generation net: do youngsters prefer virtual lives to real world?

from daily mail: Children are often happier with their online lives than they are with reality, a survey has revealed. They say they can be exactly who they want to be – and as soon as something is no longer fun they can simply hit the quit button.

The study also shows that, despite concerns about online safety, one in eight young people is in contact with strangers when on the web and often lies about their appearance, age and background. Researchers for children's charity Kidscape assessed the online activities of 2,300 11- to 18-year-olds from across the UK and found that 45% said they were sometimes happier online than in their real lives.

The report – "Virtual Lives: It is more than a game, it is your life" – lays bare the attitudes of children today to the internet and includes revealing insights into how they feel when they are on the web.

One told researchers: "It’s easier to be who you want to be, because nobody knows you and if you don’t like the situation you can just exit and it is over." Another said: "You can say anything online. You can talk to people that you don’t normally speak to and you can edit your pictures so you look better. It is as if you are a completely different person."

flashback: growing up digital, wired for distraction

get internet access when your government shuts it down

(except, of course, if the power goes out)
from pcworld: These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it's organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we've seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you're trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can't rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.

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

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*

gerald celente: internet nuke bomb waiting to go off

from russia today: Gerald Celente, the founder of the Trends Research Institute, believes that the Internet will empower the youth of the world to unite to start a revolution that will overthrow the existing deadlocked elitist establishment. He predicts that in 2011 every citizen is going to realize that the Great Recession the world has been living through is actually a Great Depression, because the American establishment is "running out of schemes."

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

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

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'*

12/2 defcon: fingerprints, arsenic & oxygen

feds warrantlessly tracking credit cards in real time*
google admits street view trespassing, hit with crippling $1 fine*
race is on to 'fingerprint' phones & pc's*
xbox-modding case dismissed mid-trial*
who'll win the battle for control of web?*
most popular yahoo search in 2010 was 'bp oil spill'; first time for a news story*
nasa created buzz with 'e.t.' tease*
nasa finds new arsenic-fed life form*
oxygen detected on saturn's moon rhea*
ufo's welcome in hooper, colorado*

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.

growing up digital, wired for distraction

from nytimes: On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh’s life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer? By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” his summer reading assignment. But he has managed 43 pages in two months.

He typically favors Facebook, YouTube and making digital videos. That is the case this August afternoon. Bypassing Vonnegut, he clicks over to YouTube, meaning that tomorrow he will enter his senior year of high school hoping to see an improvement in his grades, but without having completed his only summer homework.

On YouTube, “you can get a whole story in six minutes,” he explains. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.” Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

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!

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*

wikileaks 'iraq war diaries' largest classified military leak in history

from wikileaks: At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a ‘SIGACT’ or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 ‘civilians’; 23,984 ‘enemy’ (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 ‘host nation’ (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 ‘friendly’ (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths. That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the ‘Afghan War Diaries’, previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivalent population size.

related wikileaks updates:
wikileaks hacked by 'very skilled' attackers prior to release*
atrocity now: wikileaks release puts spotlight back on continuing war crime in iraq*
chemical weapons, iranian agents & massive death tolls exposed in wikileaks' iraq docs*
beaten, shocked, eyes gouged: iraq abuse, wikileaked*
wikileaks' 400k iraq war documents reveal torture, civilian deaths*
wikileaks: at least 109k killed in iraq war*
wiki 'leaks' the truth about US war crimes against iraq*
US troops beheaded iraqi detainee*
hidden bases, secret raids: wikileaks reveals cia's iraq ops*
how wikileaks makes confrontation with iran more likely*
humiliate, strip, threaten: uk military interrogation manuals discovered*
video: julian assange walks out on shameful cnn interview*

flashback: decrypted video from shows collateral murder

dod leads cyber defense

Pentagon's Cyber Policy chief Robert Butler announces new relationships, "...in a break with previous policy, the military now is prepared to provide cyber expertise to other government agencies and to certain private companies to counter attacks on their computer networks...". Defense News article, "DoD Expanding Domestic Cyber Role" emphasizes utilizing cyber capabilities of the Pentagon.  Butler, who is a deputy assistant defense secretary, said "while the Department of Homeland Security officially remains the lead government agency on cyber defense, the new agreement 'sets up an opportunity for DHS to take advantage of the expertise' in the Pentagon, and particularly the secretive electronic spying agency, the National Security Agency." Is the Defense Department just helping out or is the military taking over?

related: booz allen hamilton staffers go to cybersecurity school

officials publish cyberspace operations doctrine

from defencetalk: The LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education approved and published the newly developed Air Force Doctrine Document 3-12, Cyberspace Operations. Maj. Gen. David S. Fadok, the LeMay Center's commander, said cyberspace operations are critical to effective operations across the range of military operations.

"The Air Force is a key member on the joint warfighting team and is dedicated to developing and presenting highly skilled forces to joint force commanders who can deliver decisive effects in, from and through cyberspace," General Fadok said.

The doctrine outlines Air Force cyberspace operations and their importance. A few items discussed in the new doctrine include: cyberspace fundamentals, command and organization information, and the design, planning, execution and assessment process.

The document also defines cyberspace operations as the employment of cyber capabilities, where the primary purpose is to achieve objectives in or through cyberspace. Such operations include: computer network operations and activities to operate and defend the global information grid. The global information grid includes owned and leased communications and computing systems and services, software (including applications), data, security services, other associated services and national security systems.

"Today, our society relies on technology and cyberspace more than ever, and this medium must be secure," General Fadok said. "The joint warfighting team, including the Air Force, must lead the way in cyberspace to ensure we maintain a distinct advantage over our adversaries in this contested domain."

read full report in pdf format

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*

'cyber storm iii' tests US on cyber attack

stuxnet & cyberstorm3 are unrelated, nothing to see here...
from defencetalk: US keyboard warriors were doing battle Tuesday with a simulated cyberattack on government and private computer networks that undermines basic trust in the Internet. The "Cyber Storm III" exercise involves participants from seven US government departments, including the Pentagon, 11 US states, 60 private companies and 12 international partners.

The biennial exercise is being staged by the Department of Homeland Security and is the first test of the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center based in an office building in this Washington suburb. The NCCIC booted up in October 2009 to serve as the coordinating center for US cybersecurity operations and houses US government computer experts and their private sector counterparts under one roof.

Briefing reporters ahead of "Cyber Storm III," Brett Lambo, the director of DHS's Cyber Exercise Program, stressed that the exercise, which is expected to last three days, is "completely simulated... We're not attacking any real networks," Lambo said. "We're not taking down a network. We're not injecting any real malware."

The thousands of participants in the exercise will receive more than 1,500 "injects" of simulated events that they will have to react to as unknown adversaries seek to exploit known vulnerabilities in cyber infrastructure...

The international partners taking part in the exercise are from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

update: millions of comps hit by virus across china*
'cyber storm iii' simulates large-scale cyberattack*
dhs tests cyber response plan in global drill*
cyber attack on iranian industry appears well-funded*
iran says no virus hit nuclear systems*
in a computer worm, a possible biblical clue*

'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.