Annie Searle & Associates, LLC

"Cyber experts press for greater efforts on the part of civilian and military agencies to address threats from Iran, warning a joint House subcommittee that the Islamic Republic continues to expand its cyber arsenal."

"Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House on Thursday passed a bill that encourages intelligence agencies and businesses to share information about threats to computer systems, including attacks on American Web sites by hackers in China and other countries."

"The myriad threats to public, private and U.S. government networks is getting a ton of attention in Washington, D.C., this week as the House gets ready to debate yet another cybersecurity bill."

"Federal securities regulators, in a sensitive breach, inadvertently revealed the identity of a whistleblower during a probe of a firm that ran a stock trading platform."

"Concerns over hacktivism and targeted state-sponsored attacks are at the top of security professionals’ minds according to a new survey and research report sponsored by Bit9. The 2012 Cyber Security Survey of nearly 2,000 IT security experts set out to gauge the current state of enterprise security and identify the attack methods and cybercrimal groups that keep IT executives up at night."

"A survey conducted by Varonis has found that 70 percent of organizations storing third party data are not ‘very confident’ that the sensitive data stored within their organization is protected."

"Two years after a blowout on BP’s Macondo well killed 11 men and triggered the largest oil spill in U.S. history, oil companies are again plying the waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

"It's little wonder risk managers are accustomed to remaining behind the scenes. One need only look to Congress grilling Enron's former risk manager about his role -- or lack thereof -- in the company's out-of-control corruption to see that the spotlight can quickly become uncomfortable when it is pointed at risk management."

"Roughly one of every five Americans used their mobile phone for some sort of banking activity last year, and about the same proportion say they will probably use mobile banking in the future, a recent survey from the Federal Reserve found."

"Iraq, cut off from decades of technological progress because of dictatorship, sanctions and wars, recently took a big step out of isolation and into the digital world when its telecommunications system was linked to a vast new undersea cable system serving the Gulf countries."

"The tornadoes were unrelenting — more than 100 in 24 hours over a stretch of the Plains states. They tossed vehicles and ripped through homes. They drove families to their basements and whipped debris across small towns throughout the Midwest. In some areas, baseball-size hail rained from the sky."

"Facebook, seeking to address concerns about the personal information it collects on its users, said Thursday that it would provide any user with more about the data it tracks and stores. "

"Continuity Insights’ first in-depth survey for 2012 looks at the growing use of social media as a crisis communication tool. Respondents from over 250 organizations were asked to provide data about their organization’s social media accounts and usage, which was then used to indicate the reach and target audience — key factors when using social media in a crisis."

"Dozens of bomb threats at the University of Pittsburgh since mid-February have disrupted classes and dormitory life and prompted some students to find housing off campus just weeks before the semester ends."

"The Pentagon is planning to dramatically speed up the development of new cyberweapons, giving it the ability in some cases to field weapons against specific targets in a matter of days, according to a new Pentagon report to Congress."

"Many popular Facebook apps are obtaining sensitive information about users—and users' friends—so don't be surprised if details about your religious, political and even sexual preferences start popping up in unexpected places."

"IBM in its X-Force security report for 2011 said security efforts have cut spam and improved vulnerability patching, but attackers are now targeting mobile devices and the cloud."

"The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is getting a lot of bipartisan support, but in reality it’s a nightmare that makes SOPA look practically benign in comparison. "

"Jim Mullen likely won’t drown in the emergency management bloodbath that is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget, but he may have a hard time staying afloat."

"For the last two months, senior government officials and private-sector experts have paraded before Congress and described in alarming terms a silent threat: cyberattacks carried out by foreign governments."

"In the course of his four-decade career, Yale economist Robert Shiller has seen enough financial folly to make anyone cynical. Instead, he thinks the industry can and should be reformed to serve ordinary people, not just the superrich."