04 May 12. Lockheed Martin won a contract worth up to $454m to support the Pentagon’s Cyber Crime Center, a government facility that investigates the growing number of attacks on U.S. government networks. Lockheed beat out General Dynamics Corp, which previously ran the center, to win the contract in January, but the award was held up by a protest filed with the General Accountability Office. General Dynamics had protested the contract award but dropped its protest after securing a subcontract with Lockheed, according to a source familiar with the decision. Lockheed spokeswoman Darci Bushey declined comment on the role that General Dynamics would play on the new contract. The company said it would deliver a full range of technical, functional, and managerial support to the lab, which helps investigate criminal, espionage and terrorist threats to government networks. The center also provides support to the Defense Industrial Base, a pilot program that allows the U.S. government to swap data on cyber threats with 37 weapons makers and which is due to be expanded to 200 companies in coming months. Lockheed said the contract has a ceiling value of $454m if all options are exercised. (Source: Reuters)
01 May 12. Cyber Squared Inc. released the results of a six month investigation “Project Enlightenment: An Overview of Modern Cyber Espionage in a Global Economy”. This project demonstrated how Cyber Squared’s response to a single incident uncovered a sustained espionage campaign against dozens of U.S. and international private sector companies and organizations across a variety of business verticals. The motivation behind the attack of these particular victims was likely to gain tactical and strategic advantage over large commercial transactions, and to collect information on issues such as international trade, commerce, legislation and human rights. What initially appeared to be an isolated cyber-attack possibly associated with the Taiwan Airpower Modernization Act (TAMA) S.1539, unraveled the thread of a pervasive and coordinated military grade cyber espionage campaign. During the course of the investigation, technical intricacies emerged, such as how the attack was carried out and who the likely perpetrator was. (Source: Yahoo!/BUSINESS WIRE)