China cybersecurity plan aims to protect state secrets: official paper

China will prepare a five-year cybersecurity plan to protect state secrets and data, the official China Daily said on Thursday, citing a senior official of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Such a plan could add to the challenges of foreign technology firms doing business in the world’s second-largest economy, by prompting government agencies and companies to opt for domestically-made software.

The plan will focus on improving security for software used by government departments, state-owned enterprises and financial institutions, the paper quoted Chen Wei, the director of the ministry’s software bureau, as saying on Wednesday.

Chen did not provide details of the plan, it added.

Chen could not immediately be reached for comment.

Beijing has recently bolstered legal protection of its information technology, after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed that U.S. spy agencies planted code in American tech exports to snoop on overseas targets.

China’s draft national security law posted online this month called for cyberspace “sovereignty” and was reviewed to include powers dealing with “harmful moral standards”.

In February, Reuters reported China had dropped some of the world’s leading technology brands from its approved state purchase list, while approving thousands more locally made products, in what some said was a response to revelations of widespread Western cybersurveillance.

China’s bank regulator temporarily suspended bank-technology guidelines in April that would have effectively replaced foreign tech products with domestic alternatives, following feedback from banks and an outcry from foreign governments and business.

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Implementing Cybersecurity Guidance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Cybersecurity is a topic of interest for most enterprises, regardless of their size. Cybercrime and cyberwarfare are not restricted to large, multinational enterprises. Increasing numbers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are being targeted. In an SME context, information security and cybersecurity are often difficult to implement in a satisfactory and cost-effective manner. SMEs need hands-on guidance for affordable and effective cybersecurity. The ISACA Cybersecurity Guidance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and this Implementing Cybersecurity Guidance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises are designed to meet the needs of typical SMEs: reasonable security at affordable cost. These publications help SMEs to prepare for, and manage, typical cybersecurity issues, risk and threats.

This guidance for implementation publication provides practical advice on how to implement cybersecurity governance, risk management, assurance and compliance using the Cybersecurity Standard for SMEs and its COBIT 5 foundation. SMEs do not need to apply to the full extent the recommendations in this guidance for implementation publication. Examples and cases give SMEs insights into implementing the standard. However, the implementation guidance should not be read as prescriptive

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Cyber firms launch effort to secure ‘smart’ cities

A cadre of security experts on Tuesday launched an initiative to secure increasingly Internet-dependent cities, citing worries the public and private sectors aren’t moving fast enough.

Securing Smart Cities is backed by security bigwigs IOActive Labs and Kaspersky Lab, along with a number of prominent security researchers.The group’s backers fear that countries are dumping money into creating “smart,” Internet-connected cities, but not building in basic security measures.

To counter this trend, they’re aiming to bring together researchers, private companies and public officials to create cybersecurity standards for all infrastructure being brought online.

“If not addressed early on, the cost and complexity of creating a smart city could make it far more difficult to address security problems further down the line,” the initiative’s website says. “In the end, the city would be left vulnerable.”

This vulnerability could expose critical infrastructure networks that control the water system, electrical grid and even traffic lights to cyber adversaries.

It’s currently believed several foreign governments, including China, Russia and Iran, have already infiltrated critical systems.

Although the White House last February issued voluntary guidelines for private sector companies to help secure their networks, a researcher with the group told The New York Times that it hasn’t really helped things thus far.

“What I found is that there are a lot of security problems — the situation is really bad — but I didn’t want to just point out problems without offering solutions,” said Cesar Cerrudo, chief technology officer at IOActive Labs.

Lawmakers have also failed to move on any substantial cybersecurity legislation to combat the growing threat of hackers by exchanging more data between the public and private sector.

Senate leaders have vowed action on a House-passed bill that would shield companies from legal liability when sharing cyber threat data with the government. But a small group of privacy-minded senators have expressed opposition to the bill, which could derail its chances.

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ISA presses for data to shape cyber security policy, encourages use of NIST framework

The Internet Security Alliance Monday encouraged the Department of Commerce to work with private sector organizations to determine what’s needed in terms of cost-effectiveness, incentives and prioritization to stimulate use of the NIST Framework.

