Army Will Have Layoffs After All
$1M in Bonuses to Tax Delinquent Feds at IRS
7 Agencies Where Contract Spending Is Up
Smithsonian Boosts Hipster Credentials
Quiz: Surprising Facts On the Gender Pay Gap
A New Educational Perk for Feds
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Aliya Sternstein
Senior Correspondent
Aliya Sternstein reports on cybersecurity and homeland security systems for Nextgov. She has covered technology for nine years at such publications as National Journal's TechnologyDaily, Federal Computer Week and Forbes. Before joining Government Executive, she covered agriculture and derivatives trading for Congressional Quarterly. She has been a guest commentator on C-SPAN, WTOP and Federal News Radio. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Data Stolen from 104,000 Energy Employees Was More Sensitive than First Thought
December 13, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Hackers that breached an Energy Department personnel database in July got away with more sensitive data than first disclosed by the government, including some banking information and password security questions of the 104,179 individuals affected, according to internal investigators. A special report released by the Energy Inspector General on Friday ...
18 Months in the Slammer for Energy Supercomputer Hacker
December 12, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to one and a half years in jail for, among other crimes, selling access to Energy Department supercomputers at an asking price of $50,000, the FBI announced on Thursday. Login data sold by Andrew James Miller and accomplices let unauthorized people break into a ...
NSA Spends $1 Billion on Crypto – A Fraction of Total Spy Budget, Researchers Say
December 11, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Only 23 percent of the United States' black intelligence budget goes toward information technology for bugging other IT systems worldwide, according to a new IDC report. That said, researchers expect this slice to widen to up to 34 percent, largely because intelligence analysts need more data collection tools and supercomputers ...
Secret Service Plans Android Purchase Despite Other Agencies' Troubles
December 10, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Secret Service expects to communicate in the field during crises using Android-based Samsung smartphones in conjunction with the company's security software, according to plans for the purchase of up to 2,000 “Knox” licenses. The move comes despite other national security agencies’ troubles with the service and Android devices. Contract ...
Congress Grills TSA on Chinese-Made Luggage Scanner Parts
December 8, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
This story has been updated with comments from TSA and Rapiscan. A House committee is pressing the Transportation Security Administration for answers on allegations that a vendor has supplied about 250 baggage screening systems containing Chinese-manufactured parts that could facilitate espionage or sabotage. TSA recently withdrew a roughly $60 million ...
DARPA Plugs Contest for Watson-like System to Deflect Hackers
December 6, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
In the wake of an alleged hack that stole the passwords of two million Facebook, Google and other Internet users, Pentagon officials are plugging a new contest to build a Watson-like system that can find and eradicate Achilles heels in software. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the test tube ...
Hackers Accidentally Auction Secrets, Ruin Relationships and Game Investors
December 6, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
In case you missed our coverage this week in ThreatWatch, Nextgov’s regularly updated index of cyber breaches: Australian government data found on for-sale thumb drives Various agencies, businesses and private citizens neglected to erase memory sticks before giving them away to online marketplaces, which also failed to wipe the drives. ...
Cyber Arms Dealers Peddle 85 Worms a Day
December 5, 2013 Cyberweapons sold to the government that are powered by glitches in popular software have opened a can of worms for citizens who increasingly are being attacked by nongovernment actors buying from the same arsenal of 85 exploits per day, according to new research. Boutique firms are selling details about flaws ...
Cyber Arms Dealers Peddle 85 Worms a Day
December 5, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Cyberweapons sold to the government that are powered by glitches in popular software have opened a can of worms for citizens who increasingly are being attacked by nongovernment actors buying from the same arsenal of 85 exploits per day, according to new research. Boutique firms are selling details about flaws ...
Pentagon Forcing Many Workers Back to BlackBerry
December 3, 2013 Some military members who were working off Apple and Android-based smartphones and tablets now must return to using older model BlackBerrys because of a security service switchover, according to an email obtained byNextgov and confirmed by Pentagon officials. The Defense Department is building a new mobile device management system to ...
