Cybersecurity News

Yesterday we saw the roll-out of new cybersecurity legislation co-sponsored by a Senate trio.  This morning Federal News Radio reports that that legislation, the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010,” is on the “fast track” to becoming law.  According to the news station, Sen. Lieberman is planning a June 15 hearing, will mark up the bill a week later, and anticipates having the bill out of the committee by July 4 recess.

Also on the fast track, earlier this week we learned of the “high possibility” of North Korea hitting South Korea with a cyber attack during the upcoming G-20 Summit.  Now the AFP is reporting that a cyber attack, believed to be from North Korea, has already hit one of South Korea’s government websites, infecting the system for nearly three hours.

And leave it to Fox News to bring us the cybersecurity-scare tactic term: “Electronic Armageddon.”  Citing “high-energy electric pulses from the sun,” Fox reports that our electrical grid could falter if Congress does not provide funding to fix the potential problem.  According to the article, a recently passed House measure, “The Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act” would “amend the Federal Power Act to protect the bulk-power system and electric infrastructure critical to the defense of the United States against cybersecurity and other threats and vulnerabilities.”

Additiional news from the morning follows:

The state of cybersecurity (Bank Info Security)

Microsoft: Malware top threat in Malaysia (Bernama News)

Government: Cyber crime may kill businesses (Sidney Morning Herald)

71 percent reject the motion “The cyberwar threat has been grossly exaggerated” (Press Release: Intelligence Squared US)