Group items tagged

This article is dealing with the recent disclosure by Google that it had fallen victim to a cyber attack. It renews the growing sentiment that a global response to the issue of cybersecurity is needed with particular emphasis on the cooperation between the government and business sectors.

Interesting comparison was made in this article regarding President Obama's priorities. It stated that "Obama has made cyber security a top priority for his administration, and has listed the threat from cyber weapons along with other weapons of mass destruction - such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons." Is it fair to make a comparison between the threat of nuclear weapons and threats which exist within the world of computers?

Howard Schdmit, The Whitehouse's Cybersecurity coordinator has revealed the US Government's plans for tackling attacks on it's networks. He has promised transparency. The official announcement (this bookmark) is very vague in it's initiatives. It will be interesting to see whether their can really separate US government networks from other parts of the Internet.  Cyber attacks are definitely increasing and play a major part in conflicts between countries. China amongst others is said to have attacked & attempted to hack and launch DoS attacks on US government networks and Russia shut down the Georgian communications infrastructure during the last week between the two countries et. )

Highly detailed white paper on the underworld of cyber-espionage. Multinational corporation and state sponsored - all explore this backbone of the internet to get an advantage. Note: This gets quite technical at times. Very eye opening considering the recent events with the Australian/China cyber attacks on government and corporate targets.

Google blames Chinese-backed groups for attacking blogs of political critics. But who can stop this actions, who has the power to, within the current legal framework, do so?

This article (posted yesterday) is about the announcement of a huge China-based cyber espionage which stole thousands of documents - including classified information, visa applications, and personal identities - from "politically sensitive targets" around the world using platforms such as Twitter, Google Groups, Blogspot, Baidu Blogs, blog.com and Yahoo Mail to maintain persistent control of infected computers. Among the targets: the offices of the Dalai Lama, the United Nations as well as Indian and Pakistani government officials. Also available in this article, a report document of 58 pages about "Investigating Cyber Espionnage" (scribd application)

Increasing "probes" on US military networks has led to the appointment of a senior general to Cyber Command operations and approximately 30,000 troops have been re-assigned from IT support to "the frontlines of cyberwarfare". The US is increasingly anxious about the vulnerability of its networks to attack. Chinese, Russian and Korean hackers have been targeted as alleged attackers so far. There is concern that cyberwarfare techniques being used by the US are outpacing the ability to develop policy surrounding their use.

This article discusses how a simulated war game called "Cyber ShockWave" can turn any electronic item, for example, cell phone or computer can be "weapons" used to shut down the Internet during terrorist attack. The notion of privacy and civil liberties, should expect to be ceased for Americans during a crisis of that level. During this mock scenario, it was revealed that "[The United States] don't have the authority in this nation as a government to quarantine people's cellphones." Which during a state of emergency brings to question if Internet carriers should allow their networks to be monitored. How secure is online security, and who is the enemy, becomes difficult to discern, as any threat to national security arises.

google's response to the cyber attacks in China, and claim to close google.cn.

India's government is planning to develop its own OS due to security reasons. They do not want to rely on foreign operating systems as they believe this makes them more susceptible to cyber attacks. 

With technology making it easier to for computer novices to steal user ids and data, now anyone can become a cybercriminal. This article showcases how easy it is to buy Zeus online, malware software which is used to steal information including online banking user ids and passwords and even security plans of US airports. Does accessibility turn you into a criminal? I still think if you're going to be a criminal you will find a way. Technology is certainly making it easier but you will only search for ways to hack into user info if you intend to steal in the first place.

Australiam Government may take some actions to prevent online piracy, now with the iinet case is still on going, AFACT urges the government to do something to stop repeat copyright theft in cyber world.

With an increasing number of critical systems being placed within virtual environments, security is now understandably a prime concern. Systems can be attacked, and valuable information and assets can be compromised. maybe looking at a Vulnerability management system?

According to Peter Tippett, Vice President, Verizon, we will see far fewer cyber attacks by 2020, with the majority of them becoming targetted attacks instead. This will be aided by increased use of reputation systems and automation that will help users avoid sites and emails with malicious content.

Google speaks out on censorship and the violation of user privacy in China. Yahoo in the US agrees but its Chinese partner Alibaba Group does not. Are they afraid of a backlash from Beijing and fear for their ungoing business success? Makes me wonder how bad the quagmire in China really is...