The competition leader of the club, David Wasser explains the exponential popularity of the club and attendance of the computer science majors interested in a security track. He mentioned that he was surprised by how "easy" it was to "break into things" once he started the computer science major. Last fall, the UMD cyber security club took first place at the Maryland Cyber Challenge, and continue to be recognized at other competitions state and nationwide. The club enables its members to take part in real-life and staged cyber attacks, which is something Professor Robert Maxwell says is not available to the students in the classroom.

The interest in cyber security at UMD is increasing due to the campus' prime location. The NSA, NASA, and the FBI are all within an hour of the university. These vital corporations are always looking for upcoming cyber warriors to fill security expert positions to keep American infrastructure properly regulated. UMD established a program called ACSES (Advanced Cyber Security Experience for Students) this semester, which is the first undergraduate honors program specifically for computer security in the country. As Maryland grows into a security-focused epicenter, Maxwell stated, "It is an ideal place for students to be".

Prior to identifying this video, I came across a video that describes Towson University's computer science and security program. The program on our "turf" is increasingly growing, similar to UMD's program. The directors hope to educate the next generation of cyber security professionals in the field.

• What role does cyber security play in the United States? Who ultimately is the domain of safety protectors within the American cyber ecosystem? The Department of Homeland Security. As such a broad yet, fined tuned topic targeting many aspects of American stability, it must not go unrecognized that cyber intrusions and attacks are increasing with time.
  
• The Department of Homeland Security is located in Washington D.C., and its employees are very dedicated to educating the public to help our society remain secure while online. The official website of DHS provides many different informational topic pages to keep the people informed about the severity of cyber criminals.
• Something I found really interesting about this website was learning about the Stop.Think.Connect Campaign, created in 2010. 
  

"DHS works to safeguard and secure cyberspace through programs such as the Stop.Think.Connect.™ Campaign, a national public awareness effort. Stop.Think.Connect. aims to ensure the public both recognizes cybersecurity challenges and is empowered to address them by providing resources and actionable tips."

• I  believe that educating the American people and raising awareness of cyber threats is the best way for the citizens of our country to protect themselves from the many crimes that cyber criminals commit daily. As I continue following the current events of cyber security, I predict I will learn more about the DHS, and its significant role in the regulation of internet safety here in the United States and around the world.  
  

Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. 

February 18, 2013 marked the date for one of the most pivotal cyber threats for the United States: being targeted by the Chinese government's Unit 61398, or better known as "cyber warriors" located in the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army. An American security company named Mandiant produced the Advanced Persistent Threat 1 (APT1) report, which tracked 141 alleged attacks back to a 12-story government building in Shanghai, China.

"Mandiant has watched the group as it has stolen technology blueprints, manufacturing processes, clinical trial results, pricing documents, negotiation strategies and other proprietary information from more than 100 of its clients, mostly in the United States. Mandiant identified attacks on 20 industries, from military contractors to chemical plants, mining companies and satellite and telecommunications corporations."
     American security researchers are afraid that the latest attacks are not only focused on stealing confidential information, but are also potentially trying to gain access to U.S. infrastructure, which could be incredibly detrimental to our nation. 
A few government officials feel that it is crucial that we respond to these attacks in a strong and effective manner, whereas other officials have stated the theft of intellectual property in the past as an "annoyance". Although, confronting Unit 61398 could cause an unpleasant confrontation between the United States and China, security experts feel attacks will not stop until our infrastructure is out of our control.
My opinion of this article was that it was definitely eye opening to the fact that our nation's cyber security is constantly at risk due to the consistent breaches launched every day by intelligent, yet devious hackers. I feel that the government should stop Unit 61398 in their tracks by necessary actions in order to keep American infrastructure properly regulated. We do not have billions of dollars of revenue to lose and can't afford to turn our backs to these attacks. It will sink our country further into our recession. I agree with the ending quote of the article stating, "“If we don’t create a high price, it’s only going to keep accelerating.”

Black Hat event highlights vulnerability of U.S. critical infrastructure

A vital Iranian cyber warfare commander named Mojtaba Ahmadi was found dead in the woods with two distinct bullet wounds to the heart. The Revolutionary Guard Corps are still unaware of who specifically did this to the commander. However, the Iranian government seems to be pointing fingers at Israel's external Intelligence Agency due to the strange coincidence of the five Iranian murders of security officials that have occurred since 2007.

