(Manufacturing Tomorrow, 9/11/18) Cybercrime is an ever-evolving epidemic. Pharmaceutical companies face threats like phishing emails that pose as mail from reputable companies as well as malware and insider hacking. Some attackers will encrypt files and ask for a ransom to decrypt them, but not all cybersecurity threats are financially motivated…
Indegy Releases Series of Videos on Critical Infrastructure Protection for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
(Business Wire, 10/2/18) NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Indegy, a leader in industrial cyber security, announced that beginning today it will release an educational video each week in October as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2018. The annual event is a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure every American has…
UConn opens building to help foster research partnerships
(Norwich Bulletin, 9/21/18) STORRS — UConn has cut the ribbon on a building designed to foster partnerships between the school’s researchers and industry. The Innovation Partnership Building was funded with about $85 million from industry. It brings together academic experts and companies in fields such as flexible electronics, materials science,…
Connecticut Cyber Chief and other officials say utilities thwarted attacks
CT officials: Utilities thwarted millions of hacking attempts (Hartford Business Journal, 9/18/18) Connecticut cybersecurity officials said Tuesday that utility companies have faced more frequent and sophisticated attempts to penetrate their networks over the past year, but suffered no breaches. In a second annual review of utility cyberdefenses — a confidential…
Hacking the Factory Floor: Cybersecurity in Smart Manufacturing
(Heattreat, 9/12/18) When you think of hacking, you might think of viruses or ransomware attacks where computers are unable to operate unless a bitcoin is paid to an anonymous cybercriminal. In the manufacturing sector, the reality isn’t quite so public. First, the practical physical realities of the industrial landscape are…
NIST Awards $4 Million For 2018 Small Businesses Innovation Research Program
(Public.now, 8/21/18) GAITHERSBURG, Md.-The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $4 million in grants to 21 small businesses to support innovative technology development. Awardees in 15 states will receive Phase I or Phase II funding through NIST’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The…
MEP at 30 — Looking Back at the Four Eras of Manufacturing
(NIST, 8/23/18) Today (August 23, 2018) represents a milestone in the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Thirty years ago, on this date in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act (Public Law 100-418). Section 5121 established the…
Manufacturing: A Rising Target for Cybercriminals
(Security Boulevard, 8/20/18) Every morning, I start my day by reading email about the latest cybersecurity news. These emails almost always involve data breaches or malware targeting a retail outlet, a restaurant, a healthcare company or a financial institution. What do these cyberattacks have in common? They involve organizations that…
Cyber hygiene: Where do organizations fall behind on basics?
(HelpNet Security, 8/9/18) Tripwire released its State of Cyber Hygiene report, which examined how organisations are implementing security controls that the Center for Internet Security (CIS) refers to as cyber hygiene. The survey found that almost two-thirds of the organisations admit they do not use hardening benchmarks, like CIS or Defense…
Intensifying DDoS attacks: Choosing your defensive strategy
(HelpNet Security, 8/6/18) As Arbor Networks CTO Darren Anstee recently pointed out, DDoS attacks have become a much more significant business risk to a much broader range of organizations in the past few years. That’s partly due to their increase in size, complexity and frequency, but also due to the increased…