MO cybersecurity summit helps residents protect themselves

The summit was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as part of our state’s ongoing initiative to strengthen cybersecurity. A number of state leaders were in attendance, and the event was aimed at both raising awareness and sharing best practices.

Michael Roling, Chief Information Officer for the State of Missouri, says our state is one of the leaders nationwide in terms of cybersecurity.

“We’ve been using a four point plan over the last several years to secure our state’s networks and other resources from criminals and other adversaries,” Roling says, adding, “We [Missouri] have been a model for other states in terms of building up our defenses and protecting state resources.”

Experts say one of the best ways to protect yourself is ask questions.

“It’s part of your own responsibility to keep your information protected,” Kayla Wilber, an IT consultant with Huber & Associates tells ABC 17 News.  “Consumers should start asking questions about, ‘How is my data that is shared with you protected?” For the full article click here 

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Cyber security company Intsights raises $7.5m

Elite private girls’ school bans app Musical.ly over fears videos of young pupils imitating ‘sexualised dance moves’ will be used to track them

Roslyn Mahony, the head of Wenona, and Beth Oakley, Dean of Students, warned girls in year 4, 5 and 6 were imitating the raunchy routines in pop music videos.

‘When the celebrities whose music they enjoy present their songs with highly sexualised dance moves, these performance styles are then imitated as girls create their own music videos through the app,’ the letter reads.

‘A number of girls have been singing and dancing and uploading performances in school uniform, which introduces numerous other potential risks.’

Students have been asked to remove the app from their phone if they do not meet the age requirement of being 13 years old. For the full article click here 

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Skills Shortage Means Salaries Soar As US Cities Vie For Cybersecurity Talent

The notion of a job for life appeared to have withered away from contemporary existence as surely as Luddites were ejected from the workforce in the early 19th Century.

The ongoing rise of automation, machine learning and the so-called march of the robots meant that humans could not rely on a lifelong career using learnt skills. Even knowledge workers would have to have portfolio skills to survive.

This, however, does not seem to apply to cybersecurity. A recent report from Cisco reported there was a global skills shortage of more than one million people, as governments and corporations belatedly address the seemingly ubiquitous dangers of cybercrime.

Moreover, according to a Peninsula Press analysis of numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 209,000 US cybersecurity jobs without candidates and jobs are up 74% over the past five years. The same analysis says that demand for cybersecurity professionals will grow 53% through 2018. For the full article click here 

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ICIT Analysis: Hacking Elections is Easy! Part One: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

True democracy relies on the reliability of the democratic process. The “Help America Vote Act”, passed in 2002, ushered in an era of uncertainty by proliferating the use of electronic voting systems vulnerable to cyber, technical and physical attack. More often than not, electronic voting systems are nothing but bare-bone, decade old computer systems that lack even rudimentary endpoint security. Despite the recurring discussion on electronic voting vulnerabilities that occurs every four years, only limited attention is given to the systemic problem undermining American democracy. It’s time for a complete overhaul in the electoral process’ cyber, technical and physical security.

In this analysis, entitled, “Hacking Elections is Easy! Part One: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures”, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology provides a detailed analysis of the risks that voting machines and the digital age have introduced into our democratic process which have the potential to impact the integrity of election results.  The report discusses:

• The shocking ease of hacking all aspects of virtually any voting machine’s “black box” technology
• The cyber, technical and physical attack methods that could be enlisted by Nation States, Hacktivists and black hat hackers
• Social Engineering attack vectors and methods that are so easy, even a novice script kiddie can do it
• A few simple tactics that can “fix” any local, state or national campaign in just days or even hours
• And much more

This paper was authored by:

• James Scott (Senior Fellow – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology)
• Drew Spaniel (Researcher – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology)

The following experts contributing to this report:

• Rob Roy (Fellow – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology & Federal CTO, HPE)

Part Two of this paper will be published shortly and provide a deeper technical analysis of this threat.

Download the paper here:  http://ift.tt/2c4hYNx

This paper was underwritten by:

 

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Banking From Brexit to Blockchain: Enabling Commerce by Expanding the International Privacy Shield

Customer privacy concerns are key impediments to international growth in banking and commerce, and there are many companies and individuals who remain “underbanked” due to these issues. Fortunately, recent advances in blockchain and other cybersecurity business technologies can help address consumer and regulatory requirements, particularly in the current volatile and changing commercial climate.

Privacy: A Global Concern

The recent vote by Britain to exit the EU — the so-called Brexit — elicited various reactions from many quarters. It may be said, however, that there is consensus on one topic: Personal privacy, regardless of country, should be jealously guarded, and personal data used sparingly and appropriately. In that regard, the emerging technology of blockchain, if judiciously implemented, may provide privacy support both within and outside a particular jurisdiction.

Many countries are concerned about the collection and use of their citizens’ data outside their national borders. In many instances, even a well-intentioned viewing of data can be construed as collection and use. For the full article click here 

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Security Talent Gap Leaves Enterprises Vulnerable

The shortage of workers in the cyber-security field is well-documented. What’s more, study after study shows that the problem is growing worse. However, “Hacking the Skills Shortage,” a recently released report from Intel Security, in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has found that the problem has reached crisis levels, and the potential fallout is enormous.

A vast majority of respondents admitted that they are understaffed and overwhelmed, and they believe that an inability to address key cyber-security issues makes their organization a more desirable target for hacking. The survey—which tapped more than 775 IT decision-makers in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States—offers insights into the state of cyber-security. Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Security Group stated: “The security industry has talked at length about how to address the storm of hacks and breaches, but government and the private sector haven’t brought enough urgency to solving the cyber-security talent shortage. … We need to foster new education models, accelerate the availability of training opportunities, and we need to deliver deeper automation so that talent is put to its best use on the front line.”   For the full article click here 

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