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Obama Administration Considers Cyber Options
With cyber threats to public and private sector entities on the rise and Congress doing little to assist, the Obama administration is considering the overhaul of an outdated initiative designed to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from attacks.
According to Bloomberg, a revised draft of the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7, developed back in December 2003, is being circulated among White House officials and advisors in an effort to revamp the proposal to address U.S. cybersecurity.
If put in place, the updated directive would chart a path for information sharing between federal agencies and private sector companies – a concept Capitol Hill has struggled with in hearings and debates year after year. Read more…
Federal Agency Audits Show Cyber Vulnerabilities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is lagging behind on cybersecurity, according to a recent report published by the Government Accountability Office.
Released Monday, the 41-page report claims EPA, which houses a wealth of the nation’s environmental data, failed to update and secure several of its networks, devices, software and systems. Read more…
Cyber Threats Rise to Interplanetary Level
While cybersecurity legislation may be stalled on Capitol Hill, hacker groups large and small remain persistent in putting forth more targeted and malicious cyber attacks.
Just days after the Olympic Games ended in London, the UK’s Guardian reported that security advisers, in advance of the Games, warned that a cyber attack on the Olympics power supply was possible.
While some believed the odds of an attack were not viable, Read more…
Cyber Bill Stalls in the Senate
Democrats’ hopes for passing cybersecurity legislation were put on hold this week, as the Senate on Thursday failed to pass a bill aiming to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from looming cyber attacks.
In a 52-46 vote, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 fell short of the 60 votes needed to reach cloture to end debates.
After seeing several rounds of revisions, the scrubbed bill intended to offer incentives to the private sector for voluntarily sharing information with and meeting cybersecurity standards set by the government.
But in the recent weeks, more than 70 amendments were added to the bill “bombarding” it with provisions on privacy, as well as irrelevant issues on gun control and health care, according to CNET. Read more…
Cybersecurity News 