11/18 defcon: extra staff & virtual property

fbi brass ask google, facebook to expand wiretaps*
google vp issues stark internet warning*
youtube hiring extra staff to tackle al-qaeda videos*
state-led cyberterror set to rise: report*
gates: huge threat of cyber attack*
cyber experts have proof china hijacked US-based internet traffic*
searching for news is riskier than searching for porn, study says*
man made 1/2-a-mil on virtual property*
x-37b secret US space plane may be too mysterious*

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'ex-cia' head hayden says US should be able to shut down internet

from reuters: Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said.

Hayden made the comments during a visit to San Antonio where he was meeting with military and civilian officials to discuss cyber security. The U.S. military has a new Cyber Command which is to begin operations on October 1.

Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency.

"My personal view is that it is probably wise to legislate some authority to the President, to take emergency measures for limited periods of time, with clear reporting to Congress, when he feels as if he has to take these measures," he said in an interview on the weekend.

"But I would put the bar really high as to when these kinds of authorities might take place," he said.

He likened cyberwarfare to a "frontier."

"It's actually the new area of endeavor, I would compare it to a new age of exploration. Military doctrine calls the cyber thing a 'domain,' like land sea, air, space, and now cyber … It is almost like a frontier experience" he said.

Hayden, a retired U.S. Air Force general, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the administration of President George W. Bush from 2006 to 2009.

napolitano: US must balance liberties & cybersecurity

"those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
from ap: Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said Friday.

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans' civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

But finding that balance has become more complex as homegrown terrorists have used the Internet to reach out to extremists abroad for inspiration and training. Those contacts have spurred a recent rash of U.S.-based terror plots and incidents.

"The First Amendment protects radical opinions, but we need the legal tools to do things like monitor the recruitment of terrorists via the Internet," Napolitano told a gathering of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Napolitano's comments suggest an effort by the Obama administration to reach out to its more liberal, Democratic constituencies to assuage fears that terrorist worries will lead to the erosion of civil rights.

The administration has faced a number of civil liberties and privacy challenges in recent months as it has tried to increase airport security by adding full-body scanners, or track suspected terrorists traveling into the United States from other countries.

iarpa wants to scan your youtube clips for terror threats

from danger room: Your Youtube videos could soon be scanned and evaluated for terror threats, thanks to a new project funded by the U.S. intelligence community that’ll create a searchable warehouse of open-source clips.

Iarpa (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity), the spy agency’s out-there research arm, is behind the program, called Automated Low-Level Analysis and Description of Diverse Intelligence Video (ALADDIN).

The advent of cell phone cams and online video hubs means thousands of clips are uploaded every day. And while the quality of UAV or spy-cam feeds is relatively consistent, and the videos usually contain similar imagery, “the unconstrained video clips produced by anyone who has a digital camera present a significant challenge,” Iarpa notes.

Uploaded videos contain such diverse scenes and situations, not to mention grainy images and sound, that it’s much harder to prep algorithms for automated evaluation. And human analysts only have so much time for the “eyes-on-video/ears-on-audio” routine.

In ALADDIN, Iarpa wants a boundless database of open source video clips, and the ability to search “for the occurrence of specific events of interest…”. Once the system finds the relevant videos, it should be able to “rapidly and automatically produce a textual English-language recounting…describing the particular scene, actors, objects and activities involved.”

Of course, despite the challenges of analyzing uploaded videos, spy agencies are probably already doing it. In 2008, the director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Open Source Center noted that “YouTube…carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence.”

net police: uk signs warn against accessing 'extremist' material

from steve watson: Police signs have begun springing up in internet cafes in London warning users that they could be reported to the police and face criminal charges if they access “extremist”, “offensive” or “inappropriate” material. The signs, which state that the owners of the premises are actively working with the Metropolitan police, have drawn criticism due to their vagueness and questionable legality. “Downloading or accessing certain material could constitute a criminal offence” states the bright pink sign. Comments concerning the signs on both flickr and popular blog site Boing Boing encapsulate the threat such policies pose... We have previously reported on filtering and blocking of all kinds of political websites including Prisonplanet.com in public domains in both the UK and the US. This type of catch all censorship creep is part of an ongoing agenda to use legitimate concerns such child pornography to regulate and control the internet as a whole.

cia head panetta says 'cyber attack could be next pearl harbor'

cyberwar & repression: corporatist synergy made in hell
from sacramento press: Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta told 300 Sacramento Metro Chamber Cap-to-Cap delegates that the next “Pearl Harbor” is likely to be an attack on the United States’ power, financial, military and other Internet systems.

