DTN News: Lockheed Martin Introduces IronClad - Secure Computing On A USB Flash Drive

DTN News: Lockheed Martin Introduces IronClad - Secure Computing On A USB Flash Drive *“PC on a Stick” Secures Desktop and Data for Telecommuters, On-the-Go Workforce

*Source: DTN News / Lockheed Martin (NSI News Source Info) HERNDON, Va., - January 20, 2010: On Jan. 18th, 2010 mobile workforce can now trade in their laptop for a flash drive, thanks to an innovative new mobile computing technology from Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] and IronKey. The new IronClad™ USB drive shrinks a laptop’s hard drive – including the entire operating system, software applications, and files – onto a secure flash drive.Carry Your Computer On A Keychain - With Complete Security. Lockheed Martin introduces IronClad™, a totally secure "PC on a stick" that allows you to house your operating system, applications and data on a secure, trusted, self-contained USB flash drive. The result is a totally secure “PC on a stick.” Users on-the-go can plug the flash drive into just about any computer or laptop in the world, and have instant, secure access to their own personal desktop and files. The IronClad technology runs the operating system directly off of the flash drive, meaning the user’s files never touch the hard drive of the borrowed computer, and the device leaves no trace that it was ever there. Each IronClad device is fully encrypted and delivers hardware-level protection against today’s most insidious malware threats, including nearly undetectable rootkits. “Imagine leaving the office at the end of the day and, instead of slinging a laptop bag on your shoulder, you tuck a flash drive the size of a stick of gum in your pocket,” said Charles Croom, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of Cyber Security Solutions. “With IronClad drives, employees who need to work at home or on travel, or field operatives who deploy around the country or around the globe, can carry not just their files but their entire computer on a three-inch USB drive. We’ve built a smart network around each drive, so IT managers have round-the-clock control of and visibility into the status and security of every device.” Steve Ryan, senior vice president at IronKey said, “USB storage devices are rendered relatively useless without the proper authentication and security precautions in place. IronKey is a security company first and foremost, and IronClad drives leverage IronKey’s highly secure architecture design. We are very pleased to be working with Lockheed Martin to deliver this trusted, secure product with hardware-only password checking, secure virtual desktop and remote management capabilities.” IronClad technology works by integrating advanced features at the hardware, software, and network levels: Rugged, Secure Hardware: Built on IronKey’s proven secure USB drives, each IronClad drive includes at least 8GB of 256-bit encrypted storage, wrapped in a rugged, water- and shock-resistant metal casing. Patent-Pending Mobile Computing Software: Custom Lockheed Martin technology lets users run their entire desktop – from the operating system to specific applications and files – directly off of the USB drive. Built-in advanced virus protection lets users plug into any shared or public computer with confidence. Network-Wide Management: Each IronClad drive is a node on a centrally-managed network that lets IT organizations control security policies, keep watch on each drive, and carefully manage the applications that can or cannot be installed on the drive. Croom noted that IronClad technology is envisioned as a key component of an organization’s cyber security strategy. “Data at the ‘edge’ – carried by your mobile employees on laptops and smart phones – is significantly harder to physically protect than the data inside the walls of your building,” he said. “The enterprise management tools built into each IronClad drive make it significantly easier to monitor, control and manage your cyber security profile. We envision this system as a key component of any IT organization’s smart, layered cyber security architecture.” IronClad technology will be featured at the 13th Annual Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Kickoff Technology Policy Exhibition, on January 26, 2010. The Exhibition will highlight some of the key pointed issues that will continue to impact policy-making in the 111th Congress. The event runs from 5:00 – 7:00 pm in the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902. For more information visit www.netcaucus.org/events/2010/kickoff/ IronClad drives and enterprise management software are available directly from Lockheed Martin and will soon be available via Lockheed Martin’s GSA schedule purchasing vehicle. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion. Media Contact: Matt Kramer, (703) 466-2794; matthew.s.kramer@lmco.com For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/products/IronClad

DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY October 30, 2009 ~ China Claims Supercomputer Among World's Fastest

