cyber security

More than $250,000 is offered by Microsoft to programmers who can develop new security defense for Windows OS family to protect users against attacks that exploit the software bugs.

Microsoft's Blue Hat Prize announced on Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference will pay $200,000 for the best “novel runtime mitigation technology designed to prevent the exploitation of memory safety vulnerabilities.” The two runners up will receive $50,000 and a MSDN Universal subscription valued at $10,000, respectively.

Being "under constant attack" supposedly from hackers Nasdaq plans to increase its expenses on cyber security.

"As we sit here, there are people trying to slam into our system every day," Robert Greifeld, chief executive officer of Nasdaq OMX Group, said in an interview on Wednesday. "So we have to be ever-vigilant against an ever-changing foe."

A top defense official noted this week that a foreign intelligence service stole about 24,000 files from a US defense contractor, which is a dramatic illustration of the threat facing the Pentagon as it makes every effort to tighten computer security.

William Lynn, a Deputy Defense Secretary, said that theft as he unveiled a new Pentagon cybersecurity strategy that designates cyberspace as an "operational domain" like sea, air and land where U.S. forces will practice, train and prepare to defend against attacks.

Cyber security experts found a new version of ZeuS Trojan that targets Android users to steal their money from their banking accounts, reports ThreatPost. The malware intercepts SMS messages which are sent to log into online banking cabinets.

The number of Android malware increased 10 times since the beginning of the year, shows recent stats.

Meantime, the number of criminal schemes using ZeuS has also increased since March when the initial code appeared online.
 

Mary Schapiro, Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission, said that she will seriously consider to issue additional guidance on how public companies should disclose cyber security problems.

"Although we are not aware that investors have asked for more disclosure in this area, I have asked the commission staff to provide me with a briefing on current disclosure practices," Schapiro said in a letter to Senator John Rockefeller dated June 6 and released publicly on Wednesday.

A senior US official said that cyber security is now a top diplomatic priority for the United States and Washington as the government looks to build better relationship while properly addressing information theft and, thus, reducing the risk of conflicts.

Christopher Painter, Stated Department coordinator for cyber issues, said that the United States suffered a number of potential threats in cyberspace from freelance hackers to militants and potentially rival states. Diplomacy and policy was only just beginning to catch up with technology, he said.

The Obama administration pressed the US Congress this week to pass a proper legislation to protect consumers’ data and safeguard the nation's financial system and electric power grid from potentially devastating cyber-attacks.

Over the past year Congress rejected several cybersecurity bills while big companies such as Nasdaq OMX Group and Sony Corp suffered high-profile hacker attacks.

The US Federal Trade Commission has approved proposed settlements of the complaints against three credit report resellers after the regulator accused them of insufficient cybersecurity practices that led to compromised credit reports.

The companies named in the administrative complaints were SettlementOne Credit and its parent company, Sackett National Holdings; ACRAnet; Fajilan and Associates, doing business as Statewide Credit Services; and founder Robert Fajilan.

Governments need to establish "hotlines" between their cyber commands, much like the those between nuclear commands, to help them battle against cyber attacks, according to the point of view expressed by security expert Bruce Schneier.

New technology is helping scammers steal even more of account information at ATMs, as some cyber security expert detected. Moreover, victims don't know they have a problem until they see their statements.

In a traditional skimming scam, crimes place a card-skimming device into the card insertion slot. The skimmer can steal account information stored on the magnetic strip on back of the card when it is dipped into the machine.

United States experiences an unprecedented growth in educating cyber security experts with contests and courses launched across the nation to boost the country’s preparedness to wrestle online threats. The federal government, education officials and giant military contractors are collaborating to recruit a new class of tech professional specifically trained to battle data thieves, online scammers and cyberspies.

Today when the world experiences such processes as globalization and informatization it is no surprise to meet policy makers who apart from state affairs deal with the Internet and other hi tech matters. One of such people Dmitriy Golubov is a leader of the Ukraine Internet party. He urges for the security of cyber space not only in Ukraine but all over the world. Specially for the Ecommerce Journal he made comments on the system of SMS authorization of one leading bank, PrivatBank of Ukraine who owns a well known payment system LiqPAY.

According to a statement made by Steven Chabinsky who is responsible for overseeing cyber security related issues in the US, cyber attacks on threaten the "very existence" of the United States.

"The cyber threat can be an existential threat - meaning it can challenge our country's very existence, or significantly alter our nation's potential," Steven Chabinsky was quoted by Computerworld as telling a gathering of government IT types at the Federal Office Systems Exposition, better known as FOSE, in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Poorly configured routers and DSL modems are hijacked by a so-called Chuck Norris botnet which spreads by malware that installs itself on routers and modems by guessing the default administrative password and seizing control due to many devices being configured to allow remote access.

The botnet was called after the popular movie start as of a comment in its source code that reads: "in nome di Chuck Norris” ("in the name of Chuck Norris”).

 At the opening of the ITU Telecom World exhibition and forum in Geneva on Monday Hamadoun Touré, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations agency that organized the event, warned that the world faces the third global war in the cyber space.

"The next world war could begin in cyberspace," warned Touré.