Tagged: cyber security

Washington’s court system will hire an outside expert to perform a computer security review and audit in the wake of a hacking incident that targeted system’s public website.

The hacking, the details of which were released last week, exposed nearly a hundred social security numbers and perhaps up to a million driver’s license numbers. But now there’s another cyber security concern at Washington Courts, this time with the state’s Judicial Information System.

United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jenny Durkan faced tough questions from senators in Washington D.C. on Wednesday when she testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.

Durkan, who was speaking as chair of the U.S. Justice Department Task Force on Cyber Crime, was asked why more isn't being done to stop thieves who use the Internet to steal everything from credit card numbers to trade secrets.

Security professionals in both the U.S. government and in private industry have long feared the prospect of a cyberwar with China or Russia, two states capable of launching destructive attacks on the computer networks that control critical assets such as the power grid or the financial system.

Now they face a new cyberthreat: Iran.

"[The Iranians] have all the resources and the capabilities necessary to be a major player in terms of cyberwarfare," says Jeffrey Carr, an expert on cyberconflict who has consulted for the U.S. Department of Defense.

It's official: China and Russia are the two biggest sources of cyber espionage attacks against the United States.

The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive singled out those two nations in a recent report to Congress (coincidentally, it's been difficult to reach the counterintelligence website since the report came out and those links may not work).

Remember when we used to call the Internet the "information superhighway"? Today, that highway is starting to resemble the route Mad Max traveled in The Road Warrior. You can't go out on it without inviting an attack. Hardly a week goes by without seeing news reports about another corporation being sabotaged by hackers ... Sony, Intel, Google, and Lockheed are some of the more high profile victims.

For consumers, the biggest cyber threat is identity theft and stolen credit card numbers. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. This month on The Digital Future, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson looks at the huge increase in Advanced Persistent Threats: efforts by nation-states to steal information and technology.