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An anonymous email making the cyberspace rounds is so upsetting that its author was correct to hide his name. The “Changes Are Coming” email details the demise of our post office, our newspapers, check writing systems, books and music as we know them along with the end of Cable TV and network systems as now constituted. But the harshest caveat bearing down on America is our demise due to deindustrialization. The email reports that “Tens of thousands of factories have left the U.S. in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost. . .the U.S....

SAN FRANCISCO: Computer security experts are studying a scary new cyber weapon: a software smart bomb that may have been crafted to find and sabotage a nuclear facility in Iran. Malicious software, or malware, dubbed "Stuxnet" is able to recognise a specific facility's control network and then destroy it, according to German computer security researcher Ralph Langner. "Welcome to cyber war," Langner said in a post at his website. "This is sabotage." Langner has been analyzing Stuxnet since it was discovered in June and said the code had a technology fingerprint of the control system it was seeking and would...

A foreign spy agency pulled off the most serious breach of Pentagon computer networks ever by inserting a flash drive into a U.S. military laptop, a top defense official said Wednesday.

Cyberspace has become an indispensible component of everyday life for all Americans.  We have all witnessed how the application and use of this technology has increased exponentially over the years. Cyberspace includes the networks in our homes, businesses, schools, and our Nation’s critical infrastructure.  It is where we exchange information, buy and sell products and services, and enable many other types of transactions across a wide range of sectors. But not all components of this technology have kept up with the pace of growth.  Privacy and security require greater emphasis moving forward; and because of this, the technology that has brought many...

TORONTO, ON – The Information Warfare Monitor (Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto and the SecDev Group, Ottawa) and the Shadowserver Foundation announce the release of Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into cyber espionage 2.0. The report documents a complex ecosystem of cyber espionage that systematically targeted and compromised computer systems in India, the Offices of the Dalai Lama, the United Nations, and several other countries. Members of the research team are holding a news conference at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 6, to discuss their latest findings and to answer questions from the media....

Note: This is a SNIPPET only. Quote: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE http://gao.gov/products/GAO-10-338 "Cybersecurity: Progress Made but Challenges Remain in Defining and Coordinating the Comprehensive National Initiative" GAO-10-338 March 5, 2010 SNIPPET: "Summary In response to the ongoing threats to federal systems and operations posed by cyber attacks, President Bush established the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) in 2008. This initiative consists of a set of projects aimed at reducing vulnerabilities, protecting against intrusions, and anticipating future threats. GAO was asked to determine (1) what actions have been taken to develop interagency mechanisms to plan and coordinate CNCI activities and...

The United States would lose a cyberwar if it fought one today, a former US intelligence chief has warned. Michael McConnell, a retired US Navy vice admiral who served as ex-president George W. Bush's director of national intelligence, also compared the danger of cyberwar to the nuclear threat posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. "If we went to war today in a cyberwar, we would lose," McConnell told a hearing Tuesday on cybersecurity held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "We're the most vulnerable, we're the most connected, we have the most to lose....

Updated February 18, 2010 Cyberattacks Reportedly Traced to Computers in Chinese Schools" FOXNews.com SNIPPET: "The recent cyberattacks on Google and other American companies have been traced by investigators to computers at two schools in China, including one with ties to the Chinese military, according to a New York Times report citing unnamed inside sources. The Times report also says that the attacks began much earlier than first thought, as far back as April..."

Although I’m sitting in the living room of a second-floor condominium in Germantown, Maryland, what I see on the monitor of Dan Ward’s Dell computer invites me to imagine I’m in the cockpit of an Embraer 145 regional jet. Visible through a cockpit window is the jetway, which runs from the passenger door to a gate at Terminal 3 of Chicago O’Hare. The cockpit instruments are dark, but after Ward types in a few commands, the control panel lights up like a Christmas tree. Soon Ward, senior pilot for Delta Virtual Airlines, is keying flight data into the flight management...

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack. Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity,...

