Conflict & Security archives: March-April 2005

• 29 April 2005
  

  "NATO signed a contract worth over euro20 million (U.S. $25 million) Thursday with a consortium including European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. and U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop a cutting edge ground surveillance system. The contract addresses issues leading to the design and development phase of a high-tech radar system to be mounted in Airbus planes and unmanned drones so allied forces can monitor ground movements from the air. The contract is part of a wider euro4 billion (U.S. $5.17 billion) deal that NATO cleared a year ago to develop the system with the consortium, which also includes Galileo Avionica, General Dynamics Canada, Indra and Thales." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 28 April 2005
  

  "Nuclear 'bunker busters' could destroy enemy hideouts hundreds of meters underground but, if the target is in an urban area, a strike could lead to more than a million civilian deaths, warns a report from the US National Research Council (NRC) issued on Wednesday. 'Using an earth-penetrating weapon to destroy a target 250 meters deep - the typical depth for most underground facilities - potentially could kill a devastatingly large number of people,' said John Ahearne, chair of the report committee. The report is unlikely resolve the heated debate over the Bush administration’s plans to develop a new Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator - a weapon hardened to penetrate deep into the ground." Learn more at the New Scientist.

• 27 April 2005
  

  "Computer criminals are coming up with ever stealthier ways to make money. Rather than attack PCs or email inboxes, their latest trick is to subvert the very infrastructure of the internet, the domain name system (DNS) that routes all net traffic. In doing so, they redirect internet users to bogus websites, where visitors could have their passwords and credit details stolen, be forced to download malicious software, or be directed to links to pay-per-click adverts. This kind of attack is called DNS cache poisoning or polluting. It was first done by pranksters in the early years of the internet, but it had limited impact and security patches eliminated the problem. Now new loopholes have opened and poisoning appears to be back." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 26 April 2005
  

  "When Shin-Guo Tsai gave notice of resignation from his job as a design engineer at the Fremont semiconductor company Volterra on Feb. 15, he allegedly told his manager that he was returning to Taiwan to get married and that he didn't have a job lined up. The story was a smoke screen, according to the FBI. Tsai, the agency alleges, had downloaded information on Volterra products. The FBI accuses him of using a private e-mail account to send some of the information to a Taiwanese startup company that was recruiting him for a job. Cases like this are far from unusual. Experts say U.S. companies are losing billions of dollars as a result of domestic and international espionage." Learn more about the growing problem of industrial espionage in SFGate.com.

• 25 April 2005
  

  "Florida law officials are contemplating a sequel to the controversial Matrix database that may be even more comprehensive than the original. The Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, contained billions of commercial and government records, and was intended to help police track down terrorists and kidnappers. But the system was shut down on April 15 when federal funds ran out. Considered overly invasive by many, the system's demise was celebrated by civil libertarians...Florida law enforcement officials want Matrix II to include more types of data than the original, including financial and insurance records, according to an April 12 for information from vendors." Learn more in Wired News.

• 22 April 2005
  

  "Imagine yourself, one balmy morning, on patrol in the Sadr City section of Baghdad. You and your US army unit advance along abandoned streets strewn with the burned-out shells of cars. Minarets peek out over dingy apartment blocks. Suddenly, a young Iraqi boy appears in the street. You halt, guns raised. 'Milk!' he yells, holding aloft a jug...Such are the vicarious thrills of Every Soldier a Sensor, a video game which was demonstrated for me recently. I was not in Iraq, but rather in an air-conditioned theatre...In offices created by an ex-Star Trek designer and using techniques and technology from movies and gaming, some of Hollywood's top creative talents are helping the US military to train for war in the 21st century." Learn more in the Guardian.

• 21 April 2005
  

  "Tax records, resumes, photo albums--the modern hard drive can keep increasingly larger volumes of information at the ready. But that can turn into a problem when it comes to effectively erasing the devices. There are a number of options for cleansing the drives of unwanted computers, from special wiping software to destruction services to manufacturers' recycling programs. But what many PC owners don't realize, experts say, is that these methods are often not enough...Two weeks ago, the National Association for Information Destruction announced that it could not endorse the use of wiping applications alone for deleting data from hard drives." Learn more at News.com.

