Feds OK first FedRAMP firm, Congress trims the spy budget and more

By RyanKamauff

Happy back to work day folks! Here are the top cyber stories of the day.

• Naval Reactor Program needed to consider more options for business system – a recent OIG report found that The Naval Reactors Program failed to report spending of more than $10 million or adequately consider commercial off-the-shelf solutions when it improved its Enterprise Business System. Apparently, the NRP did not address why they chose to developer their EBS in house, as opposed to looking for COTS systems. Via FierceGovernment IT, more here.
• The first warnings for mcommerce concerns for Google OS smartphones and tablets released for 2013 – a new form of mobile malware is available, which hijacks the Android OS and enables the command and control server to use the device to participate in DDoS attacks and more. Researchers are not yet positive the extent of the attack, but say it has not spread too far, yet. Via QR Codepress, more here.
• Feds OK First Vendor on Cloud Security – FedRAMP, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, has officially certified Autonomic Resources LLC as compliant with their provisions. This is really heartening to see that cloud is coming to the government and they are making it work. Via Information Management.com, more here.
• Ozone Widget Framework on GitHub – as we reported in the past, the Ozone Widget Framework has now been added to the GitHub network. Its Google Groups are now open to the public and they have user, developer and announcements groups. This is a really exciting step for the OWF and I think we can expect to see some awesome new developments there. Via FierceGovernment IT, more here.
• Congress Trims Spy Budget for 2013 – In one of the last votes of the year, House lawmakers voted Monday 373-29 in favor of a Senate-passed bill to slightly boost the president’s $72 billion budget request for intelligence agencies including the CIA, adding extra cash for the counterterrorism fight against al-Qaida, and the counterintelligence fight against foreign governments trying to spy on the U.S. This bill will allegedly do a better job at parceling out money to successful programs, while limiting dollars wasted. Via gnom.es, more here.
• Microsoft issues ‘fix it’ for IE vulnerability – a vulnerability affects IE 6, 7 and 8 is sneaking by people’s defenses. Teh attack uses part of the “Bitrose” code which can steal files from your computers, and allow access to your files. The malware is a “drive-by” and users only need to go to the site to infect their systems. So patch yourselves folks and be safe! Via ComputerWorld, more here.

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