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Tech presents legal system with 'tremendous curves'

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A legal system rife with outdated laws never designed to cope with such new technologies as VOIP is just one of the worries facing Stephen Treglia, chief of the technology crime unit in the district attorney's office of New York's Nassau County.

Brittany Day
Oct 30, 2006

Security

Achieving IT security goals requires more than information technology. It requires a set of metrics to tell you how close you are to reaching your goals.

Brittany Day
Oct 26, 2006

Boutelle: Army Hhas Tight IM Security

The Defense Department is unlikely to have any instant messaging scandals similar to the one that embroiled Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.). In the armed forces, misuse of online chatting doesn't just run the risk of personal embarrassment; it

Brittany Day
Oct 17, 2006

Alaska Dems Battle State Over E-voting

An examination of the e-voting database and its audit logs from the November 2004 general election in Alaska found that changes were made to thedatabase in the months after the votes were tallied, according to the state

Brittany Day
Oct 16, 2006

Army Expects 'Suicide Hacker' Attacks

Australia is preparing for cyber-terrorism attacks from "suicide hackers", who will aim to bring down critical infrastructure for a "cause" and not worry about facing 30 years in jail for their actions. So far there have been no major acts of cyber-terrorism -- where hackers take down parts of the critical infrastructure by breaking into power, water, transport or even air traffic control systems -- but the subject has been discussed a great deal. On Tuesday, Colonel Paul Straughair, the director of network centric warfare at the Australian Army and part of the Australian Department of Defence, said he saw "no logical reason" why suicide hackers would not strike in the future.

Brittany Day
Oct 03, 2006

Cybersecurity Chief Quits After Unusual Contract Expires

The Bush administration's cybersecurity chief, who worked under an unusual agreement with a private university that does extensive business with the office he manages, is leaving his job. Donald ``Andy'' Purdy Jr. will step down as acting director of the National Cyber Security Division, part of the Department of Homeland Security. A government spokesman, Jarrod Agen, declined to comment on Purdy's plans, but colleagues circulated an invitation to his farewell party next week. Purdy worked at Homeland Security under a two-year contract with Carnegie Mellon University that expires Oct. 3. Under the contract, the government paid Purdy $245,481 in salary and benefits each year, not including travel reimbursements; Carnegie Mellon paid him an additional $43,320 a year.

Brittany Day
Sep 27, 2006

States Strive For Robust IT Security

A survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers shows that state governments are paying more attention to information security, hiring chief information security officers and giving them defined budgets and enforcement authority.

Brittany Day
Sep 22, 2006

Homeland Security fills top cybersecurity post

Chertoff said on Monday that Gregory Garcia, who has been working at a Washington-area trade association, would become the department's first assistant secretary for cybersecurity, with responsibility for advising agencies and the private sector. The announcement ends a vacancy at Homeland Security that lasted more than 14 months and a wait that drew criticism from members of Congress, who it said demonstrated that Chertoff has not taken the topic seriously.

Brittany Day
Sep 19, 2006

DHS Names Cyber-Security Chief

The Department of Homeland Security has picked a new cyber-security czar. After a yearlong search, the federal government named former ITAA (Information Technology Association of America) vice president Gregory Garcia to be its overseer for cyber-security in the United States. According to a statement released Sept. 18 by DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, Garcia will brings the "right mix of experience in government and the private sector" to succeed in the role of Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security and Telecommunications.

Benjamin D. Thomas
Sep 19, 2006

DHS Releases Report On Cyber Storm Exercise

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an overview this week of its cyberattack exercise which simulated the government's response to a large-scale disruption of the critical infrastructure and the Internet. More than 100 organizations in over 60 locations and five countries participated in the exercise in February of this year. According to a previously published presentation (PDF) outlining the scenario, the exercise pitted the responders against a mish-mash of anti-globalization cyberattackers.

Brittany Day
Sep 16, 2006

Princeton researchers demonstrate Diebold virus

Researchers at Princeton University have demonstrated major security holes in U.S. electronic voting machines made by Diebold that make vote-stealing viruses a reality.

Brittany Day
Sep 15, 2006

A Tale Of 3 Cities

The chaos that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and continued for weeks afterward gave municipal officials across the country a new appreciation of the importance of information technology

Brittany Day
Sep 15, 2006

Government praised for federated identity management

The UK government has won an award from the Liberty Alliance for its efforts in developing and rolling out federated identity management solutions. The Alliance, backed by leading financial services firms and major IT suppliers, promotes the development of open standards for federated identity management. The UK government was among the winners of the Alliance's 2006 IDDY (IDentity Deployment of the Year) Awards. The awards recognise identity management deployments that are delivering "real-world value to businesses, governments, citizens and consumers around the globe". Deutsche Telekom, the UK government and New York State Education Agencies (EduTech) were selected as winners by a judging panel of international identity experts.

Benjamin D. Thomas
Sep 14, 2006

Congress slams Homeland Security's tech efforts

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sustained more bashing of its cybersecurity efforts from politicians and government auditors. In what has become a familiar refrain, a chorus of Republicans and Democrats--all from the U.S. House of Representatives panel on telecommunications and the Internet--urged the agency to get its act together and appoint a long-awaited cybersecurity czar.

Brittany Day
Sep 14, 2006

Five years after 9-11, most believe feds unprepared for cyberterrorism

It has been five years since hijackers slammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,0000 people, but nine out of 10 information security professionals believe federal government agencies are unprepared should the terrorist attacks turn to cyberspace. According to a poll conducted by vulnerability and risk management provider nCircle of 395 IT executives, 85 percent believe federal government is not ready for a cyber version of Sept. 11, 2001.

Brittany Day
Sep 11, 2006

The Service Way to Security

Ronald Reagan once famously said: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" Inside the government itself, the most terrifying words in the English language may be: "The information security office is here to facilitate your office's goals and objectives."

Brittany Day
Aug 29, 2006

Both Sides Shift Cyberwar Tactics

Cyberwar is changing, and network defense must adapt, two leading executives told a military audience at the Air Force Information Technology Conference at Auburn University's Montgomery campus earlier this month. "We are at a much more dangerous place today than we were four or five years ago," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer. The perpetrators of cyberattacks have shifted in recent years from amateur hackers seeking notoriety to organized criminal enterprises with financial or hostile goals, he said.

Benjamin D. Thomas
Aug 29, 2006

Network Attacks: Analysis of Department of Justice Prosecutions 1999 - 2006

A landmark study on Department of Justice network crime prosecutions reveals most attacks used stolen IDs and passwords, resulting in far greater damages to affected organizations than previously thought: up to $10 million per occurrence and on average more than $1.5 million per occurrence.

Anthony Pell
Aug 28, 2006

Airplane bombing plot spurs targeting technology

Technologies for pinpointing risky passengers drew renewed attention from Homeland Security Department officials following the recent terrorist airliner bombing plot. But wrangling over privacy policy remained a pivotal factor in evaluation of the data-mining technology.

Brittany Day
Aug 24, 2006

IT Versus Terror

Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, told the BBC that the surveillance involved in foiling the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes had been "unprecedented". Officials haven't said if it involved data mining, but experts say that data mining can be a valuable tool in the war on terror if it is applied properly. The question is: Is it?

Brittany Day
Aug 23, 2006

Government - Page 30

Addressing Memory Safety Concerns: Actions for Linux Administrators

German State Abandons Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

White House Warns: Move to Memory-Safe Languages