| May 7, 2009
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Work while it is still light |
John 9:4-5
"We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. "While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world."
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John 13:21-30
When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me." The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter *gestured to him, and *said to him, "Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking." He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, *said to Him, "Lord, who is it?"
Jesus then *answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had dipped the morsel, He *took and *gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus *said to him, "What you do, do quickly." Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, "Buy the things we have need of for the feast"; or else, that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.
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Matthew 24:9
"Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
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1 Thessalonians 5:2
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
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Joel 2:31
"The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
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| Shalom in Christ Jesus, |
Admittedly, this scripture
pertains too much more than I will be covering in this alert.
'"...Night is coming when no
one can work..."'
When Jesus uttered these
word the Internet did not exist and it has not been until the last fifteen
years that ministries have mushroomed and been redefined due to it's existence.
I really believe that the World Wide Web has helped to defer the coming
darkness and helped to spread the gospel and truth of God's Word with
incredible power and efficiency in these last of the last days before Jesus
returns for His bride. I am astounded at the knowledge base available, both
scripturally and secular on the web.
It is because of this that
the Internet has become filled with much deception, snares and 'stumbling
blocks' as the enemy is doing all he can to prevent the truth from reaching the
ears of men. However, that eventually will not be enough and a prophesied time
will come when the light of Jesus will not shine. We see that particularly well
in the typology of Joel -
"The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. - Joel 2:31
The sun, that is the Son, the light of Christ is
darkened, and that which reflects His light, His church (the moon) is turned to
blood, that is persecution. Then comes the great and awesome day of the LORD.
This alert is concerned with the mounting attacks
against the freedom we have had using the Internet for ministry and the general
turning tide against those who proclaim the truth. We need to be aware of what
is taking place so we can bring our concerns to The Lord in prayer and when
possible, by all means, take lawful actions that can promote liberty for men
and the gospel.
Related articles are included as well that show how
the Internet has changed our world during its very short existence.
Please note and be aware that there is much hype and
propaganda taking place daily. Things that deserve mention receive it not, things that
do not need coverage are hyped, and the media is used to as a tool to bring
confusion.
I do not believe this is necessarily an organized
conspiracy, rather the fallen world in the hands of their rulers in the
heavenly places where the battle takes place.
BE/\LERT!
Scott Brisk
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Will bill give Obama control of Internet?
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Proposed new powers called 'drastic federal intervention'
WORLDNETDAILY - By Drew Zahn - April 4, 2009
A pair of bills introduced in the U.S. Senate would grant the White House sweeping new powers to access private online data, regulate the cybersecurity industry and even shut down Internet traffic during a declared "cyber emergency."
Senate bills No. 773 and 778, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., are both part of what's being called the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, which would create a new Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, reportable directly to the president and charged with defending the country from cyber attack.
A working draft of the legislation obtained by an Internet privacy group also spells out plans to grant the Secretary of Commerce access to all privately owned information networks deemed to be critical to the nation's infrastructure "without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access."
Privacy advocates and Internet experts have been quick to sound the alarm over the act's broadly drawn government powers.
"The cybersecurity threat is real," says Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, which obtained the draft of S.773, "but such a drastic federal intervention in private communications technology and networks could harm both security and privacy."
"The whole thing smells bad to me," writes Larry Seltzer in eWeek, an Internet and print news source on technology issues. "I don't like the chances of the government improving this situation by taking it over generally, and I definitely don't like the idea of politicizing this authority by putting it in the direct control of the president."
According to a Senate document explaining the bill, the legislation "addresses our country's unacceptable vulnerability to massive cyber crime, global cyber espionage and cyber attacks that could cripple our critical infrastructure."
In a statement explaining the bill's introduction, Sen. Rockefeller said, "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs - from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records - the list goes on."
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who is co-sponsoring the bill, added, "If we fail to take swift action, we, regrettably, risk a cyber-Katrina."
Critics, however, have pointed to three actions Rockefeller and Snowe propose that may violate both privacy concerns and even constitutional bounds:
First, the White House, through the national cybersecurity advisor, shall have the authority to disconnect "critical infrastructure" networks from the Internet - including private citizens' banks and health records, if Rockefeller's examples are accurate - if they are found to be at risk of cyber attack. The working copy of the bill, however, does not define what constitutes a cybersecurity emergency, and apparently leaves the question to the discretion of the president.
Second, the bill establishes the Department of Commerce as "the clearinghouse of cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information," including the monitoring of private information networks deemed a part of the "critical infrastructure."
Third, the legislation proposes implementation of a professional licensing program for certifying who can serve as a cybersecurity professional.
And while the critics concede the need for increased security, they object to what is perceived as a dangerous and intrusive expansion of government power.
"There are some problems that we face which need the weight of government behind them," writes Seltzer in eWeek. "This is not the same as creating a new federal bureaucracy setting rules over what computer security has to be and who can do it."
"It's an incredibly broad authority," CDT senior counsel Greg Nojeim told the Mother Jones news website, troubled that existing privacy laws "could fall to this authority."
Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Mother Jones the bill is "contrary to what the Constitution promises us."
According to Granick, granting the Department of Commerce oversight of the "critical" networks, such as banking records, would grant the government access to potentially incriminating information obtained without cause or warrant, a violation of the Constitution's prohibition against unlawful search and seizure.
"What are the critical infrastructure networks? The examples provided are 'banking, utilities, air/rail/auto traffic control, telecommunications.' Let's think about this," writes Seltzer. "I'm especially curious as to how you take the telecommunications networks off of the Internet when they are, in large part, what the Internet is comprised of. And if my bank were taken offline, I would think about going into my branch and asking for all of my deposits in cash."
S. 778, which would establish the Office of the National Security Advisor, and S. 773, which provides for developing a cadre of governmental cybersecurity specialists and procedures, have both been read twice and referred to committee in the Senate.
Original Report | |
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Live Teaching Engagements
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Federal Felony To Use Blogs, the Web, Etc. To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech?
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VOLOKH.com - By Eugene Volokh - April 30, 2009
Ed. Note: Regarding this bill one of our Moriel Team members rightly stated, "Under the guise of suppressing "cyber bullying", this could very easily be used against Christians who make stands against abortion, homosexuality, or anything that might cause someone "distress".
That's what a House of Representatives bill, proposed by Rep.
Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others, would do. Here's the relevant text:
Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both....
["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; ...
["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.
