May 2008 Archives

Chinese hackers pose a clear and present danger to U.S. government and private-sector computer networks and may be responsible for two major U.S. power blackouts. National Journal Magazine / May 31, 2008 ... To read this article, click here...

I envision a community of state, local and federal intelligence and law enforcement professionals working together - supported by appropriate tools - to achieve a common goal: protection of the nation ,,, Charlie Allen, DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis, May 19, 2008
To read more, click here...

U.S. DHS National Cyber Security Division and the Multi-State ISAC invite you to participate in the next session of the National Webcast Initiative - Security 101 for Your PC

Wednesday / June 18, 2008 / 2:00 - 3:00 PM EDT

For more info about this event, click here...

We provided this info awhile back.  Sometime when you pass on a document you want to redact or blackout some of the content.  In soft copy this can be tricky ... well not really.

First a recent example what happens when you don't do it right, click here...
 
The National Security Agency has published some guidelines on how to do it right using Word and Adobe Acrobat, click here...

August 2-7, 2008 / Las Vegas

The Black Hat Briefings return to the venerable Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  Touted as the "premier North American technical information security conference".  For more info, click here...

This article requires some deep thought, just posted as an FYI.

"If disasters are in fact ripe opportunities, and if one can suspect more of them to occur with, say, the impact of natural hazards or with terrorism, what if proposals for new built development planned for their own potential future destruction, and what if the policy requiring this also required the infrastructural systems in which the development is enmeshed to be drastically improved if a disaster destroyed or affected the development in the future?"

Aug 4-7, 2008 / Burr Ridge, IL

Recent cyber-related blackouts and plant trips, along with the five year anniversary of the Northeast Blackout, potential cyber-related incidents and their prevention are  the main focus of the Conference agenda. The focus of cyber security has been on traditional cyber security including passwords, firewalls, and compliance, not system reliability. Reliability of industrial facilities (power plants, substations, chemical plants, refineries, water systems, pipelines, etc.) has focused on control system challenges, not cyber vulnerabilities. This Conference addresses the intersection of control system vulnerabilities and reliability of industrial control systems and processes.

For more info, click here...

Critical Infrastructure Protection ... Thursday May15th ... San Francisco Federal Building

Presentations from the meeting are included on the chapter's web site, click here...

Hospitals in major U.S. cities targeted by terrorists are ill-equipped to handle the surge of emergency care required in the wake of an attack, a report by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says, for more info click here.  To download the House Committee report, click here...

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., warned today (May7th) that the threat of homegrown terrorism is on the rise, aided by the Internet's capacity to spread the core recruitment and training message of violent Islamist terrorist groups.  To view the press release from the Senate Select Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, click here.  To download the Committee's report,  click here ...

Software tools used by criminals -- how effective they are and what we can do about it ...  Markus Jakobsson, Principal Scientist at PARC ... May 22nd in Palo Alto ... For more info click here...

The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health care disaster hits.  For more on this story, click here...

Report:  Definitive Care for the Critically Ill During a Disaster, CHEST, May 2, 2008, click here...

Interview on KCBS with Dr. David Magnus of Stanford's Center for Biomedical Ethics, click here...

In a review of Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence operations, the Justice Department inspector general found DEA analysts sometimes took months to cable terror-related intelligence obtained by DEA agents to partner agencies.  For more on this ABC News story click here.  To download the DoJ Office of Inspector General Report (.pdf), click here...

The Senate Homeland Security committee wants to know, among other things, what is the goal of Homeland Security's new National Cyber Security Center. WIRED, to read article click here...

You know you've got a problem when you can't tell a hostile attack by another nation from bored kids with an axe to grind....Separating cyberwar, cyberterrorism and cybercrime isn't easy; these days you need a scorecard to tell the difference. It's not just that it's hard to trace people in cyberspace, it's that military and civilian attacks -- and defenses -- look the same. WIRED Commentary, to read more, click here...