A vulnerability affecting the Uconnect software in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) that may have allowed an unauthorized user to take remote control of an affected vehicle requires access to Sprint’s cellular network, as Sprint connects FCA vehicles to the Internet, a U.S. Cyber Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT) alert said Monday. Sprint blocked the port used for attacks, it said, and FCA and the National Transportation Safety Administration initiated a safety recall for all potentially affected Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram models, the alert said. Uconnect users are encouraged to review the recall announcement and apply the software update, it said.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., pushed Monday for increased cybersecurity protections for all sectors of the economy. Speaking on the Senate floor, Daines backed passage of the student privacy bill he and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, R-Conn., introduced last week, The Safeguarding American Family from Exposure by Keeping Information in Data Secure (Safe Kids) Act (see 1507160024), before turning his attention to the Fiat Chrysler recall (see 1507280003). “Through the radio of a Jeep Cherokee, hackers disabled the vehicle’s transmission as a driver drove on a public highway in St. Louis,” Daines said. “This episode is telling [us] that cyberhacks can affect every sector of our economy, from the financial sector to our automotive manufacturers,” he said. Military installations are vulnerable to a cyberattack, Daines said, citing a new report from the Government Accountability Office, as are utility systems that provide water, electricity and other essential services. On Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on ABC’s This Week that a cyberattack by the Islamic State is one of the terrorist group’s biggest emerging threats to our country. “In the interview, Lynch noted that the terrorist group now boasts more than 20,000 English-language Twitter followers,” Daines said. “Our country’s most sensitive data can be in the hands of our enemies at the mere click of a button or press of a screen,” he said. He criticized the Obama administration for what he sees as its lack of transparency after the Office of Personnel Management breaches and urged OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour’s resignation, and encouraged his colleagues to “act more quickly and more nimbly than those seeking to wage a terrorist attack on our nation's cybersecurity infrastructure.”
A vulnerability affecting the Uconnect software in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) that may have allowed an unauthorized user to take remote control of an affected vehicle requires access to Sprint’s cellular network, as Sprint connects FCA vehicles to the Internet, a U.S. Cyber Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT) alert said Monday. Sprint blocked the port used for attacks, it said, and FCA and the National Transportation Safety Administration initiated a safety recall for all potentially affected Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram models, the alert said. Uconnect users are encouraged to review the recall announcement and apply the software update, it said.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., pushed Monday for increased cybersecurity protections for all sectors of the economy. Speaking on the Senate floor, Daines backed passage of the student privacy bill he and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, R-Conn., introduced last week, The Safeguarding American Family from Exposure by Keeping Information in Data Secure (Safe Kids) Act (see 1507160024), before turning his attention to the Fiat Chrysler recall (see 1507280003). “Through the radio of a Jeep Cherokee, hackers disabled the vehicle’s transmission as a driver drove on a public highway in St. Louis,” Daines said. “This episode is telling [us] that cyberhacks can affect every sector of our economy, from the financial sector to our automotive manufacturers,” he said. Military installations are vulnerable to a cyberattack, Daines said, citing a new report from the Government Accountability Office, as are utility systems that provide water, electricity and other essential services. On Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on ABC’s This Week that a cyberattack by the Islamic State is one of the terrorist group’s biggest emerging threats to our country. “In the interview, Lynch noted that the terrorist group now boasts more than 20,000 English-language Twitter followers,” Daines said. “Our country’s most sensitive data can be in the hands of our enemies at the mere click of a button or press of a screen,” he said. He criticized the Obama administration for what he sees as its lack of transparency after the Office of Personnel Management breaches and urged OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour’s resignation, and encouraged his colleagues to “act more quickly and more nimbly than those seeking to wage a terrorist attack on our nation's cybersecurity infrastructure.”
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., pushed Monday for increased cybersecurity protections for all sectors of the economy. Speaking on the Senate floor, Daines backed passage of the student privacy bill he and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, R-Conn., introduced last week, The Safeguarding American Family from Exposure by Keeping Information in Data Secure (Safe Kids) Act (see 1507160024), before turning his attention to the Fiat Chrysler recall (see 1507280003). “Through the radio of a Jeep Cherokee, hackers disabled the vehicle’s transmission as a driver drove on a public highway in St. Louis,” Daines said. “This episode is telling [us] that cyberhacks can affect every sector of our economy, from the financial sector to our automotive manufacturers,” he said. Military installations are vulnerable to a cyberattack, Daines said, citing a new report from the Government Accountability Office, as are utility systems that provide water, electricity and other essential services. On Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on ABC’s This Week that a cyberattack by the Islamic State is one of the terrorist group’s biggest emerging threats to our country. “In the interview, Lynch noted that the terrorist group now boasts more than 20,000 English-language Twitter followers,” Daines said. “Our country’s most sensitive data can be in the hands of our enemies at the mere click of a button or press of a screen,” he said. He criticized the Obama administration for what he sees as its lack of transparency after the Office of Personnel Management breaches and urged OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour’s resignation, and encouraged his colleagues to “act more quickly and more nimbly than those seeking to wage a terrorist attack on our nation's cybersecurity infrastructure.”
Altice's $9.1 billion entrance into the U.S. cable market should include a $9.95 broadband offering for the types of households least likely or able to subscribe to broadband services, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) said in one of the few comments submitted to the FCC as the European company looks to buy a majority of Suddenlink Communications by the end of the year.
A working group of the FCC Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point Architecture (TFOPA) will say in a pending report that deployment of next-generation 911 technology isn't occurring as quickly as it should, said TFOPA officials as the group met for the third time at the FCC Monday. The group got a briefing on the first report to be nearly complete, by the working group for options on a sustainable 911 fee.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mark Warner, D-Va., led a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday in introducing the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Reform Act, which they said would formalize and increase the Department of Homeland Security's power to protect federal networks and websites against cyberattacks. The bill, which Collins and other supporters told reporters is a legislative response to the recent Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach, is needed to formalize DHS' authority to protect federal networks and move beyond the “status quo,” in which individual agencies are allowed to voluntarily seek DHS assistance, they said. “This voluntary system has resulted in an inconsistent patchwork of security across the whole federal government,” Warner said during a news conference. The bill's other co-sponsors are Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Dan Coats, R-Ind., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mark Warner, D-Va., led a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday in introducing the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Reform Act, which they said would formalize and increase the Department of Homeland Security's power to protect federal networks and websites against cyberattacks. The bill, which Collins and other supporters told reporters is a legislative response to the recent Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data breach, is needed to formalize DHS' authority to protect federal networks and move beyond the “status quo,” in which individual agencies are allowed to voluntarily seek DHS assistance, they said. “This voluntary system has resulted in an inconsistent patchwork of security across the whole federal government,” Warner said during a news conference. The bill's other co-sponsors are Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Dan Coats, R-Ind., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
LightSquared faces no opposition to its request for regulatory approval to emerge from bankruptcy and the transfer of its licenses and authorizations to its reorganized self, as the final deadline for comments in docket 15-126 passed Monday with nothing filed. Given that "lack of any opposition" to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy plans, the FCC should give final approval as soon as the Justice Department has completed its customary national security, public safety and law enforcement review, the company said in a filing earlier this month. Aside from a Justice Department filing earlier this month asking the FCC to delay any approval pending that review, the only other comment filed in the case was from NAB, on foreign ownership, which took no position on the LightSquared matter (see 1507060031).