Mahwah Hosting Cyber Safety Talk
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By Allison Pries  MAHWAH  Police and the Mahwah Municipal Alliance will host a cyber safety seminar for parents today at 9 a.m. at Ramapo Ridge Middle School.  Learn about MySpace.com, how to track your child's computer usage and how to keep them safe online.
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IT Security Events to Include Presentations and Demos from Wave     and ICT: Demonstrating Trusted Computing, Advanced Encryption,                Data Protection, Authentication and More     Wave Systems Corp.
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House Homeland Security Committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), says hacks, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems undermine the government's efforts to encourage companies and private organizations to improve cyber security.
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(InfoWorld) - The Department of Homeland Securityâs Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) raised a few eyebrows in late November when it sent a warning out to U.S. banks and financial institutions about a possible cyber attack by Islamic militants. The alert, dated Nov. 30, was triggered by a posting on what the DHS considered an Islamic jihadi Web site calling for hackers to attack U.S. financial and banking Web sites, apparently to protest the detention of Muslims at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. However, the warning was heavily qualified, with DHS calling the threat âmore aspirational than operational.â Financial firms downplayed the danger, too. One security executive at a major brokerage told InfoWorld that the warning was a ânon-event.â But could repeated warnings about such non-events eventually make critical infrastructure owners deaf to DHSâs warnings? InfoWorld Senior Editor Paul F. Roberts recently chatted with John Carlson, senior director of security and risk Assessment at BITS, a financial-services industry consortium focused on security, fraud, and risk management, about the DHS warning and state of the public-private partnership on cybersecurity. InfoWorld: Iâm guessing that your members received the US-CERT warning about the cyber terrorist attack? John Carlson: There were two messages sent: the first was [Nov. 30]; then a second revision came out [Dec. 1]. The gist of it was that these reports were not corroborated. IW: What was the reaction of BITS members to the warning? JC: Our members have an âall hazardsâ approach to business-continuity planning. Theyâve got well-developed approaches that have been bolstered since 9/11. In response to new regulatory requirements, firms have done a lot to improve backup, theyâve done tests with the various exchanges. Theyâre also working in closer harmony with the federal government to share information on threats and vulnerabilities. I think thereâs a spirit of appreciation that the government is willing to share information with the financial services industry. The firms take that information into account in responding and activating their business continuity plans. IW: How do your members apply information like this that comes from DHS? JC: Iâm not sure I can give a blanket answer. Each firm has its own mechanisms for gathering information. Risk-management professionals at these firms read the paper and understand the military conflicts and theyâre mindful of that. They take it into account when they have employees traveling. Theyâll monitor where they are. With the [bird flu] pandemic issue, firms were monitoring that closely and trying to figure out what impact it would have on their organizations. IW: Is there a danger from these warnings of creating a âBoy Who Cried Wolfâ situation, where firms begin to disregard the warnings? JC: Thereâs always a concern about the crying-wolf syndrome. But our firms appreciate getting the information even if itâs not corroborated. A continuous flow of information helps build trust between the private and public sectors. IW: Was this warning about the jihadist threat something that your members see all the time, or was this an unusual kind of warning from DHS? JC: I think the warning came across the transom at a high level [saying] âpay attention to this.â So it was different from what we normally get. Weâre getting a steady stream of information on threats and vulnerabilities and a range of things. For example, if thereâs a known virus thatâs being perpetrated in [the United States] or against a financial institution. Weâre also getting information on political changes around the world. IW: Do you think DHS has its arms around the cybersecurity problem? JC: My personal opinion is that the government has some capabilities, but not all capabilities. In general, our firms would like more information, but there are many reasons why if (the government) has the information they donât provide it. But itâs a touchy question. People have lots of different views. Â  IW: Do you feel like your members are getting all the information they need? JC: Thereâs some filtering, but I donât have information to compare or validate what the filter is. We talk about issues through coordinating councils that meet quarterly. Itâs a two way conversation.Â
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InfoWorld - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will host a invite-only conference two months from now that will bring together security experts from law enforcement, Internet service providers, and the technology industry.
