Greetings, Welcome to the Spring 2018 issue of the United States Cybersecurity Magazine! As always, we’d like to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to our supporters, our members, our sponsors, our contributors and everyone else who makes the magazine possible. All of us here at the United States Cybersecurity Magazine will continue … Read more
Chinese Hackers By 2010, it was clear that a persistent threat had infiltrated American public and private sector networks and was stealing sensitive data. In January of that year, Google stopped offering its search engine in China, citing theft of proprietary code and onerous Chinese censorship. Google also stated that it, along with more than … Read more
Ah, the Internet. It’s impossible to imagine life without it. The ability to connect and interact has fundamentally changed and continues to change society. We can exchange information and assets around the world nearly instantaneously. We can see and examine physical objects and environments from afar. We can exert control and monitor actions from opposite … Read more
Ask an average person if they know what blockchain is and you’ll likely get a deer-in-the-headlights look. Ask the same person if they know about Bitcoin and their eyes light up. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are the most widely recognized technologies leveraging blockchain today. Cryptocurrency markets dominate the media and many want to invest in them … Read more
Fundamental security controls you should implement this year; their widespread adoption would have prevented cybersecurity failures that made headlines over the past five years. Information System Security (INFOSEC) is a perception. You can follow all the rules and best practices, implement the best technologies, check all of the boxes, and still get hacked. While a … Read more
Why Organizations Need to Be More Than Just Compliant Enterprises across the industry-government-academia spectrum are struggling to balance the goals of improved security and regulatory compliance. Unfortunately, the two are not always compatible or aligned. Many organizations lack board level guidance when it comes to managing cybersecurity risk. As a result, many organizations expend resources … Read more
Today, massive numbers of uncorrelated and unprioritized alerts overwhelm network security operations. Staff are unable to respond to breaches anywhere near real-time. Legacy architectures layer “best of breed” components for firewall, intrusion protection, web content filtering and antivirus protection, each of which generates a unique set of alerts. Additional devices only contribute to an ever … Read more
When the United States Government published the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative in 2008, cyber education was identified as a critical area of improvement. By 2010, the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) was created. The NICE Team identified four distinct components of the cybersecurity education mission: Awareness, Formal Education (K-20), WorkforceStructure (HR Framework), and Professional … Read more
The growing sophistication of Information Technology (IT) and the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices continue to exacerbate vulnerabilities leading to cybersecurity risks. With the supply chain globalization and continued reliance on outsourcing, organizations depend heavily on diverse networks of partners and suppliers. Whether manufacturing sensors for industrial control systems (ICS) or developing software code, … Read more
This is the first part of a two-part article exploring the history of pre-computer cryptography. Part 1 will focus on the period from the birth of cryptography some 4,000 years ago to the development of early transposition and substitution ciphers. Part 2 looks at the emergence of cryptanalysis under the Abbasid Caliphate and goes through … Read more
