From: Money
Dinah Wisenberg Brin / CreditCards.com
The FTC is currently accepting public comments on the tracking programs.
Several years ago, you may have reached the Internet through only a desktop or laptop computer, where advertisers could gather information on your activities and interests through cookies that tracked the places you visited online.
Today, you may be using a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone and a desktop to roam the Web. Add a wireless fitness gadget or other connected device and it gets very challenging for companies to seamlessly track where you’ve been and to judge the effectiveness of their online advertisements.
From: FCW
By Sean Lyngaas
The Navy has awarded a $9.1 million contract to Microsoft to support dated products such as Windows XP, which the software firm stopped providing updates for more than a year ago. The award raises the specter of federal agencies grappling with legacy systems and procuring products that the private sector ditched long ago.
“The Navy relies on a number of legacy applications and programs that are reliant on legacy Windows products,” Steven Davis, a spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which awarded the contract, told IDG News. “Until those applications and programs are modernized or phased out, this continuity of services is required to maintain operational effectiveness.”
From: NPR
Carrie Johnson | All Things Considered
Federal workers are furious after the huge data breach of sensitive information. Some complain letters are going to the wrong name or address, compounding their anger over government incompetence.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:What would you do if your sensitive personal information was stolen by hackers? That’s the question of facing millions of people because of massive data breaches at the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management. U.S. law enforcement sources tell NPR the hack may have exposed the information of more than 18 million current, former and prospective government workers, and employees are mad. NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports.
From: Tripwire.com
Lane Thames
Most of us in the cybersecurity industry are familiar with a recent “tweet heard around the world.” Yes, I’m referring to the infamous tweet that caused Chris Roberts to be removed from a United Airlines flight. This incident has undoubtedly generated much criticism aimed at both Roberts and the airline industry.
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I am, however, writing this article to help drive a very important message: The aviation industry has failed at implementing the most basic of cybersecurity controls.
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From: The Wall Street Jounral | CIO Journal
By Brian E. Finch
Furious. Incensed. Appalled. Those are just a few of the less colorful adjectives being used to describe Washington’s reaction to the ever-expanding hack of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. “Fuming” has been used so many times it’s a wonder that smoke alarms are not constantly blaring on Capitol Hill.
No doubt the autopsy results from this cyberattack will be especially ugly. Should this hack also prove to be the handiwork of the Chinese government, it will add more than a little insult to injury. Indeed, it may well finally force Congress and the White House to confront the fact that nation-state cyberattacks are essentially unstoppable.
From: NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence | Tallinn, Estonia
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is proud to announce that a selection of reports resulting from our National Cyber Security Organisation project is already available on our website. The aim of the project is to offer a comprehensive overview of existing national cyber security organisation models.
From: Government Executive
By Rachel Roubein | National Journal
The federal-employee data breach is now even larger than the scope of the first—and second—reports, ensnaring some legislative-branch staffers in its net.
Multiple Senate staffers have reported receiving letters from the Office of Personnel Management stating their personnel records are among the millions of current and former federal employees whose information may have been compromised, according to an internal memo the Senate Sergeant at Arms’ office sent to the Senate community at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.
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From: Bloomberg Business
by Martin Z Braun
Cyberattacks are an “enormous” threat to U.S. national and economic security, said retired Army general and former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus.
“When you look at the massive theft of personal data, the massive theft of intellectual property, the damage done to business by denial of service attacks,” Petraeus, an executive at private-equity firm KKR & Co., said on the “Wall Street Week” television program. “This is a big, big challenge to our country.”
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From: Nextgov
By Aliya Sternstein
With no one agency coordinating the response to a network assault at the Office of Personnel Management, there are questions about who is liable for security lapses that ultimately laid bare private details on current and past federal employees.
The lack of a point person also complicates public outreach and crisis control, former government officials say.
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