Government IT News For Vars — October 22, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, a new sandworm vulnerability has been identified and patched, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has a new high-tech concept car, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released an updated smartphone app to track child predators.
Sandworm Bug Patch Issued By Microsoft
According to the eCommerce Times, iSight Partners announced that a cybergang it calls “Sandworm” has been “exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in all supported versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Server 2008 and 2012.” This flaw allows hackers to remotely execute code on target systems. The announcement did not come until after Microsoft issued a patch for CE-2014-4114.
DARPA's New Concept Car
According to the eCommerce Times, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released video of an advanced concept ground vehicle under development in its Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program. DARPA is employing advanced technologies to give it improved survivability. Technologies could include: high-definition visualization systems; wide-angle views of external conditions; path planning; terrain classification; sensors to visualize the surroundings and identify and track friends and foes; and autopilot capabilities. The agency has stated that DARPA is open to working with nontraditional contributors on fundamental research and development, in order to produce groundbreaking technologies.
Government IT News Talking Points
According to Government Security News, the first federal law enforcement app for tracking fugitive and unknown child predators is now available for Android Smartphones and in Spanish on both Apple and Android apps. The original Operation Predator app for Apple products was introduced in September 2013. ICE anticipates that the release of these newest versions of the app will significantly increase public outreach to help locate child predators and rescue their victims.
According to Yahoo! Finance news, IDC Government Insights has announced the creation of the United States Digital Government Innovation and Transformation (DGIT) Strategies advisory service. This service will identify “technology trends and disruptive technologies, innovative new programs based upon these technologies, and the successful deployment of technology in the context of policy and organizational challenges.”
The second annual Kaspersky Government Cybersecurity Forum will be held on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., according to Yahoo! Finance. The conference will highlight the importance of cyber resilience for critical infrastructures in order to avoid serious consequences from a cyber-attack.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Government IT Resource Center.