Panetta addressed the Sacramento delegation that includes 43 elected officials and hundreds of business and civic leaders who are in Washington D.C. for the annual program that advocates for the region’s most pressing policy issues. He spoke on Monday, April 19, during the Cap-to-Cap opening breakfast.

“Cyber terrorism” is a new area of concern for the CIA, Panetta said. The United States faces thousands of cyber attacks daily on its Internet networks. The attacks are originating in Russia, China, Iran and from even hackers.

“The next Pearl Harbor is likely to be a cyber attacking going after our grid… and that can literally cripple this country,” Panetta said. “This is a whole new area of threat.”

But cyber terrorism is just one of four primary missions for Panetta, who took over directing the CIA last year after appointment by President Obama. The CIA is also focusing on counter-terrorism, reducing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and fighting narcotics trafficking.

Al Qaeda is becoming a viscous target, and as CIA and military operations tamp it down in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, the terrorist elements are moving to places like Somalia, Yemen and North Africa—as well changing its tactics, he said.

“The president’s direction…is we must dismantle and destroy Al Qaeda and its known elements,” he said. “It’s a fundamental mission….The primary effort takes place in Pakistan and tribal areas. We are now focused on Afghanistan and have increased our presence there.”

Meanwhile, CIA is working to help Iraqis fight Al Qaeda. “Even as our military draws down in Iraq, we’ll keep our presence there…to provide intelligence to the Iraqis so they can secure their own country.”

Worrisome, he added, is how Al Qaeda is “coming at us in other ways.” These include using individuals who have clean records and are not being tracked; individuals who are already in the U.S.A. and in contact with Al Qaeda; and individuals who decided to “self-radicalize” and are easily and quickly recruited as terrorists.

Previously, Panetta served as a congressional representative from the Monterey area, rising to the House Budget committee chair, and then latter as President Clinton’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“I’ve spent most of my life on budget issues,” he said, noting the “work we did eventually produced a balanced budget for the country.” When he’s asked why he took on the job at the CIA, he told the group, “Because considering the size of the federal deficit, I’d rather fight Al Qaeda.”

US infowar op takes down site used to plan attacks on americans in iraq

surprise: the site was set up & run by cia/saudi intel!
from washington post: By early 2008, top U.S. military officials had become convinced that extremists planning attacks on American forces in Iraq were making use of a Web site set up by the Saudi government and the CIA to uncover terrorist plots in the kingdom.

“We knew we were going to be forced to shut this thing down,” recalled one former civilian official, describing tense internal discussions in which military commanders argued that the site was putting Americans at risk. “CIA resented that,” the former official said.

Elite U.S. military computer specialists, over the objections of the CIA, mounted a cyberattack that dismantled the online forum. Although some Saudi officials had been informed in advance about the Pentagon’s plan, several key princes were “absolutely furious” at the loss of an intelligence-gathering tool, according to another former U.S. official...

The Saudi-CIA Web site was set up several years ago as a “honey pot,” an online forum covertly monitored by intelligence agencies to identify attackers and gain information, according to three of the former officials. The site was a boon to Saudi intelligence operatives, who were able to round up some extremists before they could strike, the former officials said.

defcon 3/18: cyberpocalypse, command & control

US to roll out major broadband policy*
earth under attack from invisible star?*
venezuela's chavez calls for internet controls*
google '99.9%' certain to pull china plug*
5 doomsday scenarios for cyberpocalypse*
paypal says sorry to cryptome*
iran arrests 30 accused of US-backed 'cyberwar'*
'boogeyman bomb':
what america needs to know about emp's*

sec says hacker manipulated stock prices*
fbi uses phony profiles on social networks to track suspects*
undercover feds on social networking sites raise questions*
your new facebook friend: the irs*
revised cybersecurity bill introduced in senate*
1 in 4 uk schoolkids admits hacking*
uk clinic opens for children addicted to video games & internet*
could terrorists on the net be next dot com bubble?*
US cyber command preparations under way, general says*

'virtual flag terrorism' is next threat

webster tarpley: US readies cyberwar, virtual flag terrorism
from russia today: Cyber wars and cyber security are no longer fictional plots from science fiction movies. They are very real and very serious concerns for the American people, being tracked by politicians and the government in Washington. Webster Tarpley gives his opinion on the seriousness of the cyber threat.

related: china warns google over search censorship