Information freedom for open source users.

Individual hackers can hurt national computer systems. Attackers have the advantage over defenders. Attributing attacks to specific groups is difficult.

By now, you’ve probably heard that Terry Childs was sentenced to four years in prison, as a jury determined that he violated a California statute regarding denial-of-service attacks. Childs has already spent more than two years in jail at this point, so it’s likely that he will serve four to eight more months before being released, but there’s no guarantee of that.

LAS VEGAS — The U.S. needs to consider working with other leading nations to develop rules of engagement in cyberspace, retired general and former director of the CIA Michael Hayden said during a keynote address at the Black Hat conference here on Thursday.

As the country with the largest stakes on the Internet, the U.S. has been somewhat reluctant to engage in such discourse because of concerns that any international negotiations will force it to reveal or limit its cyber capabilities, Hayden said.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has so far failed to live up to its responsibility to coordinate a national cyber security R&D agenda, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released this week.

As a result, the U.S risks falling behind other countries on cyber security matters, and being unable to adequately protect its interests in cyberspace, the 36-page report (PDF document) warned.

Add Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to the list of politicians out there who are shocked — shocked!

Employees at many U.S. government agencies are using insecure methods, including personal e-mail accounts, to transfer large files, often in violation of agency policy, according to a survey released recently.

Is the United States in the middle of a cyber war? You’d think the answer to that question would be obvious. But apparently it depends on whom you ask.

Case in point: At this week’s RSA security conference, Scott Borg, director and chief economist from the U.S. Cyber Consequence Unit think tank, declared that we are already deep into a cyber war.

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a proposed bill that is designed to bolster federal cyber security research and development activities, and stimulate the growth of a cyber security workforce in the country.

I haven’t written much about the Terry Childs case recently, mainly because there’s not much to tell. Childs is still in jail, his bail is still set at a ridiculous $5 million, and he still hasn’t had his day in court. It’s been nearly 18 months since his arrest for refusing to hand over administrative passwords to San Francisco’s city network.

The U.S. government and private businesses need to overhaul the way they look at cybersecurity, with the government offering businesses new incentives to fix security problems, the Internet Security Alliance said.

The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged this week during testimony before Congress.

Nations that want to disrupt their enemies’ banking, media, and government resources don’t need their own technical skills;  they can simply order botnet attack services from cybercriminals.

That’s a point made in McAfee’s new report “Virtually Here: The Age of Cyber Warfare,” which draws from the opinions of about 20 experts, including William Crowell, former deputy director of the U.S. National Security Agency.