Links on states’ recent activities in internet security 29.11.09
UK
UK cybersecurity centre starting operations in March – ZDNet.co.uk
Administered by Cabinet Office; staff partly to be recruited from GCHQ, should have hacker mentality; “primarily … a defensive role “, cyberattack as “last resort”.UK also has an Office of Cyber Security (OCS), set up last summer. UK launches dedicated cybersecurity agency – ZDNet.co.uk Gordon Brown: “we … have to secure our position in cyberspace in order to give people and businesses the confidence they need to operate safely there”
As UK is at it: Digital Economy Bill passed:
Britain’s new Internet law — as bad as everyone’s been saying, and worse. Much, much worse. – Boing Boing Including 3-strikes, stricter video-game ratings, ISPs forced to deliver data with content industry, business secretary gets carte blanche to come up with stricter regulations.
“It’s a declaration of war by the entertainment industry and their captured regulators against the principles of free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly, the presumption of innocence, and competition.” (BoingBoing)
US
The cyberwar plan, not just a defensive game – Nextgov
Stupid headline – who would think that cyber-warfare is about defense only.
„Computerized tools to penetrate an enemy’s phone system“, „computer viruses and malicious software programs that can disable electrical power systems, corrupt financial data, or hijack air traffic control systems“, „cyber-intruders have probed our electrical grid“ (no, not the squirrel terrorists), “we’d have cadres of people who’d know how to do that”, “Military forces fight for the ownership of that domain [cyber-battlefield]”, “Defense Department graduates only about 80 students per year from schools devoted to teaching cyber-warfare”, ” proposed building a military “botnet,” an army of centrally controlled computers to launch coordinated attacks on other machines”. “The risk of losing control of a weapon provides a powerful incentive not to use it”
See also: National Journal Magazine – The Cyberwar Plan
Who’s in Big Brother’s Database? – The New York Review of Books
Degree of surveillance measured in electricity bills: 70 millions per year http://bit.ly/3DwW49
Information Security News: NIST Drafts Cybersecurity Guidance
“tackling criticism that federal cybersecurity regulations have placed too much weight on periodic compliance audits”; “more onus on applying risk management throughout the lifecycle of IT systems”. Yawn.
[ISN] Inside the Ring – Chinese, Russian cyberwarfare
Like nuke-counting in the eighties.
Noteworthy: a new Cyber Security Alliance 14 tech firms form cybersecurity alliance for government — Government Computer News
Australia
Australian government overhauls national cyber security arrangements – Government & Policy “against increasing online espionage and attacks on critical infrastructure”, new CERT Australia, Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), details undisclosed
EU
Automated Social Networking Surveillance Systems Statebook is going to be developed!?
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How the Internet Ruined Newspapers, TV, Music, Movies, Microsoft – Newsweek 2010, The Internet: A Decade of Destruction – Internet Use/New Technologies „wherever companies were profiting by a lack of transparency or a lack of competition, wherever friction could be polished out of the system, those industries suffered“ – What about national political institutions (in the wider sense) then?