cybersecurity

Seventy-seven percent of small- and medium-sized businesses believe that their companies are safe from cyberthreats and yet 83 percent of them have no formal cybersecurity plan. Um, yeah. And that was just one of the contradictions uncovered in a survey of 1,015 small- and medium-sized businesses carried out by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec.

"It's not part of the culture yet," said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the NCSA, who added that he was "a little disheartened that we didn't see substantial … Read more

In 1947, Harry Truman wanted Congress to vote for $400 million in aid to support Greece and Turkey against the threat of communist takeover.

That was a lot of money back then. What's more, Truman had to win over a Republican-led Congress dominated by isolationists. But Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, an influential Republican who also chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered the president a sage piece of advice: Make a personal appearance before Congress, play up the threat of Soviet expansionism, "and scare the hell out of the American people."

Which is exactly what Truman … Read more

The U.S. military has the ability to act pre-emptively when it detects an imminent cyberattack threat, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today.

During his first major policy speech on cybersecurity, Panetta echoed previous statements that the United States was facing the possibility of a "cyber-Pearl Harbor" perpetrated by foreign hackers, painting a grim portrait of the destructive power wielded by unnamed agents.

"A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11," he said in prepared remarks during a speech at the Intrepid … Read more

Days after a strict cybersecurity law went into effect in the Philippines, the country's Supreme Court suspended it.

According to the Associated Press, the court issued a temporary restraining order to freeze the government's enforcement of the Cybercrime Prevention Act 2012. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the law will be suspended for 120 days. The court plans to hear oral arguments from the law's supporters and critics in January.

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law last month and it became official last week. There were no reports of anyone violating the law.

Thousands of people … Read more

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman sent a letter to President Obama today urging him to use his executive power and publish "advisory" guidelines on a cybersecurity order.

"Countless national security leaders from your Administration and the previous Administration have made clear that the threat from cyber attack is similar to the threat we faced from terrorism on September 10, 2001 -- the danger is real and imminent, yet we have not acted to defend against it," Lieberman wrote. "We know our adversaries are already stealing valuable intellectual property and exploiting our critical infrastructure … Read more

Two Democratic senators are urging President Obama to direct his administration to publish "advisory" guidelines through an executive order on cybersecurity.

In a letter (PDF) sent to the White House today, Delaware's Christopher Coons and Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal say it's time for an executive order "directing the promulgation of voluntary standards" by the Department of Homeland Security.

It's hardly clear that the vast Homeland Security bureaucracy -- which has received plenty of failing cybersecurity grades from congressional overseers -- is best-equipped to advise the private sector on how to secure networks and … Read more

Don't worry, we're not spies. That's the message Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is pushing out in a bid to allay U.S. fears that the company may have been involved in spying or illegal activity for the Chinese government.

Huawei has released a 24-page report, written by former U.K. government chief information officer turned Huawei's global security officer John Suffolk, which states that protecting the network security of its worldwide customers is one of company's "fundamental interests."

Despite the U.S. and China's deep economic ties and mostly friendly diplomatic relations, … Read more

Federal regulators charged with overseeing the reliability of the electrical grid expressed concerns about proposed cybersecurity standards and warned that existing law may not protect "against fast-moving cybersecurity threats."

Yesterday's statement from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission came in a response to pointed questions from two senators, Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Susan Collins (R-ME), the panel's senior Republican. The senators made their inquiries in July, a few weeks after CNET published an article on the topic.

Lieberman and Collins had asked for an "expeditious comprehensive investigation" … Read more

A Democrat-backed cybersecurity measure that the Obama administration calls necessary to protect the nation's infrastructure was blocked by Republicans opposed to what they considered to be undue regulation.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 needed 60 votes to move to a vote by the full Senate, thanks to a Republican filibuster of the measure. It mustered only 52 votes in favor, which in the Senate's upside down world allowed a minority of 46 opponents to defeat the measure. The vote mostly fell along party lines, according to Bloomberg. Senate Democrats had hoped to have a vote on the measure … Read more