Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Janelle Irwin TaylorOctober 18, 2018

Florida Polytechnic University students in Lakeland are learning how to be the bad guy hackers in order to gain a superior understanding of cybersecurity. Students are developing 10 different cybersecurity projects including hacking a user’s device and altering codes on Android devices for malicious purposes, the school announced Wednesday. “One of the most basic strategies […]

Janelle Irwin TaylorOctober 3, 2018

Security model management company ReliaQuest is committing $1 million to the University of South Florida for cybersecurity labs at the school’s Muma College of Business. The million-dollar gift also buys the private company naming rights to the labs. The additional labs will address the local and national shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Only 45 percent of […]

Blake DowlingSeptember 29, 2018

Imagine you’re Joe-Bob-Sally Democrat politician; you are ready to surf the “blue wave” (and avoid the red tide) that may (or may not) be on its way and … Oops. Your entire campaign just got rocked by an IT disaster. It wasn’t Russian’s hacking or faulty hardware. It was another example of ransomware wreaking havoc […]

Drew WilsonSeptember 27, 2018

Cybersecurity might not be top-of-mind for many businesses, but even an inadvertent data breach can cost millions of dollars and lead to loads of lost business. “The average cost of a data breach is $3.62 million — that’s a worldwide average,” said Eman El-Sheikh, the director of the Center for Cybersecurity at the University of […]

Blake DowlingMarch 10, 2018

Last week, I took to the road and Friday afternoon had me in Gainesville meeting with the Florida School Boards Association and NEOLA, where I attended a policy seminar on critical technology issues hosted by the Alachua County School District. It was a great chance for the audience to hear from experts on social media, […]

Blake DowlingNovember 4, 2017

This year has been exceptionally brutal on the cybersecurity front, and ransomware in particular. You know it is terrible when Webster tosses the name in the book. According to the 2017 Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “ransomware” is malware requiring the victim to pay a ransom to access encrypted files. Also added were other random words that have […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 12, 2016

Stealing elections, even presidential ones, is an American political tradition dating back to the beginning of our nation. Think about those hanging chads in Florida, or Mayor Daley stuffing the ballot box in Chicago for JFK. But stuffing the ballot box is about to be taken to a new level in the race for the […]

Tag: cybersecurity

To be the good guys, Florida Polytechnic students first learn how to be the bad guys

Cybersecurity firm donates $1 million for new USF program

Blake Dowling: An expensive lesson in ransomware wreaking havoc

Cybersecurity training could be a boon for Florida’s future workforce

Blake Dowling: Internet safety, social media and schools

Blake Dowling: The scourge of ransomware

Steven Kurlander: Redefining a political hack: The dangerous obsolescence of the electoral process