“Government leaders don’t understand the gravity of the threat of cyber attacks or the implications, ex-CIA official tells Black Hat attendees.” (Source: Cyber Threat Resembles Pre-9/11 Terror Threat: Black Hat — InformationWeekCyber Threat Resembles Pre-9/11 Terror Threat: Black Hat – government Blog.)

“A hacker group on Saturday claimed it has ‘defaced and destroyed’ websites at scores of US police agencies in retaliation for the arrest of suspected peers accused of hacking into the CIA, British crime agency SOCA, and Sony.” (Source: AFP: Hacker group declares cyber war on US police.)

“A hacker managed to penetrate the website of confectionary giant Hershey and change a recipe.” (Source: Hershey hacked by attacker who changes recipe rather than steal data – SC Magazine UK.)

“Lawmakers and some Pentagon officials argue that the US should shift cyberdefense from ‘How to build the next best firewall’ to an offensive message: Those who attack US computers risk ‘land-based attack’.” (Source: You hack, we shoot: Pentagon discusses armed counterstrikes to cyberattacks – CSMonitor.com.)

“One of Sony Corp’s insurers has asked a court to declare that it does not have to pay to defend the media and electronics conglomerate from mounting legal claims related to a massive data breach earlier this year.” (Source: Sony insurer sues to deny data breach coverage | Reuters.)

“Today, as part of the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial in Gödöllo (Hungary), Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano reiterated their shared commitment to deepening cooperation to address the increasing threats to global…

“The FBI has sent out a fraud alert over recent trend of unauthorized wire transfers to China. Small- to medium-sized business in the U.S. are typical victims.” (Source: FBI uncovers string of large, unauthorized wire transfers to China.)

“The story of Stuxnet, a piece of malware that almost certainly targeted an Iranian nuclear facility, is complex and dense. Most of the interesting stuff is buried in the half megabyte of code that the worm is made of, and telling a good story about the details is nearly as difficult as figuring them out…

“Some of the federal government’s most critical agencies are falling down on database security with misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and a lack of best practices, putting sensitive citizen and defense information at risk as a result, new government audits show. Just this week, the Office of the Inspector General (IG) found that the Department of Homeland Security…

“Hackers who have claimed responsibility for a spate of recent break-ins said on Friday that they had infiltrated the network of IRC Federal, an engineering contractor that works for federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and stole internal documents from its database and e-mail system.” (Source: AntiSec Hackers Hit F.B.I. Contractor – NYTimes.com.)