Tag Archive for: sets

IAEA Initiative Sets Ambitious Goals to Support the Safe and Secure Deployment of SMRs

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The goal of the industry track is to develop more standardized industrial approaches for SMR manufacturing, construction and operations that can reduce licensing timelines, costs and, ultimately, the time to deploy SMRs. The SMR business model is often based on serial production, which means that after the deployment of the first-of-a-kind reactor, cost and time savings materialize under a standardized approach. The industry track focused on four objectives: harmonization of high-level user requirements, information sharing on national standards and codes, experiments and validation of simulation computer codes to model SMRs and accelerating the implementation of a nuclear infrastructure for SMRs.

“User requirements are based on the utilities’ needs and must be consistent with IAEA safety standards,” said Aline des Cloizeaux, Director of the Division of Nuclear Power at the IAEA and chair of the industry track. “There is a general agreement on the need for technology neutral utility requirements, as this will help standardize user specifications and help technology developers to align with the market.” She also stated the need to consider non-electrical applications and non-traditional end users when defining industry standards.

Codes and standards are requirements and rules for the design, construction and operation of structures, systems and components, and they are issued by national and global organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The challenge with harmonizing codes and standards is that each country may have different requirements. For codes and standards that apply to SMRs, equivalencies among existing requirements will be identified, and the NHSI will collect and share information through a platform that will expand to advanced manufacturing standards and customization for SMRs. Furthermore, the NHSI proposed resource sharing among experimental facilities, technology holders and technical support organizations (TSOs) to validate simulation computer codes to model SMRs, which are used to support the design and safety analysis that regulators review to grant licenses. TSOs provide expertise and services to support nuclear…

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DOJ sets new goals for responding to ransomware attacks

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The Justice Department said it wants to increase the percentage of reported ransomware incidents it handles to 65% by September 2023.

In a strategic planning document published Friday, the Department of Justice said that by September 30, 2023, it pledges to increase “the percentage of reported ransomware incidents from which cases are opened, added to existing cases, or resolved or investigative actions are conducted within 72 hours to 65%.”

The department also wants to increase “the number of ransomware matters in which seizures or forfeitures are occurring by 10%.”

The pledges were also included in the President’s Management Agenda website and were under the purview of Eun Young Choi, the recently appointed director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team at the Justice Department. 

The department set similar goals in its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan document, pledging to “address supply chain vulnerabilities, support other government agencies and the private sector, and identify new sources of evidence and intelligence.”

“In addition, the Department will continue to develop ways to attribute cyberattacks, to respond to and engage victims and targeted entities, and to provide intelligence to help victims recover and strengthen their defenses,” the DOJ said. 

“Finally, we will continue to develop our own cyber expertise by investing in recruitment, training, and capacity building.”

The Justice Department said it also wanted to “bolster its interagency and international collaborations to aid attribution, defend networks, sanction bad behavior, and otherwise deter or disrupt cyber adversaries overseas.”

Other goals laid out by the document include closer public/private partnerships as a way to encourage incident reporting and tougher internal measures to improve cybersecurity at the department, including multifactor authentication, encryption and more. 

“The Department will help the private sector identify and address their vulnerabilities through threat intelligence sharing and targeted outreach. We will also continue to support policy efforts to protect the digital supply chain, federal information systems, and critical infrastructure against…

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UK cyber security sector sets new records for revenue and job creation

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The UK’s cyber security sector continued to grow last year, with revenue up 14 per cent and new job creation rising by more than 6,000, according to the Government’s Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis 2022 report, released last week.

Since 2018, the annual Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis report has tracked the growth of the UK cyber security sector, highlighting the impressive performance of British companies.

The latest research provides the most recent data on the number of firms operating in the UK cyber security sector, the products and services they offer, the number of people employed, and the sector’s overall contribution to the British economy.

2021 was a record year for external investment in the sector, with companies cross the UK raising over £1 billion across 84 deals.

Among those firms are Bristol-based Immersive Labs and London-based Tessian, both which raised more than £50 million.

The cyber security sector contributed about £5.3 billion to the UK economy last year, up from £4 billion in 2020 – the highest growth since analysis began in 2018. Revenue surpassed £10 billion for the first time.

Employment in the industry rose 13 per cent and the sector created over 6,000 new jobs, raising the overall number of people working in the UK cyber security sector to 52,700.

The number of active cyber security firms in the country increased to 1,838, more than half of which are based outside of London and the South East.

The East Midlands and North East regions are now showing the highest growth in cyber security.

“Over the last decade, we have established the UK as a cyber power, through building cutting-edge cyber security capabilities, and significant growth in our cyber security sector,” said Julia Lopez MP, minister of state for media, data, and digital infrastructure.

“We know that work must continue to ensure the UK remains resilient and prosperous, and that this is shared across all parts of the country as part of the Levelling Up agenda. We have therefore continued to support investment, skills, and collaboration across the cyber security ecosystem.”

Digital secretary Nadine Dorries said the Government has been “investing in skills training and business…

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Raoul sets up hotline on computer breach as ‘ransomware’ group posts files allegedly stolen from his office

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A “ransomware” group potentially linked to Russia has uploaded to a website scores of documents it says were stolen from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office over two weeks after the state’s top law enforcement officer first reported his office’s computer network was compromised.

Raoul had declined to publicly provide details of the hack, but on Thursday, he issued a follow-up statement, saying his office has set up a toll-free hotline for those seeking more information on the breach, which could include “names, addresses, email addresses, Social Security numbers, health insurance and medical information, tax information, and driver’s license numbers.”

But the office said it “has not yet determined what personal information on its network is impacted.”

The latest announcement comes after the ransomware group DoppelPaymer posted 68 documents it said are from the attorney general’s office, as well as other entities they’ve hit, on a website on which a user can find “private data of the companies which were hacked by DoppelPaymer.”

According to the website, the “companies decided to keep the leakage secret. And now their time to pay is over.”

The Chicago Sun-Times accessed the site using a special browser that allows for anonymous communication while on the internet.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that typically includes threats to publish a victim’s data or block access to that data unless the victim pays a ransom.

The documents from Raoul’s office were initially published on the website on April 21, with more documents added Thursday. The files taken from the Illinois’ chief legal officer include those labeled “judgments entered,” “shakedown cases” and “state prisoners.”

About 200 gigabytes of confidential information will be “progressively uploaded,” the group warns on the site.

Starting Friday, anyone with questions about the network compromise can call the Attorney General’s Computer Network Compromise Hotline at 1-833-688-1949, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Raoul’s office will continue to “evaluate the extent of the network compromise” and information about the breach, and…

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