• World Cup security uses quantum encryption to thwart hackers

    Scientists in South Africa are helping the organizers of the World Cup by tapping the laws of physics to prevent hackers from monitoring videos, e-mails, and phone calls relayed between Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium and a nearby operations center for police, firefighters, and military personnel

  • "Zero knowledge" keeps secrets you put on the net safe

    Intrigued by topics that touch on mathematics, computer science, physics and neuroscience, Professor Shafrira Goldwasser has made far-reaching contributions to keeping your data safe on-line; the solution she discovered used randomized methods of encoding, which came to underlie all future protocols for secure Internet transactions and data privacy

  • Web services could work with sensitive data -- without decrypting the data

    A cryptographic method could allow cloud services to work with sensitive data without ever decrypting it; a novel technique could see future Web services work with sensitive data without ever being able to read it; several implementations of a mathematical proof unveiled last year will allow cryptographers to start making the proposal more practical.

  • 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

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  • 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

  • IG: computer systems connected to DHS network are not secure

    DHS IG reports that DHS has failed to validate the security of computer systems that connect to the primary network, introducing vulnerabilities and putting sensitive information at risk; specifically, the IG detected vulnerabilities in systems connecting to the main department network from Customs and Border Control (CBP); Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), including missing security patches, weak passwords, and a lack of access controls that prevent unauthorized users from opening sensitive applications

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  • 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

  • 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

  • 21st Century Technologies acquires D.C.-area cyber-security firm

    21st Century Technology (21CT), a developer of advanced intelligence analytics software to combat terrorist threats and cyber threats, acquires a specialist in defenses against network intrusions

  • Lookingglass named finalist for Best Cyber Security Company

    Lookingglass Cyber Solutions’s ScoutVision allows corporations to monitor networks and infrastructure they are not in control of, but rely upon for day-to-day operations; the company is finalist in Maryland Incubator of the Year Awards program

  • Agency wants data on enterprise cyber forensics system products

    TSA solicits information about commercially available computer security forensics technologies it could use for information technology security; TSA is interested in products that would give the agency the ability to scan, capture, identify, report, and resolve IT forensics matters

  • DHS considers merging infrastructure protection, cybersecurity units

    The connectedness between the U.S. critical infrastructure assets and the Internet steadily increases, so the missions of DHS’s infrastructure protection and cybersecurity units become more intertwined as well; the department considers merging the two units

  • 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

  • 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