Cyber Round Up: Navy Contracts Company for Cyber Security Purposes, UK Works to Strengthen Defense Capabilities, Tor Connections Show Sharp Increase, UAE Competition Seeks Out High School Cyber Pros

Here’s your weekly roundup:

• The U.S. Navy has contracted General Dynamics to protect its networks and data from cyber attack, according to UPI. General manager of IT solutions for General Dynamics commented on the new relationship as follows: “General Dynamics offers a legacy of proven cybersecurity, public-key infrastructure and encryption, cyberanalytics and enterprise-level systems integration and services experience across the Department of Defense and federal space.”

• The UK government has voiced its desire to build and strengthen its cyber defense capabilities, or its “Joint Cyber Reserve,” by recruiting “hundreds of computer experts” to protect the networks and “launch high-tech assaults of its own,” according to Reuters and Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond.  Reuters reports, “In July, a group of lawmakers said . . . online criminals in 25 countries had chosen the UK as their number one target.”

• According to IT Pro Portal, “Cyber-Crime [is] [r]esponsible for [h]uge [r]ise in Tor [u]se.”  Tor has reported that connections to the anonymous web browsing service doubled in August, hitting up to three million connections per day.  “The new connections were attributed to a botnet in Fox-IT’s blog post and their evidence tells [Tor] a group of Russian criminals that [possibly] run [the] botnet are using Tor to control their computers.”

• AME Info reports that NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and the National Electronic Security Authority (NESA) have created a competition aimed at developing the cyber skills of high school students, specifically those in the United Arab Emirates. UAE students enrolled in the challenge will use a provided disk image and evidence of a fictitious murder investigation and, through cyber forensics, will work to solve the mystery.  The two finalist teams from the UAE will then faceoff against other U.S.-based finalists in the championship in New York City in mid-November.  As Nasir Memon, professor of Computer Science and Engineering and principal investigator at NYUAD’s Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Security and Privacy—Abu Dhabi (CRISSP-AD) explains:

There is a tremendous need to develop and train cyber security experts here in the UAE who can help safeguard the critical applications and the everyday transfer and storage of data that is essential to our society.  This challenge has been designed to introduce high school students to the basic concepts and tools involved in cyber security, while stimulating an interest in further study and exploration in this field.