Tag Archive for: American

Samsung Partners with the White House to Launch a Cybersecurity Labeling Program to Protect American Consumers

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On July 18, 2023, the White House auditorium served as the backdrop for a significant milestone in the convergence of the tech sector and government. Located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, steps away from the West Wing, it hosted the U.S. government’s announcement of the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark program, an initiative aiming to guide consumers toward cybersecurity-conscious purchasing decisions.

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The U.S. Cyber Trust Mark is an initiative propelled into reality by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission, with robust support from both the White House and the National Security Council. Its aim is to introduce a labeling system for consumer electronics and appliances, providing a valuable key to understanding the cybersecurity strengths and weaknesses of products people bring into their homes. This move will empower consumers, enabling them to make well-informed decisions about the technological devices they choose to incorporate into their daily lives.

As a global tech giant, and a longtime proponent of cybersecurity, has been a longstanding supporter of such measures. Ever since the company launched its security guidelines as part of the “Works with SmartThings” program in 2018 – a precursor to existing global Internet of Things (IoT) standards – it has championed voluntary cyber-labeling programs.


SmartThings

At a roundtable discussion held as part of the event, Samsung was represented by Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings. She relayed the company’s commitment to the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark initiative, underscoring it as a high-priority undertaking for Samsung. This commitment extends to Samsung’s own range of connected products as well as to the open multi-brand IoT ecosystem facilitated by the SmartThings platform.

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Jung emphasized that SmartThings is not only a secure platform but also one that is open and interoperable. She noted that all devices integrated into this platform must pass rigorous functional testing to ensure seamless interoperability. In addition, they must undergo extensive security testing to guarantee

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Fixing American Cybersecurity is Harder than it Looks

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BOOK REVIEW: Fixing American Cybersecurity: Creating a Strategic Public-Private Partnership

by Larry Clinton, Editor / Georgetown University Press

Reviewed by Glenn S. Gerstell

The Reviewer – Glenn S. Gerstell is a Cipher Brief Expert and Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.  He served as the General Counsel of the National Security Agency and Central Security Service from 2015 to 2020 and writes and speaks about the intersection of technology and national security and privacy.

REVIEW — A book describing the difficulty of keeping up with the pace of digital innovation can itself fall victim to that very problem.

This isn’t to say that Fixing American Cybersecurity isn’t an excellent and useful book. It is just that – a thoughtful, well-researched, crisply organized, carefully resourced and insightful description of our current state of cyber insecurity.

Edited and partly co-authored by Larry Clinton, the highly regarded head of the Internet Security Alliance, the book comprises two parts.

The first is a perceptive and intelligent analysis of the American approach to cybersecurity, contrasting it with that of the People’s Republic of China; the second (written mostly by top-notch corporate CISO’s) is a sector-by-sector discussion of the state of cyber vulnerabilities and the mitigations employed in the health, defense, financial services, energy, retail, telecommunications and information technology industries.

Clinton’s starting observation is “[w]e are losing the fight to secure cyberspace, and losing it badly.”  He blames this on our historical approach to cybersecurity:

“The US cybersecurity effort over the past thirty years largely comes down to a series of modest, disjointed, incremental tactics. Unlike the Chinese, we have not operated from a thoughtful, comprehensive strategy that appreciates the extent of the impact digitalization has on everything and leverages our economic advantages, technical expertise and political philosophy in a pragmatic effort to secure our nation.”

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American national security requires smart spectrum planning

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The United States has always been on the cutting edge of tech. Our free-market system enabled us to win the race to 4G, helped unleash the app economy, and allowed us to get to 5G faster than others. Our country’s leadership in tech helps secure the nation’s economic power and protect national security so the United States continues to serve as a beacon of peace and democracy.

Technology should be a force for good in the world. Our national security, and the security of other nations, is tied to our ability to keep up with and get ahead of emerging technologies. I’m encouraged to see that Congress is working together to implement a national spectrum policy. America needs a national strategy to make sure there is enough spectrum to build out 5G networks and not fall behind China.

Spectrum refers to the radio waves on which we transmit data, and it serves as the foundation for many of the wireless networks that power our lives, including 5G. Spectrum is the lifeblood of technological innovation — including advancements in national security that power our weapons systems and intelligence operations.

5G is quite literally the fifth generation of wireless connection, and it serves as a crucial foundation for innovations and advancements in the near and not-too-distant future. Alarmingly, America does not have enough spectrum in the pipeline to build out secure and reliable 5G networks. According to a paper by Analysys Mason, the United States ranks 13th in terms of available licensed spectrum — significantly behind nations such as China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

One reason why is that the United States has overallocated spectrum to unlicensed use. This type of spectrum is available to the public and has important uses, but it’s not the foundation of secure and reliable 5G networks. Unlike managed licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum faces interference, and devices connected to unlicensed spectrum aren’t always assessed for security concerns. Indeed, when it comes to security, users of unlicensed spectrum have varying incentives, capabilities and technical skills, resulting in more cybersecurity risks than those who use managed licensed…

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Hack puts Latin American security agencies on edge

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MEXICO CITY — A massive trove of emails from Mexico’s Defense Department is among electronic communications taken by a group of hackers from military and police agencies across several Latin American countries, Mexico’s president confirmed Friday.

The acknowledgement by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador comes after Chile’s government said last week that emails had been taken from its Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Mexican president spoke at his daily news conference following a local media report that the hack revealed previously unknown details about a health scare he had in January.

López Obrador downplayed the hack, saying that “there’s nothing that isn’t known.” He said the intrusion apparently occurred during a change of Defense Department systems.

But Chile was so concerned by the breach to its own systems that it called its defense minister back from the United States last week where she was attending the United Nations General Assembly with President Gabriel Boric.

The 10 terabytes of data taken by the group also include emails from the militaries in El Salvador, Peru and Colombia, as well as El Salvador’s National Police. The Mexico portion of the data appeared to be the largest.

A group of anonymous, self-described social justice warriors who call themselves Guacamaya say they use hacking to expose injustice and corruption in defense of Indigenous peoples. Hackers using the same name previously hacked and released the emails of a mining company long accused of human rights and environmental abuses in Guatemala.

In a statement accompanying the most recent action, the group complained of the plundering of Latin America, which it refers to as Abya Yala, by colonizers and the continuing extractivist goals of the “Global North.”

The group issued a 1,400-word comunique saying that the militaries and police of Latin American countries, often with extensive training by the United States, are used by governments “to keep their inhabitants prisoner.”

“The police minimize the risk that the people exercise their honorable right to protest, to destroy the system that oppresses them,” the group wrote.

The group said it would make the documents available to…

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