Cyber

The mental models of espionage have changed forever thanks to the internet and the resulting cyber domain. As more and more businesses and governments move aggressively into digital models of operations, more and more digital assets evolve. Many of those digital assets have substantial value and as such they become targets of acts of espionage.…

The General Services Administration has decided to streamline the way it provides identity protection services, rebranding a special item number (SIN) to focus on mitigation and data breach detection on the Professional Services Schedule. In a Jan. 19 request for information, GSA’s Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories announced its intention to change…

The federal government should concentrate less on new policies and more on optimizing organizational architecture and culture to support what exists, recommends former Federal Chief Information Security Officer Gregory Touhill in a farewell letter posted Jan. 19. Tapped in September 2016 as the first U.S. CISO to drive cybersecurity policy, planning and implementation across the…

BEIJING (AP) — China is beefing up a campaign to root out services that circumvent the government’s internet censorship with a 14-month-long “clean-up” of the internet industry. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a directive that it forbids the operation of virtual private networks (VPNs) or leased lines that allow users and…

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Representatives for the Sundance Film Festival say that their network systems were subject to a cyberattack that caused its box offices to shut down briefly Saturday afternoon. The festival issued updates to attendees via their official account and say that online ticketing for future shows is currently back up and…

The Federal Communications Commission has released a white paper on cybersecurity risk reduction that surveys the increasingly larger “exposed attack surface” created by connected consumer devices on privately owned and managed communications networks. Issued by the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, the report draws the conclusion that the country’s 30,000 private sector communications…

A few hours after President-elect Donald Trump was briefed by intelligence officials about Russian meddling in the election, an Associated Press reporter called his cellphone seeking an interview. The call went to voicemail and the reporter did not leave a message. About an hour later, Trump called back. It’s hard to imagine many politicians –…

Months after it requested input from the private sector on how to improve its cybersecurity response and coordination, the Department of Homeland Security released an updated version of the National Cyber Incident Response Plan on Jan. 18. The plan — the result of President Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive 41 to address preparedness in the wake…

Security research Brian Krebs, in a lengthy blog post, documented how he identified the author of the Mirai code.

CHICAGO (AP) — The Department of Defense and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hope a new program will turn the city into a place where college students can learn how to out-maneuver hackers. Emanuel and Frank DiGiovanni, director of force training with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, introduced a six-month pilot…