Items tagged with DHS
U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Confirms Cyber Attacks Took Down Ukraine Power Grid In December
In late December, a major power outage killed utility services for a large swathe of people in the Western Ukraine. Shortly after the incident, a number of cyber security experts pointed the finger at hackers and claimed some nefarious digital activities took down the power grid, but nothing had been officially confirmed at the time.But now the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT, is reporting that the outage was caused by a measured cyber-attack against Ukrainian critical infrastructure.An alert published on the ICS-CERT website says, “On December 23, 2015, Ukrainian power companies experienced unscheduled power outages...
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Just because an attack is bizarre doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. According to security researcher Brian Krebs (pictured), the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a security bulletin concerning TDoS (telephony denial-of-service) attacks on PSAPs (public safety answering points). “Information received from multiple jurisdictions indicates the possibility of attacks targeting the telephone systems of public sector entities. Dozens of such attacks have targeted the administrative PSAP lines (not the 911 emergency line),” reads the bulletin in part. “The perpetrators of the attack have launched high volume of calls against the target network, tying...
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This sounds like the definition of a slippery slope: According to Reuters, the U.S. government is expanding its Internet traffic-scanning cybersecurity program to include more private sector workers, such as those at large banks, utility companies, and “key transportation” companies, and the NSA will use the Department of Homeland Security as a data-gathering middleman. The DHS will send the data on to certain telecommunication companies and cybersecurity firms for processing; those groups will aggregate certain statistics and report back to the government, which should keep some sensitive data veiled from federal eyes. This screening and data collection will be used to hunt for cybersecurity...
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As if you really needed one more reason to take the car, ferry or bicycle to your next destination, the Department of Homeland Security has just issued another update to its long list of search rules that'll most certainly spark up some debate. Thankfully for those with United States passports, this one probably won't have a serious impact on you, but if a foreigner is in front of you in the line to get stamped into this nation, get ready for even more possible delays.DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano recently announced new directives that clarify oversight for searches of computers and other electronic media at U.S. ports of entry. In short, this basically means that TSA officials and the like...
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You may recall the case of Sebastien Boucher? He was stopped in 2006 while crossing the U.S. - Canadian border and charged with transporting child pornography on his laptop across the border. Unfortunately for the prosecutors, the data on the laptop is encrypted, and he now refuses to enter the necessary password to allow access to the files. Additionally, a judge ruled late last year that he could not be compelled to reveal the password.Based on this ruling, and the recent policies enacted by the Department of Homeland Security, might we see more interest in disk encryption? A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize,...
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