• The real battle over Iran's nuclear weapons program takes place in courts, intelligence centers

    Iran has a voracious appetite for technology to feed its nuclear, missile, and other military programs; while diplomats in striped suits debate the fine points of new UN sanctions on Tehran because of its nuclear weapons program, the real struggle over Iran’s capabilities is taking place in courtrooms and intelligence centers, via sting operations, front companies, and falsified shipping documents

  • FCC to move forward with national broadband plan

    FCC will move forward on the with key recommendations in its national broadband plan — even though a federal appeals court this week undermined the agency’s legal authority to regulate high-speed Internet access; plan calls for advancing “robust and secure public safety communications networks”

  • Cyber espionage targets UAV manufacturers

    A report tracking cyber-espionage — and cyber-industrial espionage — against U.S. defense contractors finds an intriguing trend: targeting UAV technology; UAVs are likely to remain a principle target of foreign collection activities, particularly given the growing market in UAVs, the report notes

  • Schmidt: private sector key to warding off cyber attacks

    White House cybersecurity coordinator says the private sector is where the best defense against cyberattacks and cyber warfare can be mounted; the government can do a lot to improve U.S. cyber defenses, but the key to warding off attacks remains private-sector vigilance; one major technology Web site agrees: “This is a battle every IT security professional must fight from the foxholes”

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  • Hamas: Israel using Facebook to recruit spies in Gaza

    Hamas claims Israeli intelligence uses information Palestinians from Gaza put in their profiles on Facebook to pressure them to become spies for Israel; it is not clear how someone can be blackmailed or coerced into a risky spying career using information in the public domain, and it seems more likely Israel is using social networking to map contact networks

  • Top U.S. cyber official: cyber threat poses existential threat to U.S.

    Senior Obama administration official: “I am convinced that given enough time, motivation and funding, a determined adversary will always — always — be able to penetrate a targeted system”; as a result: “The cyber threat can be an existential threat — meaning it can challenge our country’s very existence, or significantly alter our nation’s potential”

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  • U.K. spy agencies replace failed secret messaging system, try to recover money from IBM

    IBM was contracted by the British secret service to develop a secret, secure communication system for its operatives; after delays and technical failures, the contract was pulled and the intelligence services have launched a new project to extend a new secret messaging system to thousands of terminals across the intelligence agencies, as well as the Home Office, SOCA, Ministry of Defense, and other departments; at the same time, the government is still trying to recover the £24.4 million paid to IBM

  • Top concern at RSA 2010: security of cloud computing

    Cloud computing offers efficiency and cost reduction, but it also offer new opportunities to hackers and cybercriminals; Melissa Hathaway, former senior director for cyberspace for the National Security Council, said the migration toward the cloud is gaining momentum without having satisfactorily addressed several pressing concerns; former National Security Agency technical director Brian Snow said he does not trust the cloud

  • FBI: Cyber-terrorism a real and growing threat to U.S.

    FBI director Robert Mueller: “The risks are right at our doorsteps and in some cases they are in the house”; Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar: “Every major company in the U.S. and Europe has been penetrated — it’s industrial warfare”

  • House sponsors of the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act hopes for quick Senate approval

    The The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act by an overwhelming majority; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says: “When you’re talking about science and technology and national security….those are elements we should all be able to work together (on); Democrat, Republican, and that’s what we saw on the House floor”

  • McAfee: China leads world in hacked computers

    A new study finds that more personal computers in China — about 1,095,000 computers — than in any other country have been hacked to make them zombies, then grouped into botnets to engage in massive e-mail attacks on Web sites; the prevalence of botnets is a sign of how vulnerable computer networks are to infiltration

  • Google turns to NSA for assistance in thwarting Chinese cyberattacks

    Google has developed a reputation as a company that likes to keep its distance from government agencies; the cyberattacks on Google by the Chinese intelligence services has caused Google to reconsider; it is now finalizing a new deal with the NSA to share data – the company’s first formal agreement with the NSA; the spy agency will help Google develop better defenses against Chinese encroachment

  • MI5: Chinese intelligence blackmails British business people to hand over business secrets

    MI5, the U.K. secret service, warned British companies of a sustained, coordinated, and ruthless Chinese intelligence effort to compromise the security of British firms and steal their intellectual property; MI5 warned: “Chinese intelligence services have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships and illegal activities to pressurize individuals to cooperate with them”; MI5 report follows public warnings from senior MI5 officials that China posed “one of the most significant espionage threats” to Britain

  • What the Chinese attacks on Google mean for enterprise security

    Chinese government intelligence operatives exploited vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 and higher to launch sustained cyber attacks against 32 Western companies operating in China; the hacking of the Gmail accounts of political dissidents were but a tiny part of the attacks; rather, the attacks were part of a coordinated campaign that targeted the intellectual property of a wide swath of the U.S. industrial base, including Dow Chemical, Symantec, Yahoo!, Northrop Grumman, and Juniper Networks; wide-ranging industrial espionage is a central element in the Chinese government’s effort to hasten the rise of China to a position of global economic hegemony

  • Experts: Chinese attack on Google “one of the most sophisticated hacking attacks to date”

    The cracking techniques used by Chinese government operatives in the assault on Google and 31 other Western companies, used multiple malware components, with highly obfuscated code designed to confound security researchers; this marks out the Chinese attack as one of the most sophisticated hacking attacks to date; why was the search engine giant using the famously vulnerable IE6 remains a mystery