POLICY: March 2009 Archives

Report information concerning suspicious or criminal activity to DHS and the FBI.  The DHS National Operations Center (NOC) can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9685 or by email at NOC:Fusion@dhs.gov.  For information affecting the private sector and critical infrastructure, contact the National Infrastructure Coordinating Center (NICC), a subelement of the NOC.  The NICC can be reached by telephone at 202-282-9201 or by email at NIC@dhs.gov.  The San Francisco FBI Division can be reached at 415-553-7400.  When available each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people and type of equipment used for the activity, the name of the submitting company or organization and a designated point of contact.

Incidents involving cyber related activity or breaches, including loss of Personally Identifiable Information, should be reported to US-CERT at https://forms.us-cert.gov/report or emailed to soc@us-cert.gov.  For additional information on CONFICKER and other cyber related topics from the US-CERT National Cyber Alert System visis http://www.us-cert.gov.

US-CERT Current Activity Report

DHS Releases Conficker/Download Computer Worm Detection Tool - DHS press release

Alex Pentland, an MIT computer professor, argued in a recent report by the World Economic Forum that the growing amount of "digital breadcrumbs" we all leave behind were of enormous social and scientific value.  Prof. Pentland further discussed how the owners of these data were increasingly exposed to misuse and violation of privacy as "reality mining" allows companies and governments to piece together ever more extensive data on behavior patterns and personal movements.  READ MORE

The White House Senior Director for Cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Council, gave the House Cyber Security Caucus a briefing on March 26, 2008 on the status of the administration's 60 day interagency review of the federal cybersecurity mission.

"We were surprised and really pleased to hear Ms. Hathaway say that the administration was expanding their mission on cybersecurity to include the public, which has received short shrift in the past," said Congressman Langevin, co-chair of the House Cyber Security Caucus.  READ MORE

In recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Mueller discussed FBI mission priorities, changes and challenges. Director Mueller's Testimony

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is asking the DHS Secretary to explain why the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), set up within the department last year, has seemingly been marginalized by the agency. READ MORE

For more on this topic see our March 12th post - Another DHS Cyber Chief Quits!

Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have proposed legislation would that would realign cybersecurity responsibilities from DHS and transfer them to the White House creating an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, part of the Executive Office of the President.  READ MORE

The California Department of Water Resources has just released a study that concludes there is a 40 percent chance that a major earthquake will flood 27 delta islands between now and 2030, costing billions in repairs and knocking out the water source for 25 million Californians for more than a year.

Without intervention, it is estimated that about 140 levees of California's could fail in the next century due to storms or rising seas. An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater could result in fatalities, flooding of islands and costs of $15 billion. In California levees have failed about 160 times in the past 109 years. READ MORE

California Department of Water Resources: Delta Risk Management Strategy - Final Phase 1 Report

There are two recent postings on the secure InfraGard site that are must reading for InfraGard Members.  Both documents can be found on the "Homepage" under the "InfraGard Items of Interest" section on the secure InfraGard.org site.

Item #1 is "InfraGard Briefing Book" - this document is the InfraGard program's status report as of March 2009.

Item #2 is a copy of the March 2009 Memorandum Of Understanding Between FHS and FBI Regarding Development of Joint Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiatives

The DHS Control Systems Security Program (CSSP) has created the Industrial Control Systems Joint Working Group (ICSJWG) to allow the federal government to better work with vendors and state and local agencies to address high-tech issues in their operations. READ MORE

Five witnesses, including representatives from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Microsoft Corp. and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), presented a sobering picture of the current state of national cybersecurity initiatives and highlighted a variety of issues that they said need to be addressed on a high-priority at a March 10th hearing of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.  READ MORE

Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security web site, includes a video of this hearing.

In a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, Influenza Pandemic: Sustaining Focus on the Nation's Planning and Preparedness Efforts, Congress' investigative arm warned that even though "national priorities are shifting as a pandemic has yet to occur, and the nation's financial crisis and other national issues have become more immediate and pressing ... an influenza pandemic [nevertheless] remains a real threat to our nation and to the world."  READ MORE

Download the GAO report...

RELATED:

Scientists at the National Emergency Management Summit say pandemic is certain - expert panel tells emergency managers it's just a matter of when the avian flu will spark a pandemic. READ MORE

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5 Myths About Pandemic Panic. READ MORE

Legislation (SB 20) that would require companies doing business in the the state to provide more information in their breach notification letters to consumers, and to send simultaneous notices to state authorities has been introduced into the California Senate. READ MORE

At a recent conference of the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, Dr. Joel Brenner the the National Counterintelligence Executive, discussed the vulnerability of our ever expanding array of electronic communications devices and the growth in the number and types of groups exploiting them.  READ MORE

Download Dr. Brenner's speech...