For the first time since 2005, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has revised the federal cybersecurity standards. Since the last update, flash memory, Wi-Fi, smartphones, microchips, and social media have burst onto the scene. Why has NIST not updated the federal cybersecurity standards much sooner? Because …
The highest-ranking American military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey, continued this Administration’s naïve attempts to cooperate with China when it comes to cybersecurity during a visit there last week. China is arguably the worst offender among nations in terms of cyber attacks and cyber theft. The …
Congress is back in session and “ready” to tackle cybersecurity. Regrettably, some in Congress are again proposing 19th century–style legislative solutions to this ultimately 21st-century problem. Let’s hope they think it through this time before offering the same failed ideas. Over the past several months, the world has witnessed a …
Japanese telecommunications company Softbank wants to buy Sprint Nextel for about $20 billion. One barrier to the deal is unusual: Softbank and Sprint are being pushed to spurn equipment made by specific Chinese companies, due to cyber espionage fears. The fear is reasonable but the way the deal is being …
This week, the largest cyber attack to date hit the Internet. Spamhaus, an anti-spam company, placed Cyberbunker on their black-list of spam generating companies. Cyberbunker quickly retaliated with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which essentially overwhelms a system with requests. The initial attack failed to overwhelm Spamhaus and …
On Tuesday, several South Korean banks and television broadcasters were taken offline due to a “pretty massive” cyber attack. For the most part these attacks were just a nuisance, temporarily cutting off online access to bank accounts and freezing TV station computers, though not interfering with any broadcasts. Most signs …
President Obama plans to issue his cybersecurity executive order on Wednesday, following his State of the Union address, according to The Hill. Based on drafts circulating several months ago, the executive order is likely to be highly flawed in its efforts to impose regulations on the dynamic cyber realm. In …
Following the start of Israeli air strikes against Hamas, hacker groups, including Anonymous, have declared open season on Israeli cyber defenses. However, Israel has invested heavily in cybersecurity and cyber operations, allowing it to defeat more than 44 million hacking attempts on government websites, losing only one website for about …
Today, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency resigned. There are few positions in government more vital than the head of the agency with primary responsibility to provide the strategic intelligence Presidents use to inform their most pressing decisions on foreign policy and national security. Further, the agency conducts sensitive …