DTN News: Information Technology News TODAY October 30, 2009 ~ China Claims Supercomputer Among World's Fastest *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SAN FRANCISCO, USA - October 30, 2009: China announced its fastest supercomputer yet on Thursday in the country's latest show of its goal to become a world leader in technology. China's National University of Defense Technology, a military academy, unveiled the machine that would have ranked fourth in the most recent Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, state media said. The supercomputer, named Milky Way, can theoretically perform more than one million billion calculations per second, Xinhua news agency said. That figure, measured in "flops," or floating operation points per second, would make it China's first petaflop-class machine. The machine's data has been submitted for ranking in the Top500 list, which is next due out in November, Xinhua said, citing faculty at the university in China's inland Hunan province. The computer will be used for bio-medical computing, seismic data processing during oil exploration and for the design of "aerospace vehicles," it said. The computer has over 11,000 microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices and cost at least 600 million yuan (US$88 million) to build, the agency said. It will be moved to a supercomputing center in the northeastern city of Tianjin later this year, Xinhua said. Dawning, a Chinese government-backed hardware maker, is separately designing a petaflop supercomputer it hopes to deploy next year. That system is planned to use Godson CPUs, also known by the name Loongson, a domestic chip line designed with government funding to expand China's pool of domestically owned technology. China-made CPUs will also be added to the Milky Way supercomputer in the future to further boost its speed, Xinhua said.

DTN News: Google Woos IT Managers With Old-Tech Billboards

DTN News: Google Woos IT Managers With Old-Tech Billboards

*Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) SAN FRANCISCO, USA - August 4, 2009: Google on Monday resorted to old-time outdoor billboards in its quest to convince business IT managers to use software applications that the Internet titan offers as services online. Messages that will change each work day for four weeks debuted on billboards along major commute routes in Boston, Chicago, New York City and San Francisco, according to Google Creative Lab managing director Andy Berndt. "The billboards tell the story of an anonymous IT manager who gets so fed up with the typical IT status quo that his company eventually, you guessed it, goes Google," Berndt wrote in a message on the California firm's website. Motorola and Genentech are reportedly among more than 1.75 million businesses, schools and organizations that use Google Apps programs online instead of installing and maintaining software on their networks. The Google Apps suite includes calendar, document and email programs that compete with packaged offerings at the heart of Microsoft's software empire. Google charges businesses 50 dollars per worker per year to use programs it offers online, referred to as "in the cloud." Google Apps are offered free to individuals for personal use. The Internet giant recently declared its Apps suite out of test, or beta, status in a bid to assure businesses that they can rely on the services.

DTN News: Cyber-Criminals Targeting Social Networks, Experts Warn

DTN News: Cyber-Criminals Targeting Social Networks, Experts Warn *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) VALENCIA, Spain - August 2, 2009: Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are inceasingly being targeted by cyber-criminals drawn to the wealth of personal information supplied by users, experts warn. Data posted on the sites -- name, date of birth, address, job details, email and phone numbers -- is a windfall for hackers, participants at Campus Party, one of the world's biggest gatherings of Internet enthusiasts, said. A vicious virus Koobface -- "koob" being "book" in reverse -- has affected thousands Facebook and Twitter users since August 2008, said Asier Martinez, a security specialist at global IT solutions provider Panda Security. "Its spread has been very significant and it has been detected in 4,000 different variants," he told AFP at the week-long event which wraps up Sunday in Valencia in eastern Spain. The virus hijacks the accounts of social networking site users and sends messages steering friends to hostile sites coontaining malware, a malicious software often designed to infiltrate a computer system for illicit purposes. In one of its variants, Koobface sends the victim a warning that its Flash player is outdated along with an invitation to download a new version, which is is in fact the virus. Malware can be used to steal bank account data or credit card information once installed on a personal computer. Facebook has sought to resist attacks by Koobface and similar viruses by blocking links to hostile sites and shutting down accounts from users that show signs of infection, such as sending too many messages. "You also must be very careful with people who ask to join your friends list," said Laura Garcia, who writes a popular blog about Internet security, adding that hackers often sent requests. Another danger of social networking sites are the popular quizzes, horoscopes and games made available for free to users which can sometimes be used to hide links to hostile sites, she added. Birthday greetings and well as messages sent at Christmas and other holidays may also appear to come from friends when in fact they are linked directly to sites that try to convince would-be victims to reveal personal information like passwords or bank numbers, said Martinez. The vulnerability of social networking sites was underscored in a study by security company Sophos made public earlier this month. It found that about half of all companies un the United States block some or all access to them due to concerns about cyber incursions via the sites. Facebook says that less than one percent of its users have been affected by a security issue, such as a virus, since the site opened in 2004. Garcia said the number of viruses detected in recent years has exploded while the profile of cyber-criminals has changed. "Before it was very savvy teenagers who wanted to show off their computer skills. Now you don't really need to know much about information technology to be a hacker, all the tools have already been created," she said. Real cyber-crime mafias have now taken over, especially in Russia, China Brazil and the Ukraine whose goals are purely economic gain, she said, underscoring that hacking could be highly lucrative. For an initial investment of 1,500 dollars (1,050 euros) for Mpack, a programme created to infect web pages, hackers can obtain a profit of between 21,000 and 847,000 dollars in just one month, Martinez said. Around 6,000 people are expected to attend the Campus Party, which unites participants from all over the world to share ideas, experiences and all types of activities related to computers, communications and new technology. The annual event began in Spain in 1997. Editions of the event have since been held in Brazil and Colombia.

