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Is Internet Freedom for Christians in Danger?
"We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.
- John 9:4
So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.
- John 12:35
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Shalom in Christ Jesus,
 Work while it's still light. This has been a theme the Moriel technical
team and BEALERT! have discussed the last few years regarding the
ability of Christians to freely minister via electronic communication systems,
namely the Internet. These verses in
Scripture have come to have this unique
application, usually as a note of encouragement at the end of an email while
passing
along one of the many articles such as those below, due to this very
late hour
we find ourselves waiting for Jesus to return.
There is no doubting that criminal and terrorist enterprises
as well as not so friendly nations are experimenting and actively involved in
campaigns to cause havoc and even, if possible, shut down the Internet and
tele-communication systems of countries such as The United States by using
cyberwarfare. However, as stated before, our concern is that these very real
threats (among others) have become the perfect pre-text for a time when only
information and messages that fall within "State Approved" regulations will be
allowed to be broadcast freely. As you will see from the articles posted in
this alert, that time is very close. In order to get a broader understanding of this
topic I encourage readers to view the last alert this issue published in May of
2009 posted here on the BEALERT! Archive page.
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
BE/\LERT!
Scott Brisk
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Senate panel passes Cybersecurity Act with revised "kill switch" language |  OpenCongress Blog - By Donny Shaw - March 29, 2010
Last April, Sen. Jay Rockefeller [D, WV] (pictured at right), the Chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, introduced the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 to his committee. The goal of the bill was to develop a public-private plan for strengthening national security in the case of internet-based attacks. But it stalled almost immediately because of a controversial provision that would have give the President unilateral authority to declare a cybersecurity emergency and then shut down or limit access to parts of the internet without any oversight or explanation.
A couple weeks ago, Sen. Rockefeller partnered with Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME] to introduce a major revision to the bill that, among other things, made changes the emergency "kill switch" provision. The revision was adopted by the committee last Thursday and the bill was approved. It's now ready for consideration by the full Senate.
The revised bill would require the President to develop an "emergency response an restoration" plan with the help of private industry and other government agencies, but it is vague enough that it does not actually limit what the plan can include. The President would still have authority to declare an emergency and implement the plan without first seeking congressional approval, though he would have to report to Congress within 48 hours after declaring an emergency. The revised bill also doesn't require the plan to be made public, so it could potentially give the President the same authority to restrict internet access as the original bill did, just without being explicitly and publicly stated in the legislation itself.
Below is the revised text of the section as passed by the committee - [taken from the pdf pp. 79-81 http://commerce.senate.gov/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=06b53a92-d0ec-4f77-87b1-79b038ab4840]
(b) COLLABORATIVE EMERGENCY RESPONSEAND RES-
TORATION.-The President-
(1) shall, in collaboration with owners and oper-
ators of United States critical infrastructure informa-
tion systems, sector coordinating councils and rel-
evant governmental agencies, regulatory entities, and
nongovernmental organizations, develop and rehearse
detailed response and restoration plans that clarify
specific roles, responsibilities, and authorities of gov-
ernment and private sector actors during cybersecu-
rity emergencies, and that identify the types of events
and incidents that would constitute a cybersecurity
emergency;
(2) may, in the event of an immediate threat to
strategic national interests involving compromised
Federal Government or United States critical infra-
structure information systems-
(A) declare a cybersecurity emergency; and
(B) implement the collaborative emergency
response and restoration plans developed under
paragraph (1);
(3) shall, in the event of a declaration of a cyber-
security emergency-
(A) within 48 hours submit to Congress a
report in writing setting forth-
(i) the circumstances necessitating the
emergency declaration; and
(ii) the estimated scope and duration
of the emergency; and
(B) so long as the cybersecurity emergency
declaration remains in effect, report to the Con-
gress periodically, but in no event less frequently
than once every 30 days, on the status of emer-
gency as well as on the scope and duration of the
emergency.
(c) RULEOF CONSTRUCTION.-This section does not
authorize, and shall not be construed to authorize, an ex-
pansion of existing Presidential authorities.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1773-Senate-panel-passes-Cybersecurity-Act-with-revised-kill-switch-language |
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Obama 'Internet kill switch' plan approved by US Senate panel | President could get power to turn off Internet
TECHWORLD [International Data Group News Service] - By Grant Gross - June 25, 2010
A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.
