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The draft version of the comprehensive cybersecurity bill could give the Homeland Security Department the ability to take "any lawful action" against contractors if their systems are under attack. Bob Dix, a former staff director for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and now vice president government affairs and critical infrastructure protection for Juniper Networks, said that could mean taking over a vendor's system that contains federal data. "There's some concern about what would be the criteria about that and how it would be the government has the ability under a provision of lawful action to take over a...

So far I haven't been impressed with cyber Monday. None of the specific items I've been "shopping" (watches, kitchen appliances, household linens) are available for anything better than free shipping.Thought maybe we can share any good deals here.

BALTIMORE — The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said Thursday that he does not favor giving the United Nations the power to regulate the Internet. Some regulations are needed to protect critical networks that control electrical power, banking, transportation and other key elements of society, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who is also director of the National Security Agency, said after a speech to a security conference.

The Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, attacked the Iranian nuclear program with a highly sophisticated computer virus called Stuxnet. The first digital weapon of geopolitical importance, it could change the way wars are fought -- and it will not be the last attack of its kind.The complex on a hill near an interchange on the highway from Tel Aviv to Haifa is known in Israel simply as "The Hill." The site, as big as several soccer fields, is sealed off from the outside world with high walls and barbed wire -- a modern fortress that symbolizes Israel's fight for survival...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say. The Defense Department, which runs its own worldwide eavesdropping, spying and code-cracking systems, says more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations have been trying to break into U.S. networks. Some of the perpetrators "already have the capacity to disrupt" U.S. information infrastructure, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who is leading remedial efforts, wrote last fall in the journal Foreign Affairs. Joel Brenner, the National Counterintelligence executive from 2006 to 2009, said most if...

Pentagon Sets Stage for U.S. to Respond to Computer Sabotage With Military ForceWASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force. The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military. In part, the...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

GIG HARBOR, Wash. -- A nationwide hunt for cyberattackers on a rock star's website brought federal agents to a home in Gig Harbor with guns drawn. Rocker Gene Simmons has been burning mad at a group of cyberattackers calling themselves "anonymous", who took responsibility for shutting down his website last fall. The attack on the reality star came shortly after Simmons condemned music pirating. According to a federal warrant, federal investigators say they traced the attack to a house in Gig Harbor. And last week, before dawn, federal agents raided the Lantz family. "I had no idea," Rhoda Lantz said....

Members of the Iranian Basiji militia take part in an annual military parade in Tehran 2007. Iran has unleashed a cyber army which draws on the ranks of Islamist volunteer militias to counter attacks online and take down "enemy websites," the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday. (AFP/Atta Kenare)

Effort gathered Chinese government agents, online security experts... even outlaw hackersItems in the latest WikiLeaks document dump reveal that the 2009 hacking attack on Google, Adobe, and others -which led to the withdrawal of Google Search from the Chinese market- was conducted Chinese government cyber-operatives, private security experts, and even Internet criminal hackers recruited directly by the Chinese government... A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of...

Cyber Monday hopes to replicate Black Friday onlineBy Eve Mitchell Contra Costa Times Updated: 11/28/2010 05:38:17 AM PST Emily Fan figures online shopping will once again be a big part of her holiday shopping plans, including this Monday when millions of shoppers go online in search of holiday deals. "I would say 60 percent online and 40 percent in stores. It just depends on my schedule. It also depends on what ideas I have. Online shopping has gotten easier. There are really great promotions," said Fan, a Fremont resident. On Monday, online retailers will roll out a day of big...

Iran is going nuclear over a malicious computer worm targeting the country's atomic energy facilities. The Stuxnet worm has targeted not only Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant -- scheduled to go online in a matter of weeks -- but also the personal computers of the government's nuclear officials, the country's national news agency reports. Iran has not yet publically pointed blame to the West, but several Internet security experts publicly stated that they suspect that a hostile government such as the U.S. or Israel may be behind the cyberattack. "This would not be easy for a normal group to put together,"...

