cybersecurity
Pressure mounts for naming of a White House cybersecurity adviser with clout
April 15, 2009
Word is that Melissa Hathaway’s 60-day review of U.S. cybersecurity policy will hit President Obama’s desk this Friday, April 17. Precisely when the White House makes it public will be an indicator of how high a priority this is with Obama, who certainly has his plate full with a few other weighty matters.
A leak of the executive summary of Hathaway’s review sometime in the next 48 hours — in …More
Cybercrime thriller wins award, sequel coming to LastWatchdog.com
April 2, 2009
Zero Day Threat: The Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity has just been awarded the prestigious Excellence in Financial Journalism Award for general audience books from the New York State Society of Certified Public Accounts.
Z DT is a digital true-crime thriller that chronicles the tumultuous transition from hacking for bragging rights to the current world of cybercrime for pure profit.…More
Beckstrom Q&A: Cybersecurity official explains how he was hamstrung by NSA
March 9, 2009
The sudden resignation of Rod A. Beckstrom, the Department of Homeland Security’s senior official tasked with unifying the federal government’s cybersecurity intiatives, bodes ill for a new age of transparency and collaborative problem-solving in government. Beckstrom was unable to maneuver around, much less partner with, the powerful National Security Agency (NSA).
In this stunningly frank March 5th resignation letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom, Director of the National …More
Lack of transparency surrounding data breaches not a good thing
March 4, 2009
In trying to secretly clean up after the series of data breaches of payment card processing companies, Visa and MasterCard are making ineffectual the data- loss disclosure laws on the books in more than 30 states. These hard-won laws were intended to put pressure on companies and organizations to be more accountable for sensitive consumer data they collect and store. In a recent Last Watchdog interview, John …More
Cybersecurity stimulus: $355 million
February 27, 2009
In moves that should help stimulate the economy, the Obama Administration this week took two big steps toward slowing, and perhaps ultimately reversing, the rapid growth of cybercrime. On Wednesday, Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, told Congress that he will assume a greater role in cybersecurity. Then on Thursday, the President released his proposed fiscal 2010 budget, which included $355 million in funding to make …More
Banking trojans infest Internet
February 22, 2009
Banking trojans are inundating the Internet.
These malicious programs lay in wait on your hard drive for an opportune moment to crack your online banking account — usually just as you log on. You can get them by clicking on a viral link to a greeting card or video that arrives in e-mail spam. Or by clicking to a web page that’s been corrupted by hackers.
By now, most Internet users are savvy …More
Instilling proper cyber consciousness in school-aged children
February 19, 2009
You’ve heard of the Three Rs: readin’, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic. How about teaching our kids the Three Cs: cyberethics, cybersafety and cybersecurity?
That’s exactly what the National Cyber Security Alliance has set out to do. It’s kind of like teaching a kid to look both ways before crossing the street, says Michael Kaiser, executive director of NCSA, whom I had breakfast with this morning. We don’t …More