Happy Holidays from Cybersecurity News
Happy holidays to all readers, followers, colleagues and friends. Stayed tuned in the New Year, as Cybersecurity News will have a new initiative headed your way. Cheers to all and best wishes for 2012!
China Denies Being Villain in Newly Reported Global Cyber Attacks
As the US stock market took a major dive Monday, then bounced back only a day later, more than 70 corporations, nonprofits and government organizations around the globe might be hoping to see their cybersecurity efforts do the same.
According to a report released late last week by McAfee, the computer security giant known for its anti-virus software and solutions, 72 organizations, including several US defense firms, the United Nations secretariat, a US Department of Energy lab and the International Olympic Committee, were the target of a series of cyber attacks and online espionage taking place over the past five years. Read more…
New Leader for US-CERT, New Wrist-Slap for DoD
As temperatures continue to rise in Washington this week, some have already had their fair share of the heat and are headed for the door.
Included among the list of departures, Randy Vickers, director of the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), resigned from his post suddenly Friday, leaving behind a series of questions and speculation as to what prompted his unexpected exit. Read more…
Pentagon Reveals New Cyber Strategy
The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled its much-anticipated plans for how it intends to move forward with military, intelligence and business operations in the ever-evolving realm of cyberspace.
Releasing its unclassified report, “Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace,” the Pentagon offered up of five key strategies it intends to focus on in order to crack down on cyber vulnerabilities, risks and threats posed on the US and its systems.
“It is critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the cyber threats we’re facing,” said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in a statement. “I view this as an area in which we’re going to confront increasing threats in the future and think we have to be better prepared to deal with the growing cyber challenges that will face the nation.”
Read more…
Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Cybersecurity Today
The Senate Banking Committee is set to hold a hearing this afternoon on cybersecurity and data protection in the financial sector.
Professor Kevin Streff, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Information Assurance at Dakota State University; Leigh Williams, BITS President of the Financial Services Roundtable; and Marc Rotenberg, President of Electronic Privacy Information Center, will each provide a testimony.
Until then, check out the following cybersecurity news headlines you may have missed:
Pentagon sharing intelligence on cyber threats (Washington Times)
Dept Defense Secretary Lynn outlines new cybersecurity effort (Dept of Defense)
NSA looks to protect defense contractors from cyber attack (GCN)
Government in cyber fight but can’t keep up (Reuters)
FBI ramping up cyber attack defense (InformationWeek)
US official says terrorists lack Internet skills (AP)
Read more…
Catching Up on Cybersecurity News
Good morning, Cybersecurity News readers! I’m still traveling abroad with limited access to the site, but wanted to pass along some of the cybersecurity headlines you may have missed in my absence. I’ll be back next week and look forward to catching up on all things cyber then. Auf Wiedersehen!
Pentagon says cyber combat is act of war (Wall Street Journal)
Homeland Security releases FISMA compliance metrics (InformationWeek)
String of major cybersecurity breaches builds momentum for government action (The Hill)
White House cyber czar says no new treaty needed to tackle cybersecurity issues (AP)
FERC powers inadequate to handle cyber attack, agency says (Bloomberg)
Phishing scam hits some very important Gmail users (Politico)
With Gratitude, Milestone Hit: Cybersecurity News Turns 1
As the House Judiciary and Oversight committees both take to the cybersecurity debate with hearings on the Hill today, not far away, Cybersecurity News is holding its own little cyber soiree.
With much gratitude, Cybersecurity News marks its first anniversary. Thank you to all subscribers, readers, followers and friends for providing motivation and support, as well as news tips and tweets on the latest technology and security happenings over the past year.
Cheers to future endeavors!
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Obama Administration Pushes for More National, International Cyber Oversight
Cybersecurity strategy is key, or so it seems for the Obama administration, which, over the past week, laid out both national and international plans for cyberspace.
On Thursday, the White House released its much-anticipated ‘Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal,’ calling for IT advancements to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, Federal Government computers and networks, as well as the American people.
Under the draft legislation, provided at the request of several Senate committee chairs, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be called upon to ramp up its cyber efforts, while working with industry to identify threats and vulnerabilities on a multifaceted level.
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Third Time a Charm for Sony?
Sony Corporation continues to take a hit in the media headlines this week, following a series of cyber attacks that brought down its Internet gaming giant, the PlayStation Network, and jeopardized as many as 100 million users’ accounts.
The breach, which was first reported late last month, “resulted from a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack designed to steal personal and credit card information for illegal purposes,” a Sony executive told the Associated Press.
According to reports, the hackers’ first cyber hit on the Sony servers granted them access to roughly 77 million email addresses and credit card data. But the breach didn’t end there.
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‘Stars’ Out for Iran’s Information Systems
Less than a year after reporting that its nuclear program was the target of never-before-seen computer worm Stuxnet, Iran announced this week that its systems had suffered yet another cyber attack.
Continuing to investigate the issue, Iranian security officials are calling the malicious new malware “Stars,” claiming that the worm aimed at efforts of espionage, meanwhile noting that it would take time to determine the virus’ precise purpose.
But the Stars’ attempt at destruction may have been minimal, according to Iran’s Mehr News, which spoke with the director of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization, Gholam-Reza Jalali.
Read more…
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