Stuxnet is believed to be the most destructive virus ever devised for attacking major industrial complexes, reactors and infrastructure... and it's hitting Tehran HARD The Islamic Republic of Iran looks to be in the midst of a major ongoing cyber attack upon it's most vital computer systems by the unprecedentedly menacing Stuxnet virus... including nuclear reactors and other sensitive facilities: ____________________________________________ Mahmoud Alyaee, secretary-general of Iran's industrial computer servers, including its nuclear facilities control systems, confirmed Saturday, Sept. 25, that 30,000 computers belonging to classified industrial units had been infected and disabled by the malicious Stuxnet virus. This followed DEBKAfile's...

Hidden within the 854 pages of S. 3454 - the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act - are the basic elements of cybersecurity reform, including provisions to update parts of the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, the primary law governing IT security in the federal government. Though S. 3454 is tailored for the Defense Department, unlike its House counterpart that contains IT security provisions aimed at the entire government, the Senate version could serve as a vehicle to reform governmentwide IT security governance when the Senate and House versions of National Defense Authorization Act are reconciled...

The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.

Imagine this scenario: Estonia, a NATO member, is cut off from the Internet by cyber attackers who besiege the country's bandwidth with a devastating denial of service attack. Then, the nation's power grid is attacked, threatening economic disruption and even causing loss of life as emergency services are overwhelmed. As international outcry swells, outside researchers determine the attack is being sponsored by a foreign government and being directed from a military base. Desperate and outgunned in tech resources, Estonia invokes Article 5 of the NATO Treaty -- an attack against one member nation is an attack against all. It requests...

Bill would give DHS emergency cyber powers June 3, 2010 We're learning more about the cybersecurity package forming in the Senate. Wired.com reports Sen. Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.) wants to give the federal government the power to take over civilian networks' security, if there's an "imminent cyber threat." It's part of a draft bill, co-sponsored by Senators Lieberman and Susan Collins, that provides DHS with the authority to ensure that critical infrastructure stays up and running in the face of a looming hack attack. The Senate version of the fiscal 2011 Defense authorization bill scheduled to be released later this week...

I access the web via Firefox and Google. Last week, I linked, or attempted to, to Monica Crowley's website and was hit by the VIME Trojan. Quite a pain to track and destroy! Since that time, when on FR, and only FR, I am experiencing frequent crashes, and much trouble linking to other sites from this one. This could be a tracking tactic, and indeed, I have discovered several tracking cookies hovering and running in the background. I believe the best suspect here is Google, monitoring political speech, especially any emanating from what they migght consider the right side of...

America is made up of hard-working people and that means you can't always get off to attend a Tea Party, even if you're lucky enough to find one in your own community. That's why we're putting together the biggest Tea Party possible, right here on the Internet. It's going to be the BIGGEST DAMN TEA PARTY this country has ever seen...and I want everyone to bring a SIGN! Send us a photo of you holding the message you'd like to send to Washington. Make it original, make it interesting and make it a JPEG format and send it to Dave...

The rise of cyber attacks - and the call for global collaboration on solutions that reduce the threat - has led the United States Secret Service to become the sixth government agency to join Transglobal Secure Collaboration Program (TSCP). The move reflects a growing awareness of the need for a united effort and common solutions to defend against the advanced persistent threat of cyber attacks against nations and commercial organizations alike. High-profile attacks, such as GhostNet and the U.S. electrical grid infiltration, create the imperative for government agencies and private industry to work together on viable and robust solutions that...

North Korea celebrated America’s Fourth of July by launching a wide-ranging cyber assault on websites in South Korea and the U.S., including that of the Treasury Department and Secret Service. The attack is not only a significant escalation by the DPRK, but a demonstration of how the U.S. remains vulnerable to a covert operation by a rogue state or terrorists that can be as devastating as a WMD attack. The North Korean offensive began after Lab 110, a group of top hackers working for the military, were given instructions in May to “destroy” the communication infrastructure of South Korea. One...

