It currently takes security specialists on average 312 days to discover software vulnerabilities. It can take weeks, months, and sometimes years for these vulnerabilities to be fixed across all exposed systems. That leaves plenty of time for malware, ransom-ware, and other malicious software to exploit these vulnerabilities and maximize damage. The Cyber Grand Challenge was designed to […]
When the Lights Go Out
Inflicting major disruptions to the electrical grid, whether by humans or natural causes, is not that difficult to imagine. It has already happened which you’ll learn more about in this excellent article, and series, by Rebecca Smith in The WSJ titled, “How America Could Go Dark.” I spent time this week speaking with an engineer […]
U.S. Power Grid More Vulnerable Than Ukraine’s?
Last December a cyber attack crippled Ukraine’s power grid. Engineers were able to manually restart power, workers still have to control the system manually. In many U.S. power systems, no manual overrides exist. A similar attack on the grid could leave America out of power much longer. WIRED’s Kim Zetter reports: Regardless, the successful assault holds […]
Power’s Out. Now What?
Do you know what? 75% of people do not know what to do when the power goes out. I read this statistic twice over Thanksgiving in New Hampshire: Once reading Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, and Surviving the Aftermath and again in a Concord Monitor article. It was this time last year that New Hampshire got […]
MAP: Victims of Chinese Cyber-espionage
NBC News reports the frightening frequency of Chinese cyber-attacks by posting a map of attack victims produced by the NSA. Robert Windrem reports: A secret NSA map obtained exclusively by NBC News shows the Chinese government‘s massive cyber assault on all sectors of the U.S economy, including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin, as […]
Secret Congressional Report: Power Grid Hacked?
According to a secret Congressional report that has only recently been disclosed, the American power grid is under constant threat of being hacked by foreign powers and malicious groups wishing to gain control of critical power systems. The Washington Free Beacon writes: The report warns that hackers potentially affiliated with terrorist groups or rogue nations […]
VIDEO: How to Hide on the Internet
Business Insider’s Matthew Stuart explains how to protect your data on the internet.
Cyber Attack on America’s Critical Infrastructure?
Michael Rodgers, director of U.S. Cyber Command, says it is only a matter of when we are going to see something dramatic in a cyber attack on the country’s critical infrastructure. One big concern is that most of the pipelines are operated by private companies, which could limit the government’s visibility into their operations. McCreary, […]
The Russians Stole the NASDAQ and Nobody Noticed
Back in 2010 the FBI picked up an alert that there was something strange happening on the computer systems at the NASDAQ stock exchange. What they found there was attack code, a digital weapon capable of damaging cyber-infrastructure. The code had spyware in it that could send information back to its creator, and malware that […]
Trojan Virus: America’s Infrastructure at Risk
A malicious Trojan horse virus has been inserted into systems controlling America’s infrastructure. ABC reports that the systems were penetrated by hackers backed by the Russian government. The threat to America’s infrastructure isn’t new and policymakers and corporations utilizing vulnerable systems should have gotten ahead of this years ago. Here at Richardcyoung.com we’ve been warning about […]