Developed in response to a 2013 Executive Order from President Obama, the NIST Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity was released in February 2014.Yet 15 months after the unveiling, ISA President Larry Clinton said in a Tuesday email correspondence with SCMagazine.com that “there has been no systematic work to provide the supports for Framework use that were also called for in the President’s Order.”

Without those supports, he noted, “it is unlikely that there will be substantial and sustained improvements in cyber security based on the Framework.”

Clinton added that, other than anecdotal self-reports, which he called “notoriously unreliable,” there is “no hard evidence that there have been any tangible improvements in security or what aspects of the Framework may have created any improvements.”

The ISA’s call to action came as a filing in response to a Request for Information (RFI) from the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Agency (NTIA) asking what type of multi-stakeholder process was needed to move cyber security forward. Clinton, in a release, advocated “a systematic data driven analysis of our assumptions about the cost, benefits and incentives for cyber security” and noted that “NTIA has a golden opportunity to meet this need and we urge them to seize that opportunity.”

He recommended Commerce adopt a similar model created by the Department of Homeland Security for its STYX and TAXII information-sharing programs. “Both STYX and TAXII were pilot tested carefully by DHS before we went to broad implementation,” he said. “Our proposal lays out a similar model for Commerce so that we can make critical national cyber security decisions based on data, not assumptions.”

Clinton contended that “ISA’s proposal would leverage the Framework with the existing partnership structure established in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan to generate some real data upon which policy that truly effects security can be based.”

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Cybersecurity M&As And VC Investments Roundup

The cybersecurity market is hot and growing fast, with projected growth from $71 billion in 2014 to more than $155 billion by 2019. Along with that, there’s a consistent stream of mergers, acquisitions and VC investments activity.

According to New York City-based CB Insights, in the last 5 years, $7.3 billion has been invested into 1,208 private cybersecurity startups. Since 2010, deals and dollars increased steadily growing by more than 100 percent in both areas during this time period. Funding in 2014 broke the $2 billion barrier for the first time, while deals continued their steady ascent growing to 269 deals.

Notable recent transactions covered by Cybersecurity Ventures’ Q2 2105 Cybersecurity Market Report:

M&A Deals

Singtel acquired managed security services provider Trustwave (Chicago, IL) for $810 million. Singtel, the largest telecommunications provider in Southeast Asia with over 500 million mobile customers, is expected to close on the deal within 3 to 6 months.

Lookingglass (Arlington, Va.), a cyber threat intelligence monitoring and management provider, announced an all-cash acquisition of CloudShield, a deep packet processing (DPP) company for an undisclosed amount.

Cloud security provider CloudLink (Ottawa, Canada) announced they have been acquired by EMC.

CSC acquired Autonomic Resources (Cary, NC), a cloud computing infrastructure provider. Autonomic was the first cloud service provider to achieve compliance under FedRAMP, and the first to achieve compliance with security controls outlined by the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA).

Defense contractor Raytheon (Waltham, Mass.) is investing $1.57 billion to create a new cybersecurity company with private-equity firm, Vista Equity Partners LLC. The new firm will combine Raytheon’s cyber products unit with Websense Inc. (San Diego, Calif.), which Raytheon agreed to acquire from Vista.

Bain Capital acquired Blue Coat Systems (Sunnyvale, Calif.) from Thomas Bravo for $2.4 billion. Thomas Bravo acquired Blue Coat Systems for $1.26 billion in 2012. Blue Coat provides online security and WAN optimization solutions.

The Kenjya Group (Columbia, Md.) and Trusant Technologies (Columbia, Md.) announced plans to merge. The combined company, The Kenjya-Trusant Group, will provide cyber protection, information technology, engineering, construction management and acquisition-support services to the Intelligence Community, Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security.

GTT Communications (McLean, Va.), a provider of cloud networking services, announced plans to acquire the managed services business of MegaPath for $152.3 million. The division provides private networking, access services and managed security services to more than 500 large clients.

Akamai Technologies acquired Xerocole (Boulder, Colo.), a DNS platform provider.

Vistronix acquired Agency Consulting Group (Columbia, Md.), Objective Solutions (OSI) (Columbia, Md.) and ExaTech Solutions (Herndon, Va.). Objective provides big data, cyber, collection and advanced analytics solutions to the Intelligence Community. OSI deal expands Vistronix’s subject matter expertise in data analytics, wireless security, communications protocol analysis and real-time secure messaging.