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QUINCY - Crane Public Library will offer a free seminar on child  Internet safety from  7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the library,  40 Washington St.  The most popular virtual hangouts and online games will be discussed and pointers will be given  on how to protect  children.
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There&#39;s a wireless router gathering dust in Bob LaRocca&#39;s office. It&#39;s yours if you can hack into his network.First, some background: &#160;LaRocca is director of IT security with the School District of Palm Beach County in Florida, where he oversees a network of 60,000 computers in 175 schools and which he says covers more acres than any other school district east of the Mississippi River. Computer security has traditionally been a low priority in the public school system, but that&#39;s not the case in Palm Beach County.That&#39;s because a computer breach stung the school system in a very public way two years ago when local papers reported that Jeff Yorston, a student at one of the county&#39;s schools, got hold of an administrative password and gave himself an &quot;A&quot; in a French class he never took. He also managed to boost the grades of a few friends.Yorston was discovered when another student complained that her ex-boyfriend -- with worse grades than she had -- was accepted into the University of Florida while she had been rejected. He has since paid a fine and agreed to state supervision in connection with the charges, according to the Palm Beach Post.After an investigation, county officials discovered that they hadn&#39;t been hacked. Instead the breach occurred because of a leaked password. &quot;One of the administrators lent her password out to one of the students who was working on a project,&quot; LaRocca said. &quot;That&#39;s what happens when you share passwords. We could put $1 million worth of controls in place, but when I give you my password, all bets are off.&quot;LaRocca says that the grades-changing incident was &quot;a wake-up call for the district,&quot; which has now made security a top priority.Palm Beach County has spent more than $1.5 million over the past two years overhauling systems throughout the county&#39;s schools. It has upgraded the county&#39;s desktops with anti-virus, host intrusion prevention, and network access control software from McAfee. Network-based intrusion detection and content filtering have also been added, and the county is now logging its grading systems, which have much stricter access controls.The county has also made security awareness a priority, taking steps to educate users about safe online behavior.And that&#39;s where the hacking challenge comes in. LaRocca issued it as part of an April security awareness event held at county schools, setting up a target server that attackers would have to break into in order to claim the prize. This type of &quot;capture the flag&quot; game is popular at hacking conferences.Any students who might see the contest as a chance to hack the system, change their grades, and win a router need to think again. &quot;We set up a honeypot server that they specifically had to hack into and capture a flag,&quot; he said. &quot;We didn&#39;t say if you go in and change your grades you&#39;ll get a router.&quot;That hasn&#39;t deterred some attackers. Thanks to the publicity surrounding his Wi-Fi challenge, LaRocca says the schools are being hit by about 16,000 online attacks per day.Still, LaRocca says the insider threat remains his biggest concern. &quot;All my hackers are inside the network,&quot; he said. &quot;I&#39;m not too worried about the ones from the outside.&quot;
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Intel announced its plans on Thursday to improve the Internet by making it safer, more useful, reliable, and accessible. At Fall IDF (Intel Developer Forum), Pat Gelsinger, Senior Vice President and Chief
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The chief security official for Mozilla said a meeting of the open-source community to debate secure coding, vulnerability reporting, and product patching issues could be helpful.
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By James Derk Scripps Howard News Service  If you weren't worried enough about the security of your home computer and network, it may be time to step it up.
