DHS Gets $87 Million for Cybersecurity

On October 4, President Bush signed the fiscal year 2007 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The bill provides a total of $542 million for infrastructure protection and information security, including $87 million for cybersecurity.

Earlier this year, the Bush administration requested an increase of $14 million (or 17 percent). Unfortunately, the increase over fiscal year 2006 is only $8 million, or 10 percent ($79 million budget for fiscal year 2006.)

What message does this send to cyberterrorists, and even criminally-minded hackers? Critics agree that, even if it is a normal practice in Congress to undercut the administration’s budget request, underfunding the budget for protecting a critical aspect of the nation’s economy seems unwise.

The full White House press release can be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061004-2.html

Info Security Products Guide, a Silicon Valley Communications publication and the world’s leading publication on security-related products and technologies, has honored Ambika Gadre, IronPort Senior Director of Product Management, with the Shaping Info Security 2006 Industry Award. This prestigious industry award recognizes individuals and teams worldwide that have made the most positive impact on security technology in today’s highly sophisticated environment.

At IronPort, customers approached Gadre and her team to tackle the spyware problem. Though it took significant investment, the IronPort S-Series (the industry’s fastest Web security appliance) was developed because of the increased demand from enterprises to stop and combat spyware — one of the most significant corporate security issues today.

To read more about Gadre’s contribution to enterprise
security, visit: http://www.infosecurityproductsguide.
com/people/

Symantec Reports on Internet Threat Activity

Symantec recently released the tenth version of its Internet Security Threat Report, which provides a six-month (January 1 to June 30, 2006) update of Internet threat activity. It includes an analysis of network-based attacks, disclosed vulnerabilities, malicious code reports and security risks. Based on Symantec’s expertise and experience, this analysis yields a highly informed commentary on current Internet threat activity.

The current Internet security threat environment continues to be populated by lower- profile, targeted attacks as cyber criminals identify new ways to steal information or provide remote access to user

systems. The attacks propagate at a slower rate in order to avoid detection and increase the likelihood of successful compromise before security measures can be put in place.

By publishing the analysis of Internet security activity in the Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec hopes to provide enterprises and consumers with the information they need to help effectively secure their systems now and in the future.

The complete Internet Security Threat Report is available at: http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/threatreport/index.jsp

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