• Schmidt: private sector key to warding off cyber attacks

    White House cybersecurity coordinator says the private sector is where the best defense against cyberattacks and cyber warfare can be mounted; the government can do a lot to improve U.S. cyber defenses, but the key to warding off attacks remains private-sector vigilance; one major technology Web site agrees: “This is a battle every IT security professional must fight from the foxholes”

  • Federal IT professionals: Cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure looming

    More than half of federal IT professionals surveyed believe the potential is “high” for a cyberattack from a foreign nation against critical IT infrastructure in the next year; moreover, 42 percent of them think the U.S. government’s ability to prevent or handle such an attack is merely fair to poor.

  • Former DNI: If U.S. went to war today in a cyberwar, it would lose

    Former director of national intelligence Michael McConnell compared the danger of cyberwar to the nuclear threat posed by the Soviet Union during the cold war; “If we went to war today in a cyberwar, we would lose,” McConnell said

  • Critical infrastructure executives fear China

    Operators of electrical grids, telecommunications networks, and other critical infrastructure say their systems are under constant cyber attack; more than 54 percent of the respondents said their critical systems have already suffered large-scale attacks or stealthy infiltrations

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  • Obama to name Howard Schmidt as cybersecurity coordinator

    Howard Schmidt chosen as the White House cybersecurity coordinator; Schmidt, a former Bush White House official, will coordinate cybersecurity policy across the federal government, from the military to civilian agencies; questions remain as to whether his authority will be commensurate with the responsibilities he assumes

  • US, Russia begin talks on cyberspace security

    U.S. officials say the Obama administration realized that more nations were developing cyberweapons and that a new approach was needed to blunt an international arms race; the United States also hope to enlist the Russians in the war against cybercrime

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  • Industry, academia join hands to solve U.S. most pressing cyber threats

    Northrop Grumman forms cybersecurity research consortium to help secure the U.S. critical infrastructure and counter growing threats; consortium’s members include MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Purdue

  • CERT Australia promotes on network security

    Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department national security resiliency division says CERT Australia would be a two-way clearing house for notifications from local and international authorities, with responsibility for tracking down compromised machines in Australian domains

  • Top 10 information security trends for 2010

    Further adoption of cloud, social media, and virtualization technologies will continue to blur the network parameter; organizations — large and small — should consider a layered, centralized security solution that provides multiple security touch points within the network, rather than around it

  • New report: The line between cybercrime and cyberwar is blurred

    New McAffee cybersecurity report: “International cyber conflict has reached the tipping point where it is no longer just a theory, but a significant threat that nations are already wrestling with behind closed doors. The impact of a cyberwar is almost certain to extend far beyond military networks and touch the globally connected information and communications technology infrastructure upon which so many facets of modern society rely”

  • U.S. Army funds a new discipline: Network Science

    The U.S. Army gives Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York State $16.75 million to launch the Center for Social and Cognitive Networks; the new center will link together top social scientists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists with leading physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the search to uncover, model, understand, and foresee the complex social interactions that take place in today’s society

  • U.S. suspects terrorists are exploring counter-infrastructure cyber attacks

    A lack of security protections in U.S. computer software increases the likelihood that terrorists could execute sophisticated counter-infrastructure attacks in the future; DHS official says that if terrorists were to amass such capabilities, they would be wielded with “destructive and deadly intent”