DHS fills key cybersecurity posts

Zeus lives

Cybersecurity Update – Tune in weekdays at 30 minutes past the hour for the latest cybersecurity news on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Jane Norris (6-10 a.m.) and The Daily Debrief with Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris (3-7 p.m.). Listen live at FederalNewsRadio.com or on the radio at 1500 and 820 AM in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

  • Two key cybersecurity positions at the Department of Homeland Security have been filled. Roberta Stempfley will be the new director of the National Cybersecurity Division, which coordinates federal government initiatives to secure the nation’s mostly privately owned critical information. GovInfoSecurity.com says Stempfley was formerly the chief information officer at the Defense Information Systems Agency. And Randel Vicker will be the director of the US Computer Emergency Response Team. Vicker has been the acting director since the resignation of Mischel Kwon last August.
  • Zeus is alive and kicking and more powerful than ever. That, according to web security company, Trusteer. Despite efforts last month to shut down the command and control system for the Zeus botnet, Trusteer says it has spotted the Trojan virus in one of every 3,000 of the 5.5 million computers it monitors. Worse, Trusteer’s CTO tells the BBC “the infection is growing faster than we have ever seen before.” The virus steals online banking details from infected computer users.
  • The US kept its title in 2009 as the primary country for malicious cyber activity. Symantec says China and Brazil came in second and third. It’s not clear which country tops the list as the originating-point. According to The-New-New-Internet, the most prevalent form of cyber crime was fake antivirus software.

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