1. I try to coerce a politician into voting a particular way, by repeatedly blogging (using a hostile tone) about what a hypocrite / campaign promise breaker / fool / etc. he would be if he voted the other way. I am transmitting in interstate commerce a communication with the intent to coerce using electronic means (a blog) "to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior" -- unless, of course, my statements aren't seen as "severe," a term that is entirely undefined and unclear. Result: I am a felon, unless somehow my "behavior" isn't "severe."
2. A newspaper reporter or editorialist tries to do the same, in columns that are posted on the newspaper's Web site. Result: Felony, unless somehow my "behavior" isn't severe.
3. The politician votes the wrong way. I think that's an evil, tyrannical vote, so I repeatedly and harshly condemn the politician on my blog, hoping that he'll get very upset (and rightly so, since I think he deserves to feel ashamed of himself, and loathed by others). I am transmitting a communication with the the intent to cause substantial emotional distress, using electronic means (a blog) "to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior." (I might also be said to be intending to "harass" -- who knows, given how vague the term is? -- but the result is the same even if we set that aside.) Result: I am a felon, subject to the usual utter uncertainty about what "severe" means.
4. A company delivers me shoddy goods, and refuses to refund my money. I e-mail it several times, threatening to sue if they don't give me a refund, and I use "hostile" language. I am transmitting a communication with the intent to coerce, using electronic means "to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior." Result: I am a felon, if my behavior is "severe."
5. Several people use blogs or Web-based newspaper articles to organize a boycott of a company, hoping to get it to change some policy they disapprove of. They are transmitting communications with the intent to coerce, using electronic means "to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior." Result: Those people are a felon. (Isn't threatening a company with possible massive losses "severe"? But again, who knows?) ...
The examples could be multiplied pretty much indefinitely. The law, if enacted, would clearly be facially overbroad (and probably unconstitutionally vague), and would thus be struck down on its face under the First Amendment. But beyond that, surely even the law's supporters don't really want to cover all this speech. ...
Read Full Report
Also:
Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS [THOMAS]
(Introduced in House)
HR 1966 IH - 111th CONGRESS - 1st Session - H. R. 1966
To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to cyberbullying.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - April 2, 2009
Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California (for herself, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HARE, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. CLAY, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. COURTNEY, and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary ...
SEC. 3. CYBERBULLYING.
(a) In General- Chapter 41 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
`Sec. 881. Cyberbullying
`(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
See the Bill posted here at The Library of Congress:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1966:
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| Mom says Patriot Act stripped son of due process |
WRAL-TV CBS 5/48 RALEIGH / DURHAM / FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA [Capitol Broadcasting Company] - By Amanda Lamb - April 29, 2009
Oxford, N.C. - Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere - on the bed, on the floor, on the wall.
But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.
The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, said.
"Undoubtedly, they were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats," Lundeby said.
Around 10 p.m. on March 5, Lundeby said, armed FBI agents along with three local law enforcement officers stormed her home looking for her son. They handcuffed him and presented her with a search warrant.
"I was terrified," Lundeby's mother said. "There were guns, and I don't allow guns around my children. I don't believe in guns."
Lundeby told the officers that someone had hacked into her son's IP address and was using it to make crank calls connected through the Internet, making it look like the calls had originated from her home when they did not.
Her argument was ignored, she said. Agents seized a computer, a cell phone, gaming console, routers, bank statements and school records, according to federal search warrants.
"There were no bomb-making materials, not even a blasting cap, not even a wire," Lundeby said.
Ashton now sits in a juvenile facility in South Bend, Ind. His mother has had little access to him since his arrest. She has gone to her state representatives as well as attorneys, seeking assistance, but, she said, there is nothing she can do.
Lundeby said the USA Patriot Act stripped her son of his due process rights.
"We have no rights under the Patriot Act to even defend them, because the Patriot Act basically supersedes the Constitution," she said. "It wasn't intended to drag your barely 16-year-old, 120-pound son out in the middle of the night on a charge that we can't even defend."
Passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., the Patriot Act allows federal agents to investigate suspected cases of terrorism swiftly to better protect the country. In part, it gives the federal government more latitude to search telephone records, e-mails and other records.
"They're saying that 'We feel this individual is a terrorist or an enemy combatant against the United States, and we're going to suspend all of those due process rights because this person is an enemy of the United States," said Dan Boyce, a defense attorney and former U.S. attorney not connected to the Lundeby case.
Critics of the statute say it threatens the most basic of liberties.
"There's nothing a matter of public record," Boyce said "All those normal rights are just suspended in the air."
In a bi-partisan effort, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., last month introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives a bill that would narrow subpoena power in a provision of the Patriot Act, called the National Security Letters, to curb what some consider to be abuse of power by federal law enforcement officers.
Boyce said the Patriot Act was written with good intentions, but he said he believes it has gone too far in some cases. Lundeby's might be one of them, he said. ...
"Never in my worst nightmare did I ever think that it would be my own government that I would have to protect my children from," Lundeby said. "This is the United States, and I feel like I live in a third world country now." ...
Read Full Report |
Homeland Security on guard for 'right-wing extremists'
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Returning U.S. military veterans singled out as particular threats - 'End Times' prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups...
WORLDNETDAILY - April 12, 2009
WASHINGTON - A newly unclassified Department of Homeland Security report warns against the possibility of violence by unnamed "right-wing extremists" concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats.
The report, titled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," dated April 7, states that "threats from white supremacist and violent anti-government groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts." ...
Most notable is the report's focus on the impact of returning war veterans.
"Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to right-wing extremists," it says. "DHS/I&A is concerned that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize veterans in order to boost their violent capacities."
The report cites the April 4 shooting deaths of three police officers in Pittsburgh as an example of what may be coming, claiming the alleged gunman holds a racist ideology and believes in anti-government conspiracy theories about gun confiscations, citizen detention camps and "a Jewish-controlled 'one-world government.'"
It also suggests the election of an African-American president and the prospect of his policy changes "are proving to be a driving force for right-wing extremist recruitment and radicalization."
The report also mentions "'end times' prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons. These teachings also have been linked with the radicalization of domestic extremist individuals and groups in the past, such as the violent Christian Identity organizations and extremist members of the militia movement."
"DHS/I&A assesses that right-wing extremist groups' frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence," the report continues.
The report states the DHS will be working with state and local partners over the next several months to determine the levels of right-wing extremist activity in the U.S.
Last month, the chief of the Missouri highway patrol blasted a report issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked conservative groups to domestic terrorism, assuring that such reports no longer will be issued. The report had been compiled with the assistance of DHS.
The report warned law enforcement agencies to watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers for third-party political candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.
