http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090825_7424.php By Jill R. Aitoro Nextgov.com 08/25/2009 Federal agencies should prioritize their information security requirements to ensure mission-critical operations are protected first, and delineate between "that which is aggravating and that which is truly dangerous," the Homeland Security Department's cyber chief Greg Schaffer said during a conference on Tuesday. Cyberattacks are growing far more sophisticated, in part because they're more difficult to detect, said Schaffer, who was appointed assistant secretary of DHS' Office of Cybersecurity and Communications in June. Schaffer and Dave DeWalt, chief executive officer of security vendor McAfee, spoke Tuesday morning at the GFirst conference in Atlanta hosted by the department's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. "The more sophisticated attacks ...are low and slow, designed to not draw attention, but insidiously get at data and resources," Schaffer said "Yet at the same time, the level of noise from less sophisticated attacks continues to grow. This makes for an environment where it is easy to focus on the wrong pieces of the puzzle while bad things happen under the radar. We need to be vigilant and focused." According to security vendor McAfee, there was a 500 percent increase in 2008 in the number of malware attacks that used hostile code to infiltrate or damage a computer system -- equal to the combined total for the five years prior, DeWalt said. In 80 percent of all malware attacks, the motive is financial, with attackers trying to steal identities and data for profit. The other 20 percent of attacks are prompted by "religious reasons," such as political espionage or terrorism. [...] ________________________________________ Subscribe to InfoSec News http://www.infosecnews.orgReceived on Tue Aug 25 2009 - 23:13:02 PDT
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