The Web Scene » Cyber

UK’s Centre for Cyber-Security Opens at Queen’s

sparky3887 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:27:14 +0000

The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) recently opened at Queen’s University Belfast. CSIT will create 80 new positions and serve as the United Kingdom’s primary center for the development of technology to fight malicious cyberattacks. The research conducted at CSIT will help prevent Internet crime and protect the security and trustworthiness of electronically stored information. CSIT is one of the first Innovation and Knowledge Centers established in the U.K. The center is backed by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Technology Strategy Board, and more than 20 organizations have committed to supporting CSIT’s work over the next five years. CSIT will unite research specialists from fields including data encryption, network security systems, wireless-enabled security systems, and intelligent video analysis. CSIT principal investigator professor John McCanny believes the new center will become globally recognized thanks to the breadth and depth of its technological capabilities, and because it represents a new international paradigm for innovation.

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UN Calls for Global Cyber Treaty

sparky3887 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:37:48 +0000

International Telecommunications Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure says the world is moving closer to seeing nations go to war over a cyberattack and an international accord is needed before that happens. “The framework would look like a peace treaty before a war,” Toure says. Nations would guarantee to protect their citizens and their right to information, promise not to harbor cyberterrorists, and agree not to launch an attack on another country. Although former U.S. intelligence director John Negroponte says the intelligence community would balk at a global cyberaccord, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) says the prospect of a war over a cyberattack is now being considered in the United States. Microsoft’s Craig Mundie says at least 10 countries could carry out sophisticated attacks that could appear to come from anywhere. Other experts say that about 20 countries are in a cyberspace arms race and are preparing for possible hostile actions over the Internet. “People don’t understand the scale of criminal activity on the Internet,” Mundie says. “Whether criminal, individual, or nation states, the community is growing more sophisticated.”

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Obama Cyber Czar Choice Worries About Smartphones, Social Networking

sparky3887 — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:10:03 +0000

Howard Schmidt, U.S. President Obama’s choice for cybersecurity czar, has previously worked in both the public and private security sectors and also has written a book on defending the Internet. He is expected to focus on a number of issues as he begins his new job. For instance, Schmidt–who helped produce the “National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace” while working for the Bush administration–could use the government to promote education and research and push vendors to make more secure products. “What is the government doing to make sure universities and companies have dollars to do research that will enhance security?” Schmidt said in an earlier interview. He added that there is research and development that needs to be done that may not improve homeland security but may make the Internet more secure. Schmidt also will likely work to make cybersecurity as big a priority as physical security. In addition, Schmidt could call for increased security on smartphones and other mobile devices, since he has said that cybercriminals will increasingly target these devices as they become more and more like computers. Finally, Schmidt will likely work to counter threats from terrorists to the U.S.’s cyberinfrastructure. Schmidt has said that terrorists are most likely to target financial institutions’ IT networks, though attacking those systems will be difficult because of all the work the financial services industry has done to protect itself.

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Thwarting Cyber Criminal

sparky3887 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:53:17 +0000

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) say they have developed a digital signature system that is 17,000 times faster than current systems used for verification and 10,000 times faster in providing a digital signature. They say the new system, MQQ, was developed as a way to address the biggest pitfalls in current data security systems. Existing systems, when used with smart card applications or at credit card payment terminals, are often slow, do not protect against quantum computing attacks, and have not been optimized for parallel processing. MQQ was developed using a trapdoor function, which is generated by quasigroup string transformations based on multivariate quadratic quasigroups. The researchers say that MQQ’s security is enhanced by a signing speed that is 10,000 times faster than corresponding RSA and elliptical curves digital signatures. The researchers also say that MQQ is one of the first algorithms specially designed for parallel processing, which allows the system to benefit from the recent trends in multicore parallel processing. “Due to the nature of its design, MQQ is secure against quantum computing attacks,” says NTNU professor Dailo Gligoroski. He says MQQ also has been found to be secure against all known multivariate quadratic attack methods.

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Argonne Develops Program for Cyber Security ‘Neighborhood Watch’

sparky3887 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:18:54 +0000

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory has developed the Federated Model for Cyber Security, a program that enables its labs to share information on the millions of cyberattacks they fight off each year. The program allows cybersecurity defense systems to communicate with each other when attacked and share information with systems at other institutions in an effort to strengthen the overall cybersecurity of a complex. “The Federated Model for Cyber Security acts as a virtual neighborhood watch program,” says Argonne cybersecurity officer Michael Skwarek. “If one institution is attacked, secure and timely communication to others in the federation will aid in protecting them from that same attack through active response.” The ability to securely share information during an attack will help others protect themselves from similar attacks. “This program addresses the need for the exchange of hostile activity information with the goal of reducing the time to react across the complex,” Skwarek says. “History has shown that hostile activity is often targeted at more than one location, and having our defenses ready and armed will assist greatly.” The program is currently capable of transmitting information on hostile IP addresses and domain names, and will soon be able to share hostile email addresses and Web URLs. The team behind the Federated Model of Cyber Security was awarded the DOE’s 2009 Cyber Security Innovation and Technology Achievement Award.

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NSF Shows Off Cyber-Physical Systems on the Hill

sparky3887 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:53:17 +0000

An open house briefing for the U.S. Congress on cyber-physical systems (CPS) was held by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Computing Research Association on July 9. Other co-sponsors of the event included ACM, the Coalition for National Science Funding, and the American Chemical Society’s Science & the Congress Project. The purpose of the briefing was to allow industry and academic experts to share their insights into CPS, which have garnered increased scrutiny from the U.S. Congress since a President’s Council of Advisers for Science and Technology spotlighted it for higher priority. Among the speakers at the briefing was NSF’s Jeannette Wing, who said the foundation plays the role of innovation coordinator so that scientific advances throughout industry and academia can be shared and instantiated in other fields. Among the demonstrations representing the latest CPS research presented at the event were robotic and human-machine systems that could aid disabled persons, find use as behavioral study tools, assist surgeons during operations, drive unmanned vehicles, or be enabled for haptic interaction. Other systems included those capable of reasoning about human or environmental activities.

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