News, of the latest lame-brained software provisioning decisions by our Department of the Air Force. This time, Air Force Special Operations Command [AFSOC] is contemplating the purchase of a large-ish number of licenses for Apple Inc. (NadsdaqGS: AAPL) iPad ‘security’ software, via Russian developers… What could possibly go wrong? Not to mention the utilization of embedded software risks on Chinese manufactured chip sets resident within the hardware platform itself… Astounding.

“…When the Air Force Special Operations Command decided to buy 2,861 made-in-China Apple iPad tablet computers in January to provide flight crews with electronic navigation charts and technical manuals, it specified mission security software developed, maintained and updated in Russia….”  via Nextgov’s Bob Brewin

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Memorandum of Understanding Signing Feb. 21, from  Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, U.S. Senator for Maryland Barbara Mikulski and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Patrick Gallagher. [left to right] Credit: NIST

News, of the creation of a National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence by the National Institute of Standards and Technology has reached us here at the Ivory Tower of InfoSec, overlooking the Olympic Mountains on the west, and Mount Rainier on the south east, whilst awaiting a forecasted very light dusting of snow this weekend… The newly formed Center, a partnership of private and public sector  entities with NIST and the State of Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland, as the earliest noted co-sponsors, will purportedly target  strengthening of secure, trustworthy eGovernment and eCommerce in the United States of America.

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Superb write-up at gHacks, targeting one of the more commonplace system infection vectors in existence: Adware. Interesting description of Microsoft Corporation (NasdaqGS: MSFT) third party Windows applciation utilization of trickery and obfuscation in that effort. Today’s MustRead!

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Today’s iOS 5.0.1 glaring security flaw: Password bypass permits Phone calls and Contacts perusal, when locked…

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Hire competent Security Engineers.

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