It further warned law enforcement to watch out for individuals with "radical" ideologies based on Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes.
Chief James Keathley of the Missouri State Patrol issued a statement that the release of the report, which outraged conservatives nationwide, prompted him to "take a hard look" at the procedures through which the report was released by the MIAC. ...
Read Full Report
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Gov't views opponents of abortion, illegal immigration as possible threats
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ASSOCIATED PRESS and ONE NEWS NOW [American Family News Network] - April 15, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC - Department of Homeland Security officials have issued a report which links people with pro-life, anti-illegal immigration views, teachers of end-time prophecies, and veterans of war with "right-wing extremist" groups.
In an intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week, Homeland Security officials said there was no specific information about an attack in the works by right-wing extremists. But the agency warns that an extended economic downturn with real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit could foster an environment for extremists to recruit members who may not have been supportive of these causes in the past.
The latest assessment started making its way into the mainstream press after conservative blogs got wind of the analysis. In the unclassified report -- "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" -- the agency warns that imposing new restrictions on firearms and returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their communities could lead to terror groups or individuals attempting to carry out attacks. The returning war veterans have skills and experience that are appealing to right-wing groups looking to carry out an attack, according to the report.
The report says right-wing extremism in the United states can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily "hate-oriented" and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority or rejecting government authority entirely.
According to the Homeland Security document, right-wing extremism "may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as abortion or immigration."
The report goes on to say that "many right-wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use."
The Homeland Security report also makes reference to the rise of right-wing extremism in the 1990s and says factors which enhanced the movement were opposition to things such as abortion and same-sex "marriage."
It also says "antigovernment conspiracy theories and 'end times' prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons."
Original Report
Also:
DHS should focus on real terrorists
ONE NEWS NOW [American Family News Network] - By Charlie Butts - April 16, 2009
A Department of Homeland Security report labeling pro-life supporters and others as "extremists" continues to create a stir.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice, has seen the report. At first, says the attorney, he doubted its authenticity.
"In fact, when the report first came out I had my staff check to make sure that it was legitimate," he shares, "because I could not imagine that the United States government would classify as the most dangerous domestic terrorists people who are pro-life or people who have a [particular] view on immigration or returning Iraqi and Afghanistan vets from the war." ...
Sekulow also told OneNewsNow his legal group is preparing a legal analysis and will be launching a nationwide campaign in the days ahead to demand that Homeland Security remove the references from its warning.
Read Full Report
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Initiating a so-called "legal"
re-definition of what a "terrorist" or "extremist" threat
is
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Moriel's internal assessment
on Homeland Security's Right and Left Wing Reports
MORIEL MINISTRIES - April
15, 2009The Homeland Security report
that is making the news today can be found here for "right-wing threat
assessment" and here for "left-wing threat assessment". These
are summary reports, which have been sanitized and condensed in order to
protect the much larger classified reports they represent. There are two things
we want to be aware of:
(1) This is a major step
towards initiating a so-called "legal" re-definition of what a
"terrorist" or "extremist" threat is. I would offer that
many political views expressed by Moriel in the past are, by the standards of
this report, on the verge of being legally classified as "extremist".
This does not mean we should not proclaim the truth when appropriate, but I
think we need to be realistic about the fact that "freedom of speech"
as Americans have traditionally known it is inarguably changing. If these
standards are pursued, I don't think it will be long before they are followed
up by guidelines specific to religious speech as well.
(2) This is NOT an Obama
conspiracy. This report was originally commissioned by Bush's administration. I
have no doubt Obama's people have added their own two cents' worth, but the
point is that this view actually represents a cross-section of both Republican
and Democrat, both the current and the previous administrations. I don't believe
this evil would have been assuaged by McCain's election. There is a greater
trend at work here, which I think we all understand transcends simple political
party lines and speaks of something else on the horizon.
To my way of thinking, these
reports represent a significant step towards creating a "legal"
environment justifying what I would define as biblical persecution. In other
words, whereas in the past there were legal and moral safeguards protecting
such luxuries as freedom of speech and worship, these mechanisms themselves are
fundamentally changing for the worst.
I'm not sure there's
anything in particular that we should all do at this very moment other than to
pay close attention to further developments along these specific lines. But
what this tells me is that the intelligence community is being given a new
definition of who the "enemy" is. Even more than ever, "Work
while it's still day".
It's
a good thing Jesus is coming soon
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Guess how DHS defines who is a terrorist now?
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2nd 'domestic extremism' report includes 'alternative media,' 'tax resisters' in lexicon
WORLDNETDAILY - By Drew Zahn - May 2, 2009
Two weeks before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security penned its controversial report warning against "right-wing extremists" in the United States, it generated a memo defining dozens of additional groups - animal rights activists, black separatists, tax protesters, even worshippers of the Norse god Odin - as potential "threats."
Though the "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" was reportedly rescinded almost immediately, Benjamin Sarlin of The Daily Beast recently obtained and published online a copy of the unclassified memo, dated March 26, 2009.
While many of the groups listed in the lexicon - such as Aryan prison gangs and neo-Nazis - may indeed be widely considered extremists, others will likely take offense at being described as a potential "threat."
For example, the memo defines the "tax resistance movement" - also referred to in the report as the tax protest movement or the tax freedom movement - as "groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights. Among their beliefs are that wages are not income, that paying income taxes is voluntary, and that the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed Congress to levy taxes on income, was not properly ratified."
The report, however, continues in its assessment of tax protesters, asserting that members "have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals."
Similarly, the lexicon concludes its definition of "black separatists" by asserting, "Such groups or individuals also may embrace radical religious beliefs. Members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence directed toward local law enforcement in an attempt to advance their extremist goals."
In his blog piece titled "Who You Calling an Extremist?" Sarlin writes, "Partisans leapt to decry the first DHS memo as part of a Democratic conspiracy to marginalize right wingers. But it became clear that DHS's broad descriptions of extremists were symptomatic of an ongoing agency problem that crossed ideological lines."
The lexicon states its purpose is to provide "definitions for key terms and phrases that often appear in DHS analysis that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States."
Apparently, the DHS analyzes the "threat" level of Internet news websites like WorldNetDaily, for the lexicon defines "alternative media" as "a term used to describe various information sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets."
The term "black power," widely used in a variety of contexts, also merits a definition in the lexicon: "A term used by black separatists to describe their pride in and the perceived superiority of the black race."
The DHS memo also includes precursors to the ill-fated "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" report, which prompted outrage from legislators and a campaign calling for the resignation of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
For example, the lexicon contains virtually the same broad-stroke language the right-wing extremism report used.
