• UK.gov dismisses Tory claims U.K. cyberspace is not well defended

    On Friday, the U.K. Conservative Party unveiled its national security plans, charging that the current Labor government has left U.K. cyberspace defenseless; the government dismissed the Tory claims, saying that many of the proposals in the Conservative Party’s plan are already being implemented

  • Tories say they will set up a permanent “War Cabinet”

    The Conservative Party is favored to win the next general elections in Britain, which will be held before the summer; on Friday the party’s leader, David Cameron, set out the party’s national security plan, emphasizing cybersecurity

  • Cyber exercise to target financial firms

    The test, which starts 9 February, will have different scenarios for each of four different types of businesses: Financial firms, retailers, card processors, and general businesses; on each day, participants will receive a description of a specific scenario for their category of business, building on the previous day

  • Maryland wants to become cybersecurity’s Silicon Valley

    Governor Martin O’Malley: “Our federal facilities are a big part of the reason that we not only think that Maryland can be the national epicenter for cybersecurity, the fact of the matter is our state already is the epicenter of cybersecurity for our country and therefore an important epicenter for the entire world”

  • China offers Internet pirates bulletproof havens for illegal file sharing

    Most bulletproof hosts which allow music, video, and software to be illegally shared online are located in China, where criminals are able to take advantage of low costs and legal loopholes to avoid prosecution; despite officials in Beijing talking in tough terms about computer crime — hacking potentially carries a death sentence in China — the authorities rarely cooperate with other countries to take action against hi-tech criminals; as a result, just a handful of firms in China are responsible for hosting thousands of criminal enterprises online; one example: more than 22,000 Web sites which sent pharmaceutical spam were hosted by six bulletproof servers in China

  • New techniques to strengthen the security of information systems

    Highly developed societies rely more and more on information systems to maintain and enhance their economic vitality, societal welfare, and military effectiveness; as data are exchanged between various users, there is a danger that information could be released to unauthorized parties; the ability to guarantee secure information flow is becoming more critical as government and industry push toward increasingly complex information systems in many areas; K-State computer scientists are developing high-level policy languages and verification techniques to strengthen the security and integrity of such systems

  • Symantec issues South Africa cybercrime warning

    Crime is not new to South Africa, but cybercrime is; broadband rollouts and World Cup creating “perfect storm” for cyber criminals

  • 2010: Topics for homeland security discussion

    The only thing we can say for sure about 2010 is terrorists, criminals, and mother nature will surprise us at some point during 2010; still, based on what we do know, we offer a short list of topics we predict will dominate the homeland security discussion in the coming year – from whole-body scanners to 100 percent air cargo screening to social Web sites to communication interoperability to the consequences of climate change (or is there a climate change?)

  • Obama to name Howard Schmidt as cybersecurity coordinator

    Howard Schmidt chosen as the White House cybersecurity coordinator; Schmidt, a former Bush White House official, will coordinate cybersecurity policy across the federal government, from the military to civilian agencies; questions remain as to whether his authority will be commensurate with the responsibilities he assumes

  • Prediction for 2010: The coming cloud crash

    Technology maven Mark Anderson predicts a big remote-computing service disaster; “My hunch is that there will never really be a secure cloud,” he says; businesses will view cloud services more suspiciously and consumers will refuse to use them for anything important, he says

  • Michigan in cyber-security partnership with DHS

    Michigan will deploy EINSTEIN 1, the DHS-run cyber security system which all federal agencies are required to use; EINSTEIN 1 automates the collection and analysis of computer network security information from participating agency and government networks to help analysts identify and combat malicious cyber-activity

  • DHS launches virtual cyber job fair

    In October DHS announced it was given the authority to hire 1,000 cyber security professionals during the next three years; late last week the department launched a virtual job fair to begin and recruit these cyber specialists; DHS is looking for applicants with experience in cyber risk and strategic analysis, malware/vulnerability analysis, incident response, exercise and facilitation management, vulnerability detection and assessment, intelligence analysis, and cyber-related infrastructure inderdependency analysis

  • US, Russia begin talks on cyberspace security

    U.S. officials say the Obama administration realized that more nations were developing cyberweapons and that a new approach was needed to blunt an international arms race; the United States also hope to enlist the Russians in the war against cybercrime

  • Cybercriminals begin to exploit the cloud for hacking

    Cloud password cracker is a sign of things to come: cloud computing offers advantages of scale and cost, but its reliance on the Internet makes it vulnerable to hacking; “The cloud is going to offer the serious criminal huge computing resources on tap, which has lots of interesting applications,” says one security expert; “If nothing else, it should change a few threat models”

  • House of Lords hears evidence on risk of cyberterattacks

    The House of Lords hears evidence that the U.K. communication system is vulnerable to cyberattacks; experts advised the Lords that since up to 90 percent of the critical infrastructure on which Europe depends is privately owned and crosses international boundaries, then only co-operative planning between public and private sectors, as well as EU member states, can hope to deal with the risks.