Compiled by The Cyber Loop editor
IG: U.S. pilots’ medical data at risk from poor FAA cybersecurity: The Federal Aviation Administration system storing more than 3 million past and current airplane pilots’ personal information, including medical data, has been riddled with information assurance protection holes for years, according to a Transportation Department inspector general report dated June 18.
Section 706 worse than Lieberman bill, says Senate Committee: Existing presidential authority over telecommunications infrastructure is greater than what the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 would permit the executive branch to do in case of a cyber emergency, say proponents of the bill.
NIST Launches Cyber Awareness Program: The National Institute of Standards and Technology has launched a new interagency program to raise cybersecurity awareness and teach Americans of all ages better practices for computer use.
Targeted Trident cyber-attack against defence company: Targeted attacks occur when cybercriminals launch malware against a specific organisation, industry or government department. In recent years we’ve often seen these distributed in the form of booby-trapped Word documents or malformed Adobe PDF files.
Senators seek to defuse criticism of cybersecurity bill: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, plan to fight back Thursday against criticism that their sweeping cybersecurity bill goes too far in allowing the government to shut down Internet services during emergencies.
Say no to a government ‘kill switch’ for the Internet: I spend exactly zero time worrying that black helicopters will swoop down and impose a new world order. I don’t believe that the CIA killed JFK, and I don’t think the Air Force is hiding a UFO in the desert — which is to say, I generally don’t take conspiracy theories seriously.
Industry concerned about DHS standards on cybersecurity: Private cybersecurity companies worry that too-stringent cybersecurity laws and regulations could have a detrimental impact on private sector innovation; “The government needs to be very careful about imposing too much of a top-down standards process,” said McAfee vice president of government relations Tom Gann; “We need to bring products to market very quickly. They need to make sure we can get latest technology”