The FISMA Focus IPD

From: Foreign Policy

Europe’s carbon-trading market was supposed to be capitalism’s solution to global warming. Instead, it became a playground for gangsters, international crime syndicates, and even two-bit crooks — who stole hundreds of millions of dollars in pollution credits.

By McKenzie Funk

The client wanted carbon credits: tradable serial numbers that confer the right to pollute the Earth with invisible, odorless gas. Jugga, as the client called himself, planned to steal the credits, quickly resell them, and become rich overnight—but he needed the Black Dragon to hack into a computer system to help him do it. The Dragon, who in online forums advertised his services as a corporate spy, was sure he could hack anything. But when Jugga contacted him in June 2011, the hacker had no idea what carbon credits even were. “I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to come up with that,” the Dragon says of the concept.

From: Government Technology

The Security Center of Excellence, set to open in spring, is targeting to educate security staff about protecting data at the state and local levels, and in public schools — and may eventually spread outside Pennsylvania’s borders.

by Jessica Hughes

In the face of ever-present and increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, a new entity in central Pennsylvania is a public-private partnership effort to tackle such threats head-on.

The Harrisburg University Security Center of Excellence opened in November, and is developing security curriculum aimed at boosting the skills of security specialists in the area’s government sector.

From: Barron’s Asia

By Shuli Ren

Alibaba Group‘s (BABA) very public spat with China’s powerful commerce watchdog The State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or SAIC, is getting the headlines, but it is by no means the only Internet company that has been in trouble.

Last week, Beijing cut off major Virtual Private Network, or VPN, services into China. Many Internet users use VPN to circumvent the Great Cyber Wall and access sites such as Facebook and Google‘s Gmail. The notion of cyber sovereignty – that China has the right to block a wide array of online content – is rising since President Xi Jinping came to power two years ago, reported The New York Times, which has been blocked in China.

From: GovInfoSecurity

Audits, Source Code Would Be Required from Foreign Firms

By Mathew J. Schwartz

Chinese authorities reportedly want to see the source code for all software and hardware that gets sold to its banking sector, as well as see vendors submit to rigorous audits and build government-approved backdoors into their products. But Western technology firms have reacted with alarm at the proposed “cybersecurity review regime,” and warned that it may soon be expanded to cover much more than just the banking sector.

From: Information Age

The likes of CERT-UK could be having a positive influence on IT departments’ policies and strategy, but are individual employees hearing the message?

Posted by Chloe Green