"After asking a few simple questions repeatedly in 2011, it turns out too many enterprises are cranking out mechanical risk mangement tasks without clear line-of-sight to actually managing risk to return. Risk management stuff was not only disconnected from summary financial measures of return, but also too often disconnected from key business performance measures. So, it was not surprise that surveys at public programs revealed 1/4 to 1/3 of risk management spend is typically wasted (more in planing stages)...."
"As part of a sting operation, Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of the its flagship security products off the Internet, the company confirmed to CNET this evening. An e-mail exchange revealing the extortion attempt posted to Pastebin (see below) today shows a purported Symantec employee named Sam Thomas negotiating payment with an individual named "Yamatough" to prevent the release of PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus code. Yamatough is the Twitter identity of an individual or group that had previously threatened to release the source code for Norton Antivirus...."
"The last month and a half Israel has been in a slowly escalating cyber war. But suddenly it stopped on Jan 26, 2011. Since there is more to come gAtO wanted to look at the players I cant tell if the hatred blinds these people but I do see some of the Israeli hackers being a little cautious and thats a good thing...."
"How much of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters spiraling cost in recent years can be traced to Chinas cybertheft of technology and the subsequent need to reduce the fifth-generation aircrafts vulnerability to detection and electronic attack? That is a central question that budget planners are asking, and their queries appear to have validity. Moreover, senior Pentagon and industry officials say other classified weapon programs are suffering from the same problem...."
"After the first four "real'' battlefields of land, air, sea and now increasingly space, India needs to get very serious about the virtual front as well. The country should begin planning a full-fledged military cyber command, instead of the current piecemeal and disjointed steps to bolster cyber-security, grappling as it already is with incessant online espionage and other attacks from China, Pakistan and others. This was the clear takeaway from the deliberations on cyber-security and cyber-warfare in the high-profile Munich Security Conference on Sunday, even though India hardly figured in the discussions...."
"AUSTRALIA'S central bank has moved to bolster its resistance to a form of cyber attack that has become an increasing menace to financial institutions in recent months. The Reserve Bank of Australia late last week invited computer security providers to help prevent it falling prey to so-called distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks...."
"EU proposals to impose a three-year deadline on local authorities to issue construction permits for new power lines has met with sharp opposition in the 27-country bloc, EurActiv has learned. According to European Commission proposals published in October, local populations would have three years to try to prevent new transmission grid projects being built. Beyond that deadline, the projects would go through...."
"A survey of European stakeholders has found overwhelming support for giving priority, funds and planning waivers to allow the speedy construction of European grid infrastructure. In a survey of businesses, industrial associations, NGOs and think tanks, 81% of respondents said that creating a single European electricity market, and the needed grid infrastructure, should be an EU policy priority. We couldnt agree more, said Susanne Nies of Eurelectric, an association representing major European power generators...."
"As small satellites that weigh less than 400 pounds proliferate, NASA says it sees potential and challenges in operating them together as a coordinated constellation. To that end, NASA says it's willing to fund "Edison SmallSat" projects worth up to $15 million that demonstrate key technologies such as command and control communications between small satellites. Also of interest are propulsion technologies--specifically utilizing high performance, low-toxicity propellants such as electrical propulsion, solar sail or tethers--and a combination of control systems, sensors and software permitting small satellites to work in close proximity, even physically joining other spacecraft...."
"The United Kingdom launched Jan. 31 a new site called Gov. uk, which serves as the single, citizen-facing government website for all British-government information, according to an announcement from Tom Loosemore, project director of BBC 2.0. The site is still considered "beta," as further expansion and functionality is expected in the next two months. Gov. uk's development drew from comments and testing in the now-shuttered website protoype, known as alpha...."