"Rightwing extremism," the lexicon defines as those "who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."
The lexicon further points to those who oppose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
"Anti-immigration extremism," the lexicon defines as "a movement of groups or individuals who are vehemently opposed to illegal immigration, particularly along the U.S. southwest border with Mexico, and who have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism to advance their extremist goals. They are highly critical of the U.S. Government's response to illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend 'rights' to illegal aliens, such as issuing driver's licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education."
Unlike the right-wing extremism report, however, the lexicon includes definitions of extremism across a broad spectrum of issues: anarchy, animal rights extremism, black nationalism, Cuban independence, environmentalism, Jewish extremism, Mexican separatism, right-wing militias, white supremacists, the anti-war movement and more.
Among the more curious groups the DHS appears to be monitoring is the "racial Nordic mysticism" group, defined as "an ideology adopted by many white supremacist prison gangs who embrace a Norse mythological religion, such as Odinism or Asatru."
Among the more comical definitions is the description given of what "racist skinheads" wear, enabling law officers, it appears, to identify skinheads by their preferred brand of footwear:
"Dress may include a shaved head or very short hair," the report states, "jeans, thin suspenders, combat boots or Doc Martens, a bomber jacket, and tattoos of Nazi-like emblems."
Sarlin, who first publicized the memo, reports that a spokesperson for DHS told him the memo was recalled "within minutes" of being issued but declined to offer any details on the reasons for its withdrawal.
Original Report
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Gates to Nominate NSA Chief to Head New Cyber Command
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Siobhan Gorman - April 24, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to nominate the director of the National Security Agency to head a new Pentagon Cyber Command, which will coordinate computer-network defense and direct U.S. cyber-attack operations, according to a draft memo by Mr. Gates.
The move comes amid rising concern in the government about attacks on U.S. networks. The command will run military cybersecurity operations and provide support to civil authorities, according to the memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
NSA Director Keith Alexander, a three-star general, is expected to earn a fourth star when he moves to his new job at the Cyber Command. The memo doesn't state that directly, but says that his deputy at the new command will be of a three-star rank. It isn't clear who will succeed him at the NSA.
The Department of Homeland Security is charged with securing the government's nonmilitary networks, and cybersecurity experts said the Obama administration will have to better define the extent of this military support to Homeland Security. "It's a fine line" between providing needed technical expertise to support federal agencies improving their own security and deeper, more invasive programs, said Amit Yoran, a former senior cybersecurity official at the Homeland Security Department.
The new command is necessary, the memo says, because "our increasing dependency on cyberspace, alongside a growing array of cyber threats and vulnerabilities, adds a new element of risk to our national security." At least initially, it will be part of U.S. Strategic Command, which is currently responsible for securing the military's networks and waging attacks on the Internet.
An announcement of the new command is expected after the Obama administration finishes its recommendations for cybersecurity policy, which could come as soon as next week.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Mr. Gates is "planning to make changes to our command structure to better reflect the increasing threat posed by cyber warfare," but "we have nothing to announce at this time." The NSA referred calls to the Pentagon.
Mr. Morrell said cybersecurity is a major priority for Mr. Gates and his 2010 budget proposal calls for hiring hundreds more cybersecurity experts.
Gen. Alexander sought to quell concerns about NSA's role in domestic cybersecurity in a speech Tuesday at a computer-security conference in San Francisco.
"We need to dispel the rumors," he said, adding that NSA didn't want to run all the government's cybersecurity operations but would help Homeland Security secure government civilian networks. NSA has "tremendous technical capabilities," he said. "What we need to do now is learn how to use that."
Gen. Alexander also catalogued a few of the "things that are broken" in the government's efforts to protect its networks. The government can't monitor intrusions on its networks in a timely manner. It detects compromises of private-sector networks but sometimes can't disclose the problem because its information is classified.
The new command will be located in Maryland at Fort Meade, which is home to the NSA's headquarters just outside of Washington. It will open by October, according to the memo, and will be at full strength the following year.
Original Report
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US military prepares for 'cyber command'
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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - April 22, 2009The US administration is planning to create a new military command to counter cyber attacks on the country's sensitive computer networks, a US defense official said on Wednesday. The move would be part of a planned overhaul of cyber security policies now being weighed by the White House, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The "cyber command" would likely fall under the US Strategic Command, which already leads efforts within the military to safeguard computer networks from hackers and cyber attacks, the official said, confirming media reports. ... Naming a top-ranking officer for cyber-security efforts will also mean added resources and funds to take on the mission. ... No single agency is charged with ensuring IT security and lawmakers have called for creating a powerful national cyber security advisor reporting directly to the president. ... The role of other government agencies in future cyber security efforts remained unclear, particularly the secretive National Security Agency (NSA). A top US cyber security official in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quit last month, complaining in a resignation letter that government efforts were flawed and dominated by the NSA. Rod Beckstrom, former director of the National Cyber Security Center, had charged that his office had been effectively sidelined by the NSA and warned of the dangers posed by putting the surveillance agency in charge of cyber security. But the director of the NSA, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, reportedly said on Tuesday said his agency did not have ambitions to take charge of the government's IT security. "We do not want to run cyber security for the US government," Alexander was quoted as saying by US media at a conference in San Francisco. Read Full Report
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| U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses |
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By David E. Sanger, John Markoff and Thom Shanker - April 27, 2009
... Just as the invention of the atomic bomb changed warfare and deterrence 64 years ago, a new international race has begun to develop cyberweapons and systems to protect against them.
Thousands of daily attacks on federal and private computer systems in the United States - many from China and Russia, some malicious and some testing chinks in the patchwork of American firewalls - have prompted the Obama administration to review American strategy. ...
The most exotic innovations under consideration would enable a Pentagon programmer to surreptitiously enter a computer server in Russia or China, for example, and destroy a "botnet" - a potentially destructive program that commandeers infected machines into a vast network that can be clandestinely controlled - before it could be unleashed in the United States.
Or American intelligence agencies could activate malicious code that is secretly embedded on computer chips when they are manufactured, enabling the United States to take command of an enemy's computers by remote control over the Internet. That, of course, is exactly the kind of attack officials fear could be launched on American targets, often through Chinese-made chips or computer servers. ...
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How to measure a website's IQ?
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NEWSCIENTIST.com News Service > Technology Blog - September 15, 2008
The creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has made an odd request: for a kind of rating system to help people distinguish sites that can be trusted to tell the truth, and those that can't.
Berners-Lee was speaking at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation, which aims to ensure that everyone in the world benefits as the web evolves.
