Censorship, Cybersecurity

Speaker Pelosi Extends Government Censorship to the Public

Following Speaker Pelosi's call to investigate the supporters of the anti-Ground-Zero-Mosque movement, Pajamas Media CEO Roger L. Simon today renewed his call for a congressional investigation into the government's censorship of Islamic-oriented terminology. Simon explained Pelosi's actions are an extension of previously reported censorship inside the U.S. government relating to Islamic-oriented discussions by law enforcement and intelligence analysts.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/speaker-pelosi-extends-government-censorship-to-the-public-101366259.html

Other censorship stories

Iran bans mention of opposition leaders in pressTop secret ruling marks new round of censorship following recent closure of newspaper and suspension of two magazines
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/23/iran-censorship-ban-opposition-leaders



Zuma's media censorship 'is like going back to Apartheid era'
The South African government has been accused of resorting to censorship policies reminiscent of the Apartheid era in a bid to silence its critics in the media.

The ruling African National Congress is pushing a series of measures which would, opponents say, undermine freedom of speech, criminalise investigative reporting and threaten whistleblowers in the civil service with lengthy prison sentences.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/zumas-media-censorship-is-like-going-back-to-apartheid-era-2060149.html

this stuff is breaking out all over the place..always before elections..

Pentagon's cybersecurity plans have a Cold War chill

With little fanfare, the Pentagon is putting the finishing touches on a new strategy that will treat cyberspace as a domain of potential warfare -- and apply instant "active defense" to counterattacks that, in theory, could shut down the nation's transportation and commerce.

Even though it deals with a distinctly 21st-century problem, the strategy has echoes of the Cold War: America's closest allies would be drawn into an early-warning network of collective cybersecurity; private industry would be mobilized in a kind of civil defense against attackers; and military commanders would be given authority to respond automatically to electronic invaders.

snipWilliam J. Lynn III, the deputy secretary of defense, explained the new approach, known as "Cyberstrategy 3.0" within the Pentagon, in an interview this week and in an article that appears in the new issue of Foreign Affairs. The formal policy should be completed by December, he said; meanwhile, the Pentagon's new "Cyber Command" will have responsibility for "active defense" starting Oct. 1.

snip
The Pentagon is already recruiting allies on cybersecurity. Lynn has shared ideas with America's longtime partners on signals intelligence -- Britain, Canada and Australia. He plans to meet with a wider circle of NATO allies next month. One topic will be surveillance against cyberattacks -- a sort of Internet version of the old "DEW Line" radar network or the undersea listening devices that monitored Soviet submarines.

Lynn's defense scheme would be "part sensor, part sentry, part sharpshooter." The first two are noncontroversial, but I asked him what he meant by "sharpshooter." He explained that if Cyber Command detected an incoming attack, it would instantly "quarantine the malicious code" by "diverting it into a place where it would be harmless." The challenge, he said, was to stop the attack without doing "collateral damage," such as disrupting global commerce.

snip
In the debate about cyberstrategy, I hope officials will recognize the dangers of militarizing the global highway for commerce and communication. Of course we want to protect ourselves against threats. But as with human viruses, hostile computer bugs will evade our best efforts at quarantine. A new (and expensive) obsession with cybersecurity is not what this traumatized country needs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082505962.html

it's all about CONTROL...October 1 noted.

indeed it is..

U.S. military wants to exert influence over private cyber infrastructure

The U.S. military wants to exert more influence over the protection of power grids, transportation networks and financial network systems, a Pentagon official says in a broad-ranging essay published in Foreign Affairs.

In cyberwar, who's in charge?

To do so the Pentagon is urging that its defense expertise be put in play beyond the .mil domain to include .gov and .com and wants policy makers to figure out how best to do that.

The reasons are that the military relies on these networks to deal with suppliers and that these networks could become military targets, says William J. Lynn III, undersecretary of defense, in the essay ��called "Defending a New Domain."

"Protecting those networks and the networks that undergird critical U.S. infrastructure must be part of Washington's national security and homeland defense missions," Lynn says.

snip
Some of these defenses are being developed by the National Security Agency and include blending U.S. intelligence capabilities with network security so that networks can react to threats detected by other means than network intrusion-detection tools.
http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-08-26/u-s-military-wants-to-exert-influence-over-private-cyber-infrastructure.html

China Starts Asking New Cellphone Users for ID

The Chinese government started to implement a long-discussed measure that requires cellphone subscribers to register their identities when setting up an account, prompting concerns over privacy in the world's largest mobile market.

The measure went into effect Wednesday, with customer service representatives at mobile operators China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. informing customers that new users would be required to register their names and provide proof of their identity when signing up for new phone numbers. State media said the government plans to require all existing users eventually to register as well, but hasn't yet finalized a timetable.

Chinese officials have talked for years about possibly implementing such a "real-name" system for cellphones, as well as for Internet users, for example when they sign up for blog services or in order to use Internet cafes. Most mobile users in China use prepaid accounts that don't require them to provide identification. Research firm Nielsen says 87% of Chinese mobile subscribers use prepaid phone plans, compared to less than 20% in the U.S.

The government says that anonymity enables rampant spam and telecom fraud, which are indeed pervasive problems in China. But the anonymity has also enabled people to share politically sensitive information—from text-message jokes poking fun at top leaders to photographs of public demonstrations—with far greater freedom than Chinese enjoyed before the advent of cellphones.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704791004575465190777886192.html

and so it begins....

and it continues..they want to know everything

Privacy group sues to get records about NSA-Google relationship


The Electronic Privacy Information Center says the spy agency should divulge information about its reported agreement to help the Internet company defend itself against foreign cyber attacks.

snip
The ad hoc and secretive nature of Google's arrangement with the federal spy agency also spotlights what some experts said was the lack of a clear federal plan to deal with the growing vulnerability of U.S. computer infrastructure to cyber intrusions launched from foreign countries. At risk are power grids, banks and other crucial public services.

