2/17 defcon: cyber-coup, backdoor & track more

cyber-attack hits canadian government computers*
report: egypt shut down net with big switch, not phone calls*
voice of america uses social media to aid foreign dissent*
surveillance footage & code clues indicate stuxnet hit iran*
cia head panetta warns of possible cyber-pearl harbor*
lynn urges partnership against cyber threat*
dod talks up plans to deploy cybercommandos 3.0*
video: hillary announces expanded US cyber-coup campaign*
US intelligence officials concerned about cyber attack*
'kill switch' internet bill alarms privacy experts*
cyberwar issues likely to be addressed only after a catastrophe*
fema loses official lesson reports on katrina, floods, fires*
feds seize 18 more domains in piracy crackdown*
fbi to announce significant new wiretap push:
backdoors galore in everything from skype to bittorrent*
online 'do not track' bill introduced in congress*
internet searches beginning to be used as evidence in trials*
obama/holder case against assange dribbles away*
jobs, schmidt & zuckerberg meet with obama in san francisco*
reminder: facebook & google are cia fronts*

2/3 defcon: killswitch, bandwidth, floodgates

as egypt returns to the internet: lieberman says US internet killswitch bill is different than egypt's internet killswitch*
US tests system that beats internet censorship by dictatorships*
certified lies: detecting & defeating govt interception attacks against ssl*
vodafone volluded with egyptian regime's information warfare psyop*
metered bandwidth isn't about stopping bandwidth hogs; it's about preserving old media business models*
US p2p traffic lower than world average*
US cyber challenge partners with lockmart & microsoft*
US recruiting young cyber warriors*
docs in assange rape investigation leak onto web*
video: assange's boring 60 minutes interview*
no, hackers can't open hoover dam floodgates*
nasa spots 54 life-friendly planets*
video: ufo hovers over jerusalem*

killswitch: obama admin fears egypt-style revolt in US

from paul joseph watson: The Obama administration is busy attempting to pass legislation that would give the President a kill switch for the Internet in the United States while at the same time decrying Egyptian authorities for shutting down the Internet in a bid to deflate the unfolding revolution against Hosni Mubarak. The reason is simple – the government fears an Egypt-style revolt occurring in the U.S. and wants to block access to the world wide web if and when it happens... While Obama criticizes Egyptian authorities for shutting down web access to disrupt protesters, his own administration prepares to launch a fresh attempt at instituting the exact same powers in America, which as recent history clearly demonstrates, represent tools for tyrannical regimes who wish to silence legitimate political opposition.

related: dhs' new terror alert system to use facebook, twitter

egypt hits internet kill switch

Organizations that track global activity noted a collapse of internet traffic in and out of Egypt at about 10:30pm, GMT, Thursday. The Telegraph reports in, "How Egypt shut down the internet," how loss of access involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes by Egyptian ISPs. It's reported effectively 88 percent of all access was cut. "Only one ISP out of 10, Noor Data Networks, appeared largely unaffected. It connects to the outside world via an undersea cable operated by Telecom Italia.," the article continues, "Renesys [a networking firm] speculated that the apparent anomaly of Noor Data Networks may be a result of the fact it provides services to the Egyptian stock exchange." BGP is the protcol backing the core routing decisions on the internet. BGP, according to Wikipedia, "...does not use traditional Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) metrics, but makes routing decisions based on path, network policies and/or rulesets. For this reason, it is more appropriately termed a reachability protocol rather than routing protocol." Egypt joins North Korea, at least for the time being, as the only other country to deny its citizens access to the internet. It's interesting to see how the feat is done!

1/27 defcon: congress, connections & 'the company'

s3480: 'protecting cyberspace as a national asset act of 2010' - bill to give president right to shutdown net back in congress*
doj seeks to have all web surfing tracked*
mozilla proposes 'do not track' addition to firefox*
google comes under fire for 'secret' relationship with nsa*
apple hires a military grade security chief*
zuckerberg's facebook page hacked*
social networks under attack as tide of cyber-scepticism sweeps US; they don't connect people – they isolate them*
report: US can't link manning to assange*
police arrest five over 'anonymous' wikileaks attacks*
video: tarpley on wikileaks & assange -
limited hangouts in the service of 'the company'?*

update: internet down in egypt ahead of protests*