• Congressional panel says two Chinese telecom companies pose “national security threat” to U.S.

    A report by the House Intelligence Committee recommended that the U.S. government be barred from doing business with two Chinese telecommunications firms – Huawei and ZTE – and that American companies should avoid buying their equipment; a committee report said the two companies pose a threat to U.S. national security; installing these companies’ technology in U.S. communication network will not only allow these companies, acting on behalf of the Chinese military and intelligence, to steal sensitive national security information and trade secrets of private U.S. companies – it will also allow China to attack and paralyze large portions of U.S. critical infrastructure

  • Scenario-based gaming exercise to improve intelligence analysis

    Raytheon has created a scenario-based gaming exercise to study in depth the intelligence analyst’s tradecraft; the company says the goal is ultimately to help analysts produce the best intelligence products and streamline workflows

  • Obama blocks purchase of U.S. wind farms by Chinese company

    Last Friday President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon; Obama cited security risks for the action, making it the first time in twenty-two years that a U.S. president has blocked a foreign business deal

  • Former L-3 employee guilty of selling weapon secrets to China

    A federal court judge in Newark, New Jersey convicted Sixing Liu on six counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act as well as possessing stolen trade secrets, transporting stolen property, and lying to federal agents; Liu is was convicted of stealing thousands of electronic files detailing performance and design of guidance systems for missiles, rockets, target locators, and unmanned aerial vehicles in 2010

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  • U.K.’s first research institute to investigate the science of cyber security

    A new U.K. academic research institute, aiming to improve understanding of the science behind the growing cybersecurity threat, was announced last week; GCHQ, the U.K. intelligence agency, says that the institute, which is funded by a £3.8 million grant, is part of a cross-government commitment to increasing the U.K. academic capability in all fields of cybersecurity

  • Bolstering e-mail security

    On the whole, security is not a primary concern for most day-to-day e-mails, but some e-mails do contain personal, proprietary, and sensitive information, documents, media, photos, videos, and sound files; the open nature of e-mail means that they can be intercepted and if not encrypted, easily read by malicious third parties

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  • Storing government records for generations to come

    A White House directive released last week requires that federal agencies adopt systems which will store and manage all electronic records in order to keep them safe and secure for future generations

  • Most cybersecurity incidents in Europe remain undetected or not reported

    In a new report, the EU cyber security agency takes a snapshot of existing and future EU legislation on security measures and incident reporting; the analysis underlines important steps forward, but also identifies gaps in national implementation, as most incidents are not reported

  • New book confirms Israel behind killing of Iran nuclear scientists

    A book to be published today offers details about, Israel’s campaign to take out Iranian nuclear scientists, a campaign which is part of the Israel’s broader effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; the book also says that the cyber campaign against Iran’s nuclear program was an Israeli innovation, not an American one as recently reported; it was the brainchild of Israel’s military intelligence agency (AMAN) and Unit 8-200 — Israel’s equivalent of the eavesdropping, code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA) — and endorsed by the White House at Israel’s suggestion

  • Experts: Flame represents a new level of state-sponsored cyber attacks

    The latest cyber espionage malware, Flame, represents a new level of sophistication in state-sponsored cyberattacks; experts note that Flame circumvented anti-virus programs, and remained undetected between two and five years; one expert says: “[Flame] uses multiple exploit combinations so it is pretty significant that it hid itself, but maybe the best ones have not been discovered yet”; another expert says: “The failure to detect Flame means simplistic signature-based detection is obsolete”

  • Fears of cyber espionage hinder U.S. license to China Mobile

    Serious concerns over cyberspying have fueled a debate among U.S. national security agencies about whether communications giant China Mobile should be granted a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to provide international service to American customers

  • Two Taiwanese nationals charged in military technology smuggling plot

    Taiwanese nationals engaged in smuggling counterfeit consumer goods and crystal methamphetamine into the United States, are discovered to be working for Chinese intelligence agencies in an effort to smuggle sensitive U.S. military technology out of the United States

  • NATO commander target of persistent Facebook cyberattacks

    The senior commander of NATO has been the target of repeated Facebook-based cyberattacks that are believed to have originated from China; Admiral James Stavridis is the subject of a campaign to gain information about him and his colleagues, friends, and family

  • U.S. places terror sanctions on Iranian spy ministry

    On Thursday the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had placed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, accusing it of supporting terrorism, committing human rights abuses against Iranians, and participating in the ongoing suppression of protests in Syria

  • China syndrome: a giant sucking sound

    Discussions of cyber warfare typically focus on the threat posed by terrorists or nation-states to U.S. critical infrastructure – power grid, water systems, financial institutions, etc.; three former high-level U.S. security officials argue that the threat of China’s economic cyber espionage looms even more ominously; the former officials say the evidence is irrefutable: China intends to help build its economy by industrial espionage and theft “rather than by innovation and investment in research and development (two strong suits of the U.S. economy)”