Cyberattack

What Trump and Clinton Said About Cybersecurity in the First US Presidential Debate

The Internet and tech got very little mention last night during the first of three presidential debatest. The only notable exception was cybersecurity where moderator Lester Holt asked: "Our institutions are under cyber attack, and our secrets are being stolen. So my question is, who's behind it? And how do we fight it?" The following are the responses provided to the question by the two candidates. more

Cybersecurity Regime for Satellites and other Space Assets Urgently Required, Warn Researchers

"A radical review of cybersecurity in space is needed to avoid potentially catastrophic attacks," warn researchers at the International Security Department of UK-based thinktank, Chatham House. more

Yahoo to Confirm Massive Data Breach, Several Hundred Million Users Exposed

"Yahoo is expected to confirm a massive data breach, impacting hundreds of millions of users," reports Kara Swisher today in Recode. more

UK’s National Cyber Security Centre Reveals Plans to Scale Up DNS Filtering

Speaking at the Billington Cyber Security Summit in Washington DC, Ciaran Martin, head of UK's Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) and the first Chief Executive of the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), set out how the new organization will use DNS filters as part of its plan to curb cyberattacks. more

Schneier: “Someone Is Learning How to Take down the Internet”

"Over the past year or two, someone has been probing the defenses of the companies that run critical pieces of the Internet," wrote renowned security expert, Bruce Schneier, in a piece published in Lawfare. more

U.S. Justice Department Forms Group to Study National Security Threats of IoT

"The U.S. Justice Department has formed a threat analysis team to study potential national security challenges posed by self-driving cars, medical devices and other Internet-connected tools," reports Dustin Volz from Washington in Reuters" more

New York’s Department of Financial Services Issues Cybersecurity Proposal

New York state is proposing new rules requiring banks and insurance companies to establish cybersecurity programs and designate an internal cybersecurity officer. more

White House Appoints Retired Air Force General as First Cyber Security Chief

As part of its effort to improve defenses against hackers, the White House today named a retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Gregory J. Touhill as the first Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) -- the position was announced eight months ago as part of Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). more

China Taking Steps to Show it is Responsive to Foreign Concerns on Cybersecurity

"China Sets New Tone in Drafting Cybersecurity Rules," By Eva Dou in Beijing and Rachael King in San Francisco reporting in the Wall Street Journal. more

Singapore Plans to Cut Off Internet Access for Government Agencies

"Singapore is planning to cut off web access for public servants as a defence against potential cyber attack," according to a report today in the Guardian. more

Russian Central Bank Announces Mandatory Cyber-Security Regulations for Domestic Banks

"Russian banks will be faced with a whole range of new regulations, and penalties for non-compliance, when it comes to cyber-security, according to the country's Central Bank," Eugene Gerden reported today in SC Magazine UK more

Massive Cyberattack Aimed at Flooding .Gov Email Inboxes With Subscription Requests

"Massive Email Bombs Target .Gov Addresses," Brian Krebs writes in Krebs on Security: "Over the weekend, unknown assailants launched a massive cyber attack aimed at flooding targeted dot-gov (.gov) email inboxes with subscription requests to thousands of email lists." more

Security Against Election Hacking - Part 2: Cyberoffense Is Not the Best Cyberdefense!

State and county election officials across the country employ thousands of computers in election administration, most of them are connected (from time to time) to the internet (or exchange data cartridges with machines that are connected). In my previous post I explained how we must audit elections independently of the computers, so we can trust the results even if the computers are hacked. more

Security Against Election Hacking - Part 1: Software Independence

There's been a lot of discussion of whether the November 2016 U.S. election can be hacked. Should the U.S. Government designate all the states' and counties' election computers as "critical cyber infrastructure" and prioritize the "cyberdefense" of these systems? Will it make any difference to activate those buzzwords with less than 3 months until the election? First, let me explain what can and can't be hacked. Election administrators use computers in (at least) three ways... more

Code Released by ‘Shadow Brokers’ Raises Alarming Concerns on Whether NSA Was Hacked

The release on websites this week of what appears to be top-secret computer code that the National Security Agency has used to break into the networks of foreign governments and other espionage targets has caused deep concern inside American intelligence agencies, raising the question of whether America's own elite operatives have been hacked and their methods revealed. more