New ‘strike force’ tasked with safeguarding US tech

New ‘strike force’ tasked with safeguarding US tech
New ‘strike force’ tasked with safeguarding US tech

“In the best case scenario, this initiative will help shore up vulnerabilities to illicit technology transfer and violations of export controls on emerging technologies,” analyst Lindsay Gorman said.

Revealed: Secret FBI Cyber Op To Clean Exchange Servers

Revealed: Secret FBI Cyber Op To Clean Exchange Servers
Revealed: Secret FBI Cyber Op To Clean Exchange Servers

This operation — which involved the FBI removing malware from privately owned and operated victim servers without advance notice — could be unprecedented, at least at this scale.

US To Press China Espionage Cases Regardless Of Trade Talks: DOJ

US To Press China Espionage Cases Regardless Of Trade Talks: DOJ
US To Press China Espionage Cases Regardless Of Trade Talks: DOJ

“We didn’t bring one of these cases because of what’s going on on the trade front,” assistant attorney general John Demers said, “and we’re not going to drop them even if we reach an agreement.”

Don’t Hack Back: Call The FBI & They’ll Call NSA

Don’t Hack Back: Call The FBI & They’ll Call NSA
Don’t Hack Back: Call The FBI & They’ll Call NSA

“The average time it takes to discover a data breach is about six months,” said Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department specializing in cybersecurity and China. By the time you realize you’ve been hacked, it’s too late to “hack back” and shut down your attacker.

A Blueprint To Stop Chinese Espionage, IP Theft: Nick Eftimiades, Top Intel Expert

A Blueprint To Stop Chinese Espionage, IP Theft: Nick Eftimiades, Top Intel Expert
A Blueprint To Stop Chinese Espionage, IP Theft: Nick Eftimiades, Top Intel Expert

  Few espionage experts speak publicly. Even fewer experts in Chinese espionage do. I first met Nick Eftimiades at the airport when he was a top space intelligence expert. I was en route to my first Space Symposium and knew very little. Nick taught me a bit and was very tolerant of this new space puppy who didn’t know…

Mattis, Visiting Balkans, Sees Russian Meddling and ‘Hybrid’ Threats to Allies

Mattis, Visiting Balkans, Sees Russian Meddling and ‘Hybrid’ Threats to Allies
Mattis, Visiting Balkans, Sees Russian Meddling and ‘Hybrid’ Threats to Allies

Russia is threatening the confidence of the young democracies in the Balkan region, where countries have been flocking to NATO and the European Union and leaving Moscow behind.

Contractor Fined $20M For Defrauding Navy

Contractor Fined $20M For Defrauding Navy
Contractor Fined $20M For Defrauding Navy

Navy finds new problems with berthing fees and services, and this time Fat Leonard had nothing to do with it.

America Must Decide How To Act After Russian Election Hacks

America Must Decide How To Act After Russian Election Hacks
America Must Decide How To Act After Russian Election Hacks

What are we going to do about the Russian hacks that have wrought havoc across the entire political spectrum and are rapidly shifting from being an embarrassment to, possibly, being strategically crippling? The body count of ruined careers aside, sizeable harm is being done to our political process and a likely intelligence loss as foreign actors rummage…

Justice Department To Pentagon On Mergers: Back Off

Justice Department To Pentagon On Mergers: Back Off
Justice Department To Pentagon On Mergers: Back Off

The Department of Justice just told the Department of Defense to back off, and DoD did. It’s a rare public confrontation between two major government departments, especially over a subject as politically volatile as mergers and acquisitions, where the Pentagon had wanted more authority in a process Justice and the Federal Trade Commission currently control —…

Kendall’s Merger Crusade: Bad Idea?

Kendall’s Merger Crusade: Bad Idea?
Kendall’s Merger Crusade: Bad Idea?

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is “weeks” away from taking a tougher line on mergers between defense contractors — but two top defense industry analysts told Breaking Defense that was a bad idea. “Their only possible response to M&A [Mergers & Acquisitions] is S&P[:] Signaling & Posturing,” said the Teal Group’s Richard Aboulafia. “As with so many…

Whoa, Lockheed & Co.! Kendall Urges Congress To Protect Innovation

Whoa, Lockheed & Co.! Kendall Urges Congress To Protect Innovation
Whoa, Lockheed & Co.! Kendall Urges Congress To Protect Innovation

WASHINGTON: The Defense Department has told its big industry partners for most of the last 15 years that there’s no need for consolidation at the top. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman are big enough, they said. Mergers of prime contractors would limit competition, Ash Carter, Frank Kendall and other…

Navy Braces For Backlash After PLA Cyber Indictments

Navy Braces For Backlash After PLA Cyber Indictments
Navy Braces For Backlash After PLA Cyber Indictments

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department’s indictment of five People’s Liberation Army officers on charges of cyber-espionage may prove to be a double-edged sword for the US military. The Department of Justice announced the indictments for cyber espionage on Monday. While the Justice Department accused the five of stealing things, the Chinese have a very different view.…

ULA, SpaceX Rumble Shaping Up To Rival Tanker Wars

ULA, SpaceX Rumble Shaping Up To Rival Tanker Wars
ULA, SpaceX Rumble Shaping Up To Rival Tanker Wars

WASHINGTON: It is shaping up as one of the great corporate brawls in the aerospace world: snappy and feisty and hungry newcomer, SpaceX, versus the titan of heavy launch, the near-perfect expression of big corporatism, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance. The focus of their competition is obscure to most Americans: the purchase by the…

Pratt Pleads Guilty To Illegal Weapons Sale To Chinese; UTC Parent Coughs Up $75M

WASHINGTON: Just when United Technologies’s Pratt & Whitney subsidiary seemed to have put the troubles with its F135 engine for the Joint Strike fighter behind it, there comes news that the company violated the so-called Tianamen sanctions and illegally sold engine control software to China for use in an attack helicopter. Perhaps worse than the…