Government and infrastructure tops hacking league

Cybercriminals are now aggressively targeting government and critical infrastructure companies, a review of malware and attack patterns over the last year has found. .. More >>

Government Is Falling Behind on Cybersecurity, Report Finds

"Cyber In-Security" says the federal government is falling behind in the race to keep its computer operations safe because the workforce has too few well-trained cybersecurity experts.

"Critical government and private sector computer networks are under constant attack from foreign nations, criminal groups, hackers, virus writers and terrorist organizations," says the study, published by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton. .. More >>

Researchers Find Massive Botnet On Nearly 2 Million Infected Consumer, Business, Government PCs

Researchers have discovered a major botnet operating out of the Ukraine that has infected 1.9 million machines, including large corporate and government PCs mainly in the U.S.

The botnet, which appears to be larger than the infamous Storm botnet was in its heyday, has infected machines from some 77 government-owned domains -- 51 of which are U.S. government ones, according to Ophir Shalitin, marketing director of Finjan, which recently found the botnet. Shalitin says the botnet is controlled by six individuals and is hosted in Ukraine. .. More >>

DDoS attack floors Georgia prez website

A denial of service attack hit government websites in the former Soviet republic of Georgia over the weekend amid growing diplomatic tensions between the country and Russia.

The DDoS assault on the website of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili rendered it unavailable over the weekend. The attack was run via botnet networks of compromised PCs. Shadowserver charts the command and control servers used in the attack, in an analysis here. >> More ..

Hacker Shuts Down Government Computers

AN EXPERT hacker allegedly shut down the Northern Territory Government computer system and deleted thousands of employees' identities, a Darwin court heard yesterday.

And the court heard the Government could still be at risk of another cyber attack.

David Anthony McIntosh, 27, allegedly hacked in and shut down several NT Government databases on May 5, including servers for the Health Department, Royal Darwin Hospital, Berrimah Prison and Supreme Court using his laptop at a Palmerston home. >> More ..

LOGIIC – Linking the Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cyber Security

LOGIIC is a unique collaborative forum (initiated by the US Department of Homeland Security) where government and industry are focusing on cyber security issues for the oil and gas industry that are best addressed collaboratively. The needs of the infrastructure owners and operators are driving the formation of projects, supported by government and independent experts. The forms for future collaboration are currently being established, and new projects will be forthcoming.

One such project was the the LOGIIC 2005-2006 Correlation Project.

The LOGIIC Correlation Project was a 12-month technology integration and demonstration project jointly supported by industry partners and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T). The project demonstrated an opportunity to reduce vulnerabilities of oil and gas process control environments by sensing, correlating and analyzing abnormal events to identify and prevent cyber security threats.

A detailed description of the LOGIIC Correlation Project can be downloaded from here.

This collaboration model between Government and industry can be similarly applied to other industry sectors.

Australia's Critical Infrastructure Protection

Information on Australia's Critical Infrastructure Protection issues and initiatives can be found here. This of course includes Critical Information Infrastructure.

Click here to view the then Attorney-General’s press announcement on protecting the National Information Infrastructure