Global Tech Security & Privacy Techonomy Events
The Internet is the new frontier for crime. The hacking ecosystem is breathtaking in its breadth and sophistication. And nation-states are stockpiling cyber weapons capable of disrupting power grids and banking systems, among other targets. There's lots more to worry about. But one of the most promising ways to improve proactive security, and one which merits much greater use, is information sharing of security incidents. More
Business Finance Security & Privacy
Few threats are more on the minds of business leaders than cyber attacks and data breaches. Companies that have been attacked range from Barnes & Noble to Home Depot to J.P. Morgan to Staples, Sony and Target. Now a variety of big insurers have created policies and services to cover this new set of threats. More
Government Security & Privacy Society Techonomy Events
Digital privacy isn’t simple for anyone–consumers, the companies that hold data, or the government. In this high-profile session at Techonomy Policy in June 2015, leaders from AT&T and Microsoft joined venture capitalist Brad Burnham and FCC Commissioner Julie Brill in a probing conversation that underscored the many challenges. Brill worries that consumers do not understand […] More
The market for secure private communications—encrypted messaging—is exploding. And with an estimated 70 trillion consumer and business messages expected globally by 2018, a bunch of New York startups want to “manage” the messaging process—to find ways to make messages secure and private. Federal agencies want secure networks to prevent the massive cyber attacks they have been plagued by. Large corporations embarrassed by disclosures such as Sony’s want enterprise-wide security. But they also want access to individual communications as part of their overall plan to mine and monetize user data. Meanwhile, and controversially, the NSA wants “back door” access to all communications, ostensibly to monitor terrorism and oversee national security. More
Security & Privacy Techonomy Events
As the Internet spreads its tentacles into every nook of society, attacks are rapidly increasing against individuals, companies, governments, and the very Net infrastructure upon which they all rely. The attackers range from cyber criminals to non-state actors like ISIS and nation-states. But law enforcement, government regulation, and an established military response are not even close to keeping up, said a group of experts at the Techonomy Policy conference in Washington on June 9. Before the advent of the Internet, there were four accepted domains of warfare: land, water, air, and space. Cyber is the fifth, and newest, domain, and by the far the hardest one to patrol, the panelists on a session devoted to "The Militarization of the Internet" agreed. More
Analytics & Data Security & Privacy
On Tuesday, The New York Times first reported that the FBI and the Justice Department are involved in a formal investigation of the St. Louis Cardinals’ front office, members of whom had been accused of hacking a Houston Astros’ internal database. The Cardinals (with 11 World Series titles, second only to the New York Yankees) are by most considered a model MLB franchise. The notion that they’d be involved in something as nefarious as cyberhacking an opponent to gain a competitive advantage seems unsavory to many; the notion they’d be hacking an opponent with as downtrodden a history as the Houston Astros seems ironic to many others. But times, as they say, are a-changing and baseball teams (and individuals) have long balanced the tightrope between bending the rules and breaking them. More
As our personal and business data migrates online, lack of online security is increasingly a source of worry for both businesses and individuals worldwide. Risks, including malicious hacking, vandalism, and data theft, are numerous. Today's Internet is vulnerable in part because data typically resides on networks managed and controlled entirely by individual companies. MaidSafe, a startup based in Troon, Scotland, has what it believes is a way to eliminate that kind of reliance and improve the safety of data. More
Global Tech Security & Privacy
After reaching a fever pitch last week, rhetoric in the high-profile spat over piracy between e-commerce giant Alibaba and one of China’s main business regulators appears to be softening as the two sides move towards a compromise. The latest headlines say Alibaba and the State Administration For Industry And Commerce (SAIC) have joined hands to fight piracy, marking a sharp toning down of the angry rhetoric that was flying for much of last week. More
CloudFlare Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Prince visits Hub Culture at the World Economic Forum Davos 2015. Prince discusses the multitude of security breaches in 2014, a trend likely to continue in 2015. With its large game division, says Prince, Sony remains a target of cyberattacks. More
Analytics & Data Security & Privacy
Google's code of conduct famously instructs its staff, board members, and contractors, "Don't be evil." Those who fail to follow the code are subject to disciplinary action and termination. Can the company extend the code to Gmail users? It already has. CBS News reports this week that Google informed the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a Gmail account holder in Texas "was allegedly sending explicit images of a young girl to a friend." More
