House looks to build good cyber hygiene

Members of the House of Representatives have asked security officials with the House to conduct cyber education training for new aides. Daniel Beard, House Chief Administration Officer, recently undertook a six week review prompted by the release of information from the ethics committee. In it, he suggested that security updates should primarily focus on increasing awareness among House staff members of good cyber hygiene.

Beard  said “Changes in security policies…

Iraqi Militants can use Cyber Attacks too

Iraqi insurgents have used existing, readily available technology, to hack into image feeds for US Predator drones, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Using software such as SkyGrabber, available for less than $30 via the internet, Shiite insurgents were able to intercept live video feeds from Predator drones.

While there is no evidence that the insurgents had the capacity to control the drones, the ability…

Hackers Exploit Vulnerabilities to Spread Anti-Semitism

Latin America Media Group officials have reported that their website was hacked by anti-Israel hackers. The hacker, whose signature is ‘Abu Salaman,’ managed to hack into the server of nearly 40 websites and also downed the back up server.

The company is not presently sure how much revenue has been lost, but estimates the damage in the hundreds of thousands. The hacker posted anti-Israel photos and anti-Semitic content…

Acting Cyber Czar Says White House is not Behind in Cyber

The current acting Cyber Security Coordinator at the White House, Chris Painter, recently responded to the growing criticism targeting the White House’s inability to fill the position permanently. At the Federal Chief Information Officers Council’s 2009 Federal Identity Management and Cybersecurity Conference on Tuesday, he said “It’s a mistake to think that without a coordinator we’re not making progress,” according to an article on govinfosecurity.com.

Currently, Painter conducts…

Leading the way in Identity Management

A robust identity management solution is capable of authenticating users without requiring the byzantine collection of logins we all have to access the array of web-based applications, information sites or even access our networks at home. The ‘forgot my login’ feature on every site suggests strongly to us that we are not the only ones that have trouble remembering…

First Federal-State Cyber Partnership

Secretary Janet Napolitano and Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan announced yesterday the launch of the first of its kind federal-state partnership for cyber security. The partnership will deploy the Einstein 1 program across Michigan’s networks to enhance cyber security in the state.

Secretary Napolitano said “This first of its kind federal-state partnership will not only enhance our capabilities to defend Michigan from cyber threats, it will also strengthen…

The Cost of Cloud Computing

2009: The Year of Cyber Crime

This past year the number of cyber attacks, cyber security breaches and internet related crime has risen steadily making e-consumers think twice about online purchases.

According to Symantec in a recent study, 87% of e-mails received in the last year were spam. That number is up ten percent since 2008. Symantec estimates that 40 trillion spam emails…

Cybersecurity Performance Metrics may be coming

The Office of Management and Budget and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have released a draft proposal for new cybersecurity performance metrics. The new metrics focus, among other things, on real time monitoring, combating one of the principle complaints regarding current cybersecurity metrics under FISMA.

Under FISMA, the metrics that agencies reported on dealt more with tangential issues, such as back up plan testing, instead of real-time operational…

Cloud Computing used to crack passwords

In the latest demonstration of the different capabilities of cloud computing, a service known as WPA Cracker, which uses cloud services, was released last week according to an article on Technology Review. For a small fee of $34, you can use the service to break a WiFi Protected Access (WPA) password. The service searches for passwords against over 130 million passwords, taking only about 20 minutes for…