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Stuxnet and the Cyber Storm
As Cybersecurity News reported late last week, the Stuxnet worm, a malicious computer virus believed to be the first to target industrial systems, appears to have had a direct and intentional hit on Iran and its Bushehr nuclear power plant.
“An electronic war has been launched against Iran,” Mahmoud Liaii, director of Iran’s Information Technology Council of the Ministry of Industries and Mines, said in a statement, Bloomberg reported.
According to the account, the Stuxnet worm infected the IP addresses of 30,000 computer systems and contaminated some of the nuclear plant’s private software.
But despite the attack, plant project manager Mahmoud Jahfari insisted, “The main systems of the Bushehr nuclear power plant have not been damaged.”
And while pinpointing and finger-pointing for the attack continue: “The United States is analyzing the Stuxnet computer worm, but does not know who is behind it or its purpose,” one top US cybersecurity official told the AFP.
US and Iran Both Focus on Cyber Defense This Week
An article in the Washington Post this morning reports that the White House is reviewing whether to ask Congress for new authorities for government agencies to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure in the event of a major cyber attack.
The news came yesterday following a House Armed Services Committee hearing, where US Cyber Command Chief Gen. Keith Alexander testified on the military’s cyber defense capabilities.
Noting that the White House is working to form a team with the FBI, the US Cyber Command, DHS and other agencies, Alexander said the move would “ensure that everybody has the exact authorities and capabilities that they would need to protect the country,” the Post reported.
But also covering the hearing, Wired magazine noted that a cyber shield would only stretch so far, advising, “If your business gets hacked, don’t bother calling the US military’s new Cyber Command.”
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A Shot in the [Defense] Dark for Cybersecurity
As Cybersecurity News reported last week, any last-ditch effort to get a cybersecurity measure through the Senate before the year’s end will likely only come if it’s piggybacked off of one of several defense bills up for harvest on the Hill.
So while National Journal reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “intends next week to bring up the FY11 defense authorization bill,” it seems other provisions being tacked on to the bill could provide additional delays and another Senate hit on the cybersecurity snooze button.
Already drawing GOP heat, Reid’s bill includes a repeal measure for the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, as well as the DREAM Act, which would allow young individuals illegally in the US to become legal residents for military and educational enlistments.
And while Hill inhabitants will be busy defining defense priorities in the week to come, it appears the Department of Defense (DoD) plans to duck out on outlining one area of defense in particular. Cyber warfare, that is…
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Sealing a Senate Cyber Deal and Battening Down DHS Hatches
Happy Friday, Cybersecurity News readers. While the work week may be coming to an end, make no mistake that cybersecurity legislation will be doing the same.
According to Reuters, Senate staffers are working on an all-encompassing cybersecurity bill with the leadership needed to put it on the “short list” for passage.
Apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has also added the cyber bill to his list of top-priority measures to get through the Senate this year, sources told Reuters.
But sealing a Senate cyber deal won’t come without a struggle…
And while Cybersecurity News reported last week on Senator Tom Carper’s reservations about passing a measure after the changes that the midterm elections may bring, Reuters also noted potential opposition.
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NIST Releases ‘Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security’
The nation’s power grid — an ever-increasing topic for the cybersecurity world — continued to create a buzz late last week, as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a 537-page report to outline “Guidelines for Smart Gird Cyber Security.”
The report, developed by members of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel–Cyber Security Working Group, begins by disclosing:
The United States has embarked on a major transformation of its electric power infrastructure. This vast infrastructure upgrade—extending from homes and businesses to fossil-fuel-powered generating plants and wind farms, affecting nearly everyone and everything in between—is central to national efforts to increase energy efficiency, reliability, and security; to transition to renewable sources of energy; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and to build a sustainable economy that ensures future prosperity. These and other prospective benefits of ‘smart’ electric power grids are being pursued across the globe…
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The Fate of the Cyber Bill Post-Pentagon Breach
As Labor Day looms and the congressional summer recess nears its end, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) announced that the Senate may consider attaching cybersecurity legislation to a defense bill in order to assure its passage before the November midterm elections, an article by GovInfoSecurity reported.
According to Sen. Carper, enacting a cybersecurity provision with a defense bill, such as the National Defense Authorization Act, could be made easier, as both “the chairman and ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee – Sens. Carl Levin, (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) – also serve on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.”
“It’s hard to get a measure like cybersecurity legislation passed on its own,” Carper advised. “It’s more of a national security issue that we ought to do sooner rather than later… and I hope we will.”
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