giant General Dynamics’ cybersecurity division has teamed up with Virginia Tech to help strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity research capabilities; on Wednesday, the company announced that its Advanced Information Systems branch will assist Virginia Tech with its new Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S2ERC)

  • Cyber experts dispute McAfee's Shady RAT report

    Earlier this month, cybersecurity experts discovered a five-year operation that infiltrated U.S. government and UN computer networks; China is believed to be the culprit behind the systematic attacks, dubbed “Operation Shady RAT,” which also hit major defense contractors and private businesses; many within the cybersecurity community are disputing the significance of the finding

  • Anonymous hacker collective hits rural law enforcement

    In its latest exploit, global hacker collective Anonymous claimed to release ten GB of stolen data from more than seventy rural sheriff’s departments across the United States, leaking sensitive information that could compromise the agencies’ investigations

  • DHS officials: Stuxnet can morph into new threat

    Government cybersecurity experts warn that the Stuxnet virus, which damaged Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, could morph into something even more destructive; DHS officials worry that hackers could design more complex versions of the virus that can evade detection and bypass existing software fixes

  • New drone listens in on cell phone calls and hacks Wi-Fi networks

    At this week’s annual Defcon security conference for hackers, two hobbyists will showcase their sophisticated unmanned Wi-Fi detecting, cell-phone eavesdropping spy drone; the drone was assembled using an old Army target drone that had been converted to run on electric batteries and is now equipped with an HD camera, eleven antennas, and a cigarette pack sized computer that is loaded with hacking tools

  • Cybersecurity legislation passes House Committee

    Last week new cybersecurity legislation cleared its first obstacle passing through the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee; the bill would authorize the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish standards across federal agencies as well as research and education

  • Combating counterfeit microchips // by Dr. James Hayward, Ph.D, Sc.D.

    Dr. James Hayward, the chairman, president, and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, argues that the U.S. government needs to do more to prevent corrupted microchips from entering U.S. computers that make it easier for hackers and foreign governments to infiltrate networks

  • Creating genetic replacement for oil

    Scientists previously established that oil and coal have their roots in the organisms that lived on the planet over 500 million years ago, but researchers only are sure of one organism that directly contributed to these natural resources — that organism is the algae Botryococcus braunii; this algae is very slow growing, so it is not necessarily a good source for biofuels; scientists offer an alternative

  • Estonia pushes for joint EU cyber response

    European Union security officials recently met in Brussels for the European Security Round Table to discuss the creation of a unified approach to cybersecurity; the meeting’s organizers say the event was designed to promote “a comprehensive policy approach to cyber-security among EU institutions”; attendees included representatives from the European Parliament, the European Defense Agency, NATO, and private security organizations

  • DHS warns of critical vulnerabilities in Chinese software

    Last week DHS warned that control software widely used in China’s weapons systems, utilities, and chemical plants has dangerous weaknesses that leave it open to hackers; the warning, issued by the DHS Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ISC-CERT), stems from critical vulnerabilities found in SCADA software developed by Beijing’s Sunway ForceControl Technology

  • Weather variations cost U.S. $485 billion a year

    New research finds that routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billion in the United States; the study found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather, and that the impact of routine weather variations on the economy is as much as 3.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product