PAE acquired the Global Security and Solutions (GS&S) business unit of USIS. With approximately 1,900 employees, GS&S provides services in litigation support, biometric capture and enrollment, training, construction surveillance and security consulting. Acquisition enhances PAE’s existing support to the Department of Homeland Security and other customers in the classified market, along with multiple long-term contracts focused on identity management, infrastructure protection, information management and mission support.

Ross Technologies (RTGX) acquired The Tipstone Group (Fairfax, Va.), a provider of cyber research and program and portfolio management capabilities for the Defense Department and Intelligence Community.

Cisco acquired Neohapsis (Chicago, Ill.), a provider of application security, cloud security, compliance, IT risk and security strategy, mobile device security and network and endpoint security services. Deal enhances Cisco’s Advanced Malware Protection portfolio of security solutions, and helps it improve its network security services, both on-premise and in the cloud.

Microsoft acquired Aorato Ltd. (Israel), a cybersecurity startup that developed a directory services application firewall. Aorato raised $10 million in venture capital from Accel Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Glilot Capital Partners and Mickey Boodaei.

ZeroFOX (Baltimore, Md.), acquired Vulnr, a stealth-mode security technology company. Vulnr’s technology will be integrated into ZeroFOX Enterprise, cybersecurity’s social risk management platform, to bolster the company’s product offerings.

Investments and IPO activity

Cybersecurity startup Illumio (Sunnyvale Calif.) raised $100 million in Series C financing round. Illumio provides a cloud and data center security platform.

Mobile security company Skycure (Tel Aviv, Israel) raised $8 million to fund new research and development. Shasta Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital and Michael Weider contributed to the round. Skycure has raised a total of $11 million to date.

Lookingglass (Arlington, Va.), a cyber threat intelligence monitoring and management provider, has closed a $20 million Series B round led by New York-based Neuberger Berman Private Equity Funds.

Sqrrl (Cambridge, MA), a provider of big data analytics for identifying and responding to cyber threats, raises $7 million in Series B, led by Rally Ventures and joined by Atlas Venture and Matrix Partners. The company also unveiled new software aimed at detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats. Total funding to date is now $14.2 million.

Team8 (Israel), a cybersecurity startup foundry and think tank, raised $18 million in Series A. Backers include Alcatel-Lucent, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments and Innovation Endeavors.

Pindrop Security (Atlanta, Ga.), a provider of phone fraud prevention and call center authentication, raised $35 million in Series B funding.

Dtex Systems (San Jose, Calif.), a provider of insider threat protection solutions, raised $15 million in Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners and Wing Ventures.

Darktrace, a British cybersecurity firm backed by former Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, has raised $18 million. Investors Talis Capital and Hoxton Ventures joined Lynch’s Invoke Capital in the funding round.

SecureKey Technologies (Toronto, Canada), a provider of identity and authentication solutions, secured $19 million in Series C, led by Blue Sky Capital and Rogers Venture Partners LLC.

Zimperium (San Francisco, Calif.), a provider of mobile threat defense solutions, raised $12 million in Series B, led by Telstra Ventures, in addition to TOYO Corp., Sierra Ventures, Lazarus Israel Opportunities Fund and Samsung.

Emailage (Chandler, Ariz.), a provider of fraud prevention solutions, secures $3.8 million in funding, led by Felicis Ventures, in addition to Double M Partners and Mucker Capital.

PayPal acquires CyActive, an Israeli cybersecurity company for $60 million.

Datashield (Park City, Utah), a provider of cybersecurity solutions, secured $4 million mezzanine loan and equity commitment from Huntington Capital.

Hortonworks (Santa Clara, Calif.), an open-source platform for storing and analyzing big data, raised $100 million in their IPO with an initial market cap of $666 million.

Evident.io (Dublin, Calif.), a provider of continuous cloud security technology for AWS, raised $9.85 million in Series A, led by Bain Capital Ventures. True Ventures also participated. The company had previously raised $1.5 million in seed funding from True Ventures.

V-Key Inc. (Singapore), a provider of mobile security and cryptographic technology, raised $12 million in Series B from Ant Financial and return backer IPV Capital.

