Government

From AFP (Via Yahoo News)
The North Korean regime is in the process of building up its capabilities to launch offensive computer attacks, according to news reports out of South Korea. The reports say that North Korea is specifically strengthening its information warfare program with the intention of targeting its two traditional antagonists, the United States and South Korea, AFP reports.

The recent flood of stories on attacks against the electrical grid, various government agencies and other portions of the critical infrastructure has renewed the calls for improvements in federal cybersecurity and, especially, information sharing between the government and the private sector on attacks and vulnerabilities. Some of this has been going on behind the scenes in Washington for a long time in an ad hoc fashion, but it appears it’s been getting more organized of late.

From CNet News (Stephanie Condon)
The Conficker Working Group several months ago discovered several hundred medical devices that had been infected with the Conficker worm and set about alerting the affected hospitals to the problem. The disinfection process should have been straightforward, but the tangle of regulations that govern medical facilities prevented the hospitals from making changes to the devices for three months.

Microsoft has developed an ultra-secure version of Windows XP, with many settings locked down by default. But the hardened OS isn’t for sale to the general public; it’s made specifically for the military. Microsoft built the secure version of XP a few years ago at the direction of the Air Force, which had grown weary of the constant updates to other Windows versions and had just seen its network defenses abused in a pentration test by the National Security Agency.

From The New York Times (John Markoff and John Shanker)

A study conducted by the National Academy of Sciences found that the United States military needs to create an open, public dalogue to clarify its plans around using offensive weapons in cyberspace. The study also recommends that the military explain what offensive capabilities it has and how they might be used to counter conventional military attacks.

In case you’ve missed it, there’s been a lot of talking in Washington lately about the need for major changes to the way that information security is handled in the federal government as well as the private sector. So far that talk hasn’t led to much in the way of action, but that may be on the horizon, as lawmakers and members of the Obama administration continue to look at the problems facing the country’s critical infrastructure. A Senate hearing on Tuesday laid out, again, how critical the problem is and what experts believe should be done to fix it.

By Ozzie Diaz
There are those that would argue U.S. House Representative Pete Hoekstra is too connected. According to a recent article in a top security trade publication, Rep. Hoekstra sent tweets during his recent trip to Iraq. Some of the tweets included: “Just landed in Baghdad. I believe it may be first time I’ve had bb service in Iraq. 11th trip here.” and “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here.”