The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.
The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee.
The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.
"Our responsibility for cyber defence goes well beyond the public sector because so much of cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector," he said. "The Department of Homeland Security has actually shown that vulnerabilities in key private sector networks like utilities and communications could bring our economy down for a period of time if attacked or commandeered by a foreign power or cyber terrorists."
Other sponsors of the bill are Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.
One critic said Thursday that the bill will hurt the nation's security, not help it. Security products operate in a competitive market that works best without heavy government intervention, said Wayne Crews, vice president for policy and director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-regulation think tank.
"Policymakers should reject such proposals to centralize cyber security risk management," Crews said in an e-mail. "The Internet that will evolve if government can resort to a 'kill switch' will be vastly different from, and inferior to, the safer one that will emerge otherwise."
Cybersecurity technologies and services thrive on competition, he added. "The unmistakable tenor of the cybersecurity discussion today is that of government steering while the market rows," he said. "To be sure, law enforcement has a crucial role in punishing intrusions on private networks and infrastructure. But government must coexist with, rather than crowd out, private sector security technologies."
On Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter raising concerns about the legislation to the sponsors. The bill gives the new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications "significant authority" over critical infrastructure, but doesn't define what critical infrastructure is covered, the letter said.
Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that "it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information," said the letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups.
"Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests," the letter added.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://news.techworld.com/security/3228198/obama-internet-kill-switch-plan-approved-by-us-senate/
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Internet 'kill switch' proposed for US
| CNET News.com [NBC-Universal/GE] - By Declan McCullagh - June 10, 2010
A new US Senate Bill would grant the President far-reaching emergency powers to seize control of, or even shut down, portions of the internet.
The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects "shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed" by the Department of Homeland Security.
Anyone failing to comply would be fined.
That emergency authority would allow the Federal Government to "preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people," Joe Lieberman, the primary sponsor of the measure and the chairman of the Homeland Security committee, told reporters on Thursday. Lieberman is an independent senator from Connecticut who meets with the Democrats.
Due to there being few limits on the US President's emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page Bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.
TechAmerica, probably the largest US technology lobby group, said it was concerned about "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach" and "the potential for absolute power". And the Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that the Lieberman Bill's emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems." ...
Under PCNAA, the Federal Government's power to force private companies to comply with emergency decrees would become unusually broad. Any company on a list created by Homeland Security that also "relies on" the internet, the telephone system or any other component of the US "information infrastructure" would be subject to command by a new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) that would be created inside Homeland Security.
The only obvious limitation on the NCCC's emergency power is one paragraph in the Lieberman Bill that appears to have grown out of the Bush-era flap over wiretapping without a warrant. That limitation says that the NCCC cannot order broadband providers or other companies to "conduct surveillance" of Americans unless it's otherwise legally authorised.
Lieberman said on Thursday that enactment of his Bill needed to be a top congressional priority. "For all of its 'user-friendly' allure, the internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets," he said. "Our economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from new kinds of enemies - cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals."
A new cybersecurity bureaucracy
Lieberman's proposal would form a powerful and extensive new Homeland Security bureaucracy around the NCCC, including "no less" than two deputy directors, and liaison officers to the Defense Department, Justice Department, Commerce Department, and the Director of National Intelligence. (How much the NCCC director's duties would overlap with those of the existing assistant secretary for infrastructure protection is not clear.)
The NCCC also would be granted the power to monitor the "security status" of private sector websites, broadband providers and other internet components. Lieberman's legislation requires the NCCC to provide "situational awareness of the security status" of the portions of the internet that are inside the United States - and also those portions in other countries that, if disrupted, could cause significant harm.
Selected private companies would be required to participate in "information sharing" with the Feds. They must "certify in writing to the director" of the NCCC whether they have "developed and implemented" federally approved security measures, which could be anything from encryption to physical security mechanisms, or programming techniques that have been "approved by the director". The NCCC director can "issue an order" in cases of non-compliance.
