cybercrime

Investigation reveals widespread insider hacking at immigration agency

"A yearlong probe into computer fraud at an immigration application processing center uncovered multiple incidents of internal hacking where staff accessed management-level emails and other confidential files, according to Homeland Security Department interviews, network analyses and internal emails obtained by Nextgov. The investigation began in January 2008, when officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of Homeland Security, reported to the department's inspector general that numerous personnel had violated federal security rules at the agency's Texas Service Center, one of four regional centers that handle a variety of immigration-related petitions and applications. According to the materials obtained, employees and supervisors abused system logon privileges, gained ›
CyberSECURITY

Army takes on technology and acquisition with new strategy

"The Defense Department is in the midst of a major transformation of all its business operations, driven by new budget and battlefield realities. The Army has its own part to play in that transformation, which is why it recently launched a major initiative to revolutionize the way it uses technology to support soldiers on the battlefield. As director of th ›
CyberSECURITY

New data spill shows risk of online health records

"Until recently, medical files belonging to nearly 300,000 Californians sat unsecured on the Internet for the entire world to see. There were insurance forms, Social Security numbers and doctors' notes. Among the files were summaries that spelled out, in painstaking detail, a trucker's crushed fingers, a maintenance worker's broken ribs and one man's bout ›
CyberSECURITY

Hackers take aim at prison locks and other real-world targets

"Security professionals need to step back from the technology and look at how these real-world systems -- from prisons to power plants -- are designed, said Tom Parker, vice president of security services at FusionX, a computer security company. "We're making the same mistakes over and over again," he said, adding that these at-risk networking components a ›


CyberSECURITY

Researchers warn of SCADA equipment discoverable via Google

" "You can do a Google search with your Web browser and start operating [circuit] breakers, potentially," Parker, chief technology officer at security consultancy FusionX, told CNET in a break during the workshop on "Building, Attacking And Defending SCADA Systems in the Age of Stuxnet."" Source: Researchers warn of SCADA equipment discoverable via Google ›
CyberWAR

Israeli Military Reportedly Plotting to Cripple Iran in Cyberspace

"Israel has set up a military cyber command to wage a computer war against Iran as senior officers become increasingly concerned that a conventional attack on Tehran’s nuclear sites could end in failure, London's The Sunday Times reported." Source: Israeli Military Reportedly Plotting to Cripple Iran in Cyberspace - FoxNews.com ›
CyberSECURITY

Cloud security fears exaggerated, says federal CIO

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not afraid of the public cloud. Indeed, this agency is vetting cloud providers to host the public websites of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to its CIO, Richard Spires. And the department's use of the public cloud providers is lik ›
CyberATTACK

Private information of 35 million South Korean citizens compromised in hacking attack

"SK Communications Co., the operator of South Korea's third most-visited Internet portal, said Thursday that its popular Web sites were hacked, compromising the private information of 35 million users. The incident could be the worst online security breach in South Korea since a cyber attack on the Web site o ›
CyberSECURITY

Cyber Threat Will Force Pentagon to Buy Computers Faster and Change Culture

"There is no doubt that the Pentagon is gearing up for a cyber war and they're planning to purchase new computers with the speed and efficiency that would make Google proud. Last week, the Department of Defense disclosed a cyber attack in March that exposed a record 24,000 department files. While officials calle ›
CyberSECURITY

Security Recommendations to Prevent Cyber Intrusions

"US-CERT is providing this Technical Security Alert in response to recent, well-publicized intrusions into several government and private sector computer networks. Network administrators and technical managers should not only follow the recommended security controls information systems outlined in NIST 800-53 but also consider the following measures. These ›
CyberWAR

Hackers Gained Access to Sensitive Military Files

"The Defense Department suffered one of its worst digital attacks in history in March, when foreign hackers broke into the computers of a corporate contractor and obtained 24,000 sensitive Pentagon files during a single intrusion, senior officials said on Thursday. " (Source: Hackers Gained Access to Sensitive Military Files - NYTimes.com.) ›
CyberTHREATS

Russian city carries out most cyber attacks per capita: study

"The Russian city of Chelyabinsk has the greatest concentration of cybercrime on the internet. Kuala Lumpur is in second place and Buenos Aires has the dubious distinction of coming in third. This finding has emerged from research carried out at the CTIT research institute of the University of Twente (The Netherlands) in collaboration with the spin-off comp ›
CyberSECURITY

Canadian intelligence warns of growing cyber-threat

"The Canadian intelligence service has singled out cyber attacks as one of the biggest threats facing Canada in its latest annual report. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which is responsible for investigating threats to national security, said that politically motivated threats, or attacks against critical information infrastructure, are ›