al-qaida online jihadism overlooked

A Danger Room article reports Obama's counterterrorism crew missing big picture by focusing on physical war theaters and ignoring internet."As the United States attacks al-Qaida’s physical safe havens, the terrorist response is to congregate in online spaces, where they can’t be blown up by a Hellfire missile or shot by a SEAL." The article does find a more concerted effort by US desktop warriors. "Even if the new White House counterterrorism strategy treats the internet like an afterthought, the operational elements of American counterterrorism are more focused. U.S. Central Command is setting up online stings and infiltrating jihadi message boards." It's doubtful, anything online is ignored by intelligence even those in executive branch.

John Brennan, Deputy National Security (DNS) Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, sets the table for imperial agenda and lends piece an air of propaganda. The DNS advisor and assistant to the President, "... called Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. citizen now affiliated with al-Qaida’s Yemen branch 'very, very dangerous.' How’d he get that way? Through e-mailing with Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan and would-be Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. (Well, probably e-mailing; both men say they communicated with one another)."

It's difficult to stomach Brennan's view as Anwar al-Awlaki has taken in a Pentagon lunch with officials, suggestive of intelligence ties. Passenger and attorney Kurt Haskell had a front seat to the tale of The Underwear Bomber and the Sharp Dressed Man. Haskell believes the well-dressed man was US government, who aided "the terrorist" bypass of check-in. Webster Tarpley, political analyst, casts doubt in his fine article, "Major Hasan of Fort Hood: A Patsy In A Drill Gone Live?" on al-Awlaki, al-Qaida and Major Hasan as little more then dupes and patsies in an intelligence-organized foreign(-looking) troupe of actors.

The Danger Room article concludes there are good and bad ways to confront online jihadism, "...but to ignore it might be the biggest unforced error of all." You can determine if White House is overlooking threat and more about al-Qaida in publication, "National Strategy for Counterterrorism," if you can handle it? The only good news is al-Qaida cited more than domestic groups as key threat!

fbi tracking "suspects" online

A Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) request made in 2007 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), reveals FBI using secret spyware. A recent article at Raw Story shows "...that software called the Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV) was used by the FBI since at least 2001. The software allows the FBI to collect a variety of information from a computer every time it connects to the Internet, including the IP address, Media Access Control (MAC) address, open communication ports, list of the programs running, URLs visited, and more. It is unclear how the FBI installs the software on a computer, but it is suspected that the spyware exploits a vulnerability in the user's browser, like other common Internet viruses."

However, the article notes a greater threat posed by a recent FBI proposal. "In February, the FBI urged members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security to update the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and make it easier for authorities to eavesdrop on Internet." CALEA is the same 1994 law that the US administration was not observing just prior to the Iraq war!

assange: internet greatest spying machine

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange warned Cambridge students, who waited hours to hear him speak, internet is "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," in article at guardian.co.uk. Assange continued, "It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for." Has Assange been directed to convince Anglo-American elite the internet represents a threat? The present writer views Assange as an agent for the global elite and enjoys a relationship with Israel as related in a previous post here.

Assange also responded to an inquiry about Bradley Manning, "we have no idea whether he is one of our sources. All our technology is geared up to make sure we have no idea...there is no allegation that he was arrested as the result of anything to do with us. The allegation is that he was arrested as a result of him speaking to Wired magazine in the United States."

Is Assange's message shutdown the internet to stop "totalitarian spying regime"? Is there a war on technology? It seems, both, the web and nuclear power are under attack. The global elite do not fancy technology as it represents a challenge to their control and domination!

related defcon updates:
nasa to use lasers to shoot space junk around earth*
nytimes again seeks to charge for web news*
'homefront': new video game features nkorean invasion of US*

algeria shuts down the net as protest mounts

There are reports out of Algeria, the government has deleted internet and facebook accounts across the country, according to an article at The Telegraph. "'The government doesn't want us forming crowds through the internet,' said Rachid Salem, of Co-ordination for Democratic Change in Algeria." The article reports 30,000 riot police on the streets of Algiers alone! Our concern is the inevitable shutdown here in the United States, as the economy is taken down with no sign our government intends to mitigate a collapse. Protest and civil unrest seems inevitable. A blog entry provides observations on recent shutdown in Egypt and a simple solution to help you stay connected here.

connect to chaos: gm/ibm give chevy volt its own ip address

from newelectronics.co.uk: The Chevy Volt will be the first car of its type: not because it is a hybrid electric/petrol vehicle, but because GM plans to give each one the company sells its own IP address. The Volt will have no less than 100 microcontrollers running its systems from some 10 million lines of code. This makes some hackers very excited and Adriel Desautels, president of security analysis firm Netragard, very worried. Before now, you needed physical access to reprogram the software inside a car: an 'air gap' protected vehicles from remote tampering. The Volt will have no such physical defence. Without some kind of electronic protection, Desautels sees cars such as the Volt and its likely competitors becoming 'hugely vulnerable 5000lb pieces of metal'. Desautels adds: "We are taking systems that were not meant to be exposed to the threats that my team produces and plug it into the internet. Some 14 year old kid will be able to attack your car while you're driving ... 'Black hats' are poised and waiting for this car to come out."

white house calls for 'identity ecosystem' to protect online users

from eweek: The Obama Administration is committed to reducing Internet fraud by developing a comprehensive, national online identity strategy, United State Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Jan. 7. Cyber-security and digital identity was a “national top priority” issue, said Locke. Locke was joined by Howard Schmidt, the White House Cybersecurity coordinator, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University, where they outlined the framework for an “identity ecosystem” which will allow people to complete online transactions with confidence that their personal information was safe. “We are not talking about a national ID card. We are not talking about a government-controlled system,” Locke said.

flashbacks: white house prepping national internet identity authentication plan & cybersecurity measures would mandate govt 'id tokens' to use the net

internet splits in two

"The Internet Splits in Two" by Dan Lyons sees the recent Net Neutrality Ruling by FCC leading to a bifurcation of fast internet for the rich and slow crappy internet for the poor and the amounts of information available. Lyons views the ruling as tantamount to having a Bloomberg terminal to do stock trading versus attempting to play day trader from a personal computer. The FCC ruling leaves wireless alone, but eventually, disparities will be even greater for the ascending platform. The writer likes Columbia professor Tim Wu's book, "The Master Switch: The Rise & Fall of Information Empires", who sees a progression in all past technologies such as telegraph, telephone, radio and movies. Lyons agrees we're at the end of phase one a relatively free and innovative period. It remains to be seen what happens from here, "but I’m pretty sure those of us who have been around for Phase One of the Internet are going to look back on these last 15 years as the good old days," says Lyons.

cyber command seeks to expand battefield

Gen. Keith B Alexander, NSA Director and Cyber Command chief, seeks to go "full spectrum" with offensive measures in cyberspace. Cyber Command reached full operational status just within the past month, looks to push boundaries according to Washington Post article.  "But current and former officials say that senior policymakers and administration lawyers want to limit the military's offensive computer operations to war zones such as Afghanistan, in part because the CIA argues that covert operations outside the battle zone are its responsibility and the State Department is concerned about diplomatic backlash." Does this mark the twilight of the internet as we've known it these past few years?