6/30 defcon: copywrong, dislike, discoveries

leaked: uk copyright lobby holds closed-door meetings with govt to discuss national web-censorship regime*

terrorists terrorised: al qaeda hacked*
scotus term in review: it's a mixed bag*
as hulu flirts, comcast must stay mum*
facebook 10th most hated company in US*
news corp. on verge of myspace sale*
judge: google can be sued for wiretapping in street view debacle*
kkr - kohlberg, kravis, roberts - to buy top web hosting/domain registrar 'go daddy'; but who is kkr?*
scientists discover most distant quasar known to exist*

one in four US hackers 'is an fbi informer'

from guardian: The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established. Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community.

In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as "carders" – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars.

So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. "Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation," Corley told the Guardian.

"It makes for very tense relationships," said John Young, who runs Cryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines of WikiLeaks. "There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted."

related defcon updates:
hackers attack fbi partner website; atlanta infraguard exposed*
pbs website hacked with fake news*
video: did hackers deface fox news building in nyc?*
after cyberattack targeted lockheed martin -
second defense contractor l-3 'actively targeted' with rsa securid hacks*
gmail hack targeted white house*
cyber attacks can count as act of war*
writer urges internet junkies to 'switch off' and think*
video: sony loses $3.2b after playstation network hacked*
hackers attack another sony network, post data*
'world of warcraft' blamed for divorce as men 'prefer them to their wives'*
un report declares internet access a human right*
oregon senator wyden freezes second internet censorship bill*
facebook quietly switches on facial recognition tech by default*
apple patent will cripple devices when in proximity of 'a concert or a classified facility'*
how could so many crooks have managed to scam the national security agency?*

dhs to gain 'autonomy' under obama cybersecurity plan

dhs merges with dod/nsa under obama's cyber threat plan
from kurt nimmo: Obama has proposed legislation that will give the Department of Homeland Security more “autonomy” in its effort to protect civilian computer networks from ostensible cyber attack, according to Information Week. White House officials testified Monday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the comprehensive plan presented by the administration two weeks ago to create legislation to protect critical infrastructure and networks. It will merge operations with the Pentagon.

“One key aspect of the plan is to put the DHS’s mission to protect U.S. federal civilian networks on par with the DOD’s mission to protect U.S. military networks, giving the DHS more autonomy to act against cyberthreats on behalf of the government than before,” writes Elizabeth Montalbano for the technology publication.

DHS has also sought to merge the effort with the NSA and various civilian operations.

Last October, the Obama administration adopted new procedures for using the Defense Department’s vast array of cyberwarfare capabilities in case of an attack on vital computer networks inside the United States, “delicately navigating historic rules that restrict military action on American soil,” according to the New York Times.

According to the Times, a team of military networking experts would be assigned to the operations center at the Homeland Security Department. The new approach will begin with a Department of Homeland Security team deploying to Fort Meade, Maryland, home to both the National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic espionage, and the military’s new Cyber Command.

At the time, government officials said the new rules contain “a rapid response to a cyberthreat while balancing concerns that civil liberties might be at risk should the military take over such domestic operations,” in other words the government announced effort to protect against the hyped threat of cyber terrorism would require a sacrifice of liberty.

The DHS plan announced on Monday will give “the DHS – recognizing our similar role to DOD with regard to federal civilian networks – similar authority with regard to personnel so we can bring them on board rapidly,” Philip R. Reitinger, deputy undersecretary for the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate, told Congress.

The plan also gives DHS “much clearer authority and responsibility to work in a voluntary way” with the private sector, something it already has been doing, Reitinger added.

In 2009, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman sidestepped answering if the Pentagon’s cyber command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense. “This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD’s networks,” he said. “This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that.”

In 2006, a Pentagon document entitled the Information Operation Roadmap was released to the public after a Freedom of Information Request by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. It states that the Pentagon has developed a “robust offensive suite of capabilities to include full-range electronic and computer network attack… We Must Fight the Net.”

related updates:
facebook & google join forces to oppose privacy bill*
18 places censored by google maps:
from aberdeen proving grounds in maryland to... north korea*
nsa collects as much data as is stored in the entire library of congress every 6hrs?*
video: nsa whistleblower tom drake talks espionage act, 9/11 & intel with '60 minutes'*

'mafiaa fire': firefox add-on to reverse US govt domain censorship

from boingboing: Earlier this year, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shocked the world by asserting the right to seize any .com or .net domain that it characterized as a "pirate" or child porn site, with little due process or judicial oversight. ICE conducted a series of high-profile seizures that were notable in that they were sloppy (80,000 sites were erroneously seized for being implicated in child porn and anyone who subsequently visited them was redirected to a page chiding them for being horrible perverts). They were also notable for being almost completely ineffective at shutting down the targeted sites. Once their domains were seized, the site operators simply registered new domains, avoiding .com and .net. It wasn't much of a challenge for their users to locate them again. Nevertheless, the ICE has promised more seizures in the years to come. But one developer decided that subverting ICE censorship was too important to be left to chance, so he created MAFIAA Fire, a Firefox plugin that automatically redirects links to the seized domains to their new homes, effectively undoing the seizures.