This article describes the first act of physical war that can be tied to a cyber war. The article explains how Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been accused of helping the "Syrian Electronic Army" attack high profile companies in the U.S. Events that revolve around the cyber world can cause major consequences for foreign relations worldwide. It is a scary thought. Five Iranians have died. Who is responsible? Who is next?

Due to recent findings of professional security researchers, potential assassinations are possible through means of hacking medical devices. Famous hacker Barnaby Jack demonstrated his ability to hack into pacemakers. In October of 2011, Jack succeeded in overriding an insulin pump's radio control and its vibrating alert safety feature. The hack demonstrated the dumping of a lethal dose of insulin without alerting the wearer.

The medical device's manufacturers have recognized the possible devastating effects of hacking and have started focusing their efforts on improving their security to prevent potential disasters.

The severity of the information in this article is extremely alarming. I believe Cheney made the right decision to remain as safe and unharmed as possible by removing the (wifi) connection on his pacemaker. The ability to hack into a device that is inside someone's body and regulating their pulse is beyond me. However, the risks of potential assassinations are not to be ignored. It is my hope that security researchers are able to develop an "unbreakable" type of lock on pacemaker connections, and any other device that effects one's health.

A huge benefit within the staged attack allowed open communication and collaboration between banks to share defense and response strategies with each other. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI also participated. It is essential for these types of drills to take place because our country relies so much on the banks they store their money in. If people are unable to access their bank accounts to get to their money, our economy could take an enormous hit and be detrimental to our country's revenue.

The range of attacks vary. It has been reported that hackers have gone from stealing critical information as to knowing where oil companies will drill in the future to attempts to shut down customer payment systems for utility companies. The media is not aware of these attacks because the energy companies are fearful of negative publicity if they report the attacks. For example, a real attack was on the massive energy company called Telvent, where foreign hackers who are believed to attack from China, hacked into and had details of their electrical grid infrastructure.

I do not doubt that foreign hackers are going for the critical oil and energy companies of the U.S. It is a scary thought to think that hackers target energy companies more than we hear about in the media. It causes a sense of uncertainty in the information that is shared over the internet every day by so many Americans. Also, a hit to our critical infrastructure is a serious threat to the regulation of any country. If foreign hackers were to one day, successful hack into our energy and oil companies, it would send our country into chaos. If hackers take down our electrical grid, it means no power, which would have a negative cascading effect on our society involving food, money, transportation, etc. If hackers take down any oil companies, it means oil shortages, higher gas prices, and overall stress and frustration within our country.

   Due to the breach, financial and personal information was stolen from the VIP customers of the limo service including LeBron James, Tom Hanks, and Donald Trump. The list also included Kevin Mandia. Mandia is the CEO if Mandiant, which was the security company that uncovered the APT1 attacks that originated in China (discussed in a previous article below). Out of the 850,000 credit card numbers, more than a quarter of these credit cards were high or no limit American Express cards. These particular credit cards could be sold in cybercrime underground and would have a very high resale value. 

     The information that was stolen by the hackers could provide hackers with information needed for a targeted attack because it included personal information such as recurring travel habits, pick up and/or drop off addresses.

       I believe that it is scary for intelligent hackers to attack weaknesses in services that wealthy people use in order to steal their personal and financial information. If the result of attacking a limo service provided a high amount of wealthy clients' personal and financial information, imagining what information could be stolen to perhaps, a private jet company could be detrimental and high profile in the media. These cyber security hackers are discovering more and more ways to hack our data, and as consumers and customers to various companies that work with electronic devices and files, we must be more aware and careful with who we provide our credit card data to. 

     This June, an article revealed how the U.S. is helping our Middle Eastern allies in fight against cyber threats coming from Iranian hackers. Our assistance being provided to the allies consists of computer software and computer security intelligence training.The U.S. decided to help protect allies after Iran was attacking Israel and other allies of the U.S.. 

      Recently, it has been reported that Iran has been hiring hackers from Russia to conduct the cyber attacks. In other words, Russia's involvement in the attacks can only increase conflict between us, by threatening our allies.

       The Obama administration is believed to have been involved in cyber warfare against Iran, including sophisticated attacks against Iran's nuclear program. Also, the U.S. has apparently set up a list of potential overseas targets for cyber attacks as precautionary measures to prevent future cyber attacks. Therefore, helping our allies to prevent similar attacks can be useful to us in the future against malicious hackers. If our allies networks are breached, hackers could potentially steal confidential information about allied strategies.