Endgame (Arlington, Va.), a developer of security intelligence and analytics tools, raised $30 million in 3rd round. Round was co-led by new investors Edgemore Capital and Top Tier Capital Partners. Previous backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Paladin Capital Group, Columbia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also participated, in addition to Savano Capital Partners.

CipherCloud (San Jose, Calif.), a provider of cloud visibility and data protection solutions, raised $50 million in Series B, led by Transamerica Ventures, along with Delta Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and T-Venture.

Clef (Oakland, Calif.), which provides a two-factor authentication solution that uses Apple’s fingerprint reader rather than passwords, raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Morado Ventures and individual angel investors.

Cyber Squared (Arlington, Va.), a developer of a cyber threat intelligence platform, raised $4 million in its first round of funding and renamed their company ThreatConnect. Round was led by GroTech Ventures. Funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand sales and marketing globally.

NowSecure (Oak Park, Ill.), a mobile device data security and management, raised $12.5 million in Series A. Baird Capital led the round and was joined by Math Venture Partners and Jump Capital.

ThreatStream (Redwood City, Calif.), a SaaS-based cybersecurity threat intelligence platform, raised $22 million in Series B led by General Catalyst Partners. Other investors include Institutional Venture Partners, Google Ventures and Paladin Capital Group.

NexDefense (Atlanta, Ga.), a cybersecurity firm, raised $2.4 million. Round was led by Mosley Ventures and Buckhead Investment Partners.

DB Networks (Carlsbad, Calif.), a provider of cybersecurity that leverages machine learning and behavioral analysis, raised $17 million in new venture capital funding. Round led by Grotech Ventures; joined by Khosla Ventures and Citi Ventures.

Nok Nok Labs (Palo Alto, Calif.), a provider of authentication solutions, raised $8.25 million in Series C. Backers include DDS Inc., Raven Ventures, DCM Ventures, Lenovo Group Limited and ONSET Ventures.

Area 1 Security (Menlo Park, Calif.), a cybersecurity startup focused on social engineering attacks, raised $8 million in Series A, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Company has now raised $10.5 million. Other backers include Allegis Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Data Collective, First Round Capital, RedSeal Networks CEO and former Venrock Partner Ray Rothrock, and Shape Security CEO Derek Smith.

EdgeWave (San Diego, Calif.), a provider of military-grade cybersecurity solutions, raises $2 million in additional Series A from TVC Capital, Northgate and Bill Baumel and RWI Ventures’ partners. Total 2014 capital raised is $8 million.

Vkansee Technology (Beijing), a provider of fingerprint sensors for mobile security, raised $7 million in venture capital from the Aviation Industry Corp. of China.

iSIGHT Partners (Dallas, Texas), a provider of cyber threat intelligence solutions, secured $30 million in Series C funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. The company will use the proceeds to bolster its intelligence services, enhance its core ThreatScape products, develop new partnerships and expand its sales and marketing activities.

Ionic Security (Atlanta, Ga.), a provider of a distributed data protection platform for the enterprise, raised $40.1 million in Series C, led by Meritech Capital Partners. Other backers include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and return backers Google Ventures, Tech Operators and Jafco Ventures.

Phantom Cyber, a cybersecurity startup with an ambitious idea to automate cybersecurity, announced a $2.7 million seed round with backing from some of the biggest names in computer security. Investors include John W. Thompson, former CEO of Symantec, Thomas E. Noonan, former CEO of Internet Security Systems (ISS) and John C. Becker, former CEO of Sourcefire, and Zach Nelson, CEO of NetSuite Inc. (previously a senior executive with McAfee, now part of Intel).

CloudLock (Waltham, Mass.), a cloud based data security company, raised $6.7 million in 4th round of funding. Company previously raised $28 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cedar Fund and Ascent Venture Partners.

Cloud application security company Veracode (Burlington, Mass.) is planning to go public in May, according to Fortune. Veracode has raised over $110 million in venture capital funding. Its most recent round was a $40 million Series F infusion last September led by Wellington Management.

According to Reuters, leading SIEM vendor LogRhythm (Boulder, Colo.), whose investors include Access Venture Partners, Adam Street Partners, Grotech Ventures and Riverwood Capital, chose JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley for an IPO in the second half of the year.

