Rep. Mary Bono Mack, at left in photo, wants security provider McAfee to brief the House subcommittee she chairs on its report of cyberattacks waged against governments and global businesses for more than five years it labels Shady RAT.
International collaboration, steeper convictions for those who are caught and government support for the cyberfight are fueling positive progress in the fight against cybercrime.
Yahoo's Justin Somaini believes his fellow CISOs in business and government do a good job keeping their bosses informed of proper information security practices, but could do better in educating the rank and file about them.
When economists dissected July's 0.1 point drop in overall unemployment, to 9.1 percent, they attributed the decline mostly to fewer people seeking work. But that's not the case for IT security professionals. There are few discouraged workers in the information technology occupation categories these days.
Looking at the international stock market crash and the impact it's likely to have on future investments in fraud detection and prevention, how much can banks and credit unions reasonably afford, when economic stability is shaky and the financial future uncertain?
What Operation Shady RAT reminds us is not just how vulnerable our IT systems are, but how interconnected we are as a global society, and the fundamental role information technology plays.
"The timing and the targets point to China," says cybersecurity policy expert James Lewis. "Spying right before the Beijing Olympics and focusing on Southeast Asia reflects China's larger interests more than those of any other country."
Organizations taking proper preventative measures realize a cost savings of nearly 25 percent over those that don't, an analysis of a survey sponsored by Hewlett-Packard reveals. Still, the study shows, it takes longer to resolve cyberattacks than it did a year ago.
Extensive news coverage about the attacks against RSA and others have made customers jittery. "The publicity resulted in many customers' risk tolerance going down whilst their level of awareness and concern went up," says RSA CFO David Goulden.
"The lack of individual accountability over user accounts provides ample opportunities to conceal malicious activity such as theft or misuse of veteran data," VA Assistant Inspector General Belinda Finn says.
Some 200 people have reported fraudulent debit and credit transactions hitting their accounts after dining at Margarita's Mexican Restaurant in Texas. Investigators believe a third-party vendor may have been hacked.
The arrest is part of a continuing investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.
It's the new conventional wisdom: all computer networks will be attacked.
For Phyllis Schneck, that means organizations must be resilient, keeping computers functioning even when they're under assault.
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