• 20 April 2005
  

  "Security flaws in computer systems used by the Internal Revenue Service expose millions of taxpayers to potential identity theft or illegal police snooping, according to a congressional report released today. The IRS also is unlikely to know if outsiders are browsing through citizens' tax returns because it doesn't effectively police its computer systems for unauthorized use, the Government Accountability Office found. The report was released three days after the deadline for filing personal income tax returns, and at a time when concerns about identity theft and computer security are running high." Learn more in Computer World.

• 19 April 2005
  

  "It's there when you ride an elevator and make a purchase in a store. There's no escaping it in a museum. Look up at the stoplight and a camera may be watching you. Being lens-shy just doesn't cut it in today's camera-crazed world. Chances are, during a good part of your day, there's a camera nudging into your private space. There's no doubt surveillance cameras can aid police and protect property. Videos showing crimes are played routinely on news programs to help catch perpetrators. But those same cameras can make people feel violated and uneasy...Closed-circuit cameras are spreading in cities, a trend hastened by concerns about terrorist attacks but by other reasons, too, including the mere availability of the technology." Learn more in USA Today.

• 18 April 2005
  

  "The U.S. military has assembled the world's most formidable hacker posse: a super-secret, multimillion-dollar weapons program that may be ready to launch bloodless cyberwar against enemy networks -- from electric grids to telephone nets. The group's existence was revealed during a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month. Military leaders from U.S. Strategic Command, or Stratcom, disclosed the existence of a unit called the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare, or JFCCNW.In simple terms and sans any military parlance, the unit could best be described as the world's most formidable hacker posse. Ever." Learn more about this hacker group dedicated to defense of the U.S. in Wired News.

• 15 April 2005
  

  "Three companies are racing to market a new form of technology for detecting concealed weapons, using physics borrowed from radio astronomy and manufacturing techniques from cellular phone makers. The technology, called millimeter wave, is a new category of sensing so unobtrusive that it seems like something out of 'Star Trek.' Unlike conventional systems such as metal detectors, which sense magnetic fields created by certain materials or objects, or X-ray machines, which pass rays through objects, millimeter wave sensors are passive and rely on detecting energy emitted by objects. The energy the sensors look for is in an unfamiliar part of the electromagnetic spectrum, different from the usual visible light or infrared." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 14 April 2005
  

  "Japan's police and defense agencies said they had come under cyber attack, amid reports a Chinese website was calling for the jamming of Japanese servers amid a heated bilateral row. 'Access to the homepage of the National Police Agency was hampered from around 9:00 pm to 3:00 am,' the national police said in a statement. 'We are investigating the cause but it is highly possible that it was a cyber attack in which a large volume of information was sent to the address of the homepage,' it said. Japanese media reports said a Chinese website had urged Internet users to flood Japanese servers with irrelevant data. A police spokesman said the agency was 'aware of the call' from China but had not identified what hampered the access." Learn more in Yahoo News.

• 13 April 2005
  

  "The virus that caused the 1957 'Asian flu' pandemic has been accidentally released by a lab in the US, and sent all over the world in test kits which scientists are now scrambling to destroy. There are fears the virus could escape the labs, as the mistake was discovered after the virus escaped from a kit at a high-containment lab in Canada. Such an escape could spread worldwide, as demonstrated in Russia in the 1970s. The flu testing kits were sent to some 3700 labs between October 2004 and February 2005 by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), a professional body which helps pathology laboratories improve their accuracy, by sending them unidentified samples of various germs to identify...This is a problem because of the way pandemic flu strains edge each other out of circulation." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 12 April 2005
  

  "Computer hackers, electronic bugs and supersensitive microphones threaten to pierce the Vatican's thick walls next week when cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to name a papal successor. Spying has gotten a lot more sophisticated since John Paul was elected in 1978, but the Vatican seems confident it can protect the centuries-old tradition of secrecy that surrounds the gathering. 'It's not as if it's the first conclave we've handled,' said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Vatican security refused to discuss the details of any anti-bugging measures to be used during the conclave. But Giuseppe Mazzullo, a private detective and retired Rome policeman said the Holy See will reinforce its own experts with Italian police and private security contractors." Learn more in USA Today.

