InfraGard Members Alliance Houston

InfraGard Houston Malware Analysis Initiative Announced

All Houston InfraGard members are encouraged to participate

Today the Houston InfraGard Chapter announces its Malware Analysis Pilot Project, which will provide additional intelligence for the Houston InfraGard Community to protect Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources.

The pilot project will identify and develop a process to acquire OPEN SOURCE malware, viruses, and other cyber threats at private sector organizations on an anonymous basis and to provide early intelligence to the private sector.  The program will leverage the Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) groups within the Houston Chapter.  The Sector Chiefs will be a collection point for all Houston IMA members who wish to remain anonymous.  The Sector Chief’s will provide a conduit to disseminate analysis, and insure that adequate population of data is available to the analysis center.  Anticipated participating SIG’s are: Electric, Oil and Gas, Healthcare and Medical, Finance and Banking.

The program will include requirements definition, the analysis of infrastructure required to support an ongoing program, identification of analysis assets to review the cyber threats, and identifying methods to provide intelligence back to the community.

The program will include a collaborative effort between a university information technology research curriculum at the graduate level and subject matter experts from the Houston FBI Cyber Security division, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Houston Special Interest Groups.

The program will additionally provide an opportunity for educational institutions to develop curriculum that includes practical application of current threat analysis, research, and best practices for cyber security.

The pilot program will conclude with a after action report, projected human resource/ infrastructure funding requirements, and project plan for permanent establishment of analysis centers at multiple universities.

For specific details on the project including a FAQ and submittal form please refer to the project information web page at: Project webpage

 

 

Surveillance Detection Awareness on the Job - Virtual Roundtable event on HSIN

The Office of Infrastructure Protection’s (IP) Sector-Specific Agency Executive Management Office (SSA EMO) and Partnership and Outreach Division (POD), with assistance from the Surveillance Detection workgroup, developed a 90-minute, highly interactive and visual, virtual roundtable, designed to raise the awareness of suspicious activities and behaviors that might indicate potential surveillance activities. An invitation to the roundtable is attached. 

The target audience for this roundtable will be a full-range of employees working at critical infrastructure facilities, government agencies, governmental organizations, and private-sector owners and operators, including front-line supervisors such as security managers, facilities managers, human resource managers, compliance managers, and IT managers.

More information: http://www.infragardhouston.org/pdfs/SDA%20Virtual%20Roundtable%209-9-10%20Invite.pdf

Houston InfraGard Chapter collaborating with DHS to gather assessment data after tropical storms

The Houston InfraGard Chapter is collaborating with the local Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office to provide critical infrastructure damage assessment after any regional disaster.  The DHS will monitor the Houston InfraGard Twitter account IMAHoustonSR for in the field updates.  The Twitter account is only available for Houston InfraGard Chapter members and vetted agencies.  All members and critical infrastructure partners are encouraged to "request to follow" the Twitter account well in advance of any incident.

Additional users will not be added 48 hours before any landfalling storm.

Please refer to our web page at: http://www.infragardhouston.org/infragardhouston/member-resources.html

Obama emphasizes identity management

Federal news Radio’s Jason Miller writes that now, the Obama administration is trying its hand at promoting identity management. Officials believe a new comprehensive strategy for secure online transaction...

“The ability to conduct transactions is key to everything we are doing, whether it’s a transaction with the government moving from a 90 percent to 95 percent of people filing taxes online,” says Howard Schmidt, the White House Cyber Coordinator, the other day during his speech at the Symantec Government Symposium 2010 in Washington. “The ability to interact with the government in a very secure manner, where privacy and civil liberties are protected and you can only do that with some of the things you look at from an identity management perspective.”

http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/obama-emphasizes-identity-management

Submitted by:  E. Charles Sterling

Special Interest Groups (SIG's) gaining momentum

We've have had a great response to our Special Interest Group (SIG) program.  Additional SIG's are being considered as we roll out the program.

Currently the following SIG's and Sector Chiefs have been established:

Sector Chiefs by Special Interest Group (SIG)

Banking and Finance        William Gemza

Electric                             Dirk Suter

Information Technology      Mark Stingley

Oil & Gas                         Johnny Lockett

If you complete the registration form and do not see your sector listed, but have an interest in establishing a SIG please add a note to the comments section on the form.  A list of the defined sectors are included on the SIG web page, as well as additional information on the program:

http://www.infragardhouston.org/infragardhouston/sectors.html

We are in the process of validating membership.  You will be contacted by a Sector Chief over the next two weeks

Announcing Special Interest Group (SIG's) to enhance collaboration among Houston Chapter Members

The Houston InfraGard Chapter is pleased to announce the roll out of its Special Interest Group (SIG)/Sector Chief Program.  The initial sectors to be implemented are: Electric, Healthcare & Public Health, Information Technology, and Oil & Gas.  The program has been designed to facilitate focused collaboration between the FBI and the individual sectors within the Houston Chapter.  The purpose of the program is to permit regular communication within the SIG to further enhance protection of the Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources in the Houston area.

The SIG's may be based upon sector or cross-sector issues, they are essentially work-groups with a common area of interest.  Each SIG is encouraged to:

• Communicate/Collaborate with its peers
• Provide sector membership with public source information relative to each sector via the chapter blog
• Provide input to the chapter board on topics and speakers for quarterly meetings
• Provide Subject Matter Expertise as required by critical infrastructure partners
  

Each member may participate in up to two SIG's.  An example would be Information Technology and Electric, or Information Technology and Oil & Gas, or you may select only Information Technology.  Individuals that may be involved in multiple sectors have at at large sector to participate.

Sector membership registration is now available at: Special Interest Group Registration

U.S. Treasury Web sites hacked, serving malware

Three Web sites belonging to the U.S. Department of the Treasury have been hacked to attack visitors with malicious software, security vendor AVG says.

According to Thompson, hackers had added a small snippet of virtually undetectable iframe HTML code that redirected visitors to a Web site in the Ukraine that then launched a variety of Web-based attacks based on a commercially available attack-kit called the Eleonore Exploit pack.

The Ukrainian Web site was associated with similar attacks in the past. Those attacks targeted a handful of known software bugs, including flaws in Adobe's Reader software.

It's not clear how hackers managed to install their malicious code on the Treasury Department's Web sites.

Full article

Submitted by: E. Charles Sterling

Sector Chief blog

This is where the sector chiefs will provide regular updates.