cybersecurity

Homeland Security 'Cyber Storm' simulates crisis

At U.S. Secret Service headquarters, numerous companies, and state and international government offices this week, computer security types have been forced to fend off hundreds of potentially crippling cyberattacks.

No need to worry, though--at least this time around, no actual networks were harmed in the process.

It was all part of the Department of Homeland Security's second iteration of Cyber Storm. The weeklong, congressionally mandated exercise is designed to test the readiness of government and business officials if confronted by cyberthreats to critical networked services, from transportation systems to the electrical grid to chemical plants.

This time around, … Read more

DHS five years later: So, where's the beef, guys?

President Bush celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. In conjunction with the event, DHS dutifully released a fact sheet marking the department's priorities and progress since the inception.

Here's the part relating to IT:

"Increasing Cyber Security: DHS established the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) to provide a 24-hour watch, warning, and response operations center, which in 2007 issued over 200 actionable alerts on cyber security vulnerabilities or incidents. US-CERT developed the EINSTEIN intrusion detection program, which collects, analyzes, and shares computer security information across the federal civilian government. EINSTEIN is … Read more

Congress worries that .gov monitoring will spy on Americans

WASHINGTON--A new Bush administration plan to capture and analyze traffic on all federal government networks in real time is generating privacy worries from congressional Democrats and Republicans alike.

At a hearing convened here Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, politicians directed pointed questions to Department of Homeland Security officials about their plans to expand an existing "intrusion detection" system known as Einstein. Among other things, the system will monitor visits from Americans--and foreigners--visiting .gov Web sites.

Einstein, which DHS calls an "early warning system" for cyber-incidents, is described in a Homeland … Read more

Symantec releases online cyber-security quiz

In the realm of companies I wouldn't expect to release an online game, Symantec is right up at the top of the list.

But that's just what the security software firm has done with its Cyber Smackdown online quiz, a Web-based game that tasks players with answering questions related to cyber security.

It's a good idea, and if Symantec had bothered to come up with some difficult questions or even a few dozen different questions, it would have also been a nice manifestation.

Unfortunately, it seems--from my multiple tests of the game on both Safari and Firefox, … Read more

Identity stolen? Senators want thieves to pay for your troubles

Identity theft victims would be allowed to request monetary compensation for the time they spent getting their lives back in order under a bill approved by a U.S. Senate panel.

The Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act of 2007 would allow those who fell prey to identity fraud to seek "criminal restitution"--that is, payouts from the offender in a particular case--for time "reasonably" spent correcting "actual" or "intended" harm.

While potentially significant, it's unclear exactly how much of an impact the legal changes would make, should they be made … Read more

Will the next U.S. president lead on cybersecurity?

WASHINGTON--The presidential elections may be more than a year off, but a newly unveiled group is already plotting how to ensure No. 44 has a fresh "blueprint" for managing cybercrises.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said on Tuesday that it's forming an independent, nonpartisan Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, composed of more than 30 people who are considered experts in the field.

Its goal by the end of 2008 is to "come up with a set of recommendations for the next administration, whether Democratic or Republican," … Read more

Will cyberintrusions crash U.S. electrical grid?

WASHINGTON--Some critics of the U.S. government's cybersecurity efforts might argue that nothing short of a bomb going off--or, well, purported Chinese cyberattacks on feds' machines--will land the issue more notice.

This time around, the wake-up call for politicians was, indeed, an explosion: In September, U.S. Homeland Security officials revealed that researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory had managed to destroy a small electrical generator through a simulated cyberattack. A few weeks ago, CNN aired a gloom-and-doom segment featuring snips from the once-classified video showing the device going up in smoke.

Although the prospect of that sort … Read more

Phishing e-mails drive FTC chief 'insane'

WASHINGTON--If your in-box is pelted by a seemingly ever-growing supply of inquisitive e-mails purporting to come from the likes of PayPal and Bank of America, the federal agency charged with consumer protection says it feels your pain.

The deceptive technique--in which crooks dispatch e-mails requesting sensitive personal information, typically by masquerading as financial institutions--"is one practice that absolutely drives me insane," Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras told attendees at the first National Cybersecurity Awareness Summit, which was put on here Monday by a nonprofit partnership of federal government agencies and software vendors.

That's because … Read more

U.S. cybersecurity czar: Help us help you

WASHINGTON--The U.S. government's cybersecurity czar on Monday called on those in the know to become "ambassadors" of the protect-thy-computer message to the masses.

Greg Garcia, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications within the Department of Homeland Security, said it's critical for everyone to take cyberrisks seriously, in hopes of meeting his department's ultimate goal: making the United States "the most dangerous place in the real world for cybercriminals to do business."

Welcome to the fourth annual National Cybersecurity Awareness month, the government's designated time for drumbeating how much it cares about … Read more