Filed under Security
Tagged as cyberwar, politics
Plans by the Pentagon to gain dominance in cyberspace have been stalled by the US Congress which is a little worried about giving the generals too much power.
According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon wanted a command to defend its global network of computer systems. Dubbed cyber command the cunning plan was to consolidate existing offensive and defensive capabilities under one roof.
However the plan has been slowed to a halt by congressional questions about its mission and possible privacy concerns, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
Some of the things that worry Congress are the questions of when acts in cyberspace become a war and how far the Pentagon can go to defend its own networks. There are fears that the US military’s use of wiretaps has gone too far already and the thought is that if it gets a cyber command then this could get much worse.
On one hand the Pentagon’s remit to make defence networks more bulletproof is fairly straightforward. However policymakers want to weigh how aggressive to allow the Pentagon to be in defence of military networks, particularly if an attack might come from private networks.
One US Army official said that the Pentagon sees malware outside its own network as a threat that might have be removed, which could mean cracking a company’s zombie server and shutting it down, or worse.
Until Congress gets answers to these questions it might be a while before the Pentagon gets its cyber command.
Source: The Inquirer
Filed under News
Tagged as cybersecurity, politics
Various media reports have claimed that Howard Schmidt, president of the Information Security Forum (ISF), is to be named as President Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator today.
The Guardian claimed that he will be given responsibility for overseeing the online defences provided by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, while the Washington Post claimed that Schmidt was chosen after a long process in which dozens of people were sounded out but many declined the post, largely out of concern that the job conferred much responsibility with little true authority.
His appointment has also been unofficially confirmed by Reuters and the Associated Press, with the latter claiming that Obama will make the announcement today, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been made public yet.
The New York Times said that Schmidt will report to the National Security Council – not both to the council and to the National Economic Council, as previously planned. The official said that Schmidt will ‘have regular access to the President’.
The official also said that Obama was personally involved in the selection process and chose Schmidt because of his unique background and skills.
Source: SC Magazine UK
Filed under News
Tagged as cyberwar, politics
The US and Russia have begun talks on limiting the the military use of cyberspace.
Entry into the cyber arms reduction talks – convened by a United Nations arms control committee – represents a significant shift for the US, which has resisted entering such talks for years, the New York Times reports. The change of tack came after the US decided that the cyberwarfare capabilities were spreading across the globe to countries such as North Korea and China.
The Russians have long called for talks on spreading the spread of cybermunitions along the lines of treaties limiting the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical warfare forged during the cold war era. The US has resisted such moves for a long time but is now coming around to the view that regulations do have some role to play.
The US wants the talks to cover greater international co-operation in the fight against cybercrime, while Russia is keen to discuss the supposed risks to national sovereignty posed by cyberterrorism.
The Obama administration ordered a review of US internet security strategy in February but is yet to appoint anyone to the cybersecurity czar role established as part of the review.
More at: The Register
Voting machines in a New York town have been hit by a virus casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines.
According to the Gouverneur Times Cathleen Rogers, the democratic elections commissioner in Hamilton County, claimed that a problem had been found with their voting machines the week prior to the election, and the ‘virus’ had been fixed by a technical support representative from Dominion, the manufacturer.
It also claimed that despite continued assurances from the manufacturer that the system is unhackable, reliable, easy to use, private and secure; a stream of lawsuits, allegations of voter fraud and machine failures against Sequoia from other congressional districts continue to contradict their statements.
Source: SC Magazine UK
Filed under Hacks
Tagged as Hacks, politics
Hackers broke into the website of Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers on Wednesday, leaving a message urging the head of state to save the recession-afflicted Baltic state, his office said.
Instead of Zatlers’ independence day message, the president.lv site displayed a message reading, “Greetings on this 91st anniversary. Mr. President, save our country. We may not last until the 92nd.”
In response, official technicians took the site down completely. By Wednesday afternoon, it was up and running as normal.
Presidential staff told the Latvian news agency Leta that they had contacted law enforcement agencies, but declined to provide additional information, saying they did not want to spoil the rest of the independence day celebrations.
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