Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Commentary by Security Management Expert Ed Levy, Firestorm Expert Council Member Edward M. Levy is a senior security executive with nearly 30-years in the corporate and government sectors. Mr. Levy was the VP & Global Head of Security for Thomson Reuters. He served in other corporate security positions with Pfizer, CIT Group, and the Empire State Building. Mr. Levy is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army and former Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Critical Computer Infrastructure Should Extend Beyond Cyberspace Recently, in an article in Homeland Security News Wire, it was detailed that the current Administration announced it is "exploring whether to issue an executive order to protect the U.S. critical computer infrastructure from cyber attacks." As stated in the article: "White House sources ...

Managing the Risk of Risk Management Risk Management by Ed Levy, Firestorm Expert Council Member Edward M. Levy is a senior security executive with nearly 30-years in the corporate and government sectors. Mr. Levy was the VP & Global Head of Security for Thomson Reuters. He served in other corporate security positions with Pfizer, CIT Group, and the Empire State Building. Mr. Levy is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel form the US Army and former Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. When I was playing high school football, after one game I told the coach, “I almost made an interception.” He responded back, “is that like almost being pregnant”? I realized there was no almost. You either got it or you didn’t. In my view, it is the same concept with risk management – you are either applying its principles or not - there is no almost. I have learne...

Firestorm Crisis Newsletter 04/06/2012   Disaster Due Diligence Banking and Information Technology - 1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack National Safety and Security - NATO summit could shut down Chicago rails Information Technology - Serious cyber security lapses found at Pacific Northwest electricity supplier Banking and Information Technology Bill Baker, Vice President, Operations, Firestorm Solutions, LLC  HEADLINE:  1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack SUMMARY:  Global Payments is a large NYSE traded company that is involved in processing transactions for Credit Card transactions as an intermediary between merchants and banks.  The scope of their business includes Europe and Asia as well as the United States.  The company, headquartered in Atlanta, services over 1 million merchant accounts throughout the world and has an excel...

National Safety and Security   Super Bowl XLVI security stepped up as NFL descends on Indianapolis SUMMARY:  Indianapolis, Indiana, is preparing for security and safety threats during the Super Bowl. The National Football League’s showcase event will consume 44 blocks in the heart of the city.  Streets will be closed off, forcing an anticipated 150,000 or more fans to jockey with downtown workers for space much of the week. Up to 1,000 city police officers will be carrying smartphones and other electronic hand-held devices that will enable them to feed photos and video to a new state-of-the-art operations center on the city’s east side, or to cruisers driven by officers providing backup, according to the city’s public safety director. WJLA STORY LINK  ANALYSIS:  The National Football League’s title game, Super Bowl XLVI, between the NFL’s New England Patriot...

Emergency Communications   Brian Williams Ignores Alarm - The Show Must Go On or Disaster Denial? Last night Twitter and blogs were abuzz with NBC News Anchor Brian Williams handling of his broadcast while building alarms were sounding in the background. Williams apologized for the interruption several times. He stated “I thought we had turned off all the alarms in the studio.” He reported several times that there was no problem. He said there was an alarm problem on the floor below. NBC spokeswoman Erika Masonall Tweeted, "This is the first fire alarm in our new NBC Nightly News studio. System should have been shut off - but clearly still working out the kinks."       There were wide ranging comments on various blogs and websites, from accolades for Mr. Williams' performance under pressure to "This is encouraging people to ignore fire alarms. Total...

Security Hacks - Fox Hack   Fox Hack by Script Kiddies creates panic July 4th breaks with frightening "news" After a hack of the @foxnewspolitics account on Twitter, two messages, then deleted from the feed, the first taking credit for a hack and another directed at Anonymous read:        The account then posted a message stating "Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th" posted at approximately 2 AM Eastern. The real hack began moments later with this disturbing post: "@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead" This message was then re-tweeted hundreds of times, many as recent as 2 minutes ago, 9:30 AM Eastern:      Both Huffington Post and Mashable were quickly aware of the hack, and HuffPost captured a Script Kiddies logo cha...