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US, Russia Cyber Hotline Brings Back That Cold War Feeling June 19, 2013 
The U.S. and Russia are going to cooperate more closely on cybersecurity. They are setting up a new working group under the auspices of the Bilateral Presidential Commission, set up in 2009 by President Obama and then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, to assess emerging threats to information and communications technology and propose concrete joint measures to address them.
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Financial Industry to Engage in Cyberwar Drill This Summer June 19, 2013 
A cyberdrill for financial services companies that was originally to be conducted on June 28 has drawn such a strong response that the organization sponsoring it has had to reschedule the event. "Given the industry's robust interest in this program ..., we are working to reschedule the exercise from June 28th to a little later this summer," said SIFMA spokesperson Liz Pierce.
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Federal Agency Demands, Competition Challenge Cloud Vendors June 18, 2013 
The GAO earlier this month found two key deficiencies in a cloud contract that the CIA intended to award to AWS. The GAO decision was prompted by a protest against the contract filed by IBM. GAO is the designated federal agency for handling challenges to federal contracts. The proposed contract provides for commercially managed cloud computing services for the federal intelligence community.
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Tech Giants Dump Data in Trust-Rebuilding Bid June 17, 2013 
In the wake of recent revelations that the government has been tapping their networks to monitor users, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft in recent days have all published more information about those monitoring requests. Facebook, for example, reported that for the six months ending December 31, 2012, the number of user-data requests it received from U.S. government entities was between 9,000 and 10,000.
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Hackers Find WordPress Easy Pickings June 17, 2013 
Adobe Reader and Oracle Java aren't alone in having a bull's eye painted on their code. WordPress also is becoming a popular target for Internet outlaws. It's quite a large target, too. About 18 percent of the sites on the Web -- about 60 million of them -- use WordPress. One reason WordPress is attracting hacker attention is that it's so easy to write plug-ins for it.
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Is Verizon's Uncomfortable Silence Savvy PR? June 14, 2013 
Verizon is on the hot seat. It is at the center of the story about releasing customer information to the NSA. While Verizon does make information about every call available to the agency, the actual conversation is still private -- for now, at least. To date, Verizon has been quiet as the argument rages. Is quiet what you expect from the PR department of any company caught in such a storm?
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Tech Titans Speak Out for More PRISM Transparency June 12, 2013 
After initially denying involvement in the U.S. National Security Agency's highly controversial PRISM program revealed last week, Google and other tech giants that were named as participants now admit their involvement and are calling for greater transparency. Google, for instance, is requesting that it be allowed to publish more data about the NSA requests it receives.
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IT Companies Back Federal Plans to Battle Patent Trolls June 12, 2013 
Major IT companies want to seize the moment in an effort to restrain what they consider to be an abuse of intellectual property rights by so-called patent trolls. In a recent flurry of activity, lawmakers and the Obama administration have taken steps to support large IT companies seeking patent claim reforms. The big IT companies claim that current law overwhelmingly favors the patent trolls.
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Tech Industry Could Pay Stiff Price for PRISM June 07, 2013 
Technology firms in the United States might be impacted adversely by the National Security Agency's controversial PRISM program. Classified documents about the program leaked to The Washington Post and The Guardian indicate that major U.S. high-tech companies provide it data. This data is the major source of raw intelligence for the NSA's analytical reports, according to the agency.
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Feds Seek Private-Sector Cybersecurity Help June 07, 2013 
Private companies that do business with the U.S. government have a big stake in how agencies regulate the cybersecurity elements of federal contracts. As cyberthreats increase, the government is attempting to keep pace by upgrading cyber-requirements. The government has now launched a program that gives the private sector an opportunity to shape the future design and scope of those requirements.
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Government Prying Into Verizon Customer Records Exposed June 06, 2013 
The National Security Agency reportedly has been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon users in the United States under a secret court order. Specifically, Verizon has been required to provide an ongoing account of all telephone calls on its systems, including those inside the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.
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Obama Takes a Swing at Patent Trolls June 05, 2013 
The Obama administration on Tuesday targeted patent trolls with a number of initiatives aimed at curbing activity it blames for stymieing innovation in America. The initiatives include five executive orders and seven legislative recommendations. Patent trolls have been accused of abusing the system to squeeze money from just about anyone using technology containing their intellectual property.
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The Internet Against the World June 04, 2013 
Last December, the United Nations-sponsored World Conference on International Telecommunications accomplished... well, not a ton. Disagreement abounded, as Western democracies aligned against predictable foes to ensure that the proceedings ended at loggerheads. Despite the December stalemate, the UN's International Telecommunication Union hasn't given up.
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Hack Reports Fly Ahead of China, US Presidents' Meeting June 03, 2013 
Numerous new accusations have kept cyberespionage firmly in the media spotlight in the run-up to President Barack Obama's meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Within 24 hours, stories broke about Chinese hackers pinching the designs for some of Uncle Sam's critical weapons systems and nicking the architectural plans for the $630 million headquarters for Australia's top spy agency.
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SoftBank, US Forge National Security Deal May 30, 2013 
SoftBank has reached a national security agreement with U.S. authorities, perhaps clearing the way for the Japanese company to purchase Sprint Nextel. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about potential ties between SoftBank and Chinese telecommunications firms like Huawei. Chinese telecoms drew the ire of Congress in late 2012, and security rhetoric has recently ratcheted up.
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Chinese Hackers May Have Pinched US Military Designs May 29, 2013 
Chinese hackers were accused of stealing the designs for more than two dozen U.S. military weapons systems in a press account appearing Monday. The system designs reportedly pinched by the hackers were for systems critical to the country's missile defenses and its combat aircraft and war ships. The revelations were based on confidential sections of a government report.
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Feds to Open Data Access in a Big Way May 29, 2013 
Making money from accessing the vast amounts of information collected by the U.S. government, such as Census Bureau data, has been the basis for many commercial enterprises. Now the U.S. government has undertaken a new Open Data Policy -- a major effort to make tons of federal information from all agencies more accessible for the general public and the business community.
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'Comment Crew' Back in Action Against US Cybertargets, Says Mandiant May 28, 2013 
China and Iran were accused last week of renewing their cyberattacks on U.S. computer systems after a brief hiatus. A gang of Chinese hackers allegedly affiliated with the country's People's Liberation Army has resumed infiltrating U.S. computer systems after making a strategic withdrawal earlier this year, according to cybersecurity firm Mandiant.
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White House Pulls Back the Curtains on Big Data Project May 22, 2013 
The U.S. government is awash in data that is collected, stored and disseminated by federal agencies to fulfill their public service missions. However, the existence of huge amounts of information within the government presents a major profit-making opportunity for commercial firms. The Obama administration has now launched a program to make federal data resources much more available.
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Congressional Investigation Scopes Apple's Web of Tax Havens May 21, 2013 
A series of subsidiaries spanning numerous countries have helped Apple avoid billions in United States taxes, congressional investigators reported Monday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is looking into Apple's suspected transgressions, said that Apple "sought the holy grail of tax avoidance."
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