Follow up to previous posting of November 2016 – Audit of OPM Security Systems Shows Continued Material Weakness – an update via NextGov: “More than two years after suffering a massive data beach [of over 20 million current and past federal employee personal data], the Office of Personnel Management still isn’t sufficiently vetting many of… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity: The cold war online
Cybersecurity: The cold war online, Steven Aftergood. Nature 547, 30–31 (06 July 2017) doi:10.1038/547030a. Published online 05 July 2017. “The Internet is under attack, and not just by hackers, thieves and spies. As Alexander Klimburg reports in The Darkening Web, governments that insist on their own primacy are increasingly assaulting the idea of this digitized… Continue Reading
Black Hat USA Report – Portrait of an Imminent Cyberthreat
July 2017 Portrait of an Imminent Cyberthreat – Cyber attacks on US enterprises and critical infrastructure are coming soon, according to some of the industry’s most experienced and highly informed security professionals. And in most cases, defenders are not prepared. “Most information security professionals believe that the US critical infrastructure will be breached by a… Continue Reading
ABA – Cloud Ethics Opinions Around the U.S.
ABA Law Practice Division – “Cloud Ethics Opinions – There’s a compelling business case for cloud computing, but can lawyers use it ethically? We’ve compiled these comparison charts to help you make the right decision for your practice. What is Cloud Computing? About This Map Broadly defined, cloud computing (or “Software as a Service”) refers to… Continue Reading
Number of Employment-Related Identity Theft Victims Is Significantly Greater Than Identified
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration – The Number of Employment-Related Identity Theft Victims Is Significantly Greater Than Identified, June 20, 2017, Reference Number: 2017-40-031.”Employment-related identity theft (hereafter referred to as employment identity theft) occurs when an identity thief uses another person’s identity to gain employment. Taxpayers may first realize they are a victim when… Continue Reading
IC3 Issues Internet Crime Report for 2016
“The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its 2016 Internet Crime Report, describing the numbers and types of cyber crimes reported to IC3. Business Email Compromise (BEC), ransomware attacks, tech support fraud, and extortion are all common schemes affecting people in the U.S. and around the world. US-CERT encourages users to review the 2016… Continue Reading
Unisys Security Index™ U.S.
“The Unisys Security Index measures concerns of consumers on issues related to national, personal, financial and internet security around the world. In the U.S., the greatest increase in concern since 2014 was in the area of internet security: 51%. Learn more about concerns in the other areas.” Continue Reading
2017 Online Trust Audit Released
2017 Online Trust Audit Released – What Did We Learn? Jeff Wilbur, June 20, 2017 – “Today we released the 9th annual Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll. This year’s Audit is our most comprehensive ever, assessing more than 1000 consumer-facing sites for their adoption of best practices in consumer/brand protection, site security and responsible… Continue Reading
Apple employs former intel agents to squelch product and tech leaks
William Turton, The Outline – Leaked recording: Inside Apple’s global war on leakers – Former NSA agents, secrecy members on product teams, and a screening apparatus bigger than the TSA. “A recording of an internal briefing at Apple earlier this month obtained by The Outline sheds new light on how far the most valuable company… Continue Reading
GOP Data Firm Leaks Personal Data on 61 percent of US population
Gizmodo: “Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server. The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses,… Continue Reading
EFF Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications
“Modern technology has given those in power new abilities to eavesdrop and collect data on innocent people. Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF’s guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices. Select an article from our index to learn about a tool or issue, or check out one… Continue Reading
Questions increase over determining extent of Russia election hacking
NPR – If Voting Machines Were Hacked, Would Anyone Know? – “As new reports emerge about Russian-backed attempts to hack state and local election systems [Link], U.S. officials are increasingly worried about how vulnerable American elections really are. While the officials say they see no evidence that any votes were tampered with, no one knows… Continue Reading