In his speech he referred to the way fears that the LHC could destroy the world spread like wildfire online. As the BBC puts it, he explained that "there needed to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources."
He went on to say that he didn't think "a simple number like an IQ rating" is a good idea: "I'd be interested in different organisations labelling websites in different ways". Whatever process is used to hand out the labels, it sounds like a bad idea to me.
Berners-Lee himself directed us towards some of the its biggest problems:
"On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable...A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."
There are plenty of arguments online already about whether Scientology is a cult. I find it unlikely anyone will be keen to step in and label sites on either side as not to be trusted. Others might reasonably argue that all religions - whether established or not - should come with a warning message.
As for wading in to put a stop to conspiracy theories, I can't image anything their proponents could benefit from more.
Berners-Lee also mentioned the system would help people find out the real science behind, for example, the LHC's risks. You might think handing out rating for sites about science would be easier, with publishers of peer-reviewed science, for example, receiving a top rating without problems.
But there will be papers in the archives of any journal that have been entirely superseded. And a whole lot more that present results that are valid, but can be misleading to some readers. Web licences to ensure that people only read sites they can handle are the next logical step.
Fortunately it's much more likely that the whole idea will quietly be forgotten, which will at least prevent Berners-Lee receiving one of the first "potentially misleading" badges for thinking it up in the first place.
Let's hope the World Wide Web Foundation and its laudable goals have a rosier future.
Tom Simonite, online technology editor
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| U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity |
 CNET News.com [NBC-Universal/GE] > Politics and Law - Posted by Declan McCullagh - September 12, 2008
A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.
The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public.
The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous, which is protected by law in the United States and recognized in international law by groups such as the Council of Europe, has alarmed some technologists and privacy advocates. Also affected may be services such as the Tor anonymizing network.
"What's distressing is that it doesn't appear that there's been any real consideration of how this type of capability could be misused," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. "That's really a human rights concern."
Nearly everyone agrees that there are, at least in some circumstances, legitimate security reasons to uncover the source of Internet communications. The most common justification for tracebacks is to counter distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks.
But implementation details are important, and governments participating in the process -- organized by the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency -- may have their own agendas. A document submitted by China this spring and obtained by CNET News said the "IP traceback mechanism is required to be adapted to various network environments, such as different addressing (IPv4 and IPv6), different access methods (wire and wireless) and different access technologies (ADSL, cable, Ethernet) and etc." It adds: "To ensure traceability, essential information of the originator should be logged."
The Chinese author of the document, Huirong Tian, did not respond to repeated interview requests. Neither did Jiayong Chen of China's state-owned ZTE Corporation, the vice chairman of the Q6/17's parent group who suggested in an April 2007 meeting that it address IP traceback.
A second, apparently leaked ITU document offers surveillance and monitoring justifications that seem well-suited to repressive regimes:
A political opponent to a government publishes articles putting the government in an unfavorable light. The government, having a law against any opposition, tries to identify the source of the negative articles but the articles having been published via a proxy server, is unable to do so protecting the anonymity of the author.
That document was provided to Steve Bellovin, a well-known Columbia University computer scientist, Internet Engineering Steering Group member, and Internet Engineering Task Force participant who wrote a traceback proposal eight years ago. Bellovin says he received the ITU document as part of a ZIP file from someone he knows and trusts, and subsequently confirmed its authenticity through a second source. (An ITU representative disputed its authenticity but refused to make public the Q6/17 documents, including a ZIP file describing traceback requirements posted on the agency's password-protected Web site.)
Bellovin said in a blog post this week that "institutionalizing a means for governments to quash their opposition is in direct contravention" of the U.N.'s own Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said that traceback is no longer that useful a concept, on the grounds that few attacks use spoofed addresses, there are too many sources in a DDoS attack to be useful, and the source computer inevitably would prove to be hacked into anyway. ...
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Germany: National Defense in Cyberspace
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DER SPIEGEL [BMG: Bertelsmann Media Group/Gruner & Jahr Magazines] - By John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Alexander Szandar - February 11, 2009
Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, trains its own hackers -- and it's not the only official effort to defend a nation from denial-of-service attacks. Governments around the world are preparing for the future of war.
This is what an officially appointed hacker looks like: A man with gray hair and a moustache, wearing a blue German Air Force uniform. His name is Friedrich Wilhelm Kriesel, and he's 60 years old, a brigadier general and the head of the Bundeswehr's Strategic Reconnaissance Unit.
Kriesel has been deployed to the front lines of a battle that has recently come in for special attention from the Bundeswehr. The general's task is to prepare for the wars of the future, parts of which could be waged on the Internet. Kriesel seems to be the right man for the job. With about 6,000 soldiers under his command, his unit already operates like an intelligence service.
Strictly isolated from the publicat the Tomburg barracks in Rheinbach, a picturesque town near Bonn, 76 members of his staff are busy testing the latest methods of infiltrating, exploring and manipulating -- or destroying -- computer networks. The unit, known by its harmless-sounding official name, Department of Information and Computer Network Operations, is preparing for an electronic emergency, which includes digital attacks on outside servers and networks.
The uniformed hackers from Rheinbach are Germany's answer to a growing threat which has begun to worry governments, intelligence agencies and military officials around the world. Now that computers have made their way into practically every aspect of life, their susceptibility to attacks has risen dramatically. In the United States, experts have been warning for years against an "electronic Pearl Harbor," a "digital Sept. 11" or a "Cybergeddon."
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UK: Facebook could be monitored by the government
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LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Murray Wardrop - March 25, 2009
Facebook,
Bebo, MySpace and other social networking websites could be monitored
by the government in an attempt to tackle internet crime and terrorism. The Home Office is considering plans to force such sites to hold data about their users' movements to thwart criminals who use them to communicate.
The information would then be stored on a central database as part of the government's proposed Intercept Modernisation Programme.
The proposal follows plans to retain information about all telephone calls, emails, and internet visits made by everyone in Britain through a multi-billion pound system.
A European Union statutory order, called the Data Retention Directive, already proposes that internet service providers in member states store communications and traffic data for one year. ..
Around 25 million people in Britain - almost half the population - are thought to use social networking sites, with Facebook boasting 17 million British users.
Bebo, which is aimed predominantly at teenagers and young adults, is estimated to have a following of around 10 million Britons. ..
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Australia to implement mandatory internet censorship
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HERALD SUN [News Corporation/Murdoch] - October 29, 2008
AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet under plans put forward by the Federal Government.