• 11 April 2005
  

  "Federal and state lawmakers, compelled by headlines of a computer-crime wave, are scrambling to introduce bills that would tighten cybersecurity and make it easier for prosecutors to file charges and impose stiffer penalties...At least a dozen federal and state bills covering privacy protection, phishing and spyware have been introduced on Capitol Hill and in state capitals this year. The bills are designed to staunch consumer losses. Identification theft cost consumers, banks and credit card companies $11.7 billion through the 12 months ended in April 2004, says researcher Gartner...But computer-security experts doubt the legislative outbreak will change matters." Learn more in USA Today.

• 8 April 2005
  

  "Pirates are making a mockery of the half-hearted efforts of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to make the Malacca Strait safe for shipping. When the three littoral states launched a plan last July to coordinate patrols of the strait, they were determined to make two points. One, the waterway through which a third of the world's trade and half its oil passes was not vulnerable to terrorist and pirate attacks. And two, the littoral states themselves were up to the task of securing the strait and assistance by foreign militaries was unnecessary. But four brazen pirate attacks in the strait in the past month alone have put paid to the littoral states' pretensions." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 7 April 2005
  

  "Since Sputnik arced across the sky in 1957, space has essentially been a weapons-free zone — exempted from war at times by international treaties and at others by the prohibitive expense and impracticality of arming the heavens. Today, however, as more nations gain access to space — and as success in war becomes far more dependent on satellite surveillance and communication — the United States is reassessing its space policy. The new position, emerging in documents and congressional testimony, in many respects mirrors President Bush's military policy on the ground." Learn more in USA Today.

• 6 April 2005
  

  "In the skies over Iraq, the number of remotely piloted aircraft - increasingly crucial tools in tracking insurgents, foiling roadside bombings, protecting convoys and launching missile attacks - has shot up to more than 700 now from just a handful four years ago, military officials say. As the American military continues to shift its emphasis to counterinsurgency and antiterrorism missions, the aircraft are in such demand that the Pentagon is poised to spend more than $13 billion on them through the end of the decade...There are nearly a dozen varieties in service now, from the 4.5-pound Ravens that patrol 100 feet off the ground to the giant Global Hawks that can soar at 60,000 feet and take on sophisticated reconnaissance missions." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 April 2005
  

  "As he sat in a detention facility in Colorado with other illegal immigrants as his deportation proceedings dragged along, Winifried Kreuzhagen, a German national, was approached with an offer from immigration officials. They would release him, but only if he agreed to wear an electronic ankle bracelet that would confirm he was home when he was supposed to be and if he submitted to intensive supervision, including a 150-mile round trip from his home in Colorado Springs to Denver three times a week to check in. 'I said, "Yeah, no matter what it takes,"' said the 53-year-old computer graphics designer." Learn more about this controversial new practice of tracking immigrants, in the Chicago Tribune.

• 4 April 2005
  

  "For over two decades, a compact, powerful warhead called the W-76 has been the centerpiece of the nation's nuclear arsenal, carried aboard the fleet of nuclear submarines that prowl the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But in recent months it has become the subject of a fierce debate among experts inside and outside the government over its reliability and its place in the nuclear arsenal. The government is readying a plan to spend more than $2 billion on a routine 10-year overhaul to extend the life of the aging warheads. At the same time, some weapons scientists say the warheads have a fundamental design flaw that could cause them to explode with far less force than intended." Learn more about this controversial plan to overhaul nuclear weapons, in the New York Times.

• 1 April 2005
  

  "Warning that the United States has escaped catastrophic biological attack largely by luck, the presidential commission on intelligence urged the American government on Thursday to intensify its efforts to block any biological assaults by terrorist groups or other countries...In other places around the globe, including Afghanistan, United States intelligence officials have apparently underestimated progress by terrorists and others in developing biological weapons, which are much cheaper to use and easier to acquire than a nuclear bomb, the report said. 'The threat is deeply troubling today; it will be more so tomorrow,' it said. 'The intelligence community, and the government as a whole, needs to approach the problem with a new urgency and new strategies.'" Learn more in the New York Times.

