• First Cyber Security Challenge winner announced

    The United Kingdom suffers from a dearth of cybersecurity experts; several private and public organizations have launched the Cyber Security Challenge competition — a series of challenges and games that would test the talent and skills of people; the challenges is built around eight key skill areas which include digital forensics, network analysis, and logical thinking

  • ATMs easily compromised by hacker at Black Hat

    A disturbingly high percentage of the world’s automated teller machines (ATMs) are vulnerable to physical and remote attacks that can steal administrative passwords and personal identification numbers, to say nothing of cash

  • New cybersecurity threat: smartphone apps that do more than what they say they do

    A large proportion of applications contain third-party code with the capability to interact with sensitive data in a way that may not be apparent to users or developers; Apple reviews its applications before accepting them into its App Store, but even that is not foolproof when it comes to detecting erroneous or malicious components within apps, which might end up collecting or storing information that has nothing to do with the intended usage case of the app

  • First puzzle of U.K Cyber Security Challenge competition cracked

    The United Kingdom suffers from a dearth of cybersecurity experts; several private and public organizations have launched the Cyber Security Challenge competition — a series of challenges and games that would test the talent and skills of people; the challenges is built around eight key skill areas which include digital forensics, network analysis and logical thinking; enthusiasts claim they have already solved he first test of the challenge

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  • Black Hat opens Wednesday in Las Vegas, DefCon to follow Friday

    Black Hat, one of the more important cybersecurity event, opens this Wednesday in Las Vegas; Black Hat gives way on Friday to DefCon, “Black Hat is a place where security researchers go to show off their work and get peer feedback,” said Jeff Moss, who founded and runs both gatherings; “DefCon is the fun stuff they don’t have time to do in their day jobs”; DefCon’s array of activities includes a lock picking village and a “capture the flag” contest to see who can break into a computer network and fend off rivals

  • New report: Apple software has the most vulnerabilities

    The usual suspects lead the list of software makers whose software come with most vulnerabilities — Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe; new vulnerabilities report offers support to the notion that a high market share correlates with a high number of vulnerabilities

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  • The worst database security breaches in the U.S., U.K.

    On 6 February 2010 AvMed Health Plans announced that personal information of current and former subscribers have been compromised by the theft of two company laptops from its corporate offices in Gainesville, Florida; the information was comprehensive, including Social Security numbers and protected health information; attempts the thwart the theft have been unsuccessful, leaving the identity data of nearly 1,100,000 vulnerable; this is only one of many cases of database breaches — and the number of cases is growing

  • Shortage of cyber workers in the U.S.

    The United States is lacking an adequate number of individuals within the federal government and private sector with the technical skills necessary to secure cyberspace; there is an even greater shortage of cybersecurity experts that can design secure systems and networks, write nonvulnerable computer code and create the tools needed to prevent, detect and mitigate damage due to malicious acts

  • Cybersecurity solution detects cyber attacks as they happen

    A winning entry in a cyber security competition gives analysts a way to look at computer network traffic and determine how a system was penetrated; it also supplies critical data that can be used to reduce system vulnerabilities and limit future attacks

  • Digital retaliation: Turkish hackers steal personal information of 122,000 Israelis

    A month ago Israel stopped several ships, sponsored by a Turkish fundamentalist Islamic organization, which tried to breach the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip; nine Turkish militants were killed after they had attacked Israeli soldiers; Turkish hackers launched a retaliatory attack on Israeli digital databases, stealing the e-mail addresses and credit card and PayPal account information of 122,000 Israelis; the hackers also attacked 2,100 Israeli Web sites; security expert advises affected Israelis to change passwords, and credit cards.

  • Secureworks World Cup of cyber security finds India the safest nation, U.S. the least safe

    Digitally speaking, the United States is the least cyber-secure country in the world: with 265,700,000 active PCs, there were 441,003,516 attempted cyber attacks, or 1,660 attacks per 1,000 computers; India is the safest digital country in the world, with a mere 52 attacks per 1,000 PCs

  • U.K. government slashes police's cybercrime budget by 30 percent

    When on the opposition benches, Tory MP James Brokenshire (Old Bexley & Sidcup) said: “if you don’t prioritize cybercrime you compromise national cyber-security”; he is now a junior Home Office minister, presiding over a 30 percent cut in the cybercrime budget of the U.K. national police; security experts, industry, and academics are not happy

  • Aussies revamp cyberdefense strategy

    The Australian federal government has decided to stop supporting AusCERT in favor of a new computer emergency response team more focused on providing an early warning system for utilities, banks, and other critical infrastructure firms

  • Melissa Hathaway highlights nine important cyber bills

    Congress is getting more and more involved in cyber issues; Melissa Hathaway, former White House cybersecurity official, examines the pending legislation and highlights nine bills — out of the 40-odd bills at various stages in the legislative process — which she considers to be the most important ones to watch

  • ITU for cyber treaty to tackle cyber security problems

    ITU mulls an international cyber treaty to tackle cyber crime; the cyber treaty will have elements including governments being committed to protect cyber security and citizens not harboring terrorists in their own territories