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Facebook suspends accounts for pushing false info in Alabama election

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Facebook's attempt to thwart disinformation campaigns has typically focused on Russia and other hostile countries, but it's now grappling with that problem on its home soil. The site has confirmed to the Washington Post that it suspended five accounts for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" during the 2017 Alabama special election for the Senate, including the CEO of social media research company New Knowledge.

Brittany Day
Dec 23, 2018

Australia now has encryption-busting laws as Labor capitulates

Labor has backed down completely on its opposition to the Assistance and Access Bill, and in the process has been totally outfoxed by a government that can barely control the floor of Parliament.

Brittany Day
Dec 06, 2018

Coalition and Labor strike deal on encryption legislation

New national security laws dealing with encrypted communications are likely to pass Parliament by the end of the week, as Labor and the government have come to an in-principle agreement on key parts of the Bill after a series of concessions from the Coalition.

Brittany Day
Dec 04, 2018

EU Voters Worried About Election Hacking and Disinformation

UK voters are among the most concerned in Europe that elections could be sabotaged by cyber-attacks, according to a new European Commission study.

Brittany Day
Nov 27, 2018

Dutton leans on encryption laws committee to hurry up

Peter Dutton is pressuring a committee that is dealing with new laws targeted at encrypted messaging to cut short its public hearings.

Brittany Day
Nov 21, 2018

Congress Passes Bill to Create New Federal Cybersecurity Agency

A bill that seeks to reorganize the US Department of Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) into a new cybersecurity agency has cleared Congress and is now headed to President Trump's desk for his signature.

Brittany Day
Nov 18, 2018

The Unprecedented Effort to Secure Election Day

After Russia's misinformation campaign rattled the 2016 United States election season, scrutiny over this year's midterms has been intense. And while foreign cybersecurity threats have so far been relatively muted, an unclassified government report obtained by The Boston Globe this week indicates more than 160 suspected election-related incidents since the beginning of August, ranging from suspicious login attempts to compromised municipal networks.

Brittany Day
Nov 06, 2018

Pentagon preps cyberattack in case Russia interferes with elections

There may not be any immediate evidence of Russia directly meddling with the US midterm elections, but the Department of Defense is apparently ready to strike back if it happens. Anonymous officials talking to the Center for Public Integrity and the Daily Beast say the Pentagon and intelligence agencies have agreed on the core terms of a retaliatory cyberattack in the event Russia tries a bold move.

Brittany Day
Nov 04, 2018

Pentagon Staff Hit by Major Data Breach

The US Department of Defense has suffered a major breach of employee’s personal and financial information, according to reports.

Brittany Day
Oct 18, 2018

NCSC Tackles 10 Attacks on Government Per Week

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has blocked more than 10 cyber-attacks per week in its first two years of operation, blaming nation states for the majority of incidents.

Brittany Day
Oct 17, 2018

Report: US weapons systems are highly vulnerable to cyber attacks

The Department of Defense will have to ramp up its cybersecurity efforts now that it's planning to spend $1.66 trillion to develop major weapons systems. According to a new report (PDF) by the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of Pentagon's weapons systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Brittany Day
Oct 10, 2018

NSA staffer takes top-secret hacking tools home ‘to study’, gets 66 months

Taking work-related documents home to study might get you a promotion and pay raise at some jobs, but not when your employer is the National Security Agency (NSA) – and most certainly not when those materials are classified.

Brittany Day
Oct 03, 2018

White House Issues National Cyber Strategy

Taking a critical step forward in national cyber defense, the White House yesterday published the National Cyber Strategy, aimed at strengthening America’s cybersecurity capabilities. President Trump wrote, “With the release of this National Cyber Strategy, the United States now has its fully articulated cyber strategy in 15 years.”

Brittany Day
Sep 23, 2018

Australian encryption Bill raises bar for outrageous legislation: Comms Alliance

A little over a week since the window closed for public submissions on the government's draft Assistance and Access Bill, Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton on Thursday introduced the Bill into the House of Representatives.

Brittany Day
Sep 20, 2018

New California Law Aims to Fix the Internet of Broken Things

California is hoping a new law will help fix the security and privacy problems that plague the so-called internet of things, but experts say a lot more needs to be done to seriously tackle the problem.

Brittany Day
Sep 19, 2018

Cybersecurity Is Only 1 Part of Election Security

The DEF CON 2018 Voting Machine Hacking Village aimed to raise awareness in voting security through a full day of speakers and panel discussions along with a challenge for attendees to hack more than 30 pieces of voting equipment. A partnership with rOOtz Asylum offered youths between 8 and 16 years old an opportunity to hack replicas of the websites of secretaries of state to demonstrate that even hackers with limited years of experience can easily compromise critical systems.

Brittany Day
Sep 16, 2018

California bill regulates IoT for first time in US

California looks set to regulate IoT devices, becoming the first US state to do so and beating the Federal Government to the post.

Brittany Day
Sep 13, 2018

4 Practical Measures to Improve Election Security Now

In the past, a midterm election season would pass without much fanfare. These have been torpid affairs with low voter turnout and few big-ticket issues, which historically has meant incumbents rather predictably hold their seats.

Brittany Day
Sep 12, 2018

Bill that would have the White House create a database of APT groups passes House vote

The US House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would have the White House create and maintain a database containing all the names of individuals and cyber-threat groups associated with foreign cyber-espionage operations active against the US.

Brittany Day
Sep 08, 2018

Hearing Date Set in Georgia Election Security Case

A hearing has been filed in the ongoing Georgia election cybersecurity case, Curling v. Kemp, where Georgia citizens are fighting for more secure elections in a lawsuit against Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp. The hearing is scheduled for Monday, 17 September, at 11am.

Brittany Day
Sep 01, 2018

German State Abandons Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

White House Warns: Move to Memory-Safe Languages

European Court of Human Rights Declares Backdoored Encryption Illegal