The revelations emerge as US tech giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and a coalition of human rights and other groups unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.
The government has declared it will not let internet users opt out of the proposed national internet filter.
The plan was first created as a way to combat child pronography and adult content, but could be extended to include controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.
Communications minister Stephen Conroy revealed the mandatory censorship to the Senate estimates committee as the Global Network Initiative, bringing together leading companies, human rights organisations, academics and investors, committed the technology firms to "protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users". ...
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| Australia Internet Censors Fine Site for Link to Pro-Life Page With Abortion Pics |
LIFESITENEWS.com - By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor - March 17, 2009
Canberra, Australia -- The Australian Internet censorship agency has fined a web site several thousands of dollars per day for linking to an American web site that publishes pictures of babies who die from abortions. The Australian Communications and Media Authority issued the threat last week.
The net nanny agency was created to help reduce the amount of child pornography online, but it has gone beyond that to prohibit Australians from accessing any sites it deems objectionable. ACMA notified the Australian-based web discussion site Whirlpool that it would pay an AUS $11,000 per day fine ($7,600 US), because a forum member linked to an American web site containing graphic abortion pictures. And when a governmental watchdog web site called Wikileaks published a list of web sites banned by other nations, ACMA threatened it with a fine as well. The action is causing a furor for some pro-life advocates because the Australian governmental agency doesn't publish a list of banned web sites. As a result, no one knows which pro-life web site has been banned on the island nation and if other pro-life web sites will be banned as well. ... "ACMA has the power to force Australian web sites to remove web pages that it decides are 'prohibited', as well as links to 'prohibited' content, apparently," Robert Munro writes at the IT Examiner. ... Read Full Report |
Web founder warns against website snooping
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Jonathan Lynn - March 13, 2009
GENEVA - Surfers on the Internet are at increasing risk from governments and corporations tracking the sites they visit to build up a picture of their activities, the founder of the World Wide Web said on Friday.
Tim Berners-Lee, whose proposal for an information management system at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research CERN 20 years ago led eventually to the World Wide Web, said tracking website visits in this way could build an incredibly detailed profile of who people are and their habits.
"That form of snooping I think is really important to avoid," he told an anniversary celebration at CERN.
Technology now being developed will make it easier to decide who can see material one posts on the Web, and in what circumstances. For instance people may not want prospective employers to see an album of holiday photos, he said.
Berners-Lee, a British software engineer who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said innovation on the World Wide Web was speeding up.
"The Web is not all done, it's just the tip of the iceberg," Berners-Lee said. "I am convinced that the new changes are going to rock the world even more."
One big change that is coming is "linked data", in which individual bits of data are machine-readable, not just the Web pages they appear on.
That would allow users to link readable data to similar data and manipulate it, for instance putting it in spreadsheets or plotting graphs. The sum of human knowledge would then grow exponentially in what Berners-Lee calls the Semantic Web.
Examples would be students accessing data from research institutes, or ordinary people getting hold of government data -- paid for by taxes -- to improve websites.
The system would allow investors to process the data contained in company press releases.
MULTIPLE DATA USE
People who put data on social networking sites such as Facebook, for instance tagging names on pictures, would also be able to use that data in other applications, for instance ordering a T-shirt on another website.
Berners-Lee said the future of the Web was on mobile phones, which already have more browsers than laptops do.
"In developing countries it's going to be exciting because that is the only way that a lot of people will actually get to see the Internet at all," he said.
When Berners-Lee wrote his proposal in March 1989, his boss at CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory, scrawled "vague, but exciting" on the memo.
A year later, he tested the idea by justifying it as a test programme for a new NeXT computer, whose software is the basis of the current OS X Macintosh operating system for computers made by Apple Inc.
In two months in 1990, Berners-Lee wrote the software that allowed users to share access to information over the Internet, coining the name World Wide Web.
The code was made freely available in 1991 and was rapidly picked up and developed by other enthusiasts. "It took off because people across the planet got involved, that's the most exciting thing about that period," he said.
Among his regrets was starting Web addresses with http:// as the two slashes were redundant, leading to billions of wasted keystrokes.
Another regret was the way web addresses were constructed. In retrospect it would have made more sense to start with the most general elements such as countries or organisations -- for instance using ch/cern/info instead of info.cern.ch as at present, he said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; editing by Tim Pearce)
Original Report
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Software That Monitors Your Work, Wherever You Are
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Damon Darlin - April 11, 2009PEOPLE need to be watched. Back at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher, seized on that basic management precept to design a building that would become a touchstone for architects of a new age. Calling it the Panopticon, he arrayed prison cells in a semicircle. The innovative layout gave a smaller number of guards the ability to watch a greater number of prisoners. In other words, it cut costs. The Panopticon design is still in use today, and not just in prisons around the world. It was easily adapted for factories and offices. But what happens in the information age, when workers are no longer there in front of the manager, but working from home - maybe in their pajamas, or maybe with a cat on their lap and a peppy Lily Allen tune playing on the iPod? In many managers' eyes, they wouldn't do as much work. No worries. Software becomes the new Panopticon. It can monitor workers who, conveniently, do most of their work on computers. It can also measure their efforts and direct work to those who do it best. LiveOps, a rapidly growing company in Santa Clara, Calif., that operates virtual call centers - agents working from home across the country - has also found that software can perform other management tasks. How it uses that software points to the direction in which technology is taking the workplace. ... Read Full ReportAlso:Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' softwareTHE TIMES of LONDON [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Alexi Mostrous and David Brown - January 16, 2008Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of their physiological state. Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces. Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a "unique monitoring system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure", the application states. ... Read Full Report
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Conficker: Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By John Markoff - January 22, 2009
A new digital plague has hit the Internet, infecting millions of personal and business computers in what seems to be the first step of a multistage attack. The world's leading computer security experts do not yet know who programmed the infection, or what the next stage will be.
In recent weeks a worm, a malicious software program, has swept through corporate, educational and public computer networks around the world. Known as Conficker or Downadup, it is spread by a recently discovered Microsoft Windows vulnerability, by guessing network passwords and by hand-carried consumer gadgets like USB keys.
Experts say it is the worst infection since the Slammer worm exploded through the Internet in January 2003, and it may have infected as many as nine million personal computers around the world.
Worms like Conficker not only ricochet around the Internet at lightning speed, they harness infected computers into unified systems called botnets, which can then accept programming instructions from their clandestine masters. ...
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Malicious Software Is Revised
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By John Markoff - April 9, 2009
... Several of the groups monitoring the program said the most recent version, which began to appear Tuesday, appeared to be targeted at improving a peer-to-peer communications system between computers that are infected and hardening the system by making infected machines more resistant to anti-virus software.
