Embedded Systems, Critical Infrastructure 'Renovation' Outpacing Security

Scott Tousley, deputy director cybersecurity division at Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology, is an advocate of integrating cybersecurity education into all disciplines of IT and business and risk management. “We don’t want to teach cybersecurity as a stovepipe, but to do it so...

UNESCO Etxea website hacked by #NullCrew

Hacking group NullCrew deface UNESCO Etxea website unescoetxea.org, which is an internationally oriented NGOs working for the culture of peace, sustainable human development and human rights, at local and global levels. Deface page reads, "Welcome to the new front page of unesco etxea You have be...

DHS Warns ICS, SCADA Owners About Increase in Malicious Activity

An alert from the Department of Homeland Security late last week urges private- and public-sector industrial control system ICS owners to be proactive in auditing the security, particularly, authentication controls of their systems. The alert is in response to a growing concern over the number of...

Electromagnetic Pulse Attacks : Are we prepared ?

An electromagnetic pulse EMP attack is a threat few Americans are familiar with, yet one which could easily destroy their lives. What would you do if your electricity suddenly went out and didn't come back on for months or even years? How long would you last with the food in your pantry, the...

Power Plants Are Vulnerable To Hackers with Siemens flaw

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert warning that hackers could exploit code in Siemens-owned technology to attack power plants and other national critical infrastructure. Justin W. Clarke, an expert in securing industrial control systems, disclosed at a conference in Los...

Software Update Site For Hospital Respirators Found Riddled With Malware

UPDATE: A Web site used to distribute software updates for a wide range medical equipment, including ventilators has been blocked by Google after it was found to be riddled with malware and serving up attacks. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking into the compromise, Threatpost has...

Pressure Mounts For Cybersecurity Bill As Negotiations Stall

A joint letter from some of Washington D.C.’s leading minds in the areas of defense and diplomacy is urging Congress to pass a cyber security bill in some form this year, saying that the U.S. is urgently in need of a new policy and ill-prepared for cyber attacks. The letter, dated June 6, was...

DHS Says No Evidence That Flame Targets Industrial Systems, But Urges Caution

In and advisory, the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial control System ICS CERT said that it doesn’t believe the Flame malware targets industrial control systems ICS or SCADA systems, but the group advised critical infrastructure owners to be on alert. The advisory, issued Wednesday,...

White House Lays Out Plans To Tackle Botnets

The White House revealed today a set of initiatives it plans to use as part of its public-private partnership to combat increasingly disruptive networks of infected computers known as botnets. In one of his last acts as White House Cybersecurity Coordinator, Howard Schmidt on Wednesday unveiled t...

DHS To Critical Infrastructure Owners: Hold On To Data After Cyber Attack

The Department of Homeland Security Is Offering Organizations That Use Industrial Control Systems advice or mitigating the effects of cyber attacks. Among the agency’s recommendations: hold on to data from infected systems and prevent enemies from moving within your organization. DHS’s Industrial...

DNSChanger Lingers: 330k Systems Still Infected, 77,000 In The U.S.

The FBI said that there are still more than 330,000 computers believed to be infected with the DNSChanger malware, with just weeks to go before a court order to cut off their ability to communicate with the rest of the Internet. Fully 77,000 are located in the U.S., according to data provided to...

DHS Warns of Potential Scams and Attack in Run-up to London Olympics

Hacktivists, malware, scams, data theft and DDoS attacks are among the Department of Homeland Security’s concerns regarding this summer’s Olympic Games set to take place in London, according to the DHS Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center’s Strategic Outlook. The document focuses...

DHS Appeals to Users Still Infected with DNSChanger

The Department of Homeland Security is the latest agency to appeal to U.S. consumers to check their computers for signs of DNSChanger malware before they are knocked offline in a couple of months. Rand Beers, undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, implored users to...

LA Times Profiles Cyber Defense Competition For Teens

The U.S. and other advanced nations face a drastic cyber security skills gap. Attacks from sophisticated and unsophisticated attackers are on the rise, even as more and more companies and government agencies move more of what they do online to Web based services and the cloud. Of course, the skil...

Navy Hires Contractor to Data-Mine Gaming Consoles

The U.S. Navy recently hired an outside contractor, Obscure Technologies, to develop computer forensics tools capable of analyzing network traffic and stored data on gaming consoles. The contract, valued at $177,237.50, calls on Obscure Technologies to create hardware and software tools that can ...

Smell You Later

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security hatched a plan to use body-odor as a method of identifying individuals. The DHS wanted to establish odor based biometric signatures that could uniquely identify both friend and foe. It then might be able to determine if changes in odor could be us...

60 Minutes Weighs Stuxnet's Legacy

The security community might understand what the Stuxnet worm did. Now the war is over what the worm means – Stuxnet’s legacy, if you will. The latest to weigh in on that question is Steve Croft, of the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes. We knew this story was coming when a 60 Minutes news crew turned...

2013 Federal Budget Includes Nearly $800M For Cybersecurity

President Obama is asking for $769 million to fund information security initiatives via the Department of Homeland Security in 2013. That amount is nearly twice what DHS asked for last year to fund its cybersecurity work. “The Administration proposes $769 million to support the operations of the...

Cia.gov Tango Down - #FuckFBIFriday by Anonymous

FuckFBIFriday by Anonymous, cia.gov Tango Down ! Anonymous has struck again at Central Intelligence Agency, The site went down about 3:10 p.m. apparently under a massive distributed denial of service DDOS attack. No specific reason for the attack was announced, nor were any specific groups or...

Homeland Security have eye on Journalists

Homeland Security have eye on Journalists The Department of Homeland Security has declared its intention to gather personal data on journalists or others who might use "traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed". Well, it'll be interestin...