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Securing Tomorrow’s Software

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Mitre Corporation, released the Common Weakness Enumeration version 2.0 (or CWE v2) – a dictionary of software weaknesses and their associated mitigation practices developed by the experts from government, industry and academia from across the software security community.

http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/06/securing-tomorrows-software.html

Church Latest Victim of ACH Fraud

Over a weekend in August, the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, fell victim to a $600,000 ACH fraud theft and becomes another in the growing list of businesses and entities that have suffered huge losses as a result of these crimes.

The church says it was victimized by criminals who illegally obtained its banking information in order to transfer funds to numerous "money mule" recipients across the United States on Aug. 13 and 16.

The Diocese is but the latest of many such incidents to have hit the nation's businesses and government entities over the past year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 205 separate businesses have reported incidents of corporate account take-over since 2004 -- the bulk of them in the past year, with estimated fraud losses topping $40 million.

Full article: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=2888&opg=1

U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies

The control room at a nuclear-power plant in Limerick, Pa. The National Security Agency's 'Private Citizen' program will detect cyber assaults on critical infrastructure, but could also help companies in other fields, such as Google, which sustained a major attack late last year. (photo Bloomberg)

Wall Street Journal reports the federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program

Full Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704545004575352983850463108.html

Janusaitis to speak at US-CERT GFIRST conference

Bob Janusaitis is scheduled to present "Social Networking and Protecting Critical Infrastructure" at the US-CERT GFIRST conference in San Antonio, TX in August 2010.

For more information on the conference: GFIRST conference site

Aggies earn fifth cyber defense regional win

A team of Texas A&M Aggies won the Sixth Annual Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) in March.

This is Texas A&M’s fifth win of the Southwestern Regional Competition. The team is now preparing for the national competition to be held April 16-18 in San Antonio.  See full article at:

http://engineering.tamu.edu/news/index.php/2010/04/02/aggies-earn-fifth-cyber-defense-regional-win/

Four Signs of an Easy Victim on Social Networks

What makes cyber criminals target you in a social network scam? Sophos' recent study identifies the signs of a soft target online.  See interesting article from CSO with common sense preventive measures.

 

NIST issues second draft on Smart Grid Cyber Security

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the second draft of its Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, which now identifies more than 120 interfaces that will link diverse devices, systems, and organizations engaged in two-way flows of electricity and information and classifies these connections according to the risks posed by a potential security breach.

DHS/FEMA State Cybersecurity Training

Online training opportunity addressing cyber security released by TEEX part of the Texas A&M system.

DHS/FEMA State Cybersecurity Training

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Intel Chief: U.S. at Risk of Crippling Cyber Attack

FOXNews.com

The United States is at risk of a crippling cyber attack that could "wreak havoc" on the country because the "technological balance" makes it much easier to launch a cyber strike than defend against it, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Tuesday. See article for details:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/03/intel-chief-risk-crippling-cyber-attack/

Is social media really that big a deal?

You, or people you know are actively using social media.  I'm often asked why I believe those in infra-structure protection, IT security, and people in general should even be using the technology.  I simply respond it's just one more tool in the toobox, but you should have in the box, and ready to go.

Unless you've been living under a rock, there is no deying the power of such tools.  As we saw in Iran, and we are seeing in Haiti, the use of this technology brings critical information to the airwaves from eye witnesses on the scene.  We have heard stories of applications like Twitter being used to locate hostages, find people trapped in rubble, and we now use Twitter to provide on the ground observations of seismic activity (the USGS TED system).

I'm not saying that there aren't risks of using social media, but they are managable.  Just like I wouldn't put my utility knive back in the tool box with the blade exposed, I shouldn't take unessarry risks using social media.

Ask any Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) person the difficulty of locating people who may be trapped or injured, by "searching" with limited technology and dogs, and compare it to knowing where someone is specifically trapped and the job becomes more rescue than search.

Understanding not eveyone will have cell phones, nor will cellular/texting services always be available we should encourage our public sector agencies to adopt a means to communciate with the citizens during a mass casualty event, in order to reduce the "search" timeline and provide more time for rescue.

Here is link to a blog that describes "Social Media’s True Impact on Haiti, China, and the World"