Following an election season characterized by missing emails, private servers and personal laptops, and amidst pervasive allegations of Russian cybercrimes, outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh C. Johnson issued an exit memo outlining the cybersecurity strides made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Obama administration. Despite acknowledging “tangible progress,” Johnson warned that
Department of Homeland Security
FAA announces more drone detection testing at JFK Airport
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced this week that it will be expanding its research on how to detect ‘rogue’ drones near airports. The FAA will join forces with other government agencies and academic partners to experiment with new drone detection technology at JFK Airport in New York. FAA Senior Advisor on drone integration, Mark…
Hacker has possession of 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employee information through social engineering and threatens to release data of 20,000 FBI employees
Boasting on a Twitter account, a hacker has claimed that he accessed over 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employees’ demographic information, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and titles.
The hacker claims that he obtained access to 1TB of data directly from the Department of Justice. The hacker explained that he gained access to a…
The biggest surveillance and national security event of the year: Super Bowl 50
While you are dipping chips and pulling apart BBQ wings, over 60 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will be combining their efforts to survey the nearly one million people who will travel to the San Francisco area for Super Bowl 50. Agencies ranging from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Drug Enforcement…
Spear-phishing campaigns continue to infiltrate critical infrastructure
The Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) has reported that critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. experienced a 20% increase in cybersecurity incidents in 2015. ICS-CERT responded to 295 incidents involving critical infrastructure in 2015.
The good news is that the industry that is the most targeted—Energy—had a 42…
Omnibus funding bill creates healthcare cybersecurity task force
The $1.1 trillion spending and tax extender bill that is on President Obama’s desk awaiting signature creates a healthcare industry cybersecurity task force, which must be established within 90 days of enactment.
This is important news since a recent report issued by the International Data Corporation forecasts that one in three consumers will have their…
Public-private team of security experts disrupt Dorkbot malware
This is how it should be—private companies working with law enforcement to disrupt evildoers on the Internet. Late last week, Microsoft announced that it teamed up with the Department of Homeland Security, Europol, the FBI, Interpol, the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, the Computer Emergency Response Team Polska, security vendor ESET, and the Canadian Radio, Television…