DTN News: South Korea Announces Cyber Warfare Command Plans

DTN News: South Korea Announces Cyber Warfare Command Plans *Sources: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) SEOUL, South Korea - June 27, 2009: South Korea will launch a cyber warfare command center to fend off attacks on government and military IT networks from North Korea and other countries, officials said June 26. The plan to create the command center by 2012 was included in a military reform package presented to President Lee Myung-Bak, the defense ministry said, at a time when relations with North Korea are particularly strained. South Korea's military computer networks are under ever-growing cyber attack. The South's military security unit said in a report last month that every day the military counters an average of 10,450 hacking attempts and 81,700 computer virus infections. Experts say South Korea - one of the world's most wired societies - needs an integrated unit to fight cyber attacks by North Korea and China, which run elite hacker units. In 2004, hackers based in China used information-stealing viruses to break into the computer systems of Seoul government agencies. Last year, South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo warned his cabinet against what he said were attempts by Chinese and North Korean computer hackers to obtain state secrets.

DTN News: Microsoft Names Three In 'Click Fraud' Suit

DTN News: Microsoft Names Three In 'Click Fraud' Suit

*Sources: PCMAG.COM by Mark Hachman (Click link)

(NSI News Source Info) NEW YORK - June 17, 2009: Microsoft said Tuesday that it filed suit against three Canadians and two associated businesses that the software giant had committed a version of "click fraud". Microsoft sued Eric Lam, Melanie Suen, and Gordon Lam of Vancouver, British Columbia for breach of contract, torturous interference with business relationships, fraudulent inducement and misrepresentation, computer fraud, conspiracy, and two violations of Washington anti-spyware and consumer laws. Companies named UMGE, Super Continental USA and Super Continental US, both allegedly tied to the trio, were also named, as were 50 "John Doe" plaintiffs. The complaint accuses the Lams and Suen of abusing Microsoft's adCenter network, specifically exploiting it to benefit their own company, and its ad purchases of keywords associated with so-called "gold farming" in the online game "World of Warcraft," and a separate business reselling car insurance. The method, according to Microsoft, was a technique known as "pay-per-click fraud". Advertisers pay a certain amount per keyword or set of keywords to promote their own company when a certain keyword search term is entered, such as "auto insurance". That money is paid out of a budget when a user clicks on the sponsored ad, and is redirected to the site. Once the budget vanished, so would the sponsored ad. Higher bids receive higher placement, according to the complaint. But the ad is only valuable when a genuine customer visits the sponsoring site. In Microsoft's case, the defendants allegedly either manually clicked competitor's sites, or used automated tools to do so. The effect, according to Microsoft, was to defraud those who had paid for the higher rankings, as the rival ad budgets were quickly exhausted by the artificial clicks. "This would cause the higher-sponsored sites to drop off the results page or decrease in the rankings, and the perpetrator's lower-ranking sponsored site to rise to a higher position in the sponsored site list," Microsoft's complaint said. "This improved sponsored site positioning would lead to higher and better quality traffic (and presumably greater revenue) for the click fraud perpetrator -- without the perpetrator paying a higher price for keywords." Microsoft said it would continue to take action against other incidences of click fraud. "Consumers and businesses around the world rely on free Internet services and content funded and powered by advertising," Tim Cranton, the associate general counsel of Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. Indeed, just last week the Interactive Advertising Bureau released a study that found interactive advertising is responsible for $300 billion of economic activity annually and has created 3.1 million U.S. jobs. "Given the sector's size and strategic importance, it is critically important for the industry to continue working together to help combat fraud against online advertisers and promote a healthy marketplace for online advertising and Internet services to thrive," Cranton added. "This marketplace will help fuel technology advancements worldwide and provide a key element in economic recovery and growth in the years ahead."

