Cybersecurity News

Good morning, Cybersecurity News readers…

This Cybersecurity News update comes courtesy of US Airways, which, after nearly a week of travel, has allowed me to type this post at about 32,000 feet.

Using the airway’s free wi-fi, I can’t help but wonder what cyber precautions are being taken by the airlines to ensure their networks are protected while they ‘fly high’ boasting their latest air amenity.  (More on that later…)

But it seems one major air conglomerate isn’t waiting around to test the waters air.  According to Network World, facing a “critical hiring need,” the US Air Force will use a streamlined approach to hire nearly 700 new employees to focus on cybersecurity.

In a statement, the Air Force said the new positions will address: “cyberrisk and strategic analysis; incident handling and malware/vulnerability analysis; cyberincident response; cyberexercise facilitation and management; cybervulnerability detection and assessment; network and systems engineering; enterprise architecture; intelligence analysis; investigation; investigative analysis; and cyberrelated infrastructure interdependency analysis.”

Also ramping up cybersecurity, cyber czar Howard Schmidt noted on the White House Blog late last week that efforts are being made “to reduce risk and build confidence in our critical information and communications infrastructure.”

According to Schmidt, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has made a big push “to facilitate the introduction of new security protocols into the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure.”  Schmidt also noted that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has reported plans to “ensure coordinated cyber preparedness and response among all national partners.”  And with regards to its private sector partners, Schmidt reported that companies and institutions are also working with the government “to reduce cybersecurity risk and improve the trustworthiness of America’s cyber systems.”

Meanwhile cyber collaboration is stretching beyond the United States.  According to the New York Times, 15 countries have agreed to work together to form an international computer security treaty.  The group, which is charted by the United Nations and includes the US, China and Russia, will provide recommendations “to improve international cybercooperation and security.”

Other countries on board with the cyber program include: Britain, France, Germany, Estonia, Belarus, Brazil, India, Israel, Italy, Qatar, South Korea and South Africa.

Additional cybersecurity news follows:

Cybersecurity consensus: ‘We haven’t done enough’ (Washington Times)

What could the Obama administration do to help your company with cybersecurity? (ZDNet)

Some experts question efforts to identify cyber attackers (Network World)

China Cyber-army Talk Pulled from Black Hat (eWeek)

Navy imposes cybersecurity training rules (Information Week)

Under threat: A free and open Internet (Baltimore Chronicle)

Cisco among Winners of National Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge (Networld World)

Software firm Sap applauds Lieberman, Collins, Carper cybersecurity legislation (TMCNet)