'fight the net': pentagon unveils 'defensive' cyberwar strategy

from time: The Pentagon rolled out its new cyber-defense strategy Thursday, hyping it with the news that foreign hackers (from an unidentified country) invaded the computers of one of its (unidentified) contractors in March and pilfered 24,000 sensitive documents in one fell swoop. Cyber-security is a Pentagon growth area, make no mistake about. Lord knows, I've contributed to the deluge. But it's one of those arcane areas where progress is hard to measure. Is the threat as dire as sometimes portrayed? It's important to realize that the Pentagon doesn't store real secrets on networks linked to the Internet. Nonetheless, the press can't resist stories about offensive cyber warfare. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who unveiled the new cyber strategy, told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington that "crucial" files -- not "secret" or "top secret" -- have been stolen in recent years. Much taken was of little value, he said: "But a great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems and network security protocols." Over breakfast Thursday, Marine General James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the Pentagon's current emphasis on cyber defense needs to change. It's currently 90% defensive and 10% offensive; he said those numbers need to be swapped. "This strategy talks more about how we are going to defend the networks," he said. "The next iteration will have to start to talk about here's a strategy that says to the attacker, ‘If you do this, the price to you is going to go up.'" Safe bet the price to us is going to go up, too.

related updates: former cia head keith alexander says we should 'build a new internet to improve cybersecurity'*
pentagon perception manager knows how to manipulate search engine algorithm*

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

philadelphia attempts $300 'business privilege tax' on bloggers

or: it's always money in philadelphia
from nbc philadelphia: Taking a step closer to an eerie Orwellian state where creativity is crushed in the name of “the greater good,” the city of Philadelphia is demanding that bloggers pay $300 for the privilege of writing on the Internet. This $300 “business privilege license” is for all local bloggers – even the ones that make no money off their words. The city doesn’t stop there. In addition to the $300 for the license to write on the World Wide Web, bloggers must pay city wage taxes, business privilege taxes and taxes on any net profits - on top of state and federal taxes - even if the blogger only made $11 over two years, reports the City Paper.

Blogger Marilyn Bess, whose Ms. Philly Organic Blog has made her a whopping $50 over the past few years, went to the city’s tax amnesty program to explain that she makes pennies on her hobby. They told her to hire an accountant, she told the City Paper. In an economy where jobs are sparse and people try to make ends meet with part-time jobs, taxing the independent, scrappy freelancers and bloggers seems counterproductive. But the emptying of bloggers’ wallets may not be the worst result of these taxes. With the city’s charge being more than what most bloggers make, their voices could be silenced, as the extra expense is enough to discourage many from even having a blog.

“To say that these kinds of draconian measures are detrimental to the public discourse would be an understatement,” writes the Washington Examiner’s Mark Hemingway. So what’s next? Higher taxes for longer blogs, cutting the use of vocabulary “newspeak”-style. Oh Nineteen Eighty-Four, you still scare the spit out of us.

update: mayor defends 'business privilege tax' on bloggers

google-verizon deal: the end of the net as we know it

verizoogle unveils private net neutrality deal
from josh silver: For years, Internet advocates have warned of the doomsday scenario that will play out on Monday: Google and Verizon will announce a deal that the New York Times reports "could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."

The deal marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as you know it. Since its beginnings, the Net was a level playing field that allowed all content to move at the same speed, whether it's ABC News or your uncle's video blog. That's all about to change, and the result couldn't be more bleak for the future of the Internet, for television, radio and independent voices.

How did this happen? We have a Federal Communications Commission that has been denied authority by the courts to police the activities of Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast; All because of a bad decision by the Bush-era FCC. We have a pro-industry FCC Chairman who is terrified of making a decision, conducting back room dealmaking, and willing to sit on his hands rather than reassert his agency's authority. We have a president who promised to "take a back seat to no one on Net Neutrality" yet remains silent. We have a congress that is nearly completely captured by industry. Yes, more than half of the US congress will do pretty much whatever the phone and cable companies ask them to. Add the clout of Google, and you have near-complete control of Capitol Hill.

A non-neutral Internet means that companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Google can turn the Net into cable TV and pick winners and losers online. A problem just for Internet geeks? You wish. All video, radio, phone and other services will soon be delivered through an Internet connection. Ending Net Neutrality would end the revolutionary potential that any website can act as a television or radio network. It would spell the end of our opportunity to wrest access and distribution of media content away from the handful of massive media corporations that currently control the television and radio dial.

So the Google-Verizon deal can be summed up as this: "FCC, you have no authority over us and you're not going to do anything about it. Congress, we own you, and we'll get whatever legislation we want. And American people, you can't stop us."

This Google-Verizon deal, this industry-captured FCC, and the way this is playing out is akin to the largest banks and the largest hedge funds writing the regulatory policy on derivative trading without any oversight or input from the public, and having it rubber stamped by the SEC. It's like BP and Halliburton ironing out the rules for offshore oil drilling with no public input, and having MMS sign off.

Fortunately, while they are outnumbered, there are several powerful Net Neutrality champions on Capitol Hill, like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, Jay Rockefeller, Ed Markey, Jay Inslee and many others. But they will not be able to turn this tide unless they have massive, visible support from every American who uses the Internet - whether it's for news, email, shopping, Facebook, Twitter - whatever. So stop what you're doing and tell them you're not letting the Internet go the way of Big Oil and Big Banks. The future of the Internet, and your access to information depends on it.

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.

defcon 3/4: cyberwar hype, hadron & the grid

audio: solar storms could be earth's next katrina*
overdue since '21, next solar storm could disrupt much of world*
video: cryptome's john young: net is police state surveillance grid*
military allows twitter & social media*
large hadron collider briefly back on over weekend*
cern nuclear team restarts large hadron collider*
cyberwar hype intended to destroy the open internet*
facial recognition phone app described as 'stalker's dream'*
open wi-fi outlawed by uk 'digital economy bill'*
uk to kill off internet cafes*
white house declassifies parts of US cybersecurity plan*
US cyber defense strategy details hit the internet*
obama admin declassifies major cybersecurity plans*
white house declassifies outline of cybersecurity program*
critics not satisfied with partial revelation of secret cybersecurity plan*
microsoft exec pitches net usage tax to pay for cybersecurity*
smart grid: the implementation of technocracy?*
cyberczar says cyber threat is biggest economic risk*
heritage.org: don’t let white house ignore emp threat*