11 Mar 12. The end of a decade of war and prosperity is proving transformative for the weapons trade as cash-strapped governments are cutting military budgets while defence contractors are shedding jobs and warning of shrinking revenues. So it is with fortuitous timing – at least for defence companies – that a new enemy is emerging on the world’s stage. Cyber attacks by well-resourced, highly capable and relentless, usually state-sponsored attackers – so called advanced persistent threats – are growing. The best known example is Stuxnet, which was aimed at Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and is widely believed to have been developed by the US or Israel, neither of which have confirmed their involvement. But dozens of similarly specifically targeted attacks have infiltrated the systems of a growing number of government agencies and companies, including defence contractors Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications, and natural resource companies, such as BHP Billiton. The F-35 jet fighter programme was infiltrated in 2009. Defence contractors, including BAE Systems, say they are targets of constant attacks and, in fact, use that as a marketing point when selling their cyberdefence services. Collecting precise data on such attacks is difficult because governments and companies are reticent to admit they have been compromised. Financial regulators have yet to force companies to disclose their vulnerabilities despite their huge potential financial and reputational harm. (Source: FT.com)
12 Mar 12. The global spending on cyber warfare systems is expected to remain robust over the forecast period due primarily to the increased importance of such systems in modern warfare. The formation of the US Cyber Command or USCybercom, the highest defense spender globally, highlights the importance of cyber warfare in today’s world. The rise in new technologies such as social networks, mobile devices and cloud computing, combined with the economic downturn is driving the pace of innovation in the field of cyber warfare. Consumer driven IT has resulted in organizations losing control over their ability to manage their data by defining a perimeter. Weak economic conditions have meant that companies are striving to find ways and means to remain competitive. This is where innovation is seen to be sustaining the cyber warfare industry with sub-sectors such as identity and access management, data security and network security expected to record significant growth over the forecast period. North America is expected to account for the largest share of the total global cyber warfare market, representing a 46% share over the forecast period. Regional demand is primarily driven by the growing threat from Chinese, Russian and Iranian cyber attacks on US military and civilian networks. The cyber security institutional eco-system which consists of a broad set of international, national, and private organizations has unclear and overlapping boundaries as well as differing capacities due to which a comprehensive database on such malware has not been developed. As most cyber weapons are developed in secrecy, defenders will have limited knowledge with regards to the capabilities of the weapons and will not be able to update or modify the cyber defense mechanisms accordingly.(Source: ASD Network)
06 Mar 12. Lockheed Martin and ZyGEM Corp. Ltd. announced plans to release a version of their rapid DNA analysis platform that is designed to simplify and speed DNA analysis for human identity testing. Pre-production units of the platform will be released this summer to select customers in the forensic, homeland security and intelligence communities. The companies recently unveiled a compact cartridge device that is a key component of the rapid DNA analysis platform during the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). ZyGEM and Lockheed Martin have worked together to develop the platform that uses advanced microfluidi