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CyberSecurity
Outlaw Justice: When Hackers Retaliate Against Cyber Security
By Bonnie Goldstein - Politics DailyI used to be a hacker. It was a long time ago, decades before the future World Wide Web was available. I operated anonymously (except to my clients who paid me for what I discovered). I tracked down people whose cars, pledged as security on automobile loans, had been targeted for repossession. I performed my "hacking" duties over the phone using codes and pretexts. I infiltrated semi-secure bureaucratic systems (unemployment claim offices, utility company billing desks etc.) to precisely extract the whereabouts of drivers who had borrowed money to buy automobiles and then skipped town without ...
Fake White House Holiday E-Mail Contained Dangerous Malware
By Dana Kennedy - AOL NewsAn e-mailed Christmas greeting purportedly from the White House actually contained dangerous malware aimed at extracting sensitive financial data and documents from government employees. The bogus e-mail, discovered last week, was a ruse by cybercriminals who may have been primarily interested in accessing documents by government officials involved in computer crime investigations, The Associated Press reported. The e-mail, apparently sent mainly to government, military and law enforcement staffers, surfaced in inboxes around Dec. 23 and contained a rendering of a red holiday card with a ...
US Also Vulnerable to Stuxnet Virus, Official Warns
By Sharon Weinberger - AOL News(Dec. 7) -- The computer virus Stuxnet, which some experts believe was created specifically to target Iran's nuclear facilities, could also threaten U.S. infrastructure, a senior Department of Homeland Security official says. "That virus focused on specific software implementations, and those software implementations did exist in some U.S. infrastructure," Greg Schaffer, the department's assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, told reporters at a breakfast Monday morning. "So, there was the potential for some U.S. infrastructure.to be impacted at some level." Schaffer ...
Hawaii U Posted Private Info of 40,000 Students Online
By Mara Gay - AOL News
(Oct. 29) -- More than 40,000 former University of Hawaii students now know what plenty of others before them have regrettably experienced firsthand: Security online can be elusive. The students' Social Security numbers, grades and other private information were made public after a faculty member at the school accidentally posted the information online, according to The Associated Press. The sensitive information of anyone who attended the school's Manoa campus from 1990 to 1998 or in 2001 was available over the Internet, university spokesman Ryan Mielke told the AP. The security breach ...
Stuxnet Close-Up: All You Need to Know About the Mighty Malware
By Dana Chivvis - AOL News(Sept. 27) -- The virus lurked quietly over the summer, but last week, it dominated headlines around the world, and now it's arrival has been confirmed: Stuxnet attacked Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, which was scheduled to go online this fall. The news has led experts to speculate that the highly sophisticated software is an advanced cyberweapon being used to spy on and sabotage the Iranian nuclear program, although some say the infection was more an indicator of the Iranian plant's shoddy security. But just what is Stuxnet and why is it so feared? Below, Surge Desk answers five ...
Cyber Commander: Attack on Equipment Next Threat
By Sharon Weinberger - AOL News(Sept. 23) -- Previous high-profile cyberattacks have focused primarily on disrupting or hacking into computer networks, but the next wave of attacks could be launched against physical equipment, the general in charge of defending the nation's military networks said today. "What concerns me the most are destructive attacks," Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, told the House Armed Services Committee during congressional testimony today. Alexander cited two of the most high-profile attacks on nations, including the 2007 Estonian cyberwar, which took place during a ...
Opinion: Arming the US for Cyberwar
By not in system - AOL News(July 9) -- The information revolution launched by the Internet has reached into every corner of our lives, from communication and entertainment to commerce and government. But this crown jewel of modernity also comes with deep and dangerous flaws that leave us vulnerable to a variety of threats that are overwhelming our capacity to defend. Cybercriminals and cyberspies look at the World Wide Web and see digital connections that lead directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to government and industrial secrets. The threats of "cyberwar" and "cyberterror" also loom large with ...
Bill Would Let Feds Take Over Internet During Crisis
By Hugh Collins - AOL News(June 18) -- Newly proposed legislation would give the federal government authority to seize and even switch off the Internet during a national crisis. The bill, put forward Thursday by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., would allow the Department of Homeland Security to issue emergency orders to companies providing services such as search engines, software and broadband Internet, according to CBS. Companies that didn't comply would face a fine. "The Internet can also be a dangerous place, with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key ...
Bill Allows Feds to Take Over Private Networks During Cyber Attacks
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyThe federal government could take over private firms' networks in the event of a widespread cyberattack in the United States, under a broad infrastructure security bill introduced in the Senate this week. The draft bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to keep "critical infrastructure" up and running during a "cybersecurity emergency," Wired reported. The measure states that once the president declares an "imminent cyberthreat," a DHS cybersecurity and communications director would "develop and ...
New Cyber Chief Promises Oversight, Not Openness
By Sharon Weinberger - AOL News(June 3) -- Amid concerns about the government's growing role in monitoring and safeguarding the nation's computer networks, the head of the newly created U.S. Cyber Command says the military would share details of its cybersecurity operations with other federal branches but not with the public. In his first public remarks since being appointed Cyber Command chief last month, Army Gen. Keith Alexander -- who also heads up the National Security Agency -- told an audience at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies today that the public shouldn't worry, however, about ...
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