The prospect of a vast new cybersecurity bureaucracy with power to command the private sector worries some privacy advocates. "This is a plan for an auto-immune reaction," says Jim Harper, director of information studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. "When something goes wrong, the government will attack our infrastructure and make society weaker."
To sweeten the deal for industry groups, Lieberman has included a tantalising offer absent from earlier drafts: immunity from civil lawsuits. If a software company's programming error costs customers billions, or a broadband provider intentionally cuts off its customers in response to a federal command, neither would be liable.
If there's an "incident related to a cyber vulnerability" after the President has declared an emergency and the affected company has followed federal standards, plaintiffs' lawyers cannot collect damages for economic harm. And if the harm is caused by an emergency order from the Feds, not only does the possibility of damages virtually disappear, but the US Treasury will even pick up the private company's tab.
Another sweetener: a new White House office would be charged with forcing federal agencies to take cybersecurity more seriously, with the power to jeopardise their budgets if they fail to comply. The likely effect would be to increase government agencies' demand for security products.
Tom Gann, McAfee's vice president for government relations, stopped short of criticising the Lieberman Bill, calling it a "very important piece of legislation". ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20007418-38.html |
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US government rescinds 'leave internet alone' policy
| THE REGISTER [Situation Publishing Ltd., London] - By Kieren McCarthy - February 27, 2010
The US government's policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama's top official at the Department of Commerce.
Instead, an "Internet Policy 3.0" approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.
The outcomes of such discussions will be "flexible" but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week.
The new approach is a far cry from a US government that consciously decided not to intrude into the internet's functioning and growth and in so doing allowed an academic network to turn into a global communications phenomenon.
Strickling referred to these roots arguing that it was "the right policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and the right message to send to the rest of the world." But, he continued, "that was then and this is now. As we at NTIA approach a wide range of Internet policy issues, we take the view that we are now in the third generation of Internet policy making."
Outlining three decades of internet evolution - from transition to commercialization, from the garage to Main Street, and now, starting in 2010, the "Policy 3.0" approach - Strickling argued that with the internet is now a social network as well a business network. "We must take rules more seriously."
He cited a number of examples where this new approach was needed: end users worried about credit card transactions, content providers who want to prevent their copyright, companies concerned about hacking, network neutrality, and foreign governments worried about Internet governance systems.
The decision to effectively end the policy that made the internet what it is today is part of a wider global trend of governments looking to impose rules on use of the network by its citizens.
In the UK, the Digital Economy Bill currently making its way through Parliament has been the subject of significant controversy for advocating strict rules on copyright infringement and threatening to ban people from the internet if they are found to do so. The bill includes a wide variety of other measures, including giving regulator Ofcom a wider remit, forcing ISPs to monitor their customers' behavior, and allowing the government to take over the dot-uk registry.
In New Zealand, a similar measure to the UK's cut-off provision has been proposed by revising the Copyright Act to allow a tribunal to fine those found guilty of infringing copyright online as well as suspend their Internet accounts for up to six months. And in Italy this week, three Google executives were sentenced to jail for allowing a video that was subsequently pulled down to be posted onto its YouTube video site.
Internationally, the Internet Governance Forum - set up by under a United Nations banner to deal with global governance issues - is due to end its experimental run this year and become an acknowledged institution. However, there are signs that governments are increasingly dominating the IGF, with civil society and the Internet community sidelined in the decision-making process.
In this broader context, the US government's newly stated policy is more in line with the traditional laissez-faire internet approach. Internet Policy 3.0 also offers a more global perspective than the isolationist approach taken by the previous Bush administration.
In explicitly stating that foreign governments will be a part of the upcoming discussions, Strickling recognizes the United States' unique position as the country that gives final approval for changes made to the internet's "root zone." Currently the global Internet is dependent on an address book whose contents are changed through a contract that the US government has granted to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), based in Los Angeles.
ICANN recently adjusted its own agreement with the US government to give it more autonomy and now reports to the global Internet community through a series of reviews. Strickling sits on the panel of one of those reviews.
Overall, this new approach could enable the US government to regain the loss of some of its direct influence through recommendations made in policy reports. But internet old hands will still decry the loss of a policy that made the network what it is today.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/27/internet_3_dot_0_policy/ |
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F.C.C. has new authority to regulate broadband Internet service | F.C.C. Moves to Expand Role in Broadband
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Edward Wyatt - June 17, 2010
WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 on Thursday to move toward giving itself the authority to regulate the transmission component of broadband Internet service, a power the commission's majority believes is central to expanding the availability of broadband. ...