SEOUL, July 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday came under a third round of cyber attacks, with the nation's key government and private Web sites reporting temporary paralyses or severe access disruptions, government and industry officials said. Half a dozen Web sites operated by key government bodies, including the National Assembly, defense ministry, foreign ministry and the National Intelligence Service reported access delays and failures starting around 6 p.m., said the officials. Kookmin Bank, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo, leading computer vaccine firm Ahn Lab Inc. and the United States Forces Korea also said their Web sites underwent temporary access...

A few days ago, I read this article "Spies 'infiltrate US power grid' ", and I thought, "Wow, that's hardly a surprise," but I blew it off. I disregarded it-not because Michael Jackson's funeral was on TV, or because I was preparing/partying/recovering from 3 days of straight BBQ party for the Fourth of July. No, I blew it off because we all suspected this kind of thing was always happening, always possible, and it's like the threat of nuclear war: awful, not something one wants to think about, and we kind of already know the consequences. Today, multiple papers are...

A Cyber-Attack on an American City Bruce Perens Just after midnight on Thursday, April 9, unidentified attackers climbed down four manholes serving the Northern California city of Morgan Hill and cut eight fiber cables in what appears to have been an organized attack on the electronic infrastructure of an American city. Its implications, though startling, have gone almost un-reported. That attack demonstrated a severe fault in American infrastructure: its centralization. The city of Morgan Hill and parts of three counties lost 911 service, cellular mobile telephone communications, land-line telephone, DSL internet and private networks, central station fire and burglar alarms,...

Bill Would Grant President Unprecedented Cyber-security Powers By Roy Mark 2009-04-02 The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate would allow the president to shut down private Internet networks. The legislation also calls for the government to have the authority to demand security data from private networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access. The headlines were all about creating a national cyber-security czar reporting directly to the president, but the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced April 1 in the U.S. Senate would also give the president unprecedented authority over private-sector Internet...

The Air Force on Monday suspended all efforts related to development of a program to become the dominant service in cyberspace, according to knowledgeable sources. Top Air Force officials put a halt to all activities related to the establishment of the Cyber Command, a provisional unit that is currently part of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, sources told Nextgov. An internal Air Force e-mail obtained by Nextgov said, “Transfers of manpower and resources, including activation and reassignment of units, shall be halted.” Establishment of the Cyber Command will be delayed until new senior Air...

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts. One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the...

The USAF wants to make its own botnet to combat forign and domestic threats. (IMG:J.Anderson) Are we in a cyber arms race? The Cyberspace Command, a US Air Force project designed to defend the cyber domain from threats, is alive and kicking with millions of dollars spent on PR and marketing. The USAF says that there is an urgent need to defend the IT infrastructure on US soil, and a recent opinion article written by COL. Charles W. Williamson III details that they are serious in this mission. The goal is to use botnets to help defend the new cyber...

Germany says cyber spying is a vital tool against terrorism Germany's highest court has restricted the right of the security services to spy on the computers of suspected criminals and terrorists.Under the technique, software sent in an email enables the authorities to spy on a suspect's computer hard drive. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said cyber spying violated individuals' right to privacy and could be used only in exceptional cases. Civil liberties activists have warned of an unacceptable invasion of privacy. National precedent The case - which began last year - was brought after the western state of...

A computer nerd from Shepherd's Bush, West London, became al Qaeda's top internet agent, it can be revealed today. Younes Tsouli, 23, an IT student at a London college, used his top-floor flat in W12 to help Islamist extremists wage a propaganda war against the West. Under the name Irhabi 007 — combining the James Bond reference with the Arabic for terrorist — he worked with al Qaeda leaders in Iraq and came up with a way to convert often gruesome videos into a form that could be put onto the Web. Videos he posted included messages from Osama bin...

Illegal Alien Activity Tracking System GSAC (Global Security Analysis, LLC) and The Publishers of GlobalIncidentMap.com, of Washington County, MD are pleased to announce the Illegal Alien Activity Tracking System (IAATS). This is a free, public service website, available October 21st, displaying ongoing Incidences of illegal alien criminal activity, legislation, the growing national security risk and threat of terrorism, plus other significant news. GSAC (Global Security Analysis, LLC) approached the publishers of GlobalIncidentMap.com with an idea of creating a free, public service website that allows everyone from your average citizen to law enforcement , and government agencies and officials, to have...

