Nation States and the Web
To start, it’s ironic that Internet technology was devised and developed to protect the state, but is now being used to dismantle it. There are countless examples of this, from formal protests organised via Facebook, informal actions collected on Flickr, to international calls for action as a result of Twitter communication. The bottom line is that, although apathy remains high in more formal democratic activities (with the occasional surprise consequence), we are more plugged in and engaged in politics than we have been since Robert Putnam documented the decline in social capital in 1995.
Crowdsourcing Counterterrorism
Let’s be clear about this: the UK government’s new initiative for reporting hate, extremism and terrorism online has a very limited shelf-life. On the other hand, what else could government have done? To be fair to the Home Office, they have made it perfectly clear that “most hateful or violent website content is not illegal. While you may come across a lot of things on the internet that offend you, very little of it is actually illegal.” Good call, and a message it’s good to see reinforced. They also clearly indicate what steps you can take if you really think it falls foul of the indicators of potential illegality: first enquire of website administrators, then hosts, and contact police only as a last resort. The reporting page is here.
Let’s See How They Measure Success
Andrew Exum once defined success in terms of “Afghans not intimidated.” I didn’t see i there “Afghans not driven from their homes in fear.” So how are we going to measure success this time? It doesn’t seem the Coalition cares much how its activities hurt and terrify the Afghans. Only the Taliban’s intimidation matters. That doesn’t strike me as a very sustainable way of designing operations.
DARPA Pushes Submarine Laser Communications Technology for ASW Operations
Free-space laser communications experts at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are asking industry to develop a blue-spectrum submarine laser communications system able to link submerged submarines with nearby aircraft for anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
Place Storming for solving Contextual Problems
Place Storming participants break into teams, take on roles, visit a series of situated places in targeted environments, and use props to accomplish site-specific missions. In completing their missions, Place Stormers become active, playful performers engaged in first imagining and then enacting technological innovations in context.
Beijing Bones up its Cyber-Warfare Capacity
While the furor over cyber attacks against Google has lapsed somewhat, the Sino-American confrontation over the larger issue of Internet security and global digital warfare is expected to intensify in the near future. This is particularly in light of the deterioration of bilateral ties due to issues ranging from the value of the renminbi to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Even more significant is the fact that despite Washington’s criticism of Beijing’s censorship of the Internet—as well as China-originated sorties against the networks of American government agencies and multinationals—the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is devoting unprecedented resources to strengthening its already formidable cyber warfare prowess.
Cyberwar With China: Former Intelligence Chief Says It Is Aiming at America’s “Soft Underbelly”
“I believe the Chinese concluded from the Desert Storm experience that their counter approach had to be to challenge America’s control of the battle space by building capabilities to knock out our satellites and invading our cyber networks. In the name of the defense of China in this new world, the Chinese feel they have to remove that advantage of the U.S. in the event of a war. ”
Report: Iran Cites CIA in Radio Arrests
Seven people, including some accused of having ties to a U.S.-backed Farsi-language radio station, were arrested in Tehran, according to Iranian media reports. The seven “worked as liaisons for anti-revolution satellite organizations and Zionist media,” the semi-official Iran Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported Sunday. The people were connected “with the conspiracy,” ILNA said, referring to recent anti-government protests in Iran. The arrests came in an “intelligence ministry operation,” ILNA said. “These people were connected with Radio Farda and had gone through the process of selection and training in Dubai and Istanbul and some of them had been officially employed by the U.S. intelligence service.”
The Google-NSA Alliance: Questions and Answers
An NSA spokesperson told me the following: “NSA is not able to comment on specific relationships we may or may not have with U.S. companies. We can say as a general matter, however, that … [the] NSA works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates.” A Google spokesperson also declined to comment specifically on the claims, though he did point to the company’s original blog posting about the cyberattacks. The blog states that Google is “working with the relevant U.S. authorities.”
Convicted Chinese Spy to get Espionage Sentence
An elderly Chinese-born engineer convicted of economic espionage for hoarding sensitive documents that included space shuttle details faces sentencing today, and prosecutors are seeking a 20-year term. A judge found Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 74, guilty in July of six federal counts of economic espionage and other charges for keeping 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his home. The documents also included information about the fueling system for a booster rocket.
Worth Watching: Feraljundi
