for Smartphones and other mobile devices
| Follow us on: |
|
Mobile Security News archives
What did we learn from the Cyber Shockwave?
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsWednesday, February 24th, 2010
By Usman Sindhu
ComputerworldUK
On 16 February the US Bipartisan Policy Centre hosted a mock cyber attack called Cyber Shockwave.
The aim of this simulation was to understand the impacts of a cyber attack and assess infrastructure capability during such an incident. There are many articles explaining the motive and results of this simulation, and post mortem is still coming as we speak.
So, what did the simulation entail? It depicted a war game taking place in 2011 – basically an application installed on smart phones during ‘March Madness’ that turned out to be a malware. This hypothetical malware affected telecom and IT infrastructure throughout the country, with the result actually bringing down the nation’s cellular network…but there is more. According to an article from ‘The Atlantic Wire’:
“Later, two bombs disabled the country’s electricity network and destroyed gas pipelines… Soon 60 million cellphones were dead. The Internet crashed, finance and commerce collapsed, and most of the nation’s electric grid went dark. White House aides discussed putting the Army in American cities.”
Read more about what we learned from the Cyber Shockwave Event
Cyber ShockWave cripples computers nationwide (sorta)
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsThursday, February 18th, 2010
By Chris Gaylord
The Christian Science Monitor
How will America respond to a vast cyber attack? An all-star team of security agents and lawmakers will provide a key glimpse today.
Former government officials gathered Tuesday in Washington to participate in Cyber ShockWave.
The event, sponsored the Bipartisan Policy Center, is a kind of high-level role playing game. As reports of the fake attack roll in, Washington veterans will imagine themselves as certain cabinet positions and collective advise the president on how to act.
Players include recent Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as the faux National Security Advisor, former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte as Secretary of State, and retired Sen. J. Bennett Johnston as secretary of energy. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington will play host to their White House situation room.
Read more about the Cyber Shockwave event
SMobile Systems Releases Best Practices For Protecting U.S. Cellular Network
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsThursday, February 18th, 2010
By Calvin Azuri
TMCnet Contributor
SMobile Systems has released a set of best practices on how to protect the U.S. cellular network.
The best practices were released following the vulnerabilities that were exposed after the simulation of a nationwide terrorist attack on the U.S. Internet and cellular infrastructure.SMobile Systems ( News - Alert) has also released a government- and enterprise-level mobile security package called Secure Mobility Management Solutions.
The simulation exercise was hosted in Washington, D.C., by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). The BPC event, named Cyber ShockWave, featured a full-day simulation of an attack on the United State’s mobile and Internet-based communications infrastructure.
The event was designed by SMobile executives, including Joe Hagin, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and Daniel V. Hoffman (News - Alert), SMobile’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Read more about the mock Cyber Attack
Simulated cyberattack teaches govt. lessons
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsWednesday, February 17th, 2010
By Suzanne Kubota
Federal News Radio
The nation’s economy and infrastructure were the target of a simulated cyberattack yesterday. The bad news is they didn’t fare well. The good news is much was learned.
The purpose of the drill, called Cyber ShockWave, was to raise questions about how to respond to a cyberattack “while we have time to answer them,” said former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick.
Gorelick played the role of Attorney General in the scenario. She told Federal News Radio the simulation started out looking like a cybercrime with a bug in an application for handheld cell phones, and grew into a national security threat.
The first question raised and confronted by the participants is how much authority the federal government would have in a situation like this. While they could recommend that people turn off their cellphones to prevent the spread of the malware, compliance was only at about 50%. “Well you can say” shut off the phone, said Gorelick, “the question is whether you can make it happen.”
Read more about the cyber attack
The Five Best Practices For Mobile Network Learned From The Cyber ShockWave
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsWednesday, February 17th, 2010
The Cyber ShockWave came and went. I know I followed the tweets as best I could, and I can’t wait for this weekend to view the “live” coverage which will be shown on CNN. So what did we learn from the Event? Quite a bit actually, so I’m going to share the details with you.
Cyber ShockWave was a simulated cyber attack exercise hosted in Washington D.C. by the Bipartisan Policy Center. CNN will be televising it on Feb 20th and 21st at 8pm and 11 pm EST. The exercise had key players who assumed key roles and had no idea what scenarios would be introduced. There were two scenarios, and the purpose of the exercise was to find how prepared we are as a nation and where our vulnerabilities lay. It’s an exercise to see where we need to strengthen our defenses, how fast we are to act, and how we react when we are in crisis. How will the public be addressed in times of crisis, etc. It’s like a fire drill in a way, and it gives us a chance to see where we are weak.
