Small businesses would get more information from the government about internet security under a bill that has passed the U.S. House. The Improving Small Business Cyber Security Act of 2016, which now goes to the Senate, calls on the Small Business Administration and Department of Homeland Security to create a strategy to increase business owners’…

Department of Homeland Security officials may not expect malicious hackers to sway November’s election, but the agency is offering more protections to help states secure voting systems. After this summer’s Democratic National Committee breach, and a recent FBI warning of digital tampering with state election boards, Homeland Security has stepped up efforts bolster cybersecurity at the polls…

You knew this was coming. After a steady series of hacking debacles, regulators are stepping in and ordering companies to tighten up. Soon companies in the financial sector — banks, brokerages, and insurance firms — will have to comply with cybersecurity rules that include encrypting sensitive information and appointing a security chief. The rules come from…

Recent research conducted by IBM among global boardroom and C-suite executives in 28 countries found that better cybersecurity is among their top technology priorities. But while CMOs “are key drivers of digital-based growth for most organizations, many are not in the habit of working with the CIO, and are certainly not in the habit of working…

All too often companies misunderstand the value of their cybersecurity teams and underfund their development. At the same time, many of these teams struggle to communicate to leaders the importance of having a well-funded security program. These struggles can lead to serious gaps between the resources allocated to security and the actual support needed to properly…

The National Institute for Science and Technology has published a draft questionnaire that companies and other organizations can use to assess their cybersecurity “maturity” — a response, NIST says, to demand from the private sector. Boosters say the document will help specialists explain the importance of cybersecurity to the company’s bottom line — the “holy grail” of business cybersecurity. But some critics…

The sparsely populated Spratly Islands, a collection of hundreds of islands and reefs spread over roughly 165,000 square miles in the South China Sea, are very quickly becoming the center of one of the most contentious international disputes between world powers since the fall of the Soviet Union. Alarmingly, the use of cyber attacks in…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a Commerce Department agency, has released a draft Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder, describing it as a self-assessment tool to help organizations better understand the effectiveness of their cybersecurity risk management efforts. NIST is requesting public comments on the draft document, which blends the best of two globally…

When security breaches make headlines, they tend to be about nefarious actors in another country or the catastrophic failure of technology. These kinds of stories are exciting to read and easier for the hacked company to admit to. But the reality is that no matter the size or the scope of a breach, usually it’s…