"We have a faith-based approach, in that we pray every night nothing bad will happen," said James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nsa-google-20100914,0,5669294.story

faith based approach...interesting comment from the CSIS

who are they praying to..ra?

Cyber Command chief proposes secure network for government, key industries

The commander of the new Pentagon unit charged with protecting the military's computer networks wants to create a "secure" network for government computer systems and those of critical industries, such as power and water.

That strategy of walling off critical computer networks from the rest of the Internet "is probably where you're going to get to, and it makes a lot of sense," said Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who heads the recently launched U.S. Cyber Command. Alexander also directs the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance on foreign targets.

Alexander is testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday morning on the role of the Cyber Command in defending its networks and helping to secure those of the critical private industries.

snip
Creating what some have called a dotsecure is not a new idea. Several companies proposed it in 2005, but it did not gain traction. The former director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, advocated it earlier this year. And in a floor speech in July, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) drew an analogy to medieval castles protecting water wells and granaries and asked, "Can certain critical private infrastructure networks be protected now within virtual castle walls, in secure domains where those pre-positioned defenses could be both lawful and effective?"


Such an undertaking would have to be done "in a transparent manner, subject to very strict oversight," Whitehouse said. "But with the risks as grave as they are, this question cannot be overlooked."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092302171.html

Sounds like a plan...crash the net, and critical computer networks will be spared.

Cyber Attacks Test Pentagon, Allies and Foes

Cyber espionage has surged against governments and companies around the world in the past year, and cyber attacks have become a staple of conflict among states.

snip
Some U.S. intelligence officials and analysts worry that cyber weapons may become the next "loose nukes" problem. "The question is: When will these leak to al Qaeda?" said James Lewis, a cyber-security specialist at the Center for Strategic and International studies who regularly advises the Obama administration. "These are very tightly controlled, but some number of years from now, nonstate actors will have really good stuff."

snip
The recent computer worm dubbed Stuxnet was the first public example of cyber weapons targeting software for computer-control systems. Most of the systems infected were in Iran, and analysts have speculated that the worm was targeting Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility.

Such weapons could also be used to target software running petroleum refining and production facilities, one industry cyber specialist said.

Stuxnet alarmed officials both in the Pentagon and U.S. industry, because it targeted the core of industrial computer-control systems. "Instead of messing with the nervous system, you're going right to the brain now," one U.S. official said.

Gen. Keith Alexander, the chief of the new U.S. Cyber Command told a congressional panel this week: "What concerns me the most is destructive attacks that are coming, and we're concerned that those are the next things that we will see."

The danger, Gen. Alexander said, is that such attacks can do damage that is difficult to reverse and can't be fixed by blocking Internet traffic, destroying computers and other automated devices connected to the Internet before the government or a company can respond.

"That could cause tremendous damage," he said. "If that were to happen in a war zone, that means our command and control system and other things suffer."

Another danger, he said, is that such an attack could be mounted on the U.S. electrical or banking sector, and the affected company would largely be on its own to defend itself.

The White House is still trying to figure out how the government could aid the response to an attack on the private sector. If there were an attack today, Gen. Alexander said, his Cyber Command does not have the authority to respond to it.

"We need to come up with a more dynamic or active defense," he said. "That is what we are working on right now." The Cyber Command is developing a response model, he said, that Homeland Security and the White House might seek to adapt to the civilian sector.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, told a private meeting of a U.K. parliamentary panel this year that "the whole question of cyber security is shooting up everybody's agendas," and that it is "a major new challenge to the intelligence community."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703793804575511961264943300.html


Next big event? of fear mongering for censorship?

U.S. Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services — such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype — to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

National security officials and federal law enforcement argue their ability to eavesdrop on terror suspects is increasingly “going dark,” The New York Times reported, as more communication takes place via Internet services, rather than by traditional telephone.

The bill, which the White House plans to deliver to Congress next year, would require communication service providers be technically capable of intercepting and decrypting messages, raising serious privacy concerns, the Times said.

The proposal has “huge implications” and poses a test to the “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution,” vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, James Dempsey, told the Times.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/27/seeking-expand-internet-wiretaps/

you have to allow us to hear everything ok?

Google CEO Envisions a 'Serendipity Engine'

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt outlined a vision of the future in which computers help people remember things, prevent them from getting lost, drive people's cars and instantly translate phone conversations.

Appearing onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Mr. Schmidt said the combination of cloud computing and powerful mobile phones will also enable Google to one day tell people things they may want to know as they are walking down the street, without having to type in any search queries.

"Think of it as a serendipity engine," he said, a reference to the company's nearly ubiquitous Internet search engine. He predicted that this would be one of many "new services that make your life just work."

Mr. Schmidt added that new computer technologies are creating a world in which people will never be lonely because they can always connect to some friend online. Nor will people be bored, he said, because there is always some form of content or entertainment available on the Internet.

This future, he added, will eventually be available to billions of people around the world, rather than "just the elites."
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520390567286252.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#ixzz10t2mKSoA

computers help people remember things, prevent them from getting lost, drive people's cars and instantly translate phone conversations ....hmmm...sounds like we wont need a brain...no thanks