Several researchers also said there might be a connection between the authors of Conficker and of another program known as Waladec, a malware program that has been used to distribute fraudulent advertisements through e-mail spam. They also noted that the Conficker authors have switched strategies and are using the program's peer-to-peer mechanism to update the system. Originally, they had appeared to plan to download instructions to Conficker by generating new Internet addresses that infected machines could download instructions from. ...
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Conficker worm found in hospital equipment
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS [MediaNews Group] - By Elise Ackerman - May 1, 2009
SAN JOSE, CALIF. - A computer worm that has alarmed security experts around the world has crawled into hundreds of medical devices at dozens of hospitals in the United States and other countries, according to technologists monitoring the threat.
The worm, known as "Conficker," has not harmed any patients, they say, but it poses a potential threat to hospital operations.
"A few weeks ago, we discovered medical devices, MRI machines, infected with Conficker," said Marcus Sachs, director of the Internet Storm Center, an early-warning system for Internet threats .
Around March 24, researchers monitoring the worm noticed that an imaging machine was reaching out over the Internet to get instructions - presumably from the programmers who created Conficker.
The researchers discovered that more than 300 similar devices at hospitals around the world had been compromised. The manufacturer of the devices told them none of the machines were supposed to be connected to the Internet - and yet they were. ...
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| Internet Attacks Grow More Potent |
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By John Markoff - November 9, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - Attackers bent on shutting down large Web sites - even the operators that run the backbone of the Internet - are arming themselves with what are effectively vast digital fire hoses capable of overwhelming the world's largest networks, according to a new report on online security.
In these attacks, computer networks are hijacked to form so-called botnets that spray random packets of data in huge streams over the Internet. The deluge of data is meant to bring down Web sites and entire corporate networks. Known as distributed denial of service, or D.D.O.S., attacks, such cyberweapons are now routinely used during political and military conflicts, as in Estonia in 2007 during a political fight with Russia, and in the Georgian-Russian war last summer. Such attacks are also being used in blackmail schemes and political conflicts, as well as for general malicious mischief.
A survey of 70 of the largest Internet operators in North America, South America, Europe and Asia found that malicious attacks were rising sharply and that the individual attacks were growing more powerful and sophisticated, according to the Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report. ...
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| Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries |
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By John Markoff - March 28, 2009
TORONTO - A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.
In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved.
The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.
Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.
The researchers, who have a record of detecting computer espionage, said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.
Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information.
The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected.
This is also believed to be the first time researchers have been able to expose the workings of a computer system used in an intrusion of this magnitude.
Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, "Tracking 'GhostNet': Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network." They said they had found no evidence that United States government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated.
The malware is remarkable both for its sweep - in computer jargon, it has not been merely "phishing" for random consumers' information, but "whaling" for particular important targets - and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.
The researchers were able to monitor the commands given to infected computers and to see the names of documents retrieved by the spies, but in most cases the contents of the stolen files have not been determined. Working with the Tibetans, however, the researchers found that specific correspondence had been stolen and that the intruders had gained control of the electronic mail server computers of the Dalai Lama's organization. ...
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Also:
Canadians find vast computer spy network: report
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - March 28, 2009
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LAWLESSNESS: Paving the way towards the mark
19,000 UK credit card details posted on the Net...and accessible on Google
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LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - By Sean Poulter and Jonathan Weinberg - March 28, 2009
The credit card details of up to 19,000 British shoppers were published on the internet - where they could be found using a simple search on Google.
The details apparently originated from the website of a criminal gang in the Far East.
The list, obtained by the Mail, includes the names, home addresses and full card details of thousands of Visa, Mastercard and American Express customers.
Google's high-powered search engine inadvertently picked up the list during a 'crawl' of the web - allowing it to be seen and copied. ...
Disturbingly, however, these customers have not been warned of the security breach. ...
It is believed the details were originally on an unsecured server in Vietnam which was linked to a website belonging to the fraudsters. Criminal gangs typically use such websites to trade in stolen card details.
The server was closed down in February by authorities investigating cyber crimes but Google's powerful indexing technology had already located the list and made a copy.
Rik Ferguson, of web security firm Trend Micro, said: 'To find this amount of data on a server which is publicly accessible is a rare event. Organised crime usually protect their ill-gotten gains behind password-protected links on encrypted machines.'
Mr Ferguson also told how he had infiltrated internet forums used by the crooks, where just �250 would buy details of 100 UK cards. Internet banking logins and fake passports were also on sale.
He added: 'The existence of these kinds of carding forums illustrates the booming trade in stolen financial details such as cards and bank accounts.
'Perhaps the greatest surprise to the casual observer will be the relatively low prices for this information. This is driven by the ease of access and the sheer numbers available.' ...
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EU to probe web user profiling by advertisers
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FINANCIALTIMES of LONDON [Pearson Group,UK] - By Nikki Tait in Brussels and Tim Bradshaw in London - March 29, 2009
European authorities are to investigate consumer profiling by online advertisers amid allegations by senior European Union officials that "basic rights in terms of transparency, control and risk" are being violated. ...
EU officials are particularly concerned by the growing use of "deep-packet inspection" technologies that allow broadband providers to track online activity even after consumers have tried to control the use of cookies - which allow websites to monitor browsing patterns. Although not widely used for advertising at the moment, many broadband providers see the technology as a source of future revenues.
Meglena Kuneva, EU consumer commissioner, will claim this week that the "terms and conditions" that consumers must accept to access commercial websites frequently breach privacy standards.
"Consumers are in fact paying for services with their personal data and their exposure to ads. This amounts to a new kind of commercial exchange," she will say.
EU officials claim people are often unaware of what data are being collected about them, and how they are being used. Even if they want to opt out, it may be virtually impossible to do so. ...
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Online Age Verification for Children Brings Privacy Worries
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Brad Stone - November 15, 2008
WHEN it comes to protecting children on the Internet and keeping them safe from predators, law enforcement officials have vocally advocated one approach in particular. They want popular sites, like the social network MySpace, to confirm the identities and ages of minors and then allow the young Web surfers to talk only with other children, or with adults approved by parents.
But performing so-called age verification for children is fraught with challenges. The kinds of publicly available data that Web companies use to confirm the identities of adults, like their credit card or Social Security numbers, are either not available for minors or are restricted by federal privacy laws.
Nevertheless, over the last year, at least two dozen companies have sprung up with systems they claim will solve the problem. Surprisingly, their work is proving controversial and even downright unpopular among the very people who spend their days worrying about the well-being of children on the Web.