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(InfoWorld) - SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. companies and the federal government need to step up and fix the problems in their computer networks, the nation's new cybersecurity czar told attendees during his first-ever address atÂ RSA ConferenceÂ here on Thursday. Within the next 10 years, the majority of the world's communication needs will probably be handled by the Internet, said Gregory Garcia, the assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "This proliferation of applications and devices within the converged network is going to create a breeding ground for security problems," he said. "Our networks and our systems are vulnerable and they are exposed." Garcia outlined two priorities for the year ahead. First, his office is working with federal agencies to adopt common security policies and practices. Second, he plans to work with the private sector to push forward a process called the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. This effort is intended to evaluate computer security risks on an industry-by-industry basis and outline the steps that need to be taken to address them. The broad strokes of this plan were outlined last June, and the DHS is now working with industry to flesh out sector-specific plans, Garcia said. He made it clear that the DHS expects U.S. companies to participate. "There are a lot of plans in Washington. This one is going to stick," he said. "The private sector owns and operates 90 percent of the critical infrastructure, and it's up to you all, not just the DHS, to secure this infrastructure." Companies looking for best practices already have a number of standards they can consider, Garcia said, pointing to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17799 specification and the guidelines prescribed by Technet, an IT industry association. Computer security has not been a top priority at the DHS, which has paid far more attention to physical security threats to the nation since its inception in 2003. And though DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to put a sharper focus on computer security by creating Garcia's high-level post in 2005, the position remained vacant for more than a year. Garcia was introduced Thursday by Art Coviello, president of EMC's RSA group, who said afterward that he was encouraged by the assistant secretary's speech. "It's a combination of carrot and stick," he said in an interview. "Chiding industry to actually comply with these standards that are out there, and a veiled threat of regulation to get things done." Coviello said that cybersecurity has "languished a bit" within DHS ever since U.S. President George W. Bush signed off on his administration's comprehensive cybersecurity plan in 2003. "The Department and Secretary [Tom] Ridge and Secretary Chertoff obviously focused on the right things -- physical threats -- but now it's time to get after the critical infrastructure from the cyber side," Coviello said in the interview. "I don't think industry is looking for a lot of regulation from government," he added. "What they are looking for is leadership."
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft is inviting hackers onto its Redmond, Washington, campus again next week, and this time, software virtualization and mobile security will be the hot topics. The company's semi-annual BlueHat hacking conference will run Thursday and Friday, giving Microsoft engineers and executives a chance to hear first-hand reports on the latest in computer security research. This will be Microsoft's sixth BlueHat conference since it introduced the event in early 2005. This year, representatives from such companies as Symantec, 3Com's TippingPoint division, and Sourcefire will speak on topics ranging from embedded system security, software "fuzzing," and exploit creation, according to a preliminary schedule of the event obtained by the IDG News Service. "The BlueHat speakers, both leading external security researchers and internal Microsoft engineers, will pierce the security veil of virtualization and process isolation," wrote Microsoft security group manager Andrew Cushman on the BlueHat blog. "Plus, we've got a couple of talks on Windows Mobile and more about automated exploit creation -- this time using Metasploit." There will also be a discussion of WabiSabiLabi's controversial exploit marketplace given by Roberto Preatoni, strategic director with the company, according to the preliminary agenda. Friday morning will be devoted to a discussion of mobile hacking tools and techniques, and software virtualization will be discussed later in the day. A more up-to-date agenda is expected to be posted within a few days, according to Microsoft's public relations agency. Usually Microsoft says nothing about its BlueHat hacking conferences prior to the event, but this year, the company preannounced the confab, saying it wants to be a little more up-front about what's going on. "BlueHat is unique and still a closed door conference for MS product teams, but this year we will open up a little -- with info about the conference before it starts and with more info made available during the conference," Cushman wrote.
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SitePoint has a new article today for all of you out there really concerned about the security of your Apache web server (and everyone else, who should be concerned anyway). In Hardening Apache - A Conversation with the Author, Blane Warrene dives into the book mentioned above and talks with the author, Tony Mobily, to ask some questions.
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Data collection that would cause U.S. citizens to be "up in arms" were it done by the government is easily possible with even basic sniffing of everyday Wi-Fi traffic, according to a speaker at this week's Black Hat conference.
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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is meeting this week to address critical issues like new generic top level domains, internationalized domain names, and other subjects.
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By L.A. Lorek, San Antonio Express-News  Sep. 20--Major players in the Internet security industry will meet in San  Antonio starting today to decide on a new standard for verifying Web sites to  prevent crooks from duping people.
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Reid: 'Bandwagon ho!' The fourth Safer Internet Day, today, will be marked with events worldwide aimed at raising awareness of online child protection issues.â¦