After years of the public and private sectors having listened to the nearly constant cyber threat warnings issued by military and government officials, as well as industry experts, over the past few years, addressing the threats posed to our systems by cyber attacks is now appropriately considered as a work-in-process.
There are some signs that the private sector might be moving to address the new heightened level of cyber security threats, however. Keep reading →
The explosion of mobile devices and technologies can be overwhelming to many organizations, especially federal agencies concerned with saving money through increased efficiency while maintaining network security.
A newly released desktop virtualization system focused on the government sector seeks to resolve these issues by providing a scalable, secure, end-to-end capability that can allow organizations to manage a variety of devices across networks. Keep reading →
Computer monitoring software maker SpectorSoft is gaining sudden attention among federal workers after a Washington Post article identified the Vero Bearch, Fla. company for its role in aiding Food and Drug Administration officials to intercept screen shots, emails, key strokes, and other communications from scientists working at the FDA.
Concerned about unauthorized disclosures in the wake of the WikiLeaks scandal, FDA officials reportedly installed the monitoring software on the laptop computers of an undisclosed number of FDA scientists. Keep reading →
The head of Iran’s Presidential Center for International Legal Affairs has announced that Iran plans to bring legal action against those that launched cyber attacks against their uranium enrichment equipment in a move that promises to raise the stakes for the U.S. cybersecurity policy officials.
Majid Jafarzadeh made the announcement this week after consulting Iranian and foreign legal experts, saying Iran has decided to file a lawsuit against the “cyber terrorists” who have attacked the country’s nuclear enrichment infrastructure. Keep reading →
Underground movements are not uncommon, but the apparent ground swell that has taken place in the cyber underground has caught the attention of traditional and cyber intelligence organizations around the world.
Call them covert, clandestine, black-market – whatever title you choose to put on these activities – the fact remains there is a growing community of underground groups and individuals with diverse missions and objectives. These groups develop and acquire sophisticated cyber weapons that are used in highly targeted attacks against their enemies. Keep reading →
The proliferation of mobile devices and applications is creating unique communication network challenges for federal government institutions. With the surge of new smartphones and multimedia devices, CIOs and CTOs are dealing with growing demands by employees to deliver improved productivity and efficiency that mobile networks are continuing to provide.
The resulting task is monumental and multifaceted, including managing smartphones and other mobile devices, ensuring multi-carrier support, setting security parameters and prioritizing access control for all the mobile devices on their networks. Keep reading →
Few people would dispute that the United States is in the cross-hairs when it comes to cyber attacks. After all, the U.S. is the country that is the most dependent on the Internet as a component of our critical infrastructure.
Cyber attacks on our critical infrastructure have evolved over the years and pose a substantial threat that should concern everyone. Keep reading →
The U.S. government is doing a decent job sharing information among federal agencies and international partners, but the relationship with private industry still needs work, according to a recent report to Congress.
The Program Manager Information Sharing Environment annual report for 2012 noted that
law enforcement inter agency groups are doing particularly well at sharing information. They’re doing so through the state and major urban area “fusion centers, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative and the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group.” Keep reading →
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 →
Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) have filed a bipartisan amendment to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 to conserve energy, save taxpayer dollars and reduce government waste by requiring federal agencies to shut down needlessly duplicative federal data centers.
Agencies have been instructed to develop consolidation plans under the administration’s Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), which would save over $2 billion according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). However, a number of agencies have been slow to begin to implement the plans – or, in some cases, to even take stock of the total number of centers they currently manage. The proposed amendment to the cybersecurity bill seeks to remedy that. Keep reading →