Contractors Fuel, Provide Personnel for US’ Worldwide Proliferation of Drones, Bases

More civilian contractors are working directly with the U.S. military and CIA to gather intelligence and execute offensive strikes as the U.S. continues to expand the number of drones it operates around the world.

Many of these contractors are helping drive the U.S.’ demand for their personnel by rapidly evolving drone technologies and capabilities, working in tandem with the U.S. to develop a global network…

MarkLogic Intos New Social Media Channels at Gov’t Summit

MarkLogic recently held its annual Government Summit, included more than 350 government and industry decision maker attendees who explored big data solutions.

Amidst panels and discussions was the official launch of the MarkLogic Public Sector Twitter handle, @MarkLogicPubSec and the MarkLogic Public Sector Facebook page.

“This year’s MarkLogic Government Summit gave public…

CIA Tech Chief Says Cloud More Secure Than Traditional Approach

Cloud computing may be more secure than the traditional client-server approach, the CIA’s chief technology officer said Tuesday.

During an Amazon Web Services conference in Washington, Gus Hunt said the cloud provides the ability to reimage or remove all software from one server and get it all up and running quickly on another server in the cloud. That makes…

Charles Phalen, Jr. Appointed VP of Northrop Grumman Corporate and Enterprise Shared Services Industrial Security

Northrop Grumman Corporation has appointed Charles S. Phalen, Jr. vice president, Corporate and Enterprise Shared Services Industrial Security, effective immediately.

According to Northrop Grumman, Phalen will report to Gloria Flach, corporate vice president and president, Enterprise Shared Services. He is replacing Ed Halibozek who retired from the company.

“I am pleased to welcome Charles Phalen to the Northrop Grumman…

Former CIA Official: ‘Cyber Will Be Key Component of Any Future Conflict’

Cyber war is an imminent threat, the former director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center Cofer Black said yesterday during his keynote speech at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas.

The counterterrorism official who raised the alarm that a major terrorist attack was coming before 9/11 warned conference attendees of the parallels he…

DHS Warns of Potential Attacks by Anonymous, LulzSec

In light of recent cyber attacks against government agencies and affiliations, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement warning organizations to keep alert for potential cyber attacks from hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The bulletin, which was released by DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, aims to provide accurate situational awareness for federal organizations’ leaders…

Majority of Americans Aware of Cyber Threats to National Security

According to a recent poll, more than half of Americans believe the United States should authorize cyber attacks against other countries when necessary.

60 Minutes and Vanity Fair questioned 1,045 Americans for their August poll and found not only was the majority aware of the current extent of cyber warfare, but it also…

Sega Hack Impacts 1.3 Million Customers

Japanese video game maker Sega has become the latest victim of ubiquitous cyber attacks in which information belonging to 1.3 million customers was swiped, Reuters reports.

In a statement released Sunday, Sega said names, birth dates, email addresses and encrypted passwords of Sega Pass online network members had been compromised; credit card numbers appear to be safe.

The attack on Sega follows other recent significant web assaults…

CIA Website Hacked; LulzSec Claims Responsibility

The public website of the CIA went down yesterday evening as hacker group Lulz Security announced on Twitter it had launched an attack, Reuters reports.

The site initially could not be accessed from multiple locations around the world, and service continued to be sporadic later in the evening.

LulzSec, which promises “high-quality entertainment at your expense,” has recently gone on a hacking spree, defacing websites, posting…

Spy Chief: Digital Pearl Harbor Could Happen

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told a U.S. House panel Thursday cybersecurity is the international “battleground of the future,” echoing FBI head Robert S. Mueller‘s concerns about cybersecurity being a growing problem.

Appearing before the House intelligence committee, which was holding a hearing on worldwide threats, Panetta said he does…