Quantity and quality of cybercrimes increasing
“Thousands of confidential files on the U.S. military’s most technologically advanced fighter aircraft have been compromised by unknown computer hackers over the past two years,” the Wall Street Journal, CNN and others are reporting. (It’s not so bad, according to other reports.)
The news story comes as the White House is putting the final touches to its cybersecurity review. This morning the WSJ reports that, “Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to announce the creation of a new military ‘cyber command’ after the rollout of the White House review… The cyber command is likely to be led by a military official of four-star rank, according to officials familiar with the proposal. It would, at least initially, be part of the Pentagon’s Strategic Command, which is currently responsible for computer-network security and other missions.”
While “official” hackers may be at the top of the suspect list for penetrating the Joint Strike Fighter, the capability of private cybercriminals is on the rise. “The world’s largest-ever malware network has been uncovered, affecting 1.9 million corporate, government and consumer computers,” according the the security firm Finjan and several news reports (TGDaily, BBC, and others).
According to Spamfighter.com, “New research (finds that) direct attacks on the financial institutions coupled with organized crime has resulted in the increasing number of online records being hacked in 2008, which aggregated more than the cumulative figures of 2004-2007.”
In his Tuesday keynote, Art Coviello, President of RSA, focused on cybercriminals, “Our adversaries operate as a true ecosystem that thrives through interdependence and constantly adapts to ensure its growth and survival.”
Mr Coviello said that meant it was time for the security industry to come together to defeat the criminal element at large,” according to the BBC.
“We must evolve from acting independently to solve discreet information security problems to acting collaboratively to create a common development process.”
