NIST has released recommendations for automated Web services security. The announcement was published in GCN last week and the recommendations are open to comments. Information for sending comments is at the end of the GCN article. Comments need to be sent by October 30.
The National Science and Technology Council, the cabinet-level council that coordinates S&T policies across the Federal Government, released (pdf) its plan for federal investment in cyber security research and development today. The 121-page report (pdf), called Federal Plan for Cyber Security and Information Assurance Research and Development, “sets out a framework for multi-agency coordination of […]
CRA has often argued that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) — enacted in 1998 to combat digital piracy — is disruptive to the process of research. When computer security researchers feel compelled by the potential liability created by DMCA to consult with an army of attorneys before moving forward with previously legitimate research, there’s […]
With short notice, the House Armed Services Committee Panel on Asymmetric and Unconventional Threats will hold a hearing tomorrow to examine cyber security, information assurance and information exploitation issues at the Department of Defense. I say short notice because the witness list for the hearing didn’t appear until today and the hearing’s lead witness, CRA […]
As mentioned previously, the House Science Committee met yesterday to focus on the threat cyber security vulnerabilities pose to various critical sectors of the Nation’s critical infrastructure. Representatives from the oil and gas, chemical, electrical and communications sectors all testified that their industries are becoming more and more dependent upon public networks, those networks are […]
Apologies for the dearth of timely updates recently. As many readers familiar with the congressional calendar are aware, Congress disappears for the entire month of August so that members can find their way back to their home districts, partake in a few county fairs and local parades, and generally get a longer-than-usual glimpse of how […]
In a report released this week, the Cyber Security Industry Alliance — a group consisting of information security software, hardware and service vendors — called on Congress and the Administration to ramp up support for fundamental research in cyber security R&D and increase the prominence of cyber security at key federal agencies. CSIA’s report, Federal […]
The New York Times editorializes today that, despite the very real threat, the nation continues to be woefully unprepared to defend against a “cyberattack” on our critical infrastructure. Power grids, water treatment and distribution systems, major dams, and oil and chemical refineries are all controlled today by networked computers. Computers make the nation’s infrastructure far […]
The long-awaited PITAC report on Cyber Security, Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization (pdf, 2.2mb) has just been released. The committee spent nearly a year reviewing the federal government’s cyber security R&D effort, a process we’ve covered in this space. The resulting report concludes that the IT infrastructure — beyond the public Internet — is […]
In a story today, the Washington Post notes that the U.S. power grid remains at risk from cyber security threats that could have real physical effects on the network and that the federal government is stepping up its efforts to make sure utility companies are addressing the threat. Patrick H. Wood III, the chairman of […]
