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Debate over data security breach insurance continues
With more and more stories about data security breaches at major companies with millions of customers, the question arises: Should companies, as part of their business continuity plan, take out data security breach insurance? Industry insiders, analysts offer a range of opinions
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VigilancePro from OpticVision
VigilancePro offers organizations protection from both internal and external threats; this endpoint security solution allows organizations to set their security and alert policies; it integrates with existing security systems; and it connects physical and digital security to fill the gaps in existing IT security infrastructures
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TeleContinuity granted Type II carrier license in Japan
Japan is earthquake prone, so Japanese companies and organizations are especially interested in business continuity and disaster recovery solutions; one innovative communication continuity solution comes from TeleContinuity, and the prediction here is that the Type II carrier license, and a good distribution agreement with ECOSS Japan, would make the company’s products a success in the not-always-easy-to-penetrate Japanese market
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Advanced software identifies complex cyber network attacks
By their very nature networks are highly interdependent and each machine’s overall susceptibility to attack depends on the vulnerabilities of the other machines in the network; new software allows IT managers to address this problem
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More than 4 million credit, debit cards exposed in security breach
Supermarket chain Hannaford Bros., with 270 stores nationwide, says that a security breach in its system exposed 4.2 million credit and debit cards; 1,800 cases of fraudulent use already detected
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Serious RFID vulnerability discovered
A group of a Dutch university’s digital security researchers discovers a major security flaw in a popular RFID tag; discovery can have serious commercial and national security implications; as important as the discovery itself was how the researchers handled the situation
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MI5 seeks powers to trawl records in new terror hunt
As part of the Brown government’s new counterterrorism strategy, which places emphasis on thwarting a cyber-attack on the United Kingdom, MI5 seeks total access to commuters’ travel records to help them meet the threat
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Age-old communication problem solved using quantum entanglement
One of the major problems in communication is known as the Byzantine agreement: Messages between three different parties are subject to faulty information; researchers succeeded in overcoming the qutrit difficulties by setting up a system that creates four-qubit entangled states
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Economic barriers to better IT security
In the real world, investment in risk avoidance may not be profitable; establishing economic incentives for IT suppliers to produce more secure products is a major problem because software publishers are not held liable for the shortcomings of their products; a new paper examines this conundrum
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U.S. officials: "Cyber Warfare Is Already Here"
U.S. officials say China, Russia, and possibly other nation-states are capable of collecting or exploiting data held on U.S. information systems; Director of National Intelligence says especially worrisome is the ability of other countries to destroy data in the system: “And the destroying data could be something like money supply, electric power distribution, transportation sequencing and that sort of thing”
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New consortium to develop safety critical software
High Integrity and Safety Critical Software (HI&SCS) is “the critical enabling technology” (U.K. Ministry of Defense’s words) for modern defense platforms, network enabled capability, and complex infrastructure; York University to lead a industry-academia consortium to develop such software; consortium will emulate the U.S. Software Engineering Institute
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Breakthrough: Transcribing entanglement into and out of quantum memory
Caltech researchers demonstrate for the first time an important capability required for the control of quantum information and quantum networks: Coherent conversion of photonic entanglement into and out of separated quantum memories
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U.S., U.K. military secrets e-mailed to factory hand
English factory hand bought a domain name which resembled the domain name of neighboring RAF base; for the last few years he has been receiving thousands of classified and highly sensitive e-mails from the U.S. Air Force — including the flight plan of Air Force One during President Bush’s visit to the U.K.; efforts to have the RAF or USAF address the problem failed; domain finally shut down last week
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U.K. government lost more than 1,000 laptops in recent years
The worries about how the U.K. government protects sensitive data continue: A report to parliament admits that the government has lost or had stolen more than 1,000 laptops in recent years
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iRobot brings robotic WLAN to urban battlefield
Everything you want a robot to be: Portable, small, inexpensive, intelligent, and robust; iRobot will develop robots to serve as relay node for urban battle-field WLAN
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The long view
U.S. contemplates responses to a cyber-Pearl Harbor attack on critical infrastructure
Cybersecurity experts often contemplate how U.S. security agencies would react to a cyber-9/11 or a digital Pearl Harbor, in which a computer attack would unplug the power grid, disable communications lines, empty bank accounts, and result in loss of life. “Ultimately, it absolutely could happen,” says one expert. “Yeah, that thought keeps me up at night, in terms of what portion of our critical infrastructure could be really brought to its knees.”
To bolster the world’s inadequate cyber governance framework, a “Cyber WHO” is needed
A new report on cyber governance commissioned by Zurich Insurance Group highlights challenges to digital security and identifies new opportunities for business. It calls for the establishment of guiding principles to build resilience and the establishment of supranational governance bodies such as a Cyber Stability Board and a “Cyber WHO.”
U.S. adopts a more assertive cyber defense posture
Recent cyberattacks and intrusions by hackers, operating alone or backed by nation-states, have prompted the Pentagon and DHS to reaffirm their commitment to upholding the reliability and integrity of America’s cyber network and the systems connected to it. Americans rely on the connected Web to deliver critical services such as water and electricity, and should the Web be breached by bad actors, the consequences could threaten national security. “If we look at cyberspace as a hostile environment and there are bad people out there who want to do bad things to us, it may cause a wholesale re-examination of the way we build our systems in the first place,” noted one expert.