Northrop Grumman Unveils Cyber Security Operations Center

Northrop Grumman announced today that it has built a 6,300 square foot highly-advanced Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC). The Center will detect security breeches and monitor Northrop Grumman and Northrop Grumman client’s network infrastructures.  According to Northrop’s press release, the new facility will monitor and analyze the over 1.5 billion cyber interactions that occur everyday. The Maryland-based facility’s cyber experts will work for over 105,000 clients and 10,000 servers around the…

NASA May Be Prototype For White House Cloud Computing Initiative

The White House may decide to make NASA its pilot project for replacing the government’s current IT infrastructure with cloud computing. According to NASA’s associate chief information officer for architecture and infrastructure, Mike Hecker, NASA officials have ”broached the idea of NASA becoming an IT service provider. NASA as an IT service provider takes us into a new realm.” But also said that, “We’re still debating if that’s a good idea or…

Nuclear Control Centers Are Vulnerable to Cyber Terrorism: Report

A recent report by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) entitled “Hacking Nuclear Command and Control” found that terrorist organizations have the potential to use the Internet and private network infrastructures to stage a nuclear attack. 

“If access to command and control centres is obtained, terrorists could fake or actually cause one nuclear-armed state to attack another, thus provoking a nuclear response from another nuclear power.  This may be an easier alternative for…

Lawmakers Attempt To Save Cybersecurity Air Force Unit

As apart of an annual budget review by the US Air Force, 98 national guard positions in the Air Forces’ highly-classified cyber security division are scheduled to be cut. Yet three lawmakers, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Representative Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.)  have petitioned and are considering inserting an addendum in the 2010 defense spending bill to preserve the  194th Regional Support Wing, scheduled to be eliminated by October 1.

The Camp Murray-based…

Senate Committee Bill Proposes Oversight Of President Cybersecurity Programs

The  Senate Intelligence Committee proposed a bill last week that would require the President to compile more details and more transparency regarding US government cybersecurity plans, funds would be withheld if the executive branch does not comply with the proposed standards. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 requires the president to notify Congress regarding new cyber programs that involve the monitoring of personally identifiable information (PII). If passed, the Senate monitoring bill would stretch…

Where Is President Obama’s Cyber Coordinator?

It has been almost two months since the release of the 60-Day Cyberspace Review and President Obama’s historic speech marking cybersecurity as a “strategic national asset”. Yet the cyber coordinator position remains vacant. Some believe this is because there is no direction as to what the role of the cyber coordinator will be in the new administration. Others argue that no one working at a high-level, highly-lucrative  position would leave…

Emerging Trend: Government Contractor’s Buying Cybersecurity Firms

Since the new administration took office in January of this year, an emerging trend of large government contractors acquiring cybersecurity firms has come to light. In case you missed it, here is a quick recap of top cyber firm acquisitions over the last few months. 

April: Harris Corporation acquires Chantilly, Virginia-based Crucial Security, Inc. Crucial Security Inc. sells offensive and defensive IT solutions.  April: Paradigm Holding’s, Inc. requests merger with Trinity Information Management Services. Trinity IMS…

Private Study Finds Lack Of Cybersecurity Experts In The US: Cyber Jobs Must Be More Lucrative

As it stands today, the United States has a severe shortage of  cybersecurity experts, making the US vulnerable to cyber attacks similar to July 4th incident, according to the “Cyber IN-Security: Strenghtening The Federal Cybersecurity Workforce,” conducted by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and consultant firm Booz Allen Hamilton. 

“The overriding finding of our analysis is that our federal government will be unable to combat these threats without a more coordinated, sustained effort…

Vivek Kundra: Much Room For Improvement In IT Innovation

Vivek Kundra believes America has fallen behind in technological innovation, but that there is hope. At the Open Government and Innovations Conference in Washington D.C. Kundra cited an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation report that listed the United States last out of 36 nations for adapting new technology, according to an InformationWeek report. The study included areas such as immigration policy, number of students graduating from college and the use…

German Businesses Flooded With Cyber Attacks

Germany may soon follow the US and Britain in making cyber security a national priority according to reports. The increase in cyber attacks on German industrial companies has caused Germany to loose billions of dollars just over the last couple years, according to one German intelligent agent.  China has been accused of engaging in these attacks, mostly on German businesses and organizations. An espionage protection expert in the office for counter-intelligence…