Citing a looming crisis over lax computer security, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday that the Senate will debate cybersecurity legislation. The move comes despite the lack of a coherent Senate plan and could set up a showdown with House Republicans over the government’s role in forcing industry to strengthen cyber protections, according to a report by The Hill.
Information security failings are making it impossible for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to get its financial house in order and could be putting taxpayers’ sensitive information at risk, according to a financial audit of the agency by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
F-Secure researchers claim that malware spreading via malicious PDF files is signed with a valid certificate stolen from the Government of Malaysia, in just the latest evidence that scammers are using gaps in the security of digital certificates to help spread malicious code.
The deal will settle an FTC case alleging privacy violations on the social network by forcing users to opt in to any changes to default privacy settings, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
An indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charges seven individuals with a a global scheme to commit Internet advertising fraud. The scheme infected more than four million machines in over 100 countries with malware. It is believed to have netted the scammers more than $14 million in commissions from online advertisers.
The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is credited with helping to create the modern Internet, used a conference to call on hackers and other visionaries to help save it.
Remote hackers springing inmates from their jail cells — it sounds like a plot lifted from an old episode of “24” or “Prison Break.” But authorities are concerned by new research that claims such an attack is feasible.
In news that seems like it could be lifted from an old 24 or Prison Break plotline, authorities are concerned by new research that claims hackers could remotely open the cell doors of federal prisons.In addition to staging a jailbreak, hackers could sabotage a prison’s intercom system and closed-circuit television system to cause further nightmares for federal authorities.
It was a busy weekend for the shadowy collective of Internet hackers and activists that calls itself Anonymous, with claims by the group to have launched attacks that took down the Web pages of both government- and private sector Web sites as well as public- and Internet personalities, including Judge William Adams, the subject of a viral video that shows him reportedly beating his daughter with a belt.
by Dan GeerEditor’s Note: As the CISO of In-Q-Tel, the CIA-backed strategic investment firm focused on developing technologies for the intelligence community, Dan Geer gets paid to help find the answers to big questions about computer security, national security, privacy and technology. Headlines proliferate about sophisticated cyber attacks, the looming specter of cyber warfare and ongoing espionage by nations like China and Russia. That means Dan’s job gets more important with each passing day. So what’s on Dan Geer’s mind these days? We asked him what questions he was mulling and, as usual, the answers we got back were both eye-opening and provocative. Here, in Monday morning ‘shot of espresso’ format (and with as little editing as possible) is our three minute speed date with Dan’s brain.
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