cyber defense


Just recently, nCircle conducted a survey of 181 IT security professionals at Blackhat’s annual conference.

That survey found that 36 percent of those surveyed admitted to returning cyber fire. That is out-right retaliatory hacking! But that should not be a surprise to anyone involved in this area. Keep reading →

Arguably the hottest topic in cyber intelligence is the highly contested Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that is currently making its way through the legislative process in the United States.

Major Internet icons like Facebook, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle, to name a few, have come out in support of the bill and now find themselves under fire for that position. Keep reading →

The implications of cyber attacks are getting more and more attention as of late and for good reason. Last week at the Government Security Conference, Gordon Snow the assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division added to the many reasons for concern.

In his comments Snow acknowledged concerns over cyber attacks that target the E-911 systems and the entire emergency first responder infrastructure. While these potential targets have been a concern for years, recent concerns about multi-modal cyber attack by terrorist have heightened concerns. Keep reading →

Cyber Sit-ins, cyber protests and other forms of demonstration have grown year after year and are now considered formidable method of protests.

How to respond to those new forms of protests, amid other cybersecurity threats, has become a challenge around the world for government elections, politicians, corporations, law enforcement organizations all of which have experienced the wrath of those who oppose their actions. Keep reading →

Earlier this year Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would establish a Supreme Council of Cyberspace. This was the latest action intended to strengthen Iran’s cyber power and defend the country against cyber attacks.

Sources inside of Iran have said that the council will be comprised of high-ranking Iranian officials such as the Iran’s Parliament speaker, Judiciary chief, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, and ministers of Communication and Information Technology, Culture and Islamic Guidance and Intelligence. Keep reading →

Acts of cyber aggression on governments and businesses are now considered a top risk globally. Earlier this year the World Economic Forum (WEF) released their 2012 report on Global Risks. That report looked at fifty areas of risk across specific domains such as the economy, the environment, geopolitics, society and technology.

Five of the top ten risks, however, were closely if not directly related to the cyber domain and cybersecurity concerns. Among them: Keep reading →

The demise of an industry icon, Nortel Networks, as the evidence has now made clear, was the result of a cyber attack. Who could forget Nortel Networks’s place in the technology landscape? While the company is gone, their equipment is still in operations throughout the world.

In an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, it was reported that hackers had roamed freely inside Nortel’s vast corporate network for over a decade and contributed to the company going bankrupt in 2009.

Indications are that the attacker’s traffic was traced back to China. This came as a result of countless hours poring over log files until the investigators found the needle in the haystack.

According to Brian Shields, a long time Nortel employee and the point person on the investigation, the cyber espionage activities resulted in the exfiltration of technical papers, R&D documents, business plans, emails and other documents. They had full access to very sensitive information about the technology and plans of the company.

For years now, U.S. intelligence organizations and subject matter experts have warned of the vast array of clandestine cyber espionage activities of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). While some of these activities are the result of organizations in the private sector, the government is often cited as the sources of the acts of espionage. Naturally, the Chinese government has denied these allegations. Keep reading →

Countries around the world have awoken to the risks of cyber attacks on their systems launched by criminals, hacktivists, terrorists and rogue nation states.

As of January 2012, we found twenty-two countries have established cyber defense centers in an effort to enhance both their offense, defensive and cyber intelligence capabilities. Keep reading →

It is hard not to notice the increase in activity and public information about cyber threats that has been in the media lately.

That concern was borne out by testimony during a Feb. 2 hearing in which the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Rogers of Michigan, warned of the severe consequences of a cyber attack on the United States. Keep reading →

Two separate but related events took place in recent days that individually were important moments in the rapid evolution of the cyber threat domain. When you combine these two events, clearly you can see their significance.

Both events serve as strong indicators of the concern over cyber attacks, as well as a barometer for the current state of digital conflict. Keep reading →

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