The proposal would designate broadband transmission as a telecommunications service, which, as with telephone service, would make it subject to stricter regulation. ...
Commissioners Michael J. Copps and Mignon Clyburn joined Mr. Genachowski in voting to open the comment process, while Meredith Attwell Baker and Robert M. McDowell opposed it.
In her dissenting statement, Ms. Baker said the proposal "will place the heavy thumb of government on the scale of a free market to the point where innovation and investment in the 'core' of the Net are subjected to the whims of 'Mother-May-I' regulators." ...
Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
http://morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/fcc-moves-to-expand-role-in-broadband.html
F.C.C. Proposes Rules on Internet Access
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Edward Wyatt - May 6, 2010
[...] Telecommunications companies said they believed the F.C.C. had overstepped. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, with whom the F.C.C. sided in the Brand X case, called the decision "fraught with legal uncertainty and practical consequences which pose real risks to our ability to provide the high-quality and innovative services that our customers expect." ...
Consumer advocates praised the decision, at least in part. Public Knowledge, a consumer interest group, said it supported the approach but was dismayed by the commission's decision that "open access" provisions of the Communications Act - which require companies to share access to the physical lines of connection that enter consumers' homes - did not apply to broadband access as they did to basic telephone service. ...
Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
http://morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/fcc-proposes-rules-on-internet-access.html |
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U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies |  THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [Dow Jones & Co - NewsCorporation/Murdoch] - By Siobhan Gorman - July 8, 2010
The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.
The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack, though it wouldn't persistently monitor the whole system, these people said.
Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. recently won a classified contract for the initial phase of the surveillance effort valued at up to $100 million, said a person familiar with the project.
An NSA spokeswoman said the agency had no information to provide on the program. A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment.
Some industry and government officials familiar with the program see Perfect Citizen as an intrusion by the NSA into domestic affairs, while others say it is an important program to combat an emerging security threat that only the NSA is equipped to provide.
"The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government...feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security," said one internal Raytheon email, the text of which was seen by The Wall Street Journal. "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother."
Raytheon declined to comment on this email.
A U.S. military official called the program long overdue and said any intrusion into privacy is no greater than what the public already endures from traffic cameras. It's a logical extension of the work federal agencies have done in the past to protect physical attacks on critical infrastructure that could sabotage the government or key parts of the country, the official said.
U.S. intelligence officials have grown increasingly alarmed about what they believe to be Chinese and Russian surveillance of computer systems that control the electric grid and other U.S. infrastructure. Officials are unable to describe the full scope of the problem, however, because they have had limited ability to pull together all the private data.
Perfect Citizen will look at large, typically older computer control systems that were often designed without Internet connectivity or security in mind. Many of those systems-which run everything from subway systems to air-traffic control networks-have since been linked to the Internet, making them more efficient but also exposing them to cyber attack.
The goal is to close the "big, glaring holes" in the U.S.'s understanding of the nature of the cyber threat against its infrastructure, said one industry specialist familiar with the program. "We don't have a dedicated way to understand the problem."
The information gathered by Perfect Citizen could also have applications beyond the critical infrastructure sector, officials said, serving as a data bank that would also help companies and agencies who call upon NSA for help with investigations of cyber attacks, as Google did when it sustained a major attack late last year.
The U.S. government has for more than a decade claimed a national-security interest in privately owned critical infrastructure that, if attacked, could cause significant damage to the government or the economy. Initially, it established relationships with utility companies so it could, for instance, request that a power company seal a manhole that provides access to a key power line for a government agency.
With the growth in concern about cyber attacks, these relationships began to extend into the electronic arena, and the only U.S. agency equipped to manage electronic assessments of critical-infrastructure vulnerabilities is the NSA, government and industry officials said.
The NSA years ago began a small-scale effort to address this problem code-named April Strawberry, the military official said. The program researched vulnerabilities in computer networks running critical infrastructure and sought ways to close security holes.