1/6 defcon: bad calls & fake claims

warrantless cell phone search gets green light in california*
voip decision means skype now illegal*
first solar eclipse of the year jan4*
quadrantid meteor shower due jan4 night*
reporter behind wmd claims calls assange 'bad journalist'*
fake white house holiday email is cyber attack*

2010: the year the internet went to war

from threat level: It was a year without parallel. Threat Level’s bread-and-butter themes of censorship, hacking, security, privacy, copyright and cyberwar were all represented in tug-of-war struggles with unprecedented outcomes.

Google defeated China’s censors, but caved to corporate censorship in the United States. The largest computer-crime case ever prosecuted ended in the nation’s longest prison term. A small-time Xbox modder who advertised his services online beat the federal rap. And a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet finally put proof to decades of warnings that malware will eventually be used to kinetic effect in the real world.

A myriad of court decisions seemed to be a boon for online rights, while others clearly were a step backward. The year 2010 saw the rise of the newspaper copyright troll, and judges pushed back on absurd jury verdicts for music file sharing and outdated electronic spying rules.

And a secret-spilling website flirting with insolvency and dissolution suddenly burst onto the world stage. WikiLeaks was without a doubt the biggest 2010 development in Threat Level’s world.

related: cyber-warfare centre coming, germany says

youtube will allow users to flag videos for promoting 'terrorism'

from abcnews: Can the will of the people protect the idea of free speech? America's founding fathers said no, but YouTube is going to give it a try. In an effort to scrub the video site of clips that promote terrorism or extremism, YouTube has announced that it will allow its users to flag propaganda videos for removal. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the move is a long time in coming. Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-Conn.), has been lobbying YouTube to remove such videos for years. He told the LA Times that YouTube's move is "good first step" toward curtailing an effective terror recruitment tool, though lawmakers would prefer for the videos to be prescreened before they're ever even posted. New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, has also asked YouTube to remove some videos, specifically videos from Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric now seen as a major al Qaeda leader. Our question to you today: Is user flagging a good way to remove terror propaganda videos, or is this a threat to free speech?

flashbacks: lieberman tells internet to 'relax' about 'kill switch' & cyber/space\war: white house prepping national internet identity authentication plan

12/9 defcon: net freedom & dark objects

op-ed: waving goodbye to internet freedom*
a look at america's deadliest space weapons*
emp defense council founded on pearl harbor day*
new india web controls as blackberry gets reprieve*
fake chips threaten military computers*
massive dark object 'lurking on edge of solar system hurling comets at earth'*

oregon senator wyden effectively kills internet censorship bill

from raw story: It's too early to say for sure, but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden could very well go down in the history books as the man who saved the Internet.

A bill that critics say would have given the government power to censor the Internet will not pass this year thanks to the Oregon Democrat, who announced his opposition during a recent committee hearing. Individual Senators can place holds on pending legislation, in this case meaning proponents of the bill will be forced to reintroduce the measure and will not be able to proceed until the next Congress convenes.

Even then, its passage is not certain.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) would have permitted a blanket takedown of any domain alleged to be assisting activities that violate copyright law, based upon the judgment of state attorneys general.

"Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile," Wyden said.

timeline of chinese censorship, cyber attacks

An article at "The Telgraph" provides a 21st Century timeline of censorship and cyber attacks by China. Cisco, a US networking company, sells 200 routers to China in 2003, which enables the government to censor internet traffic. In March 2009, Chinese government blocks You Tube after video showing police beating Tibetan Monks is posted. In June 2009, China requires all computers be equipped with Green Dam monitoring software, which creates a storm and plan dropped in August. The US begins testing tech to assist computer users in China and Iran to bypass firewalls. US explores "feed over email"(FOE) system to deliver news that evades web screening technology.

In December 2009, Chinese government offers 10,000 yuan reward for turning in websites that feature pornography.

In January 2010, China announces plan for compulsory registration of users' real names, before, anyone can make comments in chat rooms and other forums. Google threatens, also, in January, to pull out after attacks on its servers targeting gmail accounts of human rights activists.

In March 2010, Google redirects Chinese users to its uncensored Hong Kong site and shuts down its search engine in China.

In April 2010, China directs 15 percent of world internet traffic through is state-owned ISPs.

In November 2010,  US Congress warns hijacking of 15 percent of internet traffic, in April, may have been malicious.

end of the internet as we know it?

US Senate Committee in a lame duck Congressional session passed recently the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (COICA). Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, calls it an 'internet censorship bill'. "Clearly this was funded by media cartels, but this has a lot more to do with Internet censorship as it does about copyright infringement," says Activist Post entry.

In "Stop the Internet Blacklist", Rhode Island State Representative David Segal writes: "COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list." Welcome to the Brave New World!