Rapid7 (Boston, Mass.), a provider of security analytics software and services, closed $30 million in funding from Bain Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. Rapid7, whose investors include Bain Capital Ventures and Technology Crossover Ventures, chose Morgan Stanley and Barclays to assist with an initial public offering, according to Reuters.

Email security vendor Mimecast (Boston Mass.), whose investors include Insight Venture Partners, Dawn Capital and Index Ventures, has spoken to investment banks about an IPO later this year, but has not hired any firms, according to Reuters.

Steve Morgan is founder and CEO of Cybersecurity Ventures and editor-in-chief of Cybersecurity Market Report and the Cybersecurity 500 list of the world’s hottest, most innovative cybersecurity companies.

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Expert says time to move beyond ‘medieval’ cybersecurity approach

The nation’s approach to cybersecurity has much in common with medieval defense tactics, and that needs to change, says a cybersecurity expert at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
“Most of our cyber defenses are modeled after medieval perimeter security – a firewall is much like a castle moat – and the idea of ‘keeping the bad guys out,’ ” says Dr. Bruce M. McMillin, professor of computer science and associate dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at Missouri S&T.
“We live inside modern systems that are both physical and computational, and, in such a smart living environment, attacks can come from multiple different sources, some even inside what we consider protected,” he says.
Earlier this year, the head of U.S. Cyber Command told Congress that the federal government’s efforts to deter computer attacks are not working and the U.S. needs to “increase our capacity” to strengthen cybersecurity.
At Missouri S&T, McMillin and other researchers are working to improve cybersecurity with an emphasis on safeguarding the nation’s infrastructure while educating students in this field through its National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.
“We must focus on the information that both flows into and out of every portion of our smart living environment, both hiding what we consider security and private, and disrupting the ability of our adversaries to launch information attacks,” McMillin says.
He adds that Missouri S&T provides “a unique contribution to the information assurance field with our focus on developing ways to protect the nation’s electric power grid, oil, gas and water distribution systems and transportation systems from terrorist attacks.”
Much of that research occurs through Missouri S&T’s Center for Critical Infrastructure Protection.
McMillin credits his former Ph.D. student, Gerry Howser, for coming up with the moat analogy to describe contemporary approaches to cyber defense.
Howser is a career security expert who returned to Missouri S&T for a Ph.D. in computer science.
McMillin also co-leads Missouri S&T’s Smart Living signature area, which focuses on developing processes and technology to turn home, workplace, transportation and energy systems into “smart” environments.
On March 19, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the head of the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the command’s efforts are not working. He pointed out that attackers to U.S. cyber infrastructure want to move beyond disrupting those networks to establish “a persistent presence” on them.
More recently, Dennis Blair, the former director of U.S. national intelligence, said that major sponsors of cyberwarfare forces are reaching a state of deterrence similar to the “mutually assured destruction” of the Cold War era.
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Cybersecurity: 100,000 taxpayers’ info stolen, IRS says

WASHINGTON — Sophisticated criminals used an online service run by the IRS to access personal tax information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, part of an elaborate scheme to steal identities and claim fraudulent tax refunds, the IRS said on Tuesday.

The thieves accessed a system called “Get Transcript,” where taxpayers can get tax returns and other filings from previous years. In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax-filing status and street address, the IRS said.

“We’re confident that these are not amateurs,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “These actually are organized-crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the financial industry are dealing with.”

Koskinen wouldn’t say whether investigators believe the criminals are based overseas — or where they obtained enough personal information about the taxpayers to access their returns. The IRS has launched a criminal investigation. The agency’s inspector general is also investigating.

Identity thieves, both foreign and domestic, have stepped up their efforts in recent years to claim fraudulent tax refunds. The agency estimates it paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent refunds to identity thieves in 2013.

Congress is already pressing the IRS for information about the breach.

“That the IRS — home to highly sensitive information on every single American and every single company doing business here at home — was vulnerable to this attack is simply unacceptable,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “What’s more, this agency has been repeatedly warned by top government watchdogs that its data security systems are inadequate against the growing threat of international hackers and data thieves.”

Koskinen said the agency was alerted to the thieves when technicians noticed an increase in the number of taxpayers seeking transcripts.

The IRS said it is notifying taxpayers whose information was accessed.

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