That led to initial work on Perfect Citizen, which was a piecemeal effort to forge relationships with some companies, particularly energy companies, whose infrastructure is widely used across the country.
The classified program is now being expanded with funding from the multibillion-dollar Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, which started at the end of the Bush administration and has been continued by the Obama administration, officials said. With that infusion of money, the NSA is now seeking to map out intrusions into critical infrastructure across the country.
Because the program is still in the early stages, much remains to be worked out, such as which computer control systems will be monitored and how the data will be collected. NSA would likely start with the systems that have the most important security implications if attacked, such as electric, nuclear, and air-traffic-control systems, they said.
Intelligence officials have met with utilities' CEOs and those discussions convinced them of the gravity of the threat against U.S. infrastructure, an industry specialist said, but the CEOs concluded they needed better threat information and guidance on what to do in the event of a major cyber attack.
Some companies may agree to have the NSA put its own sensors on and others may ask for direction on what sensors to buy and come to an agreement about what data they will then share with the government, industry and government officials said.
While the government can't force companies to work with it, it can provide incentives to urge them to cooperate, particularly if the government already buys services from that company, officials said.
Raytheon, which has built up a large cyber-security practice through acquisitions in recent years, is expected to subcontract out some of the work to smaller specialty companies, according to a person familiar with the project.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704545004575352983850463108.html
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Details of "Einstein" Cyber Shield Disclosed by White House | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Siobhan Gorman - March 2, 2010
The Obama administration lifted the veil Tuesday on a highly-secretive set of policies to defend the U.S. from cyber attacks.
It was an open secret that the National Security Agency was bolstering a Homeland Security program to detect and respond to cyber attacks on government systems, but a summary of that program declassified Tuesday provides more details of NSA's role in a Homeland program known as Einstein.
The current version of the program is widely seen as providing meager protection against attack, but a new version being built will be more robust-largely because it's rooted in NSA technology. The program is designed to look for indicators of cyber attacks by digging into all Internet communications, including the contents of emails, according to the declassified summary.
Homeland Security will then strip out identifying information and pass along data on new threats to NSA. It will also use threat information from NSA to better identify emerging cyber attacks.
NSA's role is a careful balance because of the political battles that ensued over the agency's role in domestic surveillance in the George W. Bush administration. Declassifying details of the NSA's role, in a program initially developed during the Bush administration and continued in the Obama administration, will likely ignite new debates over privacy.
The White House's new cyber-security chief, Howard Schmidt, announced the move to declassify the program in a speech at the RSA conference in San Francisco-his first major public address since assuming the post in January. He said addressing potential privacy concerns was one of the ten initial steps he planned to take. "We're really paying attention, and we get it," he said.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/03/02/"einstein"-program-disclosed-as-us-cyber-shield/
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US Cyber Command logo code cracked in hours
| US Cyber Command  | ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 9, 2010
TECHIES have quickly cracked a secret code embedded in the Pentagon's new US Cyber Command logo - but the resulting bureaucratic message may be even more difficult to decipher.
Cyber Command's cool-or-nerdy logo [click here for full size image: http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2010/0410_cybersec/images/cybercom_seal_large1.jpg] contains a 32-character string of secret code, causing a stir among bloggers and curious techies eager to decipher the veiled message.
The new military command was launched in late May to help centralise Defence Department efforts to protect its computer networks, which are under constant threat from attackers.
The command was created to frustrate everyone from run-of-the-mill hackers to foreign governments looking to steal sensitive information or crash critical, life-sustaining computer systems.
Cyber Command spokesman Lieutenant Commander Steve Curry said today that including 32 letters and numbers in the organisation's official seal was the idea of a female contractor who designed the logo.
Otherwise, the command's symbol looks like a lot of other government and military seals, depicting an American eagle, stars and the globe.
Technology website Wired.com's Danger Room last week offered a T-shirt or ticket to the International Spy Museum to the first person to crack the code, which is: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a.
Many said it was US Cyber Command's paragraph-long mission statement encrypted in MD5 hash code.
Danger Room confirmed the result today, reporting: "Okay, maybe it wasn't that much of a mystery. In fact, it took a little more than three hours for Danger Room reader jemelehill to figure out the odd string of letters and numbers in the logo."
