Obama watch
Kill switch quandry: should president have power to turn off Internet
July 26, 2010
Last year Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe stirred up a bi-partisan ruckus by proposing to give the U.S. president the authority to shut down all or portions of the Internet in the event of an emergency. The so-called Internet “kill switch” may — or may not — be part of the currently proposed Lieberman-Collins Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, depending on who you talk to. In this guest LastWatchdog guest blog post, Patricia Titus, …More
AV vendor ESET lauded for fostering cybersecurity partnerships
July 16, 2010
President Obama this week praised San Diego-based antivirus vendor ESET for its Securing Our eCity program, citing it as an example of how local-level partnerships between the private and public sectors can boost cybersecurity. ESET was awarded “Best Local/Community Plan” as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Challenge.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Obama alluded to ESET as helping to strengthen ” …More
Google-NSA collaboration draws alarm
February 5, 2010
Wanted: Inside sales rep to hawk online services to U.S. spy agencies.
Perks: Employer has search monopoly — and warm leads at top spy organizations.
That’s one takeaway of reports that Google has asked the secretive National Security Agency to help track down the cyberattackers who recently breached its network. More on this below.
Reporter Ellen Nakashima’s front page story in the Washington Post yesterday, 04Feb2010, has …More
China’s cyberspies aren’t the only ones prowling Internet
January 15, 2010
Google’s taking umbrage over Chinese cyberattacks has security experts talking about just how vast and rich the world of cyber espionage has quietly become.
“It isn’t just China,” says Matt Moynahan CEO of applications security firm Veracode. “They are the most aggressive. But all large governments are doing this, as are organized non-government actors.”
Indeed, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Israel, France, the United States and the …More
How federal tax incentives could help stem rampant data breaches
October 13, 2009
One idea for motivating organizations to do a better job stemming rampant databreaches: give them tax incentives to do so. Patricia Titus, the former CISO at the Transportation Security Administration within the Department of Homeland Security, and current CISO at Unisys Federal Systems, makes the case in this exclusive LastWatchdog guest blog post. Comments are encouraged.
By Patricia Titus
CISO, Unisys Federal Systems
How do we as a nation address the abysmal …More
Finally — a solid measurement of the scale and scope of cyber attacks
September 16, 2009
Metrics precisely quantifying the scale and scope of cybercrime activity have historically been hard to pin down. But now comes a milestone survey, buttressed by another report, that defines the degree to which the Web is infested with malicious code.
The SANS Institute’s report on Top Cyber Risks is by far the most comprehensive accounting of ongoing cyber attacks ever made public. SANS is the well-respected Washington D.C.-based tech security …More
Three views on Pres. Obama’s delayed selection of cybersecurity czar
September 15, 2009
Since his historic May 29th speech calling for strong U.S. cybersecurity policy, Pres. Obama has been silent on the topic, as internal White House debate continues about the naming of a cybersecurity adviser reporting directly to Obama. Here are three perspectives on the delay:
Patricia Titus, Chief Information Security Officer, Unisys Federal Systems. LastWatchdog guest blog post. 15Sept2009
While the delay in appointing a national cyber security coordinator is cause for …More