01 Mar 13. Raytheon is collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to operate as a commercial service provider under the recently expanded Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (ECS) program outlined in President Obama’s Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. ECS is a voluntary information sharing program that assists critical infrastructure owners and operators as they improve the protection of their systems from unauthorized access, exploitation or data exfiltration. Under a Memorandum of Agreement, Raytheon will receive active, malicious cybersecurity threat information furnished by DHS. As a commercial service provider, Raytheon will be able to use these indicators to protect the defense industrial base and other sectors of critical infrastructure. Raytheon, through its broader managed security service offerings, will be able to quickly analyze threats and defend against them, bolstering mission assurance.
22 Feb 13. US Army leaders see much cyber work left to be done. The US Army’s cyber capabilities and doctrine have substantially advanced over the past several years, but the service is still coming to grips with its role in the cyber realm. To help determine the service’s role, a team led by TRADOC’s Army Capabilities Integration Center is exploring what the army’s formal responsibilities might be with regard to cyber. (Source: Jane’s)
04 Mar 13. Conventional wisdom is that cybersecurity is one of the few growth opportunities for defense contractors. Nary an earnings call passes without key industry players repeatedly touting their future dominance of cyber, and the ability for the market to make up for other areas set to decline. But quietly over the past few months, several companies have been showing some of their cybersecurity staff the door, sources said, part of a growing recognition by the industry that while cyber is growing, it will never reach the scale of aircraft or ship programs.
“It’s the myth and reality of cyber,” said Roger Cressey, senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. “The myth is that it’s the fastest growing capability around, that there is tremendous pent-up demand and it is a river of milk and honey for everyone, when the reality is that it’s not that. There are pockets of need, but there’s also a requirement for specialized skills and capabilities.”
In January, General Dynamics announced a goodwill impairment that affected the company’s balance sheet to the tune of $2bn. That drop was largely attributed to revised market expectations at the company’s division that handles its cyber business. At the RSA Conference here last week, the largest annual gathering of cybersecurity professionals in the U.S., all signs pointed to a cybersecurity industry that is doing quite well. The conference was well- attended, with hallways packed outside of the main exposition hall prior to its opening and security guards turning away participants at open sessions because of overcrowding. Conference officials said the wait list for exhibitors wanting floor space at future shows was growing. (Source: Defense News)
04 Mar 13. At the Pitmans Annual Cyber Conference in London on 7 February 2013, Andy Lipinski, Managed Services Director at MASS (a Cohort plc company) delivered a speech on the topic “Preparing for Security Incidents – A Toolkit and Issues in Supply Chains”. The Annual Cyber Conference’s theme was ‘Reputation Management and Information Security’. It demonstrated that business in general is under threat and it is no longer just defence companies that are the prime targets for attack. Cyber security is rapidly increasing in importance to the entire business world. MASS has responded to this shift by taking cyber security beyond traditional business boundaries. MASS’ dedicated cyber security team possesses the most up to date government qualifications and takes an end-to-end view of cyber security, building on its track record of maintaining and man