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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.
After Boston, DHS to Install Beleaguered Student Visa ID System
May 7, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Homeland Security Department has decided to move up the launch of a long-delayed system for digitally verifying student visas to roughly June 1. The action comes after federal officials acknowledged that a foreign youth accused of hiding evidence following the Boston bombings was able to re-enter the country without ...
Pentagon: Pyongyang Likely to Seek Foreign Help With Cyberwarfare
May 3, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
North Korea is expected to mooch off other nations for cyber offensive tools because it is not plugged into the global Web, according to the Defense Department’s first report to Congress on the regime's military might. These are some of the spare details describing Pyongyang’s network operations found amidst a ...
Labor’s Toxic Exposure Website Serves Up Spyware to Energy's Nuclear Workers
May 2, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
A type of cyber breach that hacks website visitors has struck a Labor Department site visited by Energy Department employees who have worked with nuclear weapons, according to researchers who identified the virus. Labor officials acknowledged one of their sites was compromised. Researchers at security provider Invincea, tipped off by ...
Feds Urge Major Industries To Take Steps To Deflect Data Wipe Virus
May 1, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Homeland Security Department is asking that operators of key U.S. networks follow specific precautions to stave off a virus that last summer erased computers at Middle Eastern oil companies. A new bulletin for energy producers and other critical infrastructure businesses provides 31 "tactical" and "strategic” repellants for Shamoon, malicious ...
NIST Reworks Cyber Guidelines for the Hacking Era
April 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has rewritten federal cybersecurity standards for the first time in nearly a decade to address evolving smartphone vulnerabilities and foreign manipulation of the supply chain, among other new threats. The 457-page government computer security bible, officially called "SP (Special Publication) 800-53," has not ...
Authorities Are Mum on Information Sharing During Boston Bombings
April 29, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Homeland Security and FBI officials declined to say whether they’ve been using a controversial communications network in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing designed to share classified information across federal, state and local jurisdictions. A March 2012 Homeland Security directive deemed the Homeland Secure Data Network, or HSDN, "the ...
Is There a Bomb in That Burger? The Pentagon Wants to Know.
April 25, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Defense Department in recent weeks has invested $5.7 million in research to detect bombs concealed beneath dense goo, such as meat, sludge and animal remains. Homemade bombs -- improvised explosive devices in Pentagon terms -- took on new meaning for many following the Boston marathon bombing last week. No ...
What's the White House Policy on Neutralizing Damaging Tweets?
April 24, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Obama administration's social media outreach apparently does not extend to countering market-moving falsified tweets about the White House. Midday on Tuesday, a hacked Associated Press Twitter account informed the public that blasts at the White House had harmed the president. The Dow tumbled for a bit in response. The ...
Investigators: Chinese Government is Behind 96 Percent of Cyberspy Ops
April 23, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Hackers connected to the Chinese regime were responsible for more than 95 percent of cyber espionage cases last year worldwide, according to government authorities and private investigators. An annual breach report compiled by Verizon traced the operations using known hallmarks of Chinese government interference as well as subpoenaed classified intelligence, ...
Encrypted Federal Radios Can Be as Revealing as Police Scanners
April 22, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Federal radios with encryption can be nearly as insecure as the Boston Police scanners that allowed the public to tune in to the hunt for a suspected bomber, research shows. The Homeland Security Department and other agencies are buying more mobile devices that use P25, a set of wireless voice ...
