Dale Meyerrose on What Cyber Command Means for Government Contracting

Last week, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander was confirmed as the head of U.S. Cyber Command, which will be responsible for protecting Department of Defense networks. Alexander, who was nominated back in October 2009, was confirmed by the Senate on May 11.

“I think that Gen. Alexander is a great choice to be the…

Security Flaws Cheap to Purchase

The vast majority of flaws are sold for $5,000 or less, according to a recent survey  posted by Unsecurity Research. The survey examined the trustworthiness and responsiveness for organizations that buy vulnerabilities. TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative is the highest rated by researchers as the most trustworthy, making the buyer of choice.

The survey asked researchers that have sold vulnerabilities to private and public buyers to rate the buyers…

Committee Approves Cybersecurity Overhaul Bill

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a bill that would overhaul the current federal cybersecurity laws. The bill will provide for continuous network monitoring, create permanent positions for federal CTO and Cyber Coordinator and remove the paper work driven compliance system.

“This has truly been a bipartisan effort. This is a very good bill,” said…

USBs Infected with Malware Distributed at Conference

At the recent AusCERT conference, attendees who stopped by the booth of one particular vendor received USB drives that were pre-infected with malware.

During the conference in Queensland, delegates were given free USB drives at one of the booths. The drives were infected with malware that has been known since 2008 and is detected by most anti-virus machines.

“The malware is known by a number of names and is contained in…

Featured Job- Cyber Threat Analyst with Raytheon

NGA is looking for a highly motivated, qualified professional to fill a Cyber Threat Analyst position in Reston to:

Provide support to the NGA IRT in the detection, response, mitigation, and reporting of cyber threats affecting client networks

Maintain an understanding of the current vulnerabilities, response, and mitigation strategies used in cyber security operations

Produce reports and briefs to provide an accurate depiction of the current…

Schmidt Wants to Change Federal Cybersecurity Game

Yesterday, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt and federal CTO Aneesh Chopra wrote a blog post about the launch of a web forum that is designed to allow individuals to discuss their research and development ideas to “change the game” in cybersecurity.

The web forum looks to promote information exchange on…

Bank of America Names Greg Garcia Partnership Executive for Cyber and ID Management

Bank of America has announced that Gregory T. Garcia, formerly assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) in the Department of Homeland Security, has been named partnership executive for cybersecurity and identity management.

In this position, Garcia will be responsible for leading the bank’s relationships with private and public…

Symantec to Acquire VeriSign for $1.3 Billion

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) has announced that it plans to acquire VeriSign for around $1.3 billion. Symantec will acquire VeriSign’s authentication and identity business.

That includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service.

“With the anonymity…

Over 80 Chinese Government Websites Hacked

In China, 81 government websites were hacked from May 10 to May 16, according to a report by National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team. This represents a drop in attacks by 35 percent from the previous week.

As of noon on Monday, May 17, at least 29 of the websites were still down. In China, a number of threats are exploited by malware and unpatched systems. China…

Featured Job- Cyber Warfare Expert with Northrop Grumman

The Advanced Technology and Solutions (ATS) Operating Unit of Defense Systems Division is seeking a Program Manager – Cyber Warfare Expert (CWE). In this position, the CWE will: Be responsible for establishing a multi-year Cyber strategy for ATS. This strategy will establish an actionable plan for growing ATS’s customer sales with Cyber-Security customers, primarily DoD customers. Be responsible for establishing a…