Archive for December, 2013
Reflections on 2013, the Year That Nearly Killed One Small Federal IT Firm
Dec 31st
From: Nextgov
By Terry Verigan/CompuCure
Hurricane Katrina nearly killed CompuCure. In the wake of the storm, just three of us remained by Oct. 1, 2005, and the weeks ahead promised to be grim for our New Orleans-based IT services firm — what was left of it anyway. But we weren’t going to let that damn storm chase us away from our city.
The face of Indian cyber law in 2013
Dec 30th
From: Business Standard
Cyber crime conviction rates remain low, even as cyber fraud continues to increase
Pavan Duggal
Indian cyber law is still ineffective in delivering cyber crime convictions, even as cyber fraud continues to increase
The year 2013 has seen a lot of events as far as cyber law jurisprudence in India is concerned. It has been an eventful year that demonstrated how cyber legal challenges are increasingly becoming relevant.
Hacker Takes over BBC Server
Dec 30th
From: Fars News (Iran)
TEHRAN (FNA)- A hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster, and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system.
While it is not known if the hacker found any buyers, the BBC’s security team responded to the issue on Saturday and believes it has secured the site, according to a person familiar with the cleanup effort, Reuters reported.
A BBC spokesman declined to discuss the incident. “We do not comment on security issues,” he said.
Central and Eastern European Countries Facing Cyber Offensive by Russian Federation?
Dec 12th
From: New East Europe
One of the most popular topics of public debate in recent months has been the cyber espionage activities by the United States and their global impact. It is true that PRISM is a tool used by the National Security Agency. It is also true that it is not the first programme, nor the only one, and definitely not the last one. The release information about its existence does not aim to halt these types of activities, but rather weaken relations between the European Union and the US on many (especially economic) fields and to build an atmosphere of mistrust in
the eyes’ of the Europeans.
Splunk’s Big Data Cure for Regulations.gov
Dec 11th
CRE has been following the problems with Regulations.gov and has made several suggestions for enhancing the website, these comments are available on eRulemaking.US.
Unfortunately, CRE has not had success with reforming and enhancing Regulations.gov. However, we are pleased that Splunk, a leader in operational intelligence software, through their Splunk4Good initiative has undertaken a public service project to bring Regulation.gov’s potential to fruition. As Splunk explains:
The Splunk4Good team is analyzing Regulations.gov’s large and complex data and creating a new, public interface that enables users to explore the federal regulatory data through real-time dashboards and visualizations. The end result will make millions of regulatory documents more accessible, searchable and usable to the general public
Huawei: Chinese technology beacon fades in US
Dec 11th
From: The National
Like many tech firms of its size, Huawei’s campus is a model of efficiency and industry, with research and development (R&D) centres set in green landscaping, with water features and pleasing architecture.
The Chinese multinational company sells products to more than 140 countries, and by the end of last year served in excess of one third of the world’s population. It had revenues of 113.8 billion yuan (Dh68.61bn) in the first half of the year and is on track to increase revenues by 10 per cent this year in the full 12 months. The company expects to grow by 10 per cent every year, and it will do this without any mergers or acquisitions.
Japan and Europe Collaborate on Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructures
Dec 10th
From: Control Design
ARC Advisory Group
With critical infrastructures relying more on information and communication technologies (ICT) than ever before, they leave themselves more vulnerable to threats from technical failures, hacking, natural disasters and human error.
The need for new cyber security solutions and practices that protect an infrastructure’s networks against these threats encouraged Japan’s Control System Security Center (CSSC), a non-profit, collaborative research association, and the European Network for Cyber Security (ENCS), a non-profit association of members whose mission is to improve the resilience of European critical infrastructures, to form a partnership that would help strengthen collaboration on industrial control systems and critical infrastructures.
Financial regulators warn of cyber-threat
Dec 10th
From: The Hill
By Ben Goad
More must be done to protect the U.S. financial system against the growing threat of cyber-attacks, government and industry officials warned an interagency panel of regulators Monday.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), created three years ago to help shore up weaknesses in the economy that led to the 2008 crisis, identified cybersecurity as a major priority earlier this year.
But the danger posed by outside forces looking to damage the financial system has only become greater, Assistant Treasury Secretary Cyrus Amir-Mokri said during a meeting of the interagency panel.
Israel to hold its first int’l cyber security conference
Dec 9th
From: Jerusalem Post
The Israel National Cyber Bureau announced Monday that it will hold its first international cyber security conference in January.
“This is a central event in the cyber world by a unique meeting space for the companies, the technologies and the customers in the cyber world,” said INCB head Eviatar Matania.
The conference is an attempt to advance one of the fields Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has pegged as an area of potential economic growth for Israel.
Egypt inaugurates cybersecurity team
Dec 9th
From: humanIPO
The Egyptian Computer Emergency Response Team (EG-CERT) has been launched in a bid to enhance cybersecurity in the country.
EG-CERT will operate as an arm of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and was inaugurated by Atef Helmy, Egypt’s minister of ICT, at Cairo’s Smart Village yesterday (Sunday).
Helmy said piracy and e-crime had reached high levels with data regularly being stolen and misused. He said governments had to put an end to this by increasing security and network protection.
Egypt has also begun taking steps towards establishing legislation for ICT intellectual property rights as well as cybersecurity and e-terrorism laws.