Government IT – Page 4 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Matt Hamblen| Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 09:39:00 -0700

Dallas emergency management officials continue to investigate a hack that activated all 156 emergency tornado sirens citywide for about 90 minutes early Saturday.

The city declared the sirens were activated Friday night in a hack that officials believe came from the Dallas area.

The event was a warning that businesses and organizations, including cities and emergency operations centers, need to guard against similar breaches, whether they may come from disgruntled employees, hackers trying to pull a stunt, or a more nefarious group working for an enemy state, analysts said.

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ComputerWorld Independent

BlackBerry preps a more secure Samsung Galaxy S7

March 19, 2017 admin Android, encryption, Government IT, Mobile & Wireless, Mobile Security, Security

Credit to Author: Peter Sayer| Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2017 10:58:00 -0700

Secusmart, the BlackBerry subsidiary that secures the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s smartphone, will roll out a version of its SecuSuite security software compatible with Samsung Electronics’ Knox platform later this year.

That means that organizations looking for smartphones offering government-grade security will be able to buy the Samsung Galaxy S7 or, soon, the S8 rather than the now-discontinued BlackBerry OS smartphones like the one Merkel uses.

In addition to encrypting communications and data stored on the device, the new SecuSuite also secures voice calls using the SNS standard set by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Organizational app traffic is passed through an IPsec VPN, while data from personal apps can go straight to the internet. Encrypted voice calls go through a different gateway, not the VPN.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Cobol plays major role in U.S. government breaches

March 16, 2017 admin Government IT, Security, Technology Law & Regulation

Credit to Author: Patrick Thibodeau| Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2017 13:21:00 -0700

New research is turning on its head the idea that legacy systems — such as Cobol and Fortran — are more secure because hackers are unfamiliar with the technology.

New research found that these outdated systems, which may not be encrypted or even documented, were more susceptible to threats.

By analyzing publicly available federal spending and security breach data, the researchers found that a 1% increase in the share of new IT development spending is associated with a 5% decrease in security breaches.

“In other words, federal agencies that spend more in maintenance of legacy systems experience more frequent security incidents, a result that contradicts a widespread notion that legacy systems are more secure,” the paper found. The research paper was written by Min-Seok Pang, an assistant professor of management information systems at Temple University, and Huseyin Tanriverdi, an associate professor in the Information, Risk and Operations Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

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ComputerWorld Independent

GOP senator alleges password-hijack attempts after blasting WikiLeaks founder

March 13, 2017 admin Government IT, Security

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2017 06:31:00 -0700

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) Saturday claimed that hackers were trying to gain access to his personal and government-issued devices through bogus password-reset notifications.

In a short flurry of Twitter messages, Sasse blamed the hacking attempts on his criticism of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, earlier in the week.

“Heads-up…I’ve been critical of Assange & WikiLeaks this week. So…big surprise: Am having multiple ‘password reset’ attempts right now,” Sasse tweeted Saturday. The probing was hitting “basically every device, every platform, personal and govt,” he added in a follow-up tweet.

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ComputerWorld Independent

WikiLeaks looks at helping tech vendors disarm CIA hacking tools

March 9, 2017 admin Government IT, Security

Credit to Author: Michael Kan| Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2017 03:57:00 -0800

WikiLeaks has attracted plenty of haters over its controversial disclosures. But the site may be in a unique position to help tech vendors better secure their products.

That’s because WikiLeaks has published secret hacking tools allegedly taken from the CIA, which appear to target smartphones, smart TVs and PCs.

Companies including Apple and Cisco have been looking through the stolen documents to address any vulnerabilities the CIA may have exploited. However, WikiLeaks might be able to speed up and expand the whole process.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Pence used private mail for state work as governor; account was hacked

March 3, 2017 admin Enterprise Applications, Government IT, Security

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2017 03:06:00 -0800

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence reportedly used a private email account to transact state business when he was governor of Indiana, and his AOL account was hacked once, according to a news report.

Emails released to the Indianapolis Star following a public records request are said to show that Pence used his personal AOL account to communicate with his top advisers on issues ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe.

A hacker seems to have got access to his email account in June, and sent a fake mail to people on the former governor’s contact list, claiming that Pence and his wife had been attacked on their way back to their hotel in the Philippines, according to the report. Pence subsequently changed his AOL account.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Worried about hacks, senators want info about Trump’s personal phone

February 14, 2017 admin Government IT, Mobile & Wireless, Security

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 03:09:00 -0800

Two senators have written to the U.S. Department of Defense about reports that President Donald Trump may still be using an old unsecured Android phone, including to communicate through his Twitter account.

“While it is important for the President to have the ability to communicate electronically, it is equally important that he does so in a manner that is secure and that ensures the preservation of presidential records,” Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, and Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, wrote in the letter, which was made public Monday.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Trump stresses cybersecurity but postpones executive order

January 31, 2017 admin Government IT, Security

U.S. President Donald Trump called on government agencies to better protect their networks, but he delayed signing an executive order to kick-start a government-wide review of cybersecurity policy.

A draft copy of the order, leaked earlier, would give the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security 60 days to submit a list of recommendations to protect U.S. government and private networks.

Trump had been scheduled to sign the executive order Tuesday but canceled shortly before it was due to happen.

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