7/14 defcon: murdoch's watergate, military meltdown & more

hacking scandal could be murdoch's watergate*

video: rupert murdoch's son could be prosecuted by US*
video: murdoch papers could have hacked US phones as well*
update: news corp uk newspaper ceo brooks resigns*
washington post website jobs section hacked*
anonymous hacks monsanto computers; posts employee info*
hackers claim they exposed booz allen hamilton data*
'military meltdown monday' - 90k military usernames, hashes released*
how digital detectives deciphered stuxnet, the most menacing malware in history*
stuxnet timeline shows correlation among events*
wi-fi–hacking neighbor from hell sentenced to 18yrs*
smart meters deconstructed*
zuckerberg & google elite hit google+ privacy button*
google turning us into forgetful morons*
cbs faked 4th of july fireworks display*

dod leads cyber defense

Pentagon's Cyber Policy chief Robert Butler announces new relationships, "...in a break with previous policy, the military now is prepared to provide cyber expertise to other government agencies and to certain private companies to counter attacks on their computer networks...". Defense News article, "DoD Expanding Domestic Cyber Role" emphasizes utilizing cyber capabilities of the Pentagon.  Butler, who is a deputy assistant defense secretary, said "while the Department of Homeland Security officially remains the lead government agency on cyber defense, the new agreement 'sets up an opportunity for DHS to take advantage of the expertise' in the Pentagon, and particularly the secretive electronic spying agency, the National Security Agency." Is the Defense Department just helping out or is the military taking over?

related: booz allen hamilton staffers go to cybersecurity school

booz/mcconnell get $400m in cyberwar contracts in past 6 weeks

as cryptogon notes: guess which goons will have the largest role in recovery efforts after any 'virtual flag terrorism'...
from danger room: Coincidences sure are funny things. Booz Allen Hamilton - the defense contractor that's become synonymous with the idea that the U.S. is getting its ass kicked in an ongoing cyberwar - has racked up more than $400 million worth of deals in the past six weeks to help the Defense Department fight that digital conflict. Strange how that worked out, huh?

Everyone in the Pentagon from Defense Secretary Bob Gates on down says that the military needs to cut its reliance on outside contractors. But few firms are as well-connected as Booz Allen, the one-time management consultancy that today pulls in more than $2.7 billion in government work. And few firms sound the alarm as loudly about a crisis that they’re in the business of fixing. Back in February, for instance, former National Security Agency director and Booz Allen Hamilton executive vice president Mike McConnell declared that “the United States is fighting a cyber-war today, and we are losing.” The White House’s information security czar is one of many experts who calls such rhetoric overheated, at best. That hasn’t stopped Booz Allen from pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars from Washington to wage those battles.

Booz Allen’s latest awards were announced last Thursday — nine contracts with the Air Force, totaling over $150 million. One deal gives the firm $24 million to “provide combat-ready forces to conduct secure cyber operations in and through the electromagnetic spectrum.” A $19.8 million contract asks Booz Allen to “define information assurance scientific and technical analysis to be applied to future military satellite communication systems development.” Earlier in the month, the company got $14 million to “provide threat monitoring, detection, characterization, and actionable information for the computer network operations in order to help advance Department of Defense Global Information Grid initiative and nationally oriented cyber security priorities.”

That sounds not dissimilar to what McConnell asked for in February.