Habbo Hotel users create a character and can buy furniture A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money. Five 15-year-olds have also been questioned by police, who were contacted by the website's owners. The six teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo rooms. A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by...

Thomas X. Hammes is a retired Marine colonel. He is the author of a seminal book on conducting counter-insurgency warfare. The work is called "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century." Recently, he made an intriguing proposal on how to battle jihadists on the Internet (a virtual agora where Islamist militants appear to consort with alarming frequency). This is what he said: "For the last few years, individuals and private organizations that are pro-Israeli have been in a daily fight to shut down or deface anti-Israeli Web sites. Unofficial and informal, this Internet Hagana has had...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – The Defense Department receives many attempted cyber attacks each day and has measures in place to aggressively respond to and deter these attacks, a department spokesman said today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman addressed media reports that a computer system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was hacked into by the Chinese military earlier this year. Whitman confirmed that an attack did occur in June but declined to identify the origin of the threat. It is often difficult to pinpoint the true origin of an intrusion into computer systems and even more difficult to...

America prepares for 'cyber war' with China By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 2:06am BST 15/06/2007 China is striving to overtake the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, according to a senior American general, in what is emerging as a new theatre of conflict between nation states and a growing priority for the Pentagon. The Chinese foreign ministry rejected the Pentagon report as 'brutal interference' Lt Gen Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, said that all of America's foes, including Iran, were looking at ways of hacking into US networks to glean trade and defence...

Sweden will open the first 'diplomatic representation' in the virtual reality of web-based Second Life, a fantasy world inhabited by computer-generated residents, on May 30, the Swedish Institute said Friday. "The Second House of Sweden, the world's first virtual embassy in Second Life will be inaugurated on May 30," the institute said in a statement. Related Articles Swedish taxman sets sights on Second Life 31st January 2007 Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life 26th January 2007 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version Submit to Digg.com Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Director General of the Swedish...

London - US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in an interview published on Friday that cyber attacks, such as the one unleashed on Estonia this week, will "become more of an issue" in the future. Estonia had urged its allies in the European Union and Nato to take firm action against the cyber attacks that have hit the Baltic state amid a bitter row with Russia over a Soviet war memorial. "We need to prepare ourselves because this is likely only to become more of an issue in the future," Negroponte told the Financial Times and other European...

Cyber terror threat is growing, says Reid By George Jones, Political Editor Last Updated: 4:07am BST 26/04/2007 Terrorists could attempt to cause economic chaos or plane crashes in an electronic attack on the UK's computer networks John Reid, the Home Secretary, said yesterday. Cyber terrorism could target air traffic control systems Mr Reid's warning of the "devastating consequences" of cyber terrorism came as he said the reshaping of the Home Office would enable him to "wake up and think about the security of the nation first and foremost every morning". The Home Office is to be split on May 9,...

Cyber attack depletes cell phone batteries Peter Weiss Bad guys armed with computers might remotely and secretly drain the batteries of cell phones, a new study shows. By commandeering communications channels that cell phones use to capture images and video from the Internet, attackers might repeatedly awaken an idle phone from a low-power slumber into a state of readiness that saps its electric power. In multiple tests on a Nokia 6620 phone, computer scientists Hao Chen, Denys Ma, and Radmilo Racic of the University of California, Davis used a fake server to repeatedly send information to the phone, depleting the...

MONTREAL - A website that revels in pain, blood, death and darkness is the common link between several homicides, rapes, a church arson and now the Dawson College rampage. Gunman Kimveer Gill blogged at VampireFreaks.com, a popular online refuge where the Goth sub-culture shares morbid poetry, death metal music, details of violent sex and black musings rooted in social alienation and personal despair. Gill, 25, referred to himself in one seething online post as ''the Angel of Death.'' On Wednesday, armed with an assault rifle, he went on a murderous rampage at Dawson College in Montreal, killing one woman and...

