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cyber attack, Cyber Command, Cyber Exploitation, Stuxnet, wikileaks

Cyber Roundup (11/8): Stuxnet infected Chevron, Gen. Alexander lays out who does what, and Skyfall inspired by Stuxnet?

Quick survey of recent cyber news . . .

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On 11/8, Rachael King reported for the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal on how Stuxnet infected Chevron.  According to King, Chevron found Stuxnet in its networks, but the malware didn’t cause any damage.  The article noted that the U.S. government perhaps didn’t realize how far the malware actually spread.

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Henry Kenyon & Wyatt Kash for AOLDefense on how Gen. Keith Alexander, head of CyberComm/NSA, laid out where cybersecurity responsibility lies throughout the federal agencies.  According to Alexander: the NSA takes care of foreign intel; CyberComm responds to cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure; DHS handles standards/regs and is the “public face”; and the FBI concentrates on attribution.

FederalNewsRadio’s Jared Serbu also covered Gen. Alexander’s recent comments.  Apparently Gen. Alexander is frustrated with the lack of action on cybersecurity legislation.  Also, from an NSA spokesman, an interesting twist on information-sharing with the private sector: when sharing information, we have “to be careful not to tip off attackers” or “they’ll simply tweak their malware so it no longer sets off the alarm bells triggered by previous versions.”

Finally, Cheryl Pellerin with a DoD press release for the American Forces Press Service on the same comments.

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Kim Zetter, for Wired, on how Bradley Manning has “offered on Wednesday to plead guilty to parts of the charges he is facing, in exchange for the government pursuing lesser charges.”

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David Goldman for CNN’s Security Clearance blog on how counterfeit technology has infiltrated the U.S. government.  Notably, Goldman reports that the presence of “high risk” counterfeit suppliers “soared 63% over the past decade.”

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Jeremy A. Kaplan for FoxNews on the new Bond movie, Skyfall.  Apparently the villian (Javier Bardem, the guy from No Country For Old Men) is a high-tech villian, and the producers got their inspiration for the villain from Stuxnet.

I’m seeing the movie at midnight tonight, I’m interested to see how they incorporate cyber themes.  Movie was solidly in the 90s on Rotten Tomatoes last I checked.

 

Via Wikimedia Commons

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