• Federal IT professionals: Cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure looming

    More than half of federal IT professionals surveyed believe the potential is “high” for a cyberattack from a foreign nation against critical IT infrastructure in the next year; moreover, 42 percent of them think the U.S. government’s ability to prevent or handle such an attack is merely fair to poor.

  • Cybercriminals exploit search engine optimization techniques

    Cybercriminals have another tool at their disposal: search engine optimization (SEO); hackers use automated kits to apply blackhat SEO methods — cynically exploiting tragic or salacious breaking news stories — to subvert searches in order to point surfers toward scareware download portals or other scams

  • FAA bolsters cybersecurity with help from IBM

    Malware introduced into the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) computer network which monitors and controls U.S. aviation can bring down a plane and cause havoc as surely as liquid explosives or underwear bombs can; the IBM is teaming up with the FAA to build a cybersecurity system which will improve defense against cyberattacks on the U.S. civilian aviation network; the flexible model used in the prototype system will be designed to look retrospectively at event occurrences and system compromises, and it will also be able to correlate historical traffic patterns with dynamic data from monitors, sensors, and other devices capturing information about network traffic and user activity in real time

  • U.S. cybersecurity spending to rise

    The rate of cyberattacks on U.S. government’s networks and U.S. critical infrastructure, and the growing complexity of IT infrastructure, are driving the surge in federal cybersecurity spending; the U.S. federal government’s total cumulative cybersecurity spending would be $55 billion between 2010 and 2015

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  • Experts say smart meters are vulnerable to hacking

    In the United States alone, more than eight million smart meters have been deployed by electric utilities and nearly sixty million should be in place by 2020; security experts are worried that this rush to deployment of smart meters ignores serious security vulnerabilities: the interactivity which makes smart meters so attractive also makes them vulnerable to hackers, because each meter essentially is a computer connected to a vast network

  • 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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  • iPhone, IE8, Firefox, and Safari easily hacked at Pwn2Own contest

    Hackers gathered for an annual contest in Vancouver demonstrate easy hacking of iPhone and all major browsers; a non-jailbroken iPhone was also hacked and its SMS database stolen; security measures taken by Firefox, Safari, and IE8 no match for hackers

  • Israeli scientist invents a laser-based security tool for the CIA -- and for online shoppers

    When the RSA system for digital information security was introduced in the 1970s, the researchers who invented it predicted that their 200-bit key would take a billion years to crack; well, it was cracked five years ago; it is still the most secure system for consumers to use today when shopping online or using a bank card, but as computers become increasingly powerful, the idea of using the RSA system becomes more fragile; the solution lies in a new kind of system to keep prying eyes off secure information

  • DHS to work with ISP to test Einstein 3 cyber security system

    DHS will work with a commercial ISP to test the partially classified Einstein 3 system; Einstein 3 is designed to do real-time, deep packet inspection and threat-based decision making on data traffic entering or leaving federal agency networks

  • The Norton Top 10: Seattle is the riskiest U.S. city for cybercrime; Detroit is the safest

    A study of the cybercrime-proneness of fifty American cities finds that from the perspective of cybersecurity, Seattle is the riskiest city in America: If you live and work there and use the Internet, your are more vulnerable to cybercrime than in any other place; the cyber-safest cities: Detroit, Michigan, El Paso, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee

  • U.S. government pours money into cyber security technologies and R&D

    With a cumulative market valued at $55 billion (2010-15), the U.S. federal cybersecurity market will grow steadily at about 6.2 percent CAGR; new study says that Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology is in a very favorable position to emerge as a major line of cyber defense for years to come as the only technology that can deliver the good

  • 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

  • Delay in start date for U.K. cyberdefense center

    The U.K. government’s Cyber Security Operations Center, charged with protecting Britain’s critical IT infrastructure, was supposed to become operational yesterday; the government said it would become operational by the end of the month

  • GAO: U.S. government not properly coordinating cybersecurity efforts

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office, in addressing the Obama administration’s Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative (CNCI), a secretive initiative inherited from the Bush administration, warned that “Federal agencies have overlapping and uncoordinated responsibilities for cybersecurity, and it is unclear where the full responsibility for coordination lies”

  • 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