In a paper published by the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Major General Amos Yadlin of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), in the Intelligence Research Center Journal, described the development of cyberwarfare, computer attacks in the 21st century, and the capabilities required from armies to fight this medium successfully. According to Maj. Gen. Yadlin, cyberwarfare is divided into three areas: intelligence gathering, defense and attack. "Anyone who is able to hack (personal computers, cell phones and internet) ends up knowing quite a lot. If you catch my drift," warned the Military Intelligence chief in the article. "Just imagine the...

Less than two years after the U.S. Air Force officially dumped its planned Cyber Command, it's scaled-back replacement, the 24th Air Force, recently officially opened for business. Over the past five years, the air force has been trying to establish a new Cyber War operation and use it to gain overall control for all Department of Defense Cyber War activities. The other services were not keen on this. That resistance, plus internal problems (losing track of nuclear weapons, cost overruns on new aircraft, inability to perform on the battlefield) led to the Cyber Command operation being scaled back to being...

The United States faces an evolving list of potential adversaries in the 21st century that not only continue to seek weapons of mass destruction, but are honing the skills necessary to wage battle in cyberspace as well as outer space, a panel of national security experts said Jan. 20. The nature of warfare has changed significantly since the end of the 20th century, with new technologies and threats emerging faster than ever, U.S. Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, commander of Air Force Space Command, said during a panel discussion at the Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy here. The...

We are in fact entering a "Brave New World". The 'Battlefield of Ideas' has moved into Cyberspace, and is embroiled in Ideology and Rhetoric the way Talk Radio and Television were before us. The question is: Can Conservatives hold this ground, too? See the full article at the Liberty Tree Revolution

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top-ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, today argued against establishing a new cybersecurity coordinator position at the White House. Rather than have a new White House “cyber czar” oversee cybersecurity efforts, the Homeland Security Department should be given greater resources and authority to secure civilian networks, Collins said during a speech in Washington. She called for establishing a cybersecurity center at DHS with a “strong and empowered leader” who would also serve as principal cybersecurity adviser to the president. Under the government's overall computer security strategy, DHS is responsible for protecting...

SNIPPET: "Rusty Shackelford, PhD., credits Samir Khan with the first report of the arrest of Abu Sayaba, proprietor of the "iskandrani" blog, by the FBI in Boston. This corresponds to the arrest of Tarek Mehanna, age 26, on charges of lying to FBI agents when questioned two years ago about his friend and now-convicted terrorist Daniel Joseph Maldonado. Mehanna was about to leave the USA for Saudi Arabia, which evidently prompted the unsealing of his indictment." (Read More...)

Note: The following text is a quote: Navy Moves to Meet Information Age Challenges By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2009 – The Navy is merging its information technology, intelligence and communications operations into one organization to better address Information Age challenges, including threats to computer networks, the Navy's top officer said here yesterday. “If we as a Navy are to remain dominant in this Information Age or Cyber Age, or whatever moniker you choose to put on it, I think that we have to take advantage of the new opportunities that exist, such as...

Note: The following text is a quote: National Guard Embraces Social Media By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill Special to American Forces Press Service ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 12, 2009 – Even in the 140-character brevity demanded of a “tweet,” the enthusiasm National Guardsmen have for communicating through Twitter software is evident. “Just shot my first rounds from a M1A1 Main Battle Tank. Killed 3 of 4 targets. Best Tank on the planet!” And it’s not just the rank-and-file who are communicating, although among Twitter’s millions of users -- the company won’t say exactly how many -- one stands out: He...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has created a new cyber command in the Pentagon as part of the Obama administration's focus on cyberdefense. The new command will be headed by the director of the secretive National Security Agency. Privacy advocates worry about the role of the NSA and the militarization of the Internet. In a memo this week, Gates said the nation's increasing dependency on cyberspace, alongside a growing array of cyberthreats and vulnerabilities, adds a new element of risk to national security. The memo says a new command is necessary, capable of synchronizing war-fighting effects across the global security environment....

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53850 Official Cites Value of Cyberspace to Warfighting Operations By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 8, 2009 – Maintaining and protecting the U.S. military’s worldwide computer network is a vital component of national security, a senior official said here today. “For the United States military, cyberspace is a warfighting domain and it is critical to our operations,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. “And so, we do have to aggressively protect our networks and our ability to work in cyberspace.” It also is important, Whitman said, that the Defense...