• 31 March 2005
  

  "US intelligence agencies know 'disturbingly little' about the weapons programmes of Washington's adversaries, an official report has found. It outlines about 70 recommendations for the new US director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, who will oversee all 15 US spy agencies. The report says dramatic changes are needed to prevent failures similar to the fiasco over Iraq's missing weapons. The White House, which ordered the study, has welcomed its conclusions... Looking beyond Iraq, the report said: 'The bad news is that we still know disturbingly little about the weapons programs and even less about the intentions of many of our most dangerous adversaries." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 30 March 2005
  

  "When a Johns Hopkins University researcher called a pig farmer and asked to use some of his porkers in a research study, the farmer was happy to oblige. 'We sell everything but the oink,' he replied. Actually, that's exactly what senior scientist Joany Jackman was looking for. 'I told him I wanted to buy pig breath, and there was silence for a while,' she said. But the farmer agreed to help by using a special mask to condense the water vapor from porcine breath. Armed with an analysis of the pig breath, Jackman and her colleagues hope they're on the road to a breathalyzer-like device that will instantly detect infection by bioterrorism agents like anthrax." Learn more in Wired.

• 29 March 2005
  

  "Eighty large net service firms have switched on software to spot and stop net attacks automatically. The system creates digital fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected. Firms involved in the smart sensing system believe it will help trace attacks back to their source. Data gathered will be passed to police to help build up intelligence about who is behind worm outbreaks and denial of service attacks. Firms signing up for the sensing system include MCI, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Energis, NTT, Bell Canada and many others. The creation of the fingerprinting system has been brokered by US firm Arbor Networks and signatures of attacks will be passed to anyone suffering under the weight of an attack. Increasingly computer criminals are using swarms of remotely controlled computers to carry out denial of service attacks on websites." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 28 March 2005
  

  "The Army's plan to transform itself into a futuristic high-technology force has become so expensive that some of the military's strongest supporters in Congress are questioning the program's costs and complexity. Army officials said Saturday that the first phase of the program, called Future Combat Systems, could run to $145 billion. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the 'technological bridge to the future' would equip 15 brigades of roughly 3,000 soldiers, or about one-third of the force the Army plans to field, over a 20-year span. That price tag, larger than past estimates publicly disclosed by the Army, does not include a projected $25 billion for the communications network needed to connect the future forces. Nor does it fully account for Army plans to provide Future Combat weapons and technologies to forces beyond those first 15 brigades." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 25 March 2005
  

  "The chance to win theatre tickets is enough to make people give away their identity, reveals a survey. Of those taking part 92% revealed details such as mother's maiden name, first school and birth date. The detailed personal information was gathered by market researchers who asked the questions as part of a fake survey on theatre-going habits. Dangling the chance to win free tickets was enough to make people surrender everything needed to impersonate them. During the course of the survey many people freely volunteered key details such as name, address and postcode. To elicit other details the questions asked by the market researchers were cleverly put together to make people hand over personal information." Learn more in the BBC.com.

• 24 March 2005
  

  "Homeland Security Department officials launched a test program today to help smaller communities get commercially available cutting-edge technology to better handle terrorist threats. Through the Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP), the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness will provide equipment and technical assistance to selected jurisdictions in accordance with their state's homeland security strategies. Under the program, first responders could receive a variety of technologies, including detection equipment for biological and chemical agents, night vision and thermal imaging devices, protective equipment, information-sharing and search software, analysis software and interoperable communications devices." Learn more in USA Today.

• 23 March 2005
  

  "Criminals are using computers more than crowbars according to one parliamentary lobbying group which is demanding political parties in the UK amend the laws to reflect the changing face of crime in the 21st century. The European Information Society Group (EURIM) claims half of all crime – in financial terms – is committed using computers, either to plan, commit or process. Many are automating old crimes such as fraudsters who have now adopted email as a default tool for financial scams. Philip Virgo, secretary general of EURIM, told silicon.com: 'It is phenomenally big business'. EURIM today announced the launch of a manifesto document which implores political parties to prioritise digital crimes as they do physical, offline offences." Learn more at Silicon.com.

• 22 March 2005
  

  "Hackers gained personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with a California university — the latest in a string of high-profile cases of identity theft. California State University, Chico spokesman Joe Wills said nearly all the current, former and prospective students, faculty and staff who were affected have been notified of the theft, which happened about three weeks ago. Hackers gained access to the victims' names and Social Security numbers. 'We still have no indication that the information was used for anything other than somebody wanting to have illegal access to this server,' Wills said. 'Typically, on a college campus that can be to download files, music and games. There's still no indication they were looking to take personal information.'" Learn more in USA Today.

