cybersecurity

In Praise Of The SAFE Data Act Bill

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COMMENTARY:
Despite what seems to be a political deadlock and an endless election cycle, some folks in Washington are indeed trying to accomplish a few items – and potentially for the better as it pertains to concerns about cybersecurity.

Data breaches ranging from Stuxnet to PlayStation have reached most constituents and even their living rooms in some cases. This rash of high level and public data breaches has helped Congress move forward the SAFE Data Act. The proposed bill would establish security and data breach notification standards for organizations that collect private information from consumers and deserves more than casual attention. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 2, 2011 at 7:56 AM

Cyber Intelligence: Cyber Attack Mitigation – Rapid Intervention Teams

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The level of threat from cyber attacks has been the subject of controversy for years. However, just recently, multiple officials who are in the know have publically stated that the threat posed by cyber attacks is very real and went on to state that such an attack could potentially be not that far away.

In my most recent blogs, I made the distinction that cyber attacks are much more serious than cyber threats. If someone puts a piece of code on your system that exfiltrates data or information, disrupts, destroys or otherwise harms your computer, device, network, applications or data–that would be considered an attack. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 1, 2011 at 11:04 AM

Feeding Frenzy: The Problem with Federal Cybersecurity

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As a person who works with both the federal government and private industry, I’m lucky to be able to see the recent focus on federal cybersecurity not only from the perspective of lawmakers and agencies, but also from the outside looking in. Unfortunately, the view from both perspectives isn’t very pretty. Throughout the lifecycle of federally-mandated cybersecurity, there is inconsistency, overlap, and contradiction across the spectrum, from legislation, to implementation, to awareness and communication.

The federal government clearly wants to lead by example in cybersecurity; but a leader without direction, focus or communication skills is no leader at all.” Keep reading →

 /  Published October 19, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Information Security Leaders Saluted For Federal Work

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Behind the IT systems that support civilian and defense agencies are a corps of administrators and information security specialists charged with operating those systems securely.

And behind them are organizations that help train and certify them and, as one organization did last night, recognize their efforts. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 19, 2011 at 9:46 AM

To Converge Or Not To Converge? That Is The Question

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Throughout my years in government, I engaged in many discussions regarding the convergence of information and physical security assets. While the “why-fix-it-if-it-ain’t-broke?” argument advocating the effectiveness of maintaining the separation of logical and physical security still stands strong in some circles, there is no doubt that convergence has become a growing fad.

At (ISC)2, we often poll our members on topics that represent a potential impact on the information security profession. Just prior to our recent (ISC)2 Security Congress, co-located with ASIS International’s 57th Annual Conference & Exhibits,we took the opportunity to poll our members on the integration of traditional and information security and discovered that many hold to the belief that information security and physical security should not be separate but equal and complimentary entities. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 14, 2011 at 7:54 AM

International Effort to Stop China’s Acts of Cyber Espionage

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COMMENTARY: The history of espionage activities, both for and against the United States goes back to early formative stages of the country. The tools and techniques associated with the tradecraft of spying have changed over time and kept up with modern society.

Today, China’s espionage activities/targets go far beyond government and military targets and now include leading private sector technology companies. Acts of espionage that have been attributed to China are said to have reached new “intolerable levels”. Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that “Beijing is waging a massive trade war on us all, and we should band together to pressure them to stop.” He went on to pretty much DEMAND the FBI provide answers! Keep reading →

 /  Published October 10, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Obama Issues ‘WikiLeaks’ Order To Better Safeguard Information

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The White House has issued an executive order today aimed at improving the security of classified networks and preventing the release of documents to organizations such as WikiLeaks that have compromised classified and delicate intelligence information.

The so-called “WikiLeaks Order“ issued by President Obama on Friday emphasizes the need for structural reforms by making agencies primarily responsible for the information they obtain and share. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 7, 2011 at 1:39 PM

House GOP Task Force Issues Cybersecurity ‘Blueprint’; Favors Private Sector Incentives

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A group of 12 Republican lawmakers issued a detailed set of recommendations Wednesday on how the federal government should work with private sector owners and operators of the nation’s critical infrastructures to enhance cybersecurity.

The long-awaited 20-page report by the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, led by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX, pictured center above), strikes a similar chord to plans currently being worked on by Senate Democrats and the Obama administration but takes a significantly different philosophical approach, calling for limits on federal regulations, tax credits for companies that improve cybersecurity and a third-party, private-sector run “clearing house” of real-time information on cyber threats. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 6, 2011 at 2:23 PM

Congressional Caucus Launches Task Force To Raise Awareness Of Cloud Computing

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The U.S. Congressional High Tech Caucus today announced it is launching a new task force to focus congressional attention on cloud computing issues.

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), speaking on behalf of the High Tech Caucus at a congressional briefing, said the task force was being formed “to focus on cloud computing policies, initiatives and to work with stakeholders in the future.” Keep reading →

 /  Published September 21, 2011 at 3:28 PM

Shopping for Destruction: Minimizing the Threat of Online App Stores

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After five-plus years of smartphones saturating the market, it’s become clear that mobile device applications are an unqualified phenomenon, and a boon to application developers and app store vendors.

Apple recently reported that it is currently selling more than 1 billion mobile apps every month from the Apple Store; that’s an average rate of 23,148 apps per minute! The number of available apps is also increasing at an almost exponential rate. As the Apple marketing campaign goes, “there’s an app for that”, and not just on Apple’s app store: Google’s Andriod Marketplace, Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace for Mobile, RIM’s Blackberry App World, Symbian’s Horizon, and many others provide instant, downloadable applications and content that range from absolutely free, to thousands of dollars. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 21, 2011 at 7:00 AM
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