Senate Cyber Bill Gets Mixed Reviews
The Senate’s new Cybersecurity Act of 2012 received mixed reviews at a hearing held Friday by the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Check out my coverage via ClearanceJobs.
SOPA Cyber Attacks and Security Legislation on the Way
[Note: The following article was published on January 20, 2012 via ClearanceJobs.]
As the protests against SOPA and PIPA continue to hog media headlines this week, hacktivist group Anonymous has set out on its own efforts to contest the proposed anti-piracy plans.
According to Politico, following the Department of Justice’s latest move to shut down file-sharing site MegaUpload.com, Anonymous struck back with a distributed denial-of-service cyber attack on the DOJ’s website, as well as others lending support to anti-piracy, including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Responding to the attack, the MPAA released a statement asserting, “Unfortunately, some groups believe that speech or ideas that they disagree with should be silenced. This could not be more wrong. No matter the point of view, everyone has a right to be heard.”
So it seems, the White House also has the right to be heard when it comes to Internet piracy. Posting on the White House blog on Sunday morning, Administration officials Victoria Espinel, Aneesh Chopra, and Howard Schmidt wrote on “Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet.”
The Pentagon, Power Grid and Israel on the Cyber Defense
It’s all about cyber defense this week, as nations and their governments, industry and individual businesses scurry to secure key technological infrastructure.
Starting with President Obama, who late last week, rolled out his new plan to ramp up the U.S. military’s efforts, including those on cybersecurity, despite having to make several spending cuts due to the budget crunch.
Highlighting the need for more investments to help fend off attacks against the nation’s defense systems, the President noted in a press conference, “Our military will be leaner, but the world must know: The United States is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats,” according to Bloomberg.
But, in conjunction with the National Security Agency, the Pentagon is already working on its own defenses to thwart cyber attacks. Read more…
2012 Outlook, Japan’s Cyber Defense & Congress Considers Legislation
The New Year marks new challenges for cybersecurity, according to tech experts and policy forecasters following the topic.
Compiling its own list of cyber risks, security giant McAfee released a new report on the ‘2012 Threat Predictions,’ honing in on an expected rise in attacks on U.S. industrial systems and national infrastructure; an increase in “hacktivism,” or politically-motivated attacks; and more malware directed at smartphones and mobile devices.
“The past 12 months were a transformative year in many ways… We saw great changes in mobile threats, hacktivism, client-side exploitation, social-media exploitation, and targeted attacks,” McAfee said in its report. “Many of these changes and trends will continue to influence the threats landscape for years to come.”
Meanwhile, McAfee’s competitor Panda Security foresees privacy violations and data theft as the “top security issues organizations need to focus on in the coming year,” with foreign cyber-espionage as well as social networking attacks both contributing to the loss of government, corporate and personal data.
Happy Holidays from Cybersecurity News
Happy holidays to all readers, followers, colleagues and friends. Stayed tuned in the New Year, as Cybersecurity News will have a new initiative headed your way. Cheers to all and best wishes for 2012!
China Denies Being Villain in Newly Reported Global Cyber Attacks
As the US stock market took a major dive Monday, then bounced back only a day later, more than 70 corporations, nonprofits and government organizations around the globe might be hoping to see their cybersecurity efforts do the same.
According to a report released late last week by McAfee, the computer security giant known for its anti-virus software and solutions, 72 organizations, including several US defense firms, the United Nations secretariat, a US Department of Energy lab and the International Olympic Committee, were the target of a series of cyber attacks and online espionage taking place over the past five years.
Read more…
New Leader for US-CERT, New Wrist-Slap for DoD
As temperatures continue to rise in Washington this week, some have already had their fair share of the heat and are headed for the door.
Included among the list of departures, Randy Vickers, director of the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), resigned from his post suddenly Friday, leaving behind a series of questions and speculation as to what prompted his unexpected exit.
Read more…
Pentagon Reveals New Cyber Strategy
The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled its much-anticipated plans for how it intends to move forward with military, intelligence and business operations in the ever-evolving realm of cyberspace.
Releasing its unclassified report, “Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace,” the Pentagon offered up of five key strategies it intends to focus on in order to crack down on cyber vulnerabilities, risks and threats posed on the US and its systems.
“It is critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the cyber threats we’re facing,” said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in a statement. “I view this as an area in which we’re going to confront increasing threats in the future and think we have to be better prepared to deal with the growing cyber challenges that will face the nation.”
Read more…
Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Cybersecurity Today
The Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a hearing this afternoon on cybersecurity and data protection in the financial sector.
Professor Kevin Streff, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Information Assurance at Dakota State University; Leigh Williams, BITS President of the Financial Services Roundtable; and Marc Rotenberg, President of Electronic Privacy Information Center, will each provide a testimony.
Until then, check out the following cybersecurity news headlines you may have missed:
Pentagon sharing intelligence on cyber threats (Washington Times)
Dept Defense Secretary Lynn outlines new cybersecurity effort (Dept of Defense)
NSA looks to protect defense contractors from cyber attack (GCN)
Government in cyber fight but can’t keep up (Reuters)
FBI ramping up cyber attack defense (InformationWeek)
US official says terrorists lack Internet skills (AP)
Read more…
Catching Up on Cybersecurity News
Good morning, Cybersecurity News readers! I’m still traveling abroad with limited access to the site, but wanted to pass along some of the cybersecurity headlines you may have missed in my absence. I’ll be back next week and look forward to catching up on all things cyber then. Auf Wiedersehen!
Pentagon says cyber combat is act of war (Wall Street Journal)
Homeland Security releases FISMA compliance metrics (InformationWeek)
String of major cybersecurity breaches builds momentum for government action (The Hill)
White House cyber czar says no new treaty needed to tackle cybersecurity issues (AP)
FERC powers inadequate to handle cyber attack, agency says (Bloomberg)
Phishing scam hits some very important Gmail users (Politico)
