Government - Page 47

We have thousands of posts on a wide variety of open source and security topics, conveniently organized for searching or just browsing.

Discover Government News

U.S. Government to Get Cybersecurity Chief

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Bush administration plans to appoint a new cybersecurity chief for the government inside the Homeland Security Department, replacing a position once held by a special adviser to the president. Industry leaders worry the new post won't be powerful enough. . .

Antispam measure gains steam in House

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Antispam sentiment on Capitol Hill is growing, with a new proposal in the House of Representatives promising to slap the worst bulk e-mailers with prison terms and millions of dollars in fines.The bill, called the Reduction in Distribution of Spam Act, is sponsored by Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and has the support of two powerful committee chairmen, making it the most likely measure to prevail in the House. . . .

If We Run Out of Batteries, This War is Screwed.

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

It's early April, days before the fall of Baghdad, and a convoy of trucks from the 11th Signal Brigade is rolling through southern Iraq. The mission: establish a digital beachhead in central Iraq. Without this advance node and a handful like . . .

NIST Releases Draft Security Standard

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Division today released the draft of a new Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS 199, which dictates how agencies should categorize their systems based on the security risk faced by each. . .

Feds Prime New Antispam Weapon

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Federal and state law enforcement agencies pledged to take an aggressive new approach to fighting spam: identifying "open relay" mail servers that serve as conduits for massive quantities of junk e-mail. . .

Feds To Refocus on Cybersecurity

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Department of Homeland Security soon will establish an office to execute the Bush administration's cybersecurity strategy, a move that may serve to blunt criticism that the agency has not devoted enough resources and attention to Internet security. . .

Governments are latching on to Linux

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

As Linux makes inroads into the servers of Asian businesses, governments are also climbing on the open-source bandwagon, but with varying degrees of interest. Some have been extremely vocal about their support for Linux and even formed alliances to customize and promote the open-source operating system (OS), while others have opted for a more quiet, wait-and-see approach. . . .

Senate Broadens Powerful U.S. Terror Surveillance Law

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Senate easily passed a measure Thursday expanding a powerful surveillance law, used in spy and terrorism investigations, to allow U.S. agents to wiretap lone foreigners who can't be linked to a terror organization or government. Currently, U.S. law enforcement . . .

DHS Poised For Mock Terror Attacks

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The information technology team at the Homeland Security Department (DHS) will be working around the clock next week to monitor an exercise simulating a terrorist attack on Seattle and Chicago, the department's chief information officer said today. Steve Cooper said . . .

Too Many Watch Lists

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

While errors in the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list have famously raised the ire of innocent air travelers misidentified as terrorists, it's far from the only government watch list in use. In a report released this week, the General Accounting . . .

Schmidt's Exit Leaves Cybersecurity Void

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

White House cybersecurity adviser Howard Schmidt will step down from his post at the end of the month. The move comes only two months after Richard Clarke resigned as special adviser to the president for cyberspace security, shortly after the release . . .

Public/private Security Partnership Gets Rocky

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The changing of the cybersecurity guard at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), coupled with complacency on the part of some corporate executives, has put a higher premium on information-sharing and cooperation between the private sector and the government. . .

Pentagon Taps EDS For $258 Million Survivable IT Program

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Pentagon today awarded Plano, Texas-based Electronic Data Systems Corp. a contract to develop and install a survivable IT and communications infrastructure capable of withstanding a future terrorist attack on a scale similar to or greater than the Sept. 11, 2001, . . .

White House Cybersecurity Adviser Resigns

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

White House cybersecurity adviser Howard Schmidt announced his resignation Monday, the second person to leave the post in three months. Schmidt was the former chief of security at Microsoft Corp. before taking the post in February. He succeeded Richard Clarke, . . .

HSD Seeks To Secure Data it Gets From the Private Sector

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Homeland Security Department has proposed rules under which it would protect systems information it receives from the private sector. The proposed rule explicitly applies to hardware and software that makes up critical-infrastructure systems. The government relies on many such . . .

Uncle Sam: Share Your System's Secrets

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The Department of Homeland Security is hoping to convince technology and telecommunications companies that it's safe to share information about infrastructure vulnerabilities with the federal government. This week, the new department published a set of proposed regulations designed to convince . . .

Homeland Security To Fill Privacy Post

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The former privacy officer of Internet advertising giant DoubleClick will be the Department of Homeland Security's first privacy czar, Bush administration officials said. The administration will appoint Nuala O'Connor Kelly to the privacy post, where she would be responsible for . . .

Feds Falling Short on Cybersecurity

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

The new Department of Homeland Security lacks the resources and expertise to execute the core elements of the Bush administration's cybersecurity plan, the president's former cybersecurity adviser told Congress today. . .

Internet Privacy and Hacking Focus of Congress

data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22%3E%3C/svg%3E

Privacy on the Internet is the focus of a new Senate bill and an upcoming House joint hearing. In both cases, the concern is with the vulnerability of personally identifiable information and the increasing ease that such information can be obtained . . .