• 21 March 2005
  

  "Five European governments are setting up a hi-tech team to monitor how terrorists and criminals use the net. The group will make recommendations on shutting down websites that break terrorism laws. The plans for the initiative came out of a meeting of the G5 interior ministers in Spain that discussed ways to tackle these threats. The five countries also agreed to make it easier to swap data about terror suspects and thefts of explosives. The interior ministers of Spain, Britain, France, Germany and Italy - the G5 - met in Granada this week for an anti-terrorism summit. To combat terrorism the ministers agreed to make it easier for police forces in their respective states to share data about suspects connected to international terror groups." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 18 March 2005
  

  "I recall 40 years ago, when I was a new professor working in the field of Chinese and Japanese international relations, that Edwin O Reischauer once commented, 'The great payoff from our victory of 1945 was a permanently disarmed Japan.'...Strange to say, since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and particularly under the administration of George W Bush, the United States has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament. Such a development promotes hostility between China and Japan, the two superpowers of East Asia, sabotages possible peaceful solutions in those two problem areas, Taiwan and North Korea, left over from the Chinese and Korean civil wars, and lays the foundation for a possible future Sino-American conflict that the United States would almost surely lose." Learn more at the Asia Times.

• 17 March 2005
  

  "Fake 'zombie' computer spies are infiltrating zombie networks and recording online exchanges between the networks and their human commanders. The fake zombies are deployed by members of the German Honeynet Project, which started collecting data on zombie armies in November 2004 and released the first paper detailing how to spy on zombie networks on Monday. 'With the help of honeynets we can observe the people who run botnets - a task that is difficult using other techniques,' says Thorsten Holz, a researcher at the RWTH-Aachen University, Germany, and founder of the German Honeynet Project...Holz's fake zombies have enabled him to spy on over 100 different botnets, some comprised of up to 50,000 zombie computers." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 16 March 2005
  

  "Back in 1346, it didn't take a CSI unit to uncover the culprits behind one of history's first cases of bioterrorism. Nobody could miss the plague-ridden corpses and heads catapulted over the walls of the ancient city of Kaffa, under siege by the Tartar army. Nor could Kaffa residents ignore the subsequent epidemic, which led to their surrender and may have set off the Black Death. Nearly seven centuries later, it's easier to secretly spread deadly germs around and harder to figure out who did it. But pioneers in the emerging field of bioterrorism forensics hope to change that equation by exposing the secrets lurking in the DNA of bioweapons." Learn more in Wired News.

• 15 March 2005
  

  "They operate under names such as carderplanet, stealthdivision, darkprofits and the shadowcrew. They buy and sell millions of credit card numbers, social security numbers and identification documents, typically for less than 10 bucks apiece. And they create sites and services to breed more skilled, like-minded organizations. Andrew Mantovani, David Appleyard, Brandon Monchamp and more than a dozen other members of the Shadowcrew were at work on their computers. Sure, it was 9 p.m. But their business—which, authorities say, was auctioning off stolen and counterfeit credit and identification cards—was booming. Shadowcrew is a Web mob, say law-enforcement officials: a highly organized group of criminals." Learn more at Baseline.

• 14 March 2005
  

  "Rampant identity theft is eroding users' trust in the Internet, and could threaten to erase some of the progress companies have made in doing business online, security experts warn. One possible solution is to create digital identities to curtail the incidents of ID theft, but this also comes with some liabilities, the experts say. They spoke on a panel at the CeBIT trade show here. 'We actually run the risk of taking a step back on the Internet. We're starting to see a lack of confidence and, even worse, companies are scaling back what they are doing on the Web,' says Art Coviello, president and chief executive officer of RSA Security." Learn more at PC World.

• 11 March 2005
  

  "Pakistan has confirmed that the former head of its nuclear weapons programme, AQ Khan, gave centrifuges for enriching uranium to Iran. It is the first time Pakistani officials have publicised details of what nuclear materials the disgraced scientist passed on to Iran. Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the BBC's Urdu service that "a few" centrifuges were involved. Iran is under international pressure over its nuclear ambitions. It says it intends to use enriched uranium only in power stations, but the US says Iran is making fuel for nuclear weapons. The Pakistani information minister stated again on Thursday that his government had no knowledge of Dr Khan's activities." Learn more in the BBC.com.

