The Last Watchdog

on Internet security by Byron Acohido

Obama watch

Kill switch quandry: should president have power to turn off Internet
July 26, 2010

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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

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AV vendor ESET lauded for fostering cybersecurity partnerships
July 16, 2010

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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

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Google-NSA collaboration draws alarm
February 5, 2010

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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

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China’s cyberspies aren’t the only ones prowling Internet
January 15, 2010

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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

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How federal tax incentives could help stem rampant data breaches
October 13, 2009

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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

patricia_titus12How do we as a nation address the abysmal …More

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Finally — a solid measurement of the scale and scope of cyber attacks
September 16, 2009

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katrina3Metrics 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

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Three views on Pres. Obama’s delayed selection of cybersecurity czar
September 15, 2009

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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

patriciatitus3While the delay in appointing a national cyber security coordinator is cause for …More

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