@Risk

The nation’s electrical power grid is becoming increasingly interconnected through the internet, and while this technological sophistication provides significant benefits, it also comes hand-in-hand with considerable risk:

Enhanced interconnectivity means the power grid is now more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Fortunately, researchers are now hard at work, designing safeguards to help protect the grid from computer viruses trying to wreak havoc on the system.

For instance, Errin Fulp, professor of computer science at Wake Forest University, is developing an army of “digital ants” that can scour computer networks looking for threats such as computer worms and self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorized use of computers. When one of these digital ants detects a threat, it is designed to send for more ants to converge at that particular location, drawing the attention of human operators to investigate further.

“The idea is to deploy thousands of different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat,” Fulp said in a press release. “As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other ants. Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is programmed to leave behind a stronger scent. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection.”
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Verizon released the latest edition of its Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR) series last week, and the results are a rather interesting mixed bag.

On the one hand, the total data lost through cyber attacks decreased dramatically in 2010. However, the study also found that the overall number of breaches was higher than ever before.

According to Verizon, the seeming contradiction between the low data loss and the high number of breaches likely stems from a significant decline in large-scale breaches, caused by a change in tactics by cybercriminals. Apparently, cybercriminals now tend to engage in small, opportunistic attacks rather than large-scale, difficult attacks, and they are using relatively unsophisticated methods to successfully penetrate organizations. As Verizon points out, only 3 percent of breaches were considered unavoidable without extremely difficult or expensive corrective action.

Here are a few of the report’s key findings in more detail:
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A handful of rare earth minerals and other elements help power our high-tech world and are critical to the development of new technologies to foster US energy independence.

These so-called “Energy-Critical Elements” (ECEs) are chemicals that have the capacity to transform the way we capture, transmit, store or conserve energy.

Unfortunately, though, the US relies on other countries for more than 90 percent of most ECEs. Some ECEs are simply rare in the Earth’s crust or poorly concentrated by geological processes. Many have been produced as by-products of primary metals refining, complicating attempts to produce large quantities. Others occur only in a few mines worldwide, where production is dominated by –and subject to –manipulation by one or more countries.

China, for example, produces 95 percent of all rare earth elements and recently announced plans to cut its exports of the minerals to various nations by 35 percent.

What can the US do to secure future supplies of ECEs?
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Today’s workforce is mobile, and these days, it’s becoming more and more common for employees take the office with them wherever they go.

But, does more mobility mean less security? Do mobile workers increase the threat of a data breach at your company?

As you might expect, the answer to both of those questions is “yes.” New survey results reveal that two-thirds of employees expose sensitive data outside the workplace –some even exposing highly regulated and confidential information such as customer credit card and social security numbers. As many as two-thirds (67 percent) of those polled said they had worked with some type of sensitive data outside the trusted confines of the office within the past year, including highly sensitive information such as customer credit card numbers (26 percent), customer social security numbers (24 percent), patient medical information (15 percent) and internal corporate financial information (42 percent).

The Visual Data Breach Risk Assessment Study, conducted by People Security and commissioned by 3M, also found the majority of companies do not have basic policies or measures in place to protect sensitive information from computer screen snooping when employees are working in public places.

Here are a few more findings that I found particularly interesting: (more…)

Component suppliers for tablet computers are shifting into overdrive.

Last week, Elizabeth Woyke at Forbes reported that one Chinese supplier of iPad components shipped more than 6 million parts to Apple during the third quarter of the year. This same supplier expects to ship 7 million more in the fourth quarter.

The article also says that Brian White, an analyst from Ticonderoga Securities, has heard that sales numbers for the iPad could reach a whopping 45 million in 2011.

Of course, this is all speculation because Apple, staying true to form, remains tight-lipped about its iPad sales figures. We know that the company sold more than 3 million tablets in the first three months after its launch. However, no new numbers have been revealed since then. The most analysts can hope for is an update later this month when Apple reports its earnings.

(Just as a point of reference, let me offer this: As remarkable as it sounds, Johnny Evans at Computerworld estimates that an iPad is now sold every second of every minute of every day.) (more…)