Child-safety activists charge that some of the age-verification firms want to help Internet companies tailor ads for children. They say these firms are substituting one exaggerated threat - the menace of online sex predators - with a far more pervasive danger from online marketers like junk food and toy companies that will rush to advertise to children if they are told revealing details about the users. ...
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| Americans spend eight hours a day on screens |
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - March 27, 2009
Adult Americans spend an average of more than eight hours a day in front of screens -- televisions, computer monitors, cellphones or other devices, according to a new study.
The study also found that live television in the home continues to attract the greatest amount of viewing time with the average American spending slightly more than five hours a day in front of the tube.
The figure drops to 210 minutes a day of average TV viewing time among 18-24 year olds but rises to 420 minutes a day among those aged 65 and older.
The "Video Consumer Mapping" study was conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design (CMD) and Sequent Partners for the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence (CRE).
For the year-long study, observers recorded the exposure of 350 subjects to four categories of screens: traditional television, computers, mobile devices and other screens such as store displays, movie screens and even GPS navigation units.
The study found the average amount of screen time for all age groups was "strikingly similar" at more than eight-and-a-half hours although the type of devices and duration used by the respective groups throughout the day varied.
It found that people aged 45 to 54 averaged the most daily screen time at just over nine-and-a-half hours.
The study did not include anyone under the age of 18.
Among other finds:
- Computer video consumption tends to be quite small with an average time of just over two minutes a day.
- Adults spend an average of 6.5 minutes a day with videogame consoles with the number rising to 26 minutes a day among those aged 18-24.
- Adults spend an average 142 minutes a day in front of computer screens.
- Adults spend an average 20 minutes a day engaged with mobile devices with the highest usage -- 43 minutes a day -- among the 18-24 age group. ...
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| Teenagers 'spend an average of 31 hours online' |
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - February 13, 2009
Teenagers spend an average of 31 hours a week online and nearly two hours a week looking at pornography, according to a study. They spend some three and a half hours communicating with friends on MSN, and around two hours on YouTube and in chat rooms. Just over an hour is devoted to looking up cosmetic surgery procedures such as how to enlarge breasts and get collagen implants, an hour and a half is spent on family planning and pregnancy websites and one hour 35 minutes is spent investigating diets and weight loss. One in four teenagers of the 1,000 polled said they regularly spoke to strangers online but thought it harmless. One in three admitted trying to hide what they were looking at if a parent entered the room. But children also use the internet to help them with homework, with at least three hours a week spent searching for such information. The research was conducted by www.cybersentinel.co.uk which provides software solutions allowing parents to block access to certain sites. Spokesman Ellie Puddle said: "The alarming thing is the survey shows teenagers are obviously exploring all sorts of topics as a result of modern-day pressures. "Talking to friends on social networking websites can be completely risk-free, good fun. But there is also the danger of online predators. "Teenagers and parents need to realise the dangers of talking to strangers online but parents must not overreact by denying access to the internet. The internet is a fantastic resource for learning and development." Read Full Report |
| The 'toxic' Web generation: Children spend six hours a day in front of screens |
LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - By Laura Clark - January 19, 2009
Youngsters are shunning books and outdoor games to spend up to six hours a day in front of a screen, a survey has revealed.
Children as young as five are turning their bedrooms into multi-media 'hubs' with TVs, computers, games consoles, MP3 players and mobile phones all within easy reach.
The trend triggered warnings that the next generation will struggle to compete in the adult world because they lack reading and writing skills.
At the same time their mastery of technology is not widely appreciated by their parents.
The market research involving 1,800 children aged five to 16 found that they spend an average of 2.7 hours a day watching TV, 1.5 on the internet and 1.3 playing on games consoles, although in some cases these activities are simultaneous, such as watching TV while playing on a console.
In contrast, youngsters spend just over half an hour reading books, according to the survey by ChildWise.
Almost a third take a games console to bed rather than a book, while a quarter never read in their own time. ...
Parents justified internet access on the grounds that it would help with homework but the survey found education had become an 'afterthought', with only 9 per cent of youngsters looking up information for schoolwork the last time they went online. ...
More than half of children now have their own PC or laptop and a third say their computer is the single piece of equipment they could least live without, compared with a declining number - one in five - who name TV.
A report on the findings from ChildWise concluded that many youngsters were 'leaving traditional books behind' but were caught in a 'communications trap'. ...
Rosemary Duff, research director of ChildWise, said: 'They are a generation abandoning print and paper.'
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Internet sites could be given 'cinema-style age ratings', Culture Secretary says
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LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Robert Winnett - December 27, 2008
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama's incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites.
The Cabinet minister describes the internet as "quite a dangerous place" and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents "child-safe" web services.
Giving film-style ratings to individual websites is one of the options being considered, he confirms. When asked directly whether age ratings could be introduced, Mr Burnham replies: "Yes, that would be an option. This is an area that is really now coming into full focus."
ISPs, such as BT, Tiscali, AOL or Sky could also be forced to offer internet services where the only websites accessible are those deemed suitable for children. ...
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South Korea: False (economic) prophet faces jail
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18-month sentence sought for SKorean blogger
ASSOCIATED PRESS - April 13, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea - Prosecutors demanded an 18-month sentence Monday for a popular South Korean blogger who is accused of spreading false financial information in a case that has ignited a debate about freedom of speech in cyberspace.
The 30-year-old blogger, a fierce critic of government economic policy, was arrested and indicted in January after he wrote that the government had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from buying U.S. dollars.
Prosecutors have said the posting was not only inaccurate, but it had affected the foreign exchange market and undermined the nation's credibility.
But opposition parties and critics have claimed the arrest is aimed at silencing criticism of the government and restricts online freedom of speech.
Seoul District Court spokesman Kwon Tae-young said prosecutors demanded 18 months in prison for the blogger, identified as Park Dae-sung, and the court is scheduled to deliver a verdict on April 20.
The charge carries up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won ($38,000).
The blogger, known by his pen name "Minerva" after the Greek goddess of wisdom, had rocketed to fame after some of his predictions, including the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, proved to be correct.
In some 280 postings on bulletin boards on a popular Internet portal last year, he denounced the government's handling of the economy and made largely negative predictions. His writings were sprinkled with jargon that suggested he was an economic expert, and his identity was a hot topic of discussion in South Korea.
Prosecutors said Park is actually an unemployed Seoul resident who studied economics on his own after graduating from a vocational high school and junior college with a major in information and communication.
Original Report
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