• Melissa Hathaway highlights nine important cyber bills

    Congress is getting more and more involved in cyber issues; Melissa Hathaway, former White House cybersecurity official, examines the pending legislation and highlights nine bills — out of the 40-odd bills at various stages in the legislative process — which she considers to be the most important ones to watch

  • U.S. Cyber Command launched

    The United States launches a new military command — the U.S. Cyber Command — and Army General Keith Alexander receives a fourth star and will serve as CyberCom’s first commander; the mission of CyberCom is to synchronize the Defense Department’s various networks and cyberspace operations to better defend them against the onslaught of cyberattacks

  • TSA awards CSC a $489 million IT infrastructure contract

    TSA awards CSC an IT infrastructure protection contract worth approximately $489 million for a five year life cycle; the contract is for the deployment, maintenance, and enhancement of TSA’s IT infrastructure capabilities

  • Federal agencies outline government's cybersecurity goals

    Government representatives outlined to the attendees at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy the current U.S. cybersecurity research and development goals — and needs; the representatives outlined the need for a better understanding of the economics of security in order to gain a clearer picture of what types of investments would help defenders, and they asked for solutions that might again shift the advantage away from attackers

  • Cyber bill would create strong cyber director post, tighten cyber monitoring of agencies

    New bill being debated in the House Of Representatives would create a cyberspace director position that requires confirmation from the Senate and create a national cyberspace office; the legislation would also provide the new cyber coordinator position with budgetary authority, which is presently lacking

  • The boom (or is it a bubble?) in federal cybersecurity

    The Obama administration and Congress are allocating more funds to cybersecurity; much of that new spending, estimated at $6 to $7 billion annually just in unclassified work, is focused on the Washington region, as the federal government consolidates many of its cybersecurity-focused agencies in the area; some VCs warn of a cybersecurity bubble

  • Cybersecurity summit pays little attention to control system's security

    Despite threats of infrastructure attacks, scant attention was paid to control systems during a global security conference; the problem is safeguarding infrastructure’s control systems against attackers is that such protection requires a different approach to securing PCs or networks; Windows-based security products will not help; says one expert: “All the devices that sense things — temperature, pressure, flow, and things like that — are not Windows, those are proprietary, real-time or embedded, and there’s no security there”

  • U.K. launches competition to find cyber security experts

    The United Kingdom suffers from a dearth of cybersecurity experts; several private and public organizations have launched the Cyber Security Challenge competition — a series of challenges and games that would test the talent and skills of people; the challenges will be built around eight key skill areas which include digital forensics, network analysis and logical thinking

  • Commercial networks are now victims of targeted cyberattacks

    State-sponsored groups with deep technical skills and computing resources have long been directing targeted cyberattacks at government organizations and military targets; the Chinese intelligence services’ cyberattacks on Google are but the latest indication that cybercrooks are expanding their horizons and start aiming targeted attacks at commercial networks

  • Cybersecurity incidents in industrial control systems on the rise

    The good news is that only about 10 percent of U.S. industrial control systems are actually connected to the Internet; the bad news is that even with minimal Internet access, malware and breaches are increasingly occurring in utility, process control systems; cybersecurity incidents in petroleum and petrochemical control systems have declined significantly over the past five years — down more than 80 percent — but water and wastewater have increased 300 percent, and power/utilities by 30 percent

  • Congress to address important cybersecurity initiatives

    Congress is setting to tackle important cybersecurity-related issues — including the confirmation hearing on Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to be military cyber commander, markup sessions on bills to fund cybersecurity research and development, and realign the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) laboratories

  • The 2010 Security Treasure Hunt cybersecurity competition launched in California

    California on Tuesday launched the 2010 Security Treasure Hunt; the online competition is part of a national effort to identify young men and women with the potential to become world-class cybersecurity professionals

  • To avoid cyberwar and protect infrastructure -- fight cybercrime first

    Fighting cybercrime is the first step to avoiding cyberwar, protecting infrastructure; Christopher Painter, the White House’s senior director for cybersecurity: “There are a couple of things we need to do to harden [critical infrastructure] targets” — “But the other thing you need to do is reduce the threat. And the predominant threat we face is the criminal threat — the cybercrime threat in all of its varied aspects”

  • Cybersecurity companies weather the economic downturn

    Cybersecurity companies may have suffered during the economic downturn — but they suffered less; some companies even saw an increase in revenues; “The things that we’re delivering have become more of a necessity than a nice to have,” says the president of an Iowa-based company which provides technical support and corporate security for desktop computers — and which increased its annual revenue by 41 percent in 2009

  • IT experts: Security risks of cloud computing outweigh benefits

    Cloud computing services are expected to experience dramatic growth, hitting $44.2 billion by 2013, outpacing traditional IT spending; other estimates, including a recent study by Global Industry Analysts, indicate that by 2015 cloud computing services could represent a more than $200 billion market opportunity; still, worries about the security of cloud computing linger: 45 percent of IT professionals responding to an ISAAC survey say the risks of cloud computing outweigh the lower total cost of ownership (TCO), high return on investment (ROI), increased efficiency, and pay-as-you-go services