Read more about the Cyber Shockwave Event
War game reveals U.S. lacks cyber-crisis skills
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsWednesday, February 17th, 2010
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Scene: The White House Situation Room.
Event: A massive cyber attack has turned the cellphones and computers of tens of millions of Americans into weapons to shut down the Internet. A cascading series of events then knocks out power for most of the East Coast amid hurricanes and a heat wave.
Is the assault on cellphones an armed attack? In a crisis, what power does the government have to order phone and Internet carriers to allow monitoring of their networks? What level of privacy can Americans expect?
A war game, sponsored by a nonprofit group and attended by former top-ranking national security officials, laid bare Tuesday that the U.S. government lacks answers to such key questions.
Half an hour into an emergency meeting of a mock National Security Council, the attorney general declared: “We don’t have the authority in this nation as a government to quarantine people’s cellphones.”
Read more about the mock Cyber Attack
Hacker attacks – future threat number one
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsWednesday, February 17th, 2010
The US power grid and banking system are at risk from cyber terrorists, believes a think tank which staged a digital doomsday exercise and determined that authorities would not be able to cope with such an attack.
Former US Secretary of Homeland security Michael Chertoff and other former government leaders spent a day posing as members of the National Security Council.
“Everything we do in modern life pretty much all over the world depends upon the Internet,” Chertoff told RT.
The simulated attack was backed up by a simulated news report. It starts with the college basketball March Madness application for cellphones. The supposed hacker used it to gain access to all the information stored inside.
The fear grows that with the push of a couple buttons and an internet connection, experienced hackers could get inside personal computers. Except for shutting the system down completely, they can also take total control of one’s personal information.
“[In such a case] peoples’ bank accounts may begin to either increase or decrease by a random amount,” Chertoff said. “That would not only mess up the banks in terms of their capital, but it would cause a crisis of confidence in the banking system.”
Read more about the Cyber Attack
Mobile Tech: The Top 10 Apps CIOs Need Now
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsTuesday, February 16th, 2010
The handheld is becoming the desktop. That’s the reality of today’s mobile workforce and, increasingly, we all need ready access to our networked world from handheld wireless devices and this means CIOs, too.
The good news is the flurry of new apps that continue to avalanche into the marketplace on multiple platforms. But, in this abundance, arises the need to be picky―apps-overwhelm is an all too easy place to find oneself. So, what apps do you really need now? Read on for an edited, but in-no-particular order (although the two at the top get my vote), selection of 10 apps that deserve a place on your mobile phone.
Preference is given here to BlackBerry apps because most of you carry RIM devices but there also are some Android, Windows Mobile, even iPhone apps sprinkled throughout the catalog. So, without further ado, the winners are:
SMobile Anti-Theft for Android - Kill it if you lose it. CIOs carry confidential info on their mobile devices and this app exists to do one thing: let you erase everything remotely. Enterprise server edition Blackberries allow for fast data destruction via IT admin commands. Android users can do the same with the SMobile app ($19.99), which also provides anti-virus protections. iPhone users will want Apple’s MobileMe, $99/year. Whatever phone you use, get this protection. It’s a must for c-suiters.
Read more about the Top 10 Apps CIO’s Need
Washington Group Tests Security in ‘Cyber ShockWave’
Filed Under: Mobile Security NewsTuesday, February 16th, 2010
By Sarmad Ali
The Wall Street Journal
A Washington think tank conducted a simulated, 12-hour cyber attack Tuesday that is intended to show how the U.S. government would respond to a similar move against its networks and infrastructure.
The “Cyber ShockWave,” hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, began at 10 a.m. ET at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, and is expected to last until 10 p.m. The group, whose advisory board includes Bob Dole and Tom Daschle, said participants will react to the threat in real time, as intelligence and news reports drive the simulation.
Participants are tasked with advising the president and crafting a response to the attack without a prior knowledge of the scenario, highlighting the difficulty of split-second decisions in response to an unfolding and often unseen threat.
Read more about the Cyber ShockWave event
Former officials plan guest appearances in cyberattack simulation
Filed Under: Latest News, Mobile Security NewsFriday, February 12th, 2010
A bipartisan group of former senior government officials plans to stage a return to service exercise Feb. 16 as part of a simulation designed to show how the government would respond to and recover from a devastating cyberattack.
The event, known as Cyber ShockWave, was co-created by former CIA Director Michael Hayden and a national security group that is part of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), the organization that’s hosting the event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington.
Read more about the cyberattack