DTN News: China Defends Screening Software

DTN News: China Defends Screening Software *Source: DTN News (NSI News Source Info) BEIJING - June 9, 2009: China has defended the use of new screening software that has to be installed on all computers. Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the software would filter out pornographic or violent material. Critics have complained that it could also be used to stop Chinese internet users searching for politically sensitive information. But Mr Qin, speaking at a regular press briefing, said China promoted the healthy development of the internet. All computers sold in China - even those that are imported - will have to be pre-installed with the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software. 'Poisoned minds' The news came in a directive from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the new regulations will come into force on 1 July. The directive says the newest version of the software has to be pre-installed on Chinese-made computers before they leave the factory. Imported computers must contain the software before they are sold. The aim is to build a healthy and harmonious online environment that does not poison young people's minds, according to the directive. Mr Qin defended the move on Tuesday: "The purpose of this is to effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread," he said. "The Chinese government pushes forward the healthy development of the internet. But it lawfully manages the internet," he added. The Chinese government regularly restricts access to certain internet sites and information it deems sensitive. The BBC's Chinese language website and video sharing website Youtube are currently inaccessible in Beijing. Critics fear this new software could be used by the government to enhance its internet censorship system, known as the Great Firewall of China. But a spokesman for one of the companies that developed the software, Jinhui Computer System Engineering, rejected this accusation. "It's a sheer commercial activity, having nothing to do with the government," Zhang Chenmin, the company's general manager, told the state-approved Global Times newspaper.

DTN News: General Dynamics Awarded $20 Million Contract By The U.S. Army For Fort Belvoir IT Services

DTN News: General Dynamics Awarded $20 Million Contract By The U.S. Army For Fort Belvoir IT Services *Source: General Dynamics

(NSI News Source Info) FAIRFAX, Va. – June 9, 2009: General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of General Dynamics, has been awarded a five-year, $20 million contract to support the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS), Installation Management Systems–Army Project Office located at Fort Belvoir, Va. General Dynamics will provide a full complement of program management and information technology (IT) services for a suite of installation-management automated systems. These services include programmatic and technical engineering management support to the Project Office for planning and executing the design, development, deployment, training and lifecycle sustainment of hardware and software applications that support Army and U.S. Marine Corps warfighters.

Additionally, General Dynamics will provide expert technical support for database design and enhancement, configuration management, and verification and validation of updated software packages in support of the Army Installation’s and Combatant Commanders’ global strategic initiatives.

“Seamless operation of hardware and software applications is critical to the success of the warfighter,” said Zannie Smith, senior vice president of General Dynamics Information Technology’s Army Solutions Division. “We will partner with PEO-EIS to ensure that the IT management systems they rely on function smoothly and without interruption.”

As a trusted systems integrator for more than 50 years, General Dynamics Information Technology provides information technology (IT), systems engineering and professional services to customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal civilian government and commercial sectors. With approximately 16,000 professionals worldwide, the company manages large-scale, mission-critical IT programs delivering IT services and enterprise solutions. More information about General Dynamics Information Technology is available at http://www.gdit.com/.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 92,900 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about General Dynamics is available online at www.gd.com.