Archive
The Potential for Cyber “Sabotage”
The US military’s newly launched US Cyber Command continues to make news this afternoon, as Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the command and chief of the National Security Agency, warned, “The potential for sabotage and destruction is now possible and something we must treat seriously.” According to the Washington Post, the US is “carefully monitoring military computer networks for sabotage.”
And just when we started thinking Congress was making progress on cyber legislation in the House and Senate, Federal Computer Week reports that “cyber policy is snared in legislative tangle.” While more than 35 cybersecurity-related measures are currently hold-up in Congress, the news site claims, “Observers don’t rule out the possibility of a bill becoming law this year, but many think it’s unlikely because other important items on the administration’s legislative agenda are lined up ahead of it.”
Yet with all the recent cybersecurity hype, including new legislation, federal appointments and spending, NextGov questions, “Is it enough?” More cybersecurity news from the day follows…
Read more…
Cybersecurity: A New Arms Race
Making Cybersecurity News this morning, Chinese analysts warn that, much like the nuclear weapons show-and-tell, the US military’s recently-formed Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) could spark a new arms race, as nations battle over superlative homeland security.
Backing CYBERCOM, US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning, acknowledged that “more than 100 intelligence agencies and foreign militaries are actively trying to penetrate our systems.”
Meanwhile, the Senate version of the Defense authorization bill, to be rolled out later this week, would provide funding for the Department of Defense to partner with industry to continue to buildup the nation’s cybersecurity…
Read more…
Defense Bills and the Power Grid
Cybersecurity legislation continues to make the news this morning. NextGov is reporting that an overhaul is likely, as Defense bills with cybersecurity provisions continue to gain support in the Senate and House. Meanwhile, Internet News says that the Defense bill, passed in the House on Friday, could revise US cybersecurity.
In energy-related news, the Heritage Foundation reports, “The DOE spent nine years and $153 million on an obsolete cybersecurity project that was supposed to safeguard America’s nuclear weapons information.” Meanwhile, according to Network World, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warns that cyber attacks are a top threat to the nation’s power grid.
Read more…
“The Cybersecurity Changes We Need”
Catching up from Memorial Day weekend and making Cybersecurity News this morning, Harvard advisers in a Washington Post op-ed point out “The Cybersecurity Changes We Need,” noting that we must “adopt and embed sometimes-costly security solutions into our core infrastructures and enterprises and stop playing the game of chance.”
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office says that the Department of Veterans Affairs is vulnerable to a cyber attack. And GovInfoSecurity finds a way to link cybersecurity to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Read more…
Cybersecurity News 