Sameer Bhalotra to Back Up Howard Schmidt?

There have been some whispers in the capital that White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt will shortly name Sameer Bhalotra as deputy cybersecurity coordinator. Bhalotra is the senior cybersecurity staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and has held the position since 2007.

A report by Adam Ross of the SANS Institute…

Bill Looks to Hit at Cyber Crime Havens

A bill introduced in the Senate yesterday calls for countries that fail to crack down on cyber criminals within their borders would lose U.S. resources and financial assistance. The bill, the International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act, would require the President to select “countries of cyber concern” and then make plans to help them combat cyber crime.

Any country on…

Congress Slammed with Cyber Attacks

The number of cyber attacks against Congress and governmental agencies has grown into the billions in the last year. In the start of 2008, attacks including worms, Trojan horses and spybots only numbered 8 million per month. That number now stands at 1.8 billion attacks per month, according to Senate Sergeant at Arms, Terrance Gainer.  Due to the increase in threats, Gainer asked Chairman Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to allocate…

Cyber Problems Will Remain, Says Northrop Grumman’s Bob Brammer

As troubling news emerges about America not being ready for a potential cyber war, more companies are becoming acutely aware of the importance of preparing for web-based attacks.

“If we went to war today in a cyber war, we would lose,” said former Director of National Security and National Intelligence Michael McConnell during…

We Would Lose Cyberwar says former DNI Mike McConnell

Cyberwar is increasingly entering into the mindset of policy makers. Earlier this month, DNI Dennis Blair outlined the cyber threat in his Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, saying that “The United States confronts a dangerous combination of known and unknown vulnerabilities, strong and rapidly expanding adversary capabilities, and…

Learn to Hack on the Government’s Dime

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 4061, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, which is the first major cybersecurity legislation to pass the House within the past year. The bill provides increased guidance for the role of NIST and NSF, looks to promote education and awareness efforts, coordinate R&D in the cyber realm and seeks to build…

House Passes Cybersecurity Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the first cybersecurity bill, 422 to 5.

The bill, HR 4061, known as the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, will now be sent to the Senate for approval.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (D, IL), the sponsor of the bill, said:

“The amount of time all of us spend on the Internet, the vulnerabilities that are out there,…

Muddling Responsibilities? Senate Committee Announces Cybersecurity Task Force

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence announced yesterday the formation of a bipartisan task force for cybersecurity. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse will serve as the chair and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Barbara Mikulski will serve as members of the task force.

The task force will evaluate the current cybersecurity threats facing the United States and will make recommendations as needed to the Intelligence Community. The task force’s work will be completed…

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…

International Cooperation Cyber Bill Propsed By Senate

The Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) and Senator Snowe (R-ME) Cybersecurity Act of 2009 has yet to be passed and there is still the questioning of the president’s unchecked power to ”declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network.” 

However, a new cyber bill was introduced last week by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) entitled Fostering…