The U.S. government is shifting its strategy for defending federal networks against a rising tide of hacking attacks launched by foreign governments and criminals. Instead of focusing on consolidating external Internet connections that civilian agencies operate -- which number in the thousands -- the Office of Management and Budget is directing agencies to deploy a standard set of security tools and processes on all of their Internet connections.. The shift represents a new direction for the federal Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative, which was launched by the Bush administration in November 2007. The Bush administration's original goal was to reduce the number of external Internet connections operated by civilian agencies from more than 8,000 down to 50. Standard security software -- including antivirus, firewall, intrusion detection and traffic monitoring -- was to be deployed on the remaining connections. The Obama administration has changed the emphasis of the TIC Initiative, focusing more on security controls than on network consolidation. "Despite the whole TIC Initiative, there are probably as many points of Internet connection as there used to be," says Diana Gowen, senior vice president of Qwest Government Services. "The new administration is less concerned with the number, and more concerned about getting them protected." Gowen pointed out that the Defense Department has an ongoing procurement to purchase more than 4,000 Internet connections worldwide. "So clearly the focus isn't on consolidation," she adds. The link for this article located at Network World is no longer available. . The shift represents a new direction for the federal Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative, . government, shifting, strategy, defending, federal, networks, against, rising. . Alex
Microsoft officials today tried to defuse privacy and security concerns about its new .Net Internet strategy by saying the new technology would let computer users control how much personal information they make available for commercial use. Questions about the privacy and . . . . Microsoft officials today tried to defuse privacy and security concerns about its new .Net Internet strategy by saying the new technology would let computer users control how much personal information they make available for commercial use. Questions about the privacy and security implications of a system that would collect virtually all personal information within a vast, unified computing system have increasingly plagued the Internet computing industry and e-commerce worlds in recent years, as embarrassing flaws have permitted computer vandals to routinely exploit weaknesses in supposedly secure systems. The link for this article located at Yahoo News is no longer available. . Microsoft officials today tried to defuse privacy and security concerns about its new .Net Internet . microsoft, officials, today, tried, defuse, privacy, security, concerns, about, internet. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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