Curry confirmed that the characters do indeed represent the command's bureaucratic-sounding mission statement:
"USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
Now, try to decipher that.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/us-cyber-command-logo-code-cracked-in-hours/story-e6frgakx-1225889741962
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UK government enlists public to spot terror Web sites | Web sites will be taken down if their intent is to provide information to terrorists
GOOD GEAR GUIDE [International Data Group News Service] - By Jeremy Kirk - February 3, 2010
The U.K. public can report terrorism-related Web sites to authorities for removal from the Internet under a new program launched by the British government.
The program is a way in which the government is seeking to enforce the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006, which make it illegal to have or share information that's intended to be useful to terrorists and bans glorifying terrorism or urging people to commit terrorism.
People can report Web sites on Direct.co.uk by filling out a Web-based form. The form includes categories to describe what's on the Web site, such as "terrorist training material" or "hate crimes."
Content deemed illegal by the U.K. includes videos of beheadings, messages that encourage racial or terrorist violence and chat forums revolving around hate crimes, according to information on Direct.co.uk.
The reports are anonymous and are then reviewed by police officers who are part of the new Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). A Home Office spokeswoman said that unit would be responsible for determining the intent of the content posted, which would determine whether it is in fact illegal.
But it begs the question of how, for example, chemistry textbooks published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- which have information on poison and explosives -- could be viewed, said Wendy M. Grossman, a member of the Open Rights Group advisory council and a freelance technology writer.
"I suppose the key is 'intended to be useful to terrorists,' and what they're trying to get at is networks of terrorists who educate each other and their recruits," Grossman said. "Bottom line is I don't believe this effort is going to make us any safer, though it may well turn up a few idiots who get prosecuted for, basically, saying stupid things."
Police should review submitted sites fairly quickly, said an ACPO spokeswoman. If the Web site is hosted in the U.K., police would ask the hosting provider to take the site offline. If a site is hosted overseas, then police would engage private industry and other law enforcement agencies, she said. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/334806
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ACTA treaty aims to deputize ISPs on copyrights |  CNET News.com [NBC-Universal/GE] - By Declan McCullagh - April 21, 2010
Internet service providers could become copyright cops encouraged to block access to suspected pirate Web sites, according to a previously secret draft treaty made public on Wednesday.
One section of the proposed digital copyright treaty says that immunity from lawsuits would be granted to Internet providers "disabling access" to pirated material and adopting a policy dealing with unauthorized "transmission of materials protected by copyright." If the ISPs choose not to do so, they could face legal liability.
Both the Obama administration and the Bush administration had rejected requests from civil libertarians and technologists for copies of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. Last year, the White House went so far as to invoke an executive order saying disclosure would do "damage to the national security."
But after the European Parliament voted last month by a 633-to-13 margin to demand the release of ACTA's text, keeping it secret became too politically problematic for the countries represented in the closed-door negotiations. Besides the United States, the European Commission, Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand are among the nations participating. They've been egged on by copyright lobby groups.
Much of the language in ACTA has been anonymously proposed by one nation or another but is not final, and it's not clear whether the "disabling access" section will remain. Another nearby paragraph does say, in a nod to privacy concerns, that governments should not "impose a general monitoring requirement" on broadband providers. The language does appear to go further than U.S. laws governing broadband providers and copyright.
The wording is slightly different from an earlier draft, which talked about yanking the accounts of "repeat infringers" and was leaked last month by a French digital rights group.
The European Union published the draft text of ACTA on its Web site on Wednesday, along with a statement from EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht saying concerns about the document's sweep were "unfounded."
De Gucht noted, for instance, that suspected language such as a "three strikes" rule for broadband customers and a "gradual response" for suspected infringement was not in the ACTA draft.
In general, ACTA's proposals seek to export controversial chunks of U.S. copyright law to the rest of the world. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "anti-circumvention" section, which makes it illegal to bypass copy protection even to back up a Blu-Ray disc, is in there. So is the No Electronic Theft Act's concept of making it a crime to copy a sufficient quantity of software, music, or videos -- even if no money changes hands.
While the public draft version of ACTA wouldn't prohibit border guards from searching travelers' gadgetry for infringing files, nor would it appear to require that action. That has been one of the concerns of groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, which have criticized the draft treaty.