10/7 defcon: spooks, satnav & sightings

pentagon says 'the global cyberwar is just beginning'*
military spooks step up war on leakers*
obama pressures isp's to censor websites*
microsoft wants govt licensing net access*
aol says infowars 'whipping the internet into a frenzy of anxiety'*
iran say it has captured 'western spies' involved in nuclear cyberattack*
researchers using rat-robot hybrid to design better brain machine interfaces*
uk man dies after satnav sends him into a reservoir*
ufo forces airport closure in china*
best image yet of comet closing in on earth*

9/30 defcon: total domination & digital infringement

obama's internet wiretap move:
just one small facet of total domination project*
video: obama working on plan to wiretap skype, facebook, blackberrys & more*
wiretapped phones, now internet?*
100k+ germans ask google to blur their homes*
feds' requests for google data rise 20%*
net censorship takes center stage in 'online infringement' bill*
the leaked list & the digital economy act*
unpublished iraq war logs trigger internal wikikeaks revolt*
cia accused of using pirated software for drone assassination attacks*
fmr stasi cryptographers now develop technology for nato*

defcon 7/22: bleaker for bloggers

false flag cyber attack could takedown the internet*
obama joins un to dictate acceptable behavior on the net*
feds ignore 1st amendment, shut down 1000s of blogs*
google launches coverup of 'google spies' story*
google's china changes in line with law*
wikileaks reopens for leakers*

defcon 7/8: 'perfect citizen' meets big brother

nsa creating spy system to monitor domestic infrastructure*
report: US building system to detect cyber-attacks*
US plans 'cyber shield' to detect cyber attacks on infrastructure*
nsa says 'perfect citizen' is a research program*
nsa to spy on 'critical infrastructure', says wsj*
the cybersecurity directive goes viral*
download: gao slams white house for failing to lead on cybersecurity*
the lights are going out for free speech on the net*
germany officials launch legal action against facebook*
US largely ruling out nkorea in 2009 cyberattacks*
porn pranksters have field day with youtube injection flaw*

tsa to block 'controversial opinion' on the web

from cbsnews: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News. The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon. It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access." The categories include:

• Chat/Messaging

• Controversial opinion

• Criminal activity

• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content

• Gaming

The email does not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a "controversial opinion." There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the email stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy. The TSA did not return calls seeking comment by publication time.

update: tsa reverses 'controversial opinion' web policy

cybersecurity measures would mandate govt 'id tokens' to use the net

from paul joseph watson & alex jones: The move to shut down and regulate the Internet under a new government-controlled system has accelerated into high gear with the announcement that the government’s cybersecurity strategy revolves around issuing Internet users with ID “tokens” without which they will not be able to visit websites, the latest salvo against web freedom which, in combination with Senator Joe Lieberman’s ‘kill switch’ bill, will serve to eviscerate the free Internet as we know it.

Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the government is moving to discredit and shut down the existing Internet infrastructure in the pursuit of a new, centralized, regulated world wide web.

This exact strategy was outlined in a paper published by Obama’s cybersecurity co-ordinator Howard Schmidt, which was compiled with the aid of the National Security Council.

The strategy revolves around, “The creation of a system for identity management that would allow citizens to use additional authentication techniques, such as physical tokens or modules on mobile phones, to verify who they are before buying things online or accessing such sensitive information as health or banking records,” reports the FInancial Times.

Only with this government-issued “token” will Internet users be allowed to “able to move from website to website,” a system not too far removed from what China proposed and rejected for being too authoritarian.

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.

defcon 4/1: cybercensors & torrents of controversy

censorship act: new amendment could block wikileaks*
army intel acorn-ing wikileaks? web publisher under attack*
uk lords pass controversial internet piracy bill*
computer-controlled swarm of bacteria builds tiny pyramid*
don't believe the hype: there's no such thing as 'cyber'*

school laptop spy case prompts wiretap act rethink*
isohunt told to pull .torrent files offline, likely to close*
indie filmmakers sue 1000s of bittorrent users*
how the fbi busted one youtube nutjob in under a day*
comcast rolls out broadband meters coast to coast*

defcon 3/25: killswitch, siphons & existential threats

large hadron collider cranked to 'maximum redline power'*
obama's veto power/killswitch over net removed in amended bill*
time to split the nsa?*
break up the nsa!*
US secret service paid tjx hacker $75k a year*
update: tjx hacker gets 20yrs in prison*
cyber-assaults bombard federal computers*
uk anti-terror police seek help from internet cafes*
acta draft: no internet for copyright scofflaws*
your health, tax & search data siphoned*
toronto man with al-qaeda ties ran extremist blog*
why cnn exec fears social-networking sites*
wireless survey: 91% of US use cell phones*
cyberattacks an 'existential threat' to US, fbi says*
cybersecurity & the 2 homelands hypothesis*
google exits china - except for part known as hong kong*
cyber-attack on US firms, google traced to chinese*
chinese media: google is tied to US intelligence*
chinese academics’ paper on cyberwar sets off alarms in US*
video: US gov uses google proxy to attack china*