Network Security, Threat Management

Proper protection of Pope Francis hopefully thwarts cyber-threats

With Pope Francis scheduled to visit New York City today, authorities are taking every precaution to increase security, cyber-space included. Dave Weinstein, deputy director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the cyber-security advisor says that important resources have been assigned to review and investigate all cyber-threats.

A special unit called the New Jersey Cyber Security and Communications Integration cell is carefully overseeing the threat landscape. Weinstein admitted there's currently a lot of cyber-threat “noise” out there.

“The best way to validate our sources is to communicate with our partners in the federal space, both in law enforcement and homeland security,” Weinstein said. “Also in many cases, particularly when it comes to ideological groups like ISIS, getting their message out is equally important as executing the actual cyber-attack, and that's why there is so much increased chatter surrounding a high profile event like the papal visit,” he said.

Weinstein says sometimes the chatter can be misleading, so he encourages people that may have information about a cyber-threat involving the pope to report it. 

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