An interesting trend is very visible this week as the words used by journalists is slowly changing. Since I started tracking the stories through google I haven not seen such a wild and quick swing. For the last few years I have tracked a set of words in phrases such as “cyber war; cyberwar; cyber attack” etc. This week the use of cyber attack is nearly the only result (with a few cyber wars thrown in). This is not a formal or empirical measure at all. And, there are lots of filters in place so it could just be a fluke. It though is interesting to me to see that perhaps a better set of words are being used to describe what is happening in the cyber domain.
This week the UK is a big part of the news with reported cyber attacks against it’s infrastructure a big part of the news. There are some clean up stories on the Sony Playstation debacle. As I write this early Friday morning there are some non-attributed stories that Sony may have been hacked again. We’ll see if they show up over the weekend.
Also a story for future thought is that DARPA is considering cloud infrastructures as a way of combatting a cyber attack. Some simple questions are whether that makes any sense. The entire concept of “private clouds” breaks the model pretty quickly. You are either in the data sphere or you are not. The argument though is pretty significant in either direction.
Monday May 16th 2011
| UK Government under cyber-attack says Chancellor George Osborne Naked Security by Graham Cluley on May 16, 2011 | Leave a comment George Osborne MP, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, has said that British government computers are on the receiving end of over 20000 malicious email attacks every month. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| There will be more attacks like Stuxnet: ArcSight ITP.net “People have asked me if we are in a cyber-war, I am not sure I can answer that. We have Howard Schmidt in the US who is the President’s cyber security advisor who is saying ‘no we are not in one’ and it is ‘a stupid question and concept’ and then we … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Sony Online Entertainment Restarts Game Services socalTech.com The company also said that it will require its players to reset their passwords after the cyber-attackon the site. Sony reported that it has also increased security measures on the site, after engaging “several” outside security firms to implement … See all stories on this topic » |
Tuesday May 17th 2011
| UK Government Under Constant Cyber Attack TIME By Giles Turnbull on May 16, 2011 The UK government’s computers are subjected to thousands of attempted cyber-attacks every month, the country’s finance minister said today. The total number averaged out at more than one per day, and that’s just the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| AusCERT 2011: NASA not immune to cyber attack CIO Magazine An employee of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed issues with spam and cyber attacks as a point of continuing frustration with the government agency. Sean Zadig, special agent of NASA’s Office of the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber Attack Hits UK Public Sector Union eSecurity Planet By eSecurityPlanet Staff The Web site for the UK’s Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has been under attack for several days. “A statement on the union’s site, which is running slowly at time of writing, said on Monday that the union ‘has been … See all stories on this topic » |
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| TechGuard PoliWall Joins the Ranks of the Elite Few to Achieve Common Criteria … PR Newswire (press release) LOUIS, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — TechGuard Security®, a provider of proven technologies and services that protect critical networks from cyber attack, today announced its high performance security appliance PoliWall® has been validated by the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| This Facebook message is not from your friend Daily News & Analysis By Divyesh Singh | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA Facebook users were in for a rude shock on Monday, when they fell prey to a cyber attack. Worldwide experts suspect that the spam attack was launched to affect maximum number of users possible via people’s … See all stories on this topic » |
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| FCC aims to help small businesses with Internet security Daily Caller For a small business, the average cost of a cyber attack is almost $200000, according to a recent study by security software company Symantec. The Federal Communications Commission is launching an initiative to help small businesses understand the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Sony reveal gift package contents International Business Times Coming as a part of Sony’s current PR battle to regain public trust after a successful cyber attackleft the PSN down for over three weeks, the free downloads add to Sony’s existing offer of one months free usage. The two downside is that users will … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Iran Denies Media Claims on Deceleration of N. Activities Fars News Agency Some western media outlets have several times alleged that Iran has stopped or reduced the pace of its nuclear activities due to a lack of technical know-how or West’s cyber attack. In a recent case reports by the western media claimed that Iran … See all stories on this topic » |
Wednesday May 18th 2011
| Fox: N. Korea has 30000 Cyber Warfare Specialists Arirang News The report also noted that Kim emphasized the importance of honing cyber attack skills several years ago telling his military that modern war is electronic warfare. According to the defectors the regime selects the brightest university students and … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Compute: Sony cyber attack points up security risks ScrippsNews Investigators “could not rule out whether credit card information had been accessed,” Kazuo Hirai, head of Sony’s games division, wrote May 4 in response to a congressional inquiry into the cyber attack. As of that date, no major credit card companies … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber Attack on Birgün Daily Website Bianet The cyber attack was carried out via a minimum of 200 IP addresses, it was announced. The website of the Istanbul-based left-wing Birgün newspaper, birgun.net, was deliberately flooded with hits on Monday (16 May). In a statement made after the cyber … See all stories on this topic » |
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| bianet. org Hit by Massive Cyber Attack Bianet The publication of bianet.org was interrupted yesterday between 3.30 and 11.30 pm as a result of a cyber attack. We would like to thank our readers and colleagues who evinced their solidarity with us.bianet.org became the target of a heavy cyber … See all stories on this topic » |
