Booz Allen Study Finds US Environment Fosters Cyber Power

The U.S. and U.K. are leading the ranks for their ability to withstand cyber attacks, Booz Allen Hamilton reported Friday.

Booz Allen sponsored a study developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which assessed 19 of the world’s leading economies. The company reported the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany and Canada are “leading the way into the digital…

Germany’s Cyber Defense Center Goes Live

Germany’s interior minister today announced the opening of a new cybersecurity center to protect the country’s infrastructure from what he said was a growing menace posed by hackers, AFP reports.

“Protecting critical infrastructure is at the core of cybersecurity,” Hans-Peter Friedrich said. “We are forced to admit that…

Report: Inconsistency in Creating Cybersecurity Strategies Common among EU Nations

A new report on network and information security finds that European nations are highly varied in how prepared they are for dealing with cyber crime, network attacks and network resilience, according to the European Network and Information Security Agency.

ENISA’s “Country Reports” features an overview and detailed reports on 30 European nations, with information…

Celeb Hack Prompts FBI Investigation

The FBI has launched a probe to find out who hacked into actress Vanessa Hudgens’ Gmail account, as well as other celebrities’ personal emails, according to media reports.

After breaking into Hudgens’ account, the hacker spread nude photos and videos of the 22-year-old “High School Musical” starlet, according to gossip website TMZ.

Hudgens is reported to be just one of as many as 50 celebrities who have fallen prey to…

Germany Blasted with Cyber Attacks in 2010; Plans Cyber-Defense Center

Germany experienced a significance increase in cyber attacks in 2010, many originating in China, and plans to set up a special center next year to counter the problem, the government said Monday.

“There has been a sharp rise in so-called electronic attacks on the networks of German government…

German Hackers Go Gaga over Stealing Pop Stars’ Music, Photos

Prosecutors allege two German hackers broke into the computers of more than 50 musicians, including Justin Timberlake, Ke$ha and Lady Gaga, in an attempt to steal unreleased songs and issue blackmail threats over intimate photographs, The Telegraph reports.

According to German police, the hackers used Trojans to gain access to the computers of several famous stars. They allegedly downloaded hundreds of music files, credit card details, emails and…

Blackberry Ist Verboten: Germany Advises Ministers Against Smartphone Use

The German government has advised its ministers to avoid using smartphones like Blackberry and iPhones because of “a dramatic increase of attacks against” the government’s networks.

Additionally, a ban on the use of smartphones in several government ministries is also under consideration, Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière…

Das Internet ist Kaputt: German Internet Disrupted

Significant portions of the German Internet were unavailable yesterday for over an hour, following a mistake by the DENIC, which administers the .de domain. According to some reports, all 13.6 million .de domains were impacted by the interruption, though other reports say the number of affected domains was smaller.

Email and websites were disrupted from 1:30 pm to 2:50 pm, German time. The problem was likely occurred when DENIC uploaded…

German Court Wants Civilian Help to Stop Hackers

Internet users in Germany can now be fined up to euro100 ($126) if a third party uses their unprotected network to illegally download data, a German court in Karlsruhe ruled Wednesday. The highest German court has ruled that Internet users need to secure their WLAN connections by installing password protection to keep cyber miscreants from illegally downloading data such…

Germans Warn Not to Use Firefox, Firefox Patches Early

BürgerCERT, the German cybersecurity response team, has issued a warning to Internet users in Germany to avoid using Mozilla Firefox as a browser until a patch is released that fixes a critical vulnerability. Firefox initially planned to patch the problem in its next scheduled release on March 30th.

The flaw was initially discovered by Evgeny Legerov, a security researcher. The zero day vulnerability created a hole that allowed…