• As demand for cybersecurity professionals grows, shortages are felt

    Federal agencies, contractors, and tech companies compete with each other for cyber security work force; measuring the size of the cyber security sector is difficult, but surveys show demand for technical expertise is skyrocketing; the number of jobs posted on ClearanceJobs.com by companies and recruiters looking for professionals with active federal security clearances has jumped 11 percent to 6,100 openings this year from fewer than 5,500 in the same time period last year; Maryland wants to become U.S. cybersecurity capital

  • U.S. "cyber flank" exposed

    Former head of the CIA and the NSA warns the U.S.“cyber flank” was exposed and it was losing clout to influence rules of war on the Internet; “Our flank is totally exposed,” Michael Hayden said at the Black Hat computer security gathering in Las Vegas, comparing the U.S. tactical position on the Internet to a battle of land troops; “If tomorrow they show up on that flank they are going to roll down.”; the retired general said he was in “absolute awe and wonderment” at the Chinese cyber espionage campaign but that they were certainly not the only nation doing it; he faulted an Internet built on the premise of quickly and freely sharing information for creating an open landscape that gives attackers an edge over defenders

  • Hacker built, and demonstrated, a $1,500 cell-phone tapping device

    Security researcher demonstrated a device, which he built for just $1,500, which can intercept some kinds of cell phone calls and record everything that is said; the attack illustrates weaknesses in GSM, one of the world’s most widely used cellular communications technologies

  • Five hot topics to be discussed at Black Hat and Defcon

    Among the many topics to be discussed at Black Hat, which opens today, and DefCon, which opens Friday, is SCADA networks vulnerability; many of these networks have developed a no man’s land between IT and industrial systems, and these networks’ computers are often at risk because nobody seems to take complete ownership of them; there will be a talk about where bugs show up in the infrastructure; the speaker is Jonathan Pollet, whose company, Red Tiger Security, has collected data on 38,000 vulnerabilities — and the types of exploits that have been written for them

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  • A first: 15 nations agree to start working together on cyber arms control

    A group of nations — including the United States, China, and Russia — have for the first time showed a willingness to engage in reducing the threat of attacks on each others’ computer networks; when the group last met in 2005, they failed to find common ground. This time, by crafting a short text that left out controversial elements, they were able to reach a consensus; the Russians proposed a treaty in 1998 that would have banned the use of cyberspace for military purposes. The United States has not been willing to agree to that proposal, given that the difficulty in attributing attacks makes it hard to monitor compliance

  • NSA: Perfect Citizen program is purely "research and engineering effort"

    Perfect Citizen, a new National Security Agency (NSA) project, would deploy sensors in networks running critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants; the sensors would detect intrusion and other unusual activity indicating a cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure; NSA spokeswoman says the program is “purely a vulnerabilities-assessment and capabilities-development contract—- This is a research and engineering effort” and “There is no monitoring activity involved, and no sensors are employed in this endeavor”

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  • U.S. Naval Academy to launch cyber security center

    The building and labs would cost $100 million, with work beginning in 2014; a Baltimore lawmaker who also is chairman of a House subcommittee that deals with technical and tactical intelligence says: “The future of war fighting is cyber security… We [the United States] have been cyber-attacked on a regular basis; our future leaders need to understand cyber security”

  • Bill would give the president emergency power to critical networks under attack

    New bill would give the president emergency powers to protect critical private networks under attack; the president could order a patch or tell a cyber network to stop receiving incoming data from a particular country when critical infrastructure in the private sector such as the electrical grid or financial grid is threatened or attacked; the bill’s sponsors insisted it does not allow the government to take control of any private cyber-network

  • Obama's 29 May 2009 cybersecurity speech: a year on

    On 29 May 2009 president Obama said “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity”; since then the United States has moved systematically toward enhancing cybersecurity through the following initiatives, but much remains to be done

  • Commander of U.S. Cyber Command calls for cyber rules of engagement

    Commander of the newly created U.S. Cyber Command says there need to be two sets of rules of cyber engagement — one to cover peacetime situations and another for war; General Keith Alexander said the issue is complicated by the possibility that an adversary may use a neutral country’s computers to launch the attack

  • U.S. Cyber Command launched

    The United States launches a new military command — the U.S. Cyber Command — and Army General Keith Alexander receives a fourth star and will serve as CyberCom’s first commander; the mission of CyberCom is to synchronize the Defense Department’s various networks and cyberspace operations to better defend them against the onslaught of cyberattacks

  • CIA bolstering cyber war capabilities

    The CIA is increasing its cybersecurity budget by tens of million of dollars; investments in technology focused on defensive systems to prevent cyber threats, as well as offensive capabilities to launch cyber attacks and collect cyber intelligence

  • U.S. Air Force shifts 30,000 troops to "cyberwar front lines"

    The USAF has assigned 30,000 to cyberwarfare specialties; 3,000 will become cyberspace officers; Brigadier David Cotton, director of cyberspace transformation, says about the new specialty: “It’s not just spray paint, it’s a new mindset”

  • Commercial networks are now victims of targeted cyberattacks

    State-sponsored groups with deep technical skills and computing resources have long been directing targeted cyberattacks at government organizations and military targets; the Chinese intelligence services’ cyberattacks on Google are but the latest indication that cybercrooks are expanding their horizons and start aiming targeted attacks at commercial networks

  • To avoid cyberwar and protect infrastructure -- fight cybercrime first

    Fighting cybercrime is the first step to avoiding cyberwar, protecting infrastructure; Christopher Painter, the White House’s senior director for cybersecurity: “There are a couple of things we need to do to harden [critical infrastructure] targets” — “But the other thing you need to do is reduce the threat. And the predominant threat we face is the criminal threat — the cybercrime threat in all of its varied aspects”