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| DARPA Seeks More Resilient Cloud Infrastructure InformationWeek The defense research agency is developing cloud-based networks that can remain operational even under cyber attack. By Elizabeth Montalbano InformationWeek The research arm of the Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking to develop cloud-computing-based … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Air Force to kick off ACT military cyber security program to shield government … Military & Aerospace Electronics … for release in July for the 5-year, potential $300 million Agile Cyber Technology (ACT) program to develop new information security technologies to safeguard the nation’s military and other national-security computer systems from cyber attack. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| INFORMATION WARFARE: We Are The Champions Strategy Page Israel is going public with a lot of this Cyber War stuff in an attempt to put Iran on the defensive. But there’s more. Over the last year, Israel has revealed that its cryptography operation (Unit 8200) has added computer hacking to its skill set. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Bill Would Require Warrants For Govt to Access Your Email, Cloud Services PC Magazine The update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), would also extend to location-based data, and allow private companies to collaborate with the government in the event of a cyber attack. The ECPA was first enacted in 1986, well before the … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Asia Set for Larger Role at IMF Wall Street Journal By BOB DAVIS Asia looks set for a bigger role at the IMF, while Sony’s chief executive says he can’t guarantee security of the company’s videogame network following a large-scale cyber attack. WSJ’s Jake Lee, Alex Frangos and Daisuke Wakabayashi … See all stories on this topic » |
Thursday May 19th 2011
| Military fends off major cyber attack Views and News from Norway Norwegian military personnel were the targets of what’s being described as a “massive” cyber attackthis spring, one day after Norway started bombing Libya with other UN- and NATO-backed forces. Newspaper VG reported Thursday that they fended off the … See all stories on this topic » |
| US reserves right to respond militarily to cyber attack, says White House FierceGovernmentIT The United States reserves the right to respond militarily to a cyber attack, says a White House international cyberspace strategy unveiled May 16. The strategy, which covers issues including the free flow of information, foreign assistance and … See all stories on this topic » |
| US Decides That If There’s No Real Cyberwar, It Might Just Escalate Hack … Techdirt We’ve discussed quite a few times how consultants, lobbyists, contractors and government agencies who stand to benefit have been overhyping the threats associated with digital infrastructure by calling it a “cyberwar.” The reality is that it’s much … See all stories on this topic » |
| AusCERT 2011: NASA not immune to cyber attack IDG News Service A NASA employee has given an insight into its security system, with the agent saying that NASA is often affected by hackers. An employee of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed issues with spam and cyber … See all stories on this topic » |
| Activity Finds 80% of UK Companies Have Increased Cyber Attacks PR Web (press release) Neil O’Connor, Managing Director of Activity commented: “The growing concerns of the consequences of Cyber Attack leading to business interruption and loss of corporate reputation shows that current approaches to information security need to be … See all stories on this topic » |
| NK has 30000 electronic warfare specialists: Fox News ???? Quoting US and South Korean intelligence, the US network said Washington and Seoul believe that the US CIA can match Pyongyang`s capability in cyber warfare. Fox quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as telling his military several years ago, … See all stories on this topic » |
| INFORMATION WARFARE: The Silence Of The Lambs Strategy Page May 19, 2011: Groups that back political reform in China are calling on the United States for help in defending their web sites that they believe are being shut down by Chinese Cyber War attacks. This form of political censorship is increasingly common … See all stories on this topic » |
| Sony explains shutting down PSN password reset on Playstation website Examiner.com Sony has shutdown the ability for PSN users to reset their password on the Playstation.com website after a security risk opened up thanks to the previous cyber-attack that shut the Playstation Network down for just over three weeks. … See all stories on this topic » |
| US, China Military Talks Stumble Over Taiwan Arms Sales, China’s Military Build-up Huffington Post Growing American concern about China’s military build-up, cyberwar attacks, aggressive maneuvers in the South China Sea and Chinese complaints about US spy-planes monitoring its coastline were all topics left unaddressed after the first high-level … See all stories on this topic » |
| Commotion about Stars worm a psywar against Iran: minister Tehran Times Later, Western officials and media outlets claimed that the cyber attack had hindered Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials confirmed that some industrial systems had been targeted by a cyber attack, but insisted that no crashes or serious damage … See all stories on this topic » |
Friday May 20th 2011
| Netanyahu preps for Arab cyberwar against Israel Ahram Online Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the founding of a public body to face a possible cyberwar waged by Arab hackers against Israel aimed at disabling strategic facilities. The daily Haaretz said Thursday that that the new body will work … See all stories on this topic » |
| Norway army says faced cyber attack after Libya bombing ABS CBN News OSLO, Norway – The Norwegian military said Thursday it had been the victim of a serious cyber attack at the end of March, a day after Norwegian F-16 fighter jets for the first time carried out bombings in Libya. “The army is regularly the target of … See all stories on this topic » |
| Energy, oil & gas industries ignore cyber risks The Engineer London – More than 40% of IT security executives from critical electricity infrastructure businesses expect a major cyber attack within the next year. The same percentage believes the industry’s vulnerability has risen over the last 12 months. … See all stories on this topic » |
| New flaw in PlayStation Network Coolum & North Shore News Sony temporarily disabled PSN and its Qriocity music streaming password reset pages to fix a vulnerability in a system that was just regaining its footing after a cyber attack that resulted in it being shut down for weeks. “We temporarily took down the … See all stories on this topic » |