3/6/2006 - ROME, N.Y. (AFPN) -- Forty men and women from across the country will focus on a futuristic "cybercraft" as they participate in the 2006 Class of the Advanced Course in Engineering Cyber Security Boot Camp. A joint selection committee of Syracuse University and Air Force Research Laboratory officials reviewed the credentials of applicants and identified 40 candidates who will make up the class of 2006, comprised of 36 new students and four returning graduate assistants. The profile of the 36 students of the ACE 2006 class includes 33 men and three women who attend colleges in 22 states...

2/13/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Tech. Sgt. Jeff Barefoot has a strong presence in the courtroom. Three times he's stepped up to testify in court, and three times the defendants suddenly took a plea deal to avoid Sergeant Barefoot on the witness stand. Not because of his imposing stature or his 20 years of military experience, but from the knowledge he brings as an expert witness. Sergeant Barefoot is a computer forensics examiner for the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center located between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md. The center is under the executive agency of the secretary of the...

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Jan. 24, 2006) -- Fewer people would know about a deployment or operation if you screamed it out at the Superbowl than if you posted it on a Web log or blog. Common sense will tell you not to discuss sensitive subjects on the streets of Baghdad. The same common sense should apply on the highways of cyberspace. Soldiers need to keep this in mind, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it could land them in a world of trouble. The technology of communication is a double-edged sword and...

Vietnam’s communist government knows that it is impossible to monitor the country’s 5,000 cyber cafes, so it’s forcing the cafe owners to be its eyes and ears. Last July, a government directive informed cafe owners that they will have to take a six-month course so that they can better monitor their cyber customers. The Vietnamese government is justifying its move for reasons of “national security and defense” — that is, to protect itself against online journalists who, it says, “provide sensationalist news and articles while others even publish reactionary and libelous reports and a depraved culture.” Reporters Without Borders (RWB),...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers Tuesday he still doesn't know how much it will cost to complete the bureau's computer overhaul, already well over budget and behind schedule. He also refused to state publicly the cost of the initial phase of the Sentinel system, the planned successor to a failed project that was supposed to greatly improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases. "There are certain sensitivities involved," Mueller told the Senate Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, explaining that the FBI soon would invite contractors to compete for the work. The FBI has yet...

ATC Announces Cyber-Attack ATC Press Release - 02/17/05On January 11, 2005, the Anti-Terrorism Coalition (ATC) was attacked by unknown hackers. Around 6 pm Eastern Standard time, January 11, 2005, the ATC-owned Facts About Islam website was attacked. All of the accounts on which it was hosted on were completely destroyed within an hour. Shortly after the attacks, a message was posted by one of the suspected attackers: "I WILL CONTINUE HACKING DOWN YOUR FILTHY ZIONIST SCUM WEBSITES UNTIL THEY DISAPEER! ALAHU AKBAR! f***ink k***s!" The ATC immediately went to a Red Alert and increased its security. Early on January 12,...

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Here's some follow-up on the Santorum/Cyber School issue. I believe the Dems will bring it up again, so get the facts now. I live close to Penn Hills, and have the inside scoop. First, an article from the local paper describing the woman that started the whole issue: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04327/415581.stm Mrs. Vecchio works for the PA Turnpike as a toll collector. This is a position that pays pretty well compared to the responsibilities involved, and is well-known to be a politically-appointed job. Penn Hills is a heavily Democratic community, and her position on the school board and as chairwoman of the...

Attack used FEMA site to take offline over 5 million other sites in official act of "cyber terrorism": Millions of websites were recently brought down due to a security breach of FEMA’s DMAT servers, according to a source where the servers were initially compromised. Victims including multitudes of e-commerce and government sites. No one knows yet truly how deep the breach went. DMAT is the Disaster Medical Assistance Team for the United States Public Health Service and is the medical wing of the NDMS (National Disaster Medical System), which serves the Department of Defense, Department of veterans Affairs, the Department...