• 10 March 2005
  

  "Using misappropriated passwords and identifications from legitimate customers, hackers got access to personal information on as many as 32,000 U.S. citizens in a database owned by LexisNexis, the company's corporate parent said Wednesday. Reed Elsevier Group said the breach of its recently acquired Seisint unit was being investigated by staff and by U.S. law enforcement authorities. Boca Raton, Florida-based Seisint stores millions of personal records including individuals' addresses and social security numbers. Customers include police and legal professionals and public and private sector organizations...The breach at Seisint is the second of its kind at a large information provider in recent months." Learn more in Wired.

• 9 March 2005
  

  "Your phone bill says you've made long expensive calls to remote island nations you've never heard of. Your computer floods screen after screen with ads and runs as if someone poured molasses into it. After faithfully paying bills on time for years, you apply for a loan and are told, 'Sorry, not with your bad credit.'... In this discouraging, even frightening situation, privacy gumshoes offer a ray of hope. More adept with gigabytes than guns, these 21st-century Sam Spades can make the problems go away - for a price. At the top end are companies such as Gavin de Becker & Associates, a California consulting firm that among other things advises celebrities and other high-risk individuals on how to 'hide your identity from people who'd like to steal it,'" Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 8 March 2005
  

  "The arms race has begun anew in South Asia, with defense planners in New Delhi eyeing controversial deals, while Pakistan's neglected and cash-strapped military bosses in general headquarters in Rawalpindi are having to come up with alternative strategies to counter developments in India. India's defense purchase strategy has changed, with Indian planners now focused on the specific goal of neutralizing Pakistan's nuclear-warhead capability, and once this is achieved, the military balance will turn significantly in India's favor. A top military strategist told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity that this new Indian planning covers a three-to-four-year period, with the key being the proposed purchase of the United States' Patriot missile defense system." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 7 March 2005
  

  "'You are about as likely to get hit by a falling piano as you are to get a virus on your mobile phone,' says Graham Cluley, a security consultant at UK antivirus firm Sophos. Unlike PCs, phones simply have too many different operating systems for viruses to exploit, he says. And there are too few people who own the "smart phones" capable of receiving and transmitting new software - like a virus - to pose a real risk. Reading the newspapers last week, you may have got the opposite impression. On 21 February reports surfaced of the first two US phones to be infected with a virus outside a lab, sparking predictions of a bleak future in which viruses run rampant, rendering cellphones as useless as PCs hit by LoveBug, Sasser or MyDoom." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 4 March 2005
  

  "A quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know someone who has fallen victim to ID fraud, a magazine survey has suggested. Nevertheless, only one in three people said they shredded bills or used different passwords for every account. ID thieves access accounts, run up bills, launder money, carry out benefit fraud and take out fraudulent loans. ID fraud is one of the UK's fastest-growing crimes, with criminals netting an estimated £1.3bn last year. The survey of 975 people found seven out of 10 favoured compulsory ID cards as a way to fight fraud. Fraudsters use a host of methods to steal people's identities." Learn more about the prevalence of identity theft in the UK in an article at the BBC.com.

• 3 March 2005
  

  "The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture. 'I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research,' says Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, UK. 'Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown.'" Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 2 March 2005
  

  "Finally, something good may come of all those computer viruses. Bugs spread on the Internet can serve as a model for controlling invasive species, according to a new study. Scientists used 'network theory' to predict how the spiny water flea, native to Russia, will spread through lakes in Canada. The lakes are seen as nodes, which on the Internet are storage and rerouting locations. The flea, which has invaded dozens of lakes over the past two decades, is spread not by email but by humans, whose boats and trailers carry the critters from lake to lake. 'Some lakes invaded by the spiny water flea may serve as invasion hubs if departing boaters and anglers travel to large numbers of non-invaded destination lakes,' write ecologists Jim Muirhead and Professor Hugh MacIsaac of the University of Windsor, Ontario." Learn more in the MSNBC.com.

• 1 March 2005
  

  "Efforts to defend the US against bioterrorists - by throwing money at research - are backfiring, says a 750-strong group of top scientists. The US has poured billions of dollars into biodefence research since its anthrax attacks in 2001. More than half of the US scientists studying bacterial diseases have this week written to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) - their main funding agency - charging that the largess has created 'a crisis for microbiological research'....The US has poured money into researching potential bioweapons such as the bacteria that cause anthrax, plague and tularaemia, and viruses such as Ebola, Marburg and smallpox...But the letter's signatories say this has diverted research away from germs that - unlike putative weapons agents - already cause significant disease." Learn more in the New Scientist.