The shift from analog to digital trade means global commerce is increasingly vulnerable to digital attack, says former National Intelligence Director Adm. Mike McConnell. McConnell, now with Booz Allen Hamilton, is concerned that cyber attack tools—which nation states are building by the thousands in the name of mutual deterrence—will get into the hands of extremist or terrorist groups. At our recent Data Security Lab, Techonomy's David Kirkpatrick spoke with McConnell about how the digital revolution is transforming security and intelligence. More
Former National Intelligence Director Adm. Mike McConnell (now at Booz Allen Hamilton) notes in this interview at Techonomy's recent Data Security Lab that our democracy has traditionally made decisions and developed legislation in reaction to events. That is unwise now, though, he says, if we wait until a major cyber event before imposing regulations to demand good cyber practices from business. Sadly, though, he suspects that we won't act until such an event happens. More
At our March 19 Data Security Lab, sponsored by EMC, Techonomy’s David Kirkpatrick spoke with RSA’s Art Coviello and former National Intelligence Director Adm. Mike McConnell (now at Booz Allen Hamilton) about emerging cybertrends. Coviello and McConnell kicked off the discussion by sharing their thoughts about why companies are increasingly at risk, and what they can do to deter cyberthreats. More
Superdog to the rescue! It may sound like comic book fodder, but we're about to see Krypto in real life, as our canine friends, outfitted in high-tech gear, prepare to join the front lines of disaster response. Led by a team from North Carolina State University, the smart-response dog initiative is part of a larger effort to smarten up our currently outdated disaster relief infrastructure. More
Global Tech Security & Privacy
The latest reports that Beijing is pressuring Chinese banks to stop using high-end servers from computing giant IBM don’t come as a huge surprise, amid escalating tensions between China and the U.S. over cyber spying. This particular development is just the latest in a series of similar moves that dates back to last year, when Beijing began quietly pressuring many big state-run firms to stop using U.S. tech products following revelations from the Edward Snowden cyber-spying scandal. The ironic element of Beijing’s anti-foreign tech campaign is that it could actually make the nation’s technology networks and systems even more vulnerable to spying, since most domestic products are far less sophisticated than their foreign counterparts. More
Global Tech Security & Privacy
When the European Court of Justice—the rough equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court—ruled that individuals have the "right to be forgotten," it took a dangerous step backward. Among many potential negative consequences, it could contribute to slowing global economic growth. The court endorsed a profoundly ahistorical, anti-technological argument about the supposed rights of individuals. More
No sector of society is free from risk of cyberattack, says Craig Mundie of Microsoft. "Information technology is embedding itself in virtually everything," making us susceptible to threats ranging from malicious mischief to full-blown cyberterrorism, Mundie told us in an interview at Techonomy 2013. Such new and developing threats call for products and business methods to improve alongside technology. The government, too, is going to have to to keep up with better law enforcement, intelligence, and defense. More
Cybersecurity expert and RSA executive chairman Art Coviello says it's crucial for privacy advocates and industry leaders to come together to create modern laws to protect society from cybercrime. But the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, also known as CISPA and the Rogers-Ruppersberger Bill, was introduced in Congress in 2011. And while the House of Representatives has passed it twice, the bill still languishes in the Senate. In part two of a conversation recorded at Techonomy's recent Data Security Lab, Coviello talks about the responsibilities both of the government and of private companies that have suffered security breaches. More
Hackers will try any point of entry they can find to access private data. In a recent interview with Techonomy, RSA Security’s Art Coviello said that the number of vulnerable access points—or what he calls the “attack surface”—is growing rapidly, with the number of digitally controlled devices connected to the Internet expected to reach 200 billion by the end of this decade. The New York Times reports that hackers recently breached the computer networks of a large oil company by implanting malware in the online menu of a Chinese restaurant favored by the company’s employees. With increasingly sophisticated hackers targeting a proliferating volume of corporate data, our pervasive connectivity—through everything from heating and cooling systems to accounting software and even vending machines—presents a constant challenge to security experts. More
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