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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
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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?)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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”
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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.
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Cisco annual information security report highlights risks of social media
Cisco has released its annual information security report for 2009 and the year-end analysis; the report highlights the impact of social media on network security and the critical role that people — not technology — play in creating opportunities for cybercriminals.
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Cyberattacks on U.S. military systems rise
In 2000, there were 1,415 cyber attacks on U.S. military networks; in all of 2008 there were 54,640 malicious cyber incidents targeting DoD systems; in the first six months of 2009 tThere were 43,785 such incidents.
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How vulnerable is the smart grid?
The smart grid is a theoretically closed network, but one with an access point at every home, business, and other electrical power user where a smart-grid device is installed; those devices, which essentially put the smarts into the grid, are computers with access to the network; in the same way attackers have found vulnerabilities in every other computer and software system, they will find vulnerabilities in smart-grid devices
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Industry, academia join hands to solve U.S. most pressing cyber threats
Northrop Grumman forms cybersecurity research consortium to help secure the U.S. critical infrastructure and counter growing threats; consortium’s members include MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Purdue
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CERT Australia promotes on network security
Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department national security resiliency division says CERT Australia would be a two-way clearing house for notifications from local and international authorities, with responsibility for tracking down compromised machines in Australian domains
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Top 10 information security trends for 2010
Further adoption of cloud, social media, and virtualization technologies will continue to blur the network parameter; organizations — large and small — should consider a layered, centralized security solution that provides multiple security touch points within the network, rather than around it
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