China will investigate providers of IT products and services to protect “national security” and “economic and social development,” according to the official Xinhua news agency. This move follows the U.S. government charged five Chinese military officers with hacking U.S. companies to steal trade secrets.
The FBI and police in several countries have arrested more than 100 people and conducted hundreds of searches in a global crackdown on hackers linked to “Blackshades,” a malicious software program that is one of the most popular tools used by cyber criminals to hijack computers.
Police in 16 countries seized cash, firearms and drugs and arrested 80 people suspected of peddling virus software believed to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers.
New York's banks will face new cybersecurity assessments carried out by the Department of Financial Services (DFS), under plans unveiled by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Why wouldn’t the government disclose a cybersecurity vulnerability? According to a White House blog post, it could mean foregoing “an opportunity to collect crucial intelligence that could thwart a terrorist attack, stop the theft of our nation’s intellectual property, or even discover more dangerous vulnerabilities that are being used by hackers or other adversaries to exploit our networks,” writes White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel.