Fake profile fooled military intelligence

Study: IT admins indulge in snooping at work, Reid presses senators on cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Update – Tune in weekdays at 30 minutes past the hour for the latest cybersecurity news on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris (6-10 a.m.) and The DorobekInsider with Chris Dorobek (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.

  • She’s pretty and flirty and a cyberpro. And Robin Sage is totally fake. The Washington Times reports that the Facebook profile for Robin Sage describes her as a 25-year old woman working as a “cyber threat analyst” at the U.S. Navy’s Network Warfare Command. Within less than a month, she had nearly 300 social-network connections among security specialists, military personnel and staff at intelligence agencies and defense contractors. Her LinkedIn connections included men working for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Reconnaissance Office, a senior intelligence official in the Marine Corps, the chief of staff for a congressman, and several senior executives at defense contractors. She, however, was a big fake — made up by security consultant Thomas Ryan as part of an effort to expose weaknesses in the defense and intelligence communities. Ryan says he even included red flags in her profile – including discrepancies about her age and experience. Oh. And there’s no such thing as a “cyber threat analyst” at the Naval Network Warfare Command. Also, her name is taken from the code name of an annual special-forces military exercise.
  • Think no one else is reading your work email? Think again. A new survey by Cyber-Ark Software found more than 40 percent of IT administrators have indulged in a little snooping around inside their own network, using administrative passwords to view sensitive or confidential information. Adam Bosnian is the executive vice president for the Americas and corporate development at Cyber-Ark Software. He told Chris Dorobek on the Dorobek Insider that many snoop simply because they have the access.
  • The Senate could vote on major changes to the cybersecurity landscape in September. Senate aides tell Congress Daily that Majority Leader Harry Reid is pressing colleagues to combine two competing cybersecurity bills by then. An aide for Reid says that he’s convinced swift action is necessary. Reid has met privately with the leaders of key Senate panels to press them on the issue.

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