The U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement last week that recent ACTA negotiations in New Zealand were "constructive." The next meeting is in Switzerland in June.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20003005-38.html
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Australia halts web filter plan ahead of polls | AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - July 9, 2010
SYDNEY - Australia put its disputed Internet filter plan on hold for up to a year Friday to allow for an independent review of what content would be banned, in a move to mute controversy ahead of elections.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that introduction of the "Clean Feed" filter would be delayed for consultations over what material should come under the initiative, which is to be administered by service providers.
"Some sections of the community have expressed concern about whether the range of material included in the Refused Classification category, under the National Classification Scheme, correctly reflects current community standards," Conroy said in a statement.
"In order to address these concerns, the government will recommend a review... be conducted at the earliest opportunity. The review would examine the current scope of the existing RC classification, and whether it adequately reflects community standards."
Conroy said the mandatory filter would not be imposed until completion of the review, which could take up to a year, buying the government a reprieve as it prepares to call an election in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, he said Australia's three largest internet service providers had agreed to voluntarily block a government-compiled list of child abuse webpages, which he described as featuring "abhorrent" content.
"I welcome the socially responsible approach taken by some of Australias largest ISPs," he said, adding that they jointly account for around 70 percent of Internet users in Australia. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100709/ttc-australia-internet-technology-censor-0de2eff.html
Also:
Mandatory ISP filter due mid-2011
ZDNet.com.au [CBS Corporation/CBS Interactive] - By Liam Tung - December 15, 2009
Mandatory ISP filtering legislation will be introduced around the middle of 2010, after which there will be a one year period to implement and activate the filtering technology.
The Federal Government today announced it will introduce amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act, which will by 2011 require all ISPs to block refused classification-rated material hosted on overseas servers.
Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
http://morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/mandatory-isp-filter-due-mid-2011.html
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Net Neutrality and Internet Honor Codes
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Net neutrality comes back to haunt Google
FINANCIALTIMES of LONDON [Pearson Group,UK] - By Richard Waters - July 13, 2010
Google has become the main advocate in Washington for a set of regulations to prevent internet service providers favouring particular companies' traffic.
However, that campaign, over what is known as "net neutrality", has handed a gift to its own detractors.
This year, "search neutrality" has become the rallying cry of activists who believe that Google has too much power to decide which internet sites are granted the attention that comes with a high search ranking, and which are consigned to outer darkness.
After regulating the "pipes" of the internet with net neutrality, says Frank Pasquale, a professor at Seton Hall law school, "we need to look at the next part of the bottleneck, and that means search".
For now, there is no indication that Washington is interested in creating a regime to govern the search business, and the campaign has served mainly as a way for Google's detractors to try to push it on to the defensive over other issues.
But antitrust regulators have already begun to look this year into how the company's core search ranking system works. The announcement this month of the $700m acquisition of ITA Software, a travel technology company, is now set to extend that further.
Joaqu�n Almunia, Europe's top competition official, last week gave the first direct indication that Brussels was taking Google's search power seriously. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9b6bc780-8ea5-11df-8a67-00144feab49a.html
German minister calls for Internet 'honour code'
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - July 12, 2010
Germany's consumer minister, who vowed to delete her Facebook account in protest at the networking site's privacy policies, called Monday for an Internet "honour code" to protect personal data.
"We need an honour code... 10 golden rules -- short, sharp and clear," Ilse Aigner told Die Welt daily in an interview.
"Such rules can only come from the Internet community. It would be good if users themselves made suggestions. We could base them on social networks that already have a 'netiquette'.
"The Internet could become the pillory of the 21st century. The trend is worrying," added the minister.
Last month, Aigner, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, said she would remove her page from Facebook after failing to receive assurances from the US firm that her private data were secure.
"Anyone who visits a social networking site should know that it's a business model. The service is not free. We users pay for it with our private data," Aigner said. ...
Partly for historical reasons, Germany is particularly sensitive about privacy issues, with campaigners bristling at plans by US Internet giant Google to launch its "Street View" service in Germany later this year. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.dc14e6c3858cda6ebb66acd110f3a131.251&show_article=1
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