Conflict & Security archives

• 31 Auguast 2005
  "Numerous recent and seemingly unconnected events have highlighted the emerging fulcrums of potential alliances in Asia, as well as the possible focal points of conflict. First, Chinese energy company CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) has failed in its bid to acquire US energy company Unocal, even though it made a higher bid and offered better terms than its rival Chevron. At the same time, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a visit to the United States was given a grand welcome and promised assistance on its civilian nuclear power program, even though India is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and was frowned on for its nuclear tests in 1998." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 30 Auguast 2005
  "A trick reminiscent of a fun-house mirror might improve the security and privacy of the access-control technology that examines fingerprints, facial features or other personal characteristics. In such systems, known as biometrics, a computer generally reduces an image to a template of "minutia points" -- notable features such as a loop in a fingerprint or the position of an eye. Those points are converted to a numeric string by a mathematical algorithm, then stored for later analysis. But those mathematical templates, if stolen, can be dangerous. So researchers have developed ways to alter images in a defined, repeatable way, so that hackers who managed to crack a biometric database would be able to steal only the distortion -- not the true, original face or fingerprint." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 29 Auguast 2005
  "Spiderman does it, so does James Bond. Now a gadget has been developed to allow US marines to zip up the sides of buildings or ships with virtually no effort. All you do is fire a rope to the top of the structure using a harpoon gun or grappling hook, and then fit the rope into the device, called PowerQuick, which attaches to your climbing harness. Then just sit back and squeeze a lever. PowerQuick has been developed by Quoin International based in Carson City, Nevada, and can lift a load of 145 kilograms at a rate of 1 metre per second. A battery-powered motor turns a series of wheels and cogs to pull the rope through the device. One battery charge is enough to scale the Statue of Liberty five times." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 26 Auguast 2005
  "A high-powered, lightweight laser weapon that can be fitted to fighter aircraft to destroy missiles tens of kilometres away has been designed by DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US. Until now, lasers powerful enough to blow up missiles have been so big they can only be carried by large aircraft such as jumbo jets. For example, the Airborne Laser being developed by the US's Missile Defense Agency is designed to fit onto a Boeing 747 freighter aircraft to track and destroy ballistic missiles during their boost phase, although the weapon has yet to undergo flight tests. But now DARPA says it has managed to shrink all the hardware for such a weapon so that it can fit under the wing of a fighter jet or piggyback on a vehicle to zap anything from ground-to-air and air-to-air missiles to rocket-propelled grenades." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 25 Auguast 2005
  "This month, as they have every summer for 31 years, hundreds of thousands of North Korean soldiers will pour over the border and advance on the South Korean capital of Seoul, while U.S. and South Korean troops scramble to repel them. The invading troops, fortunately, are not real. They're the imaginary opponents in one of the world's largest war games, which the United States and the Republic of Korea hold annually. But even as the allies mobilize thousands of real soldiers for the exercise, thousands more, along with all the aircraft, will be strictly virtual. That's the case in a growing number of defense exercises. With ever-more-sophisticated simulation and modeling technology, the military today can mix and match real tanks, planes and ships with forces that exist only on computers." Learn more in Wired News.

• 24 Auguast 2005
  "A suspected hacker tapped into a military database containing Social Security numbers and other personal information for 33,000 Air Force officers and some enlisted personnel, an Air Force spokesman said Tuesday.

  That figure represents about half of the officers in the Air Force, but no identity theft had been reported as of early Tuesday, said Tech. Sgt. James Brabenec, a spokesman at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base. The case was under investigation. 'Protecting airmen's personnel information is something we take very seriously,' Maj. Gen. Tony Przybyslawski, commander of the personnel center, said in a statement. 'We are doing everything we can to catch and prosecute those responsible.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 23 Auguast 2005
  

  "Much of the argument over the intentions of Iran's nuclear program revolves around a single proposition that goes like this. Given that Iran has huge oil and gas reserves, it has no need for nuclear power for domestic energy needs and thus its nuclear program will be used for nuclear weapons. Like much so-called conventional wisdom, is this is a highly misleading and debatable cliche? Certainly, the fact that a state is pursuing a nuclear program per se, even if it is a nuclear proliferator, is not always a cause for alarm for the United States... The Foreign Affairs Select Committee of England's parliament said in March 2004 that based on a study it commissioned, 'It is clear...that the arguments as to whether Iran has a genuine requirement for domestically produced nuclear electricity are not all, or even predominantly, on one side.'" Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 22 Auguast 2005
  

  "Soldiers combing the mountains of Afghanistan or the deserts of Iraq for subterranean stashes of weapons of mass destruction--or even the elusive Osama bin Laden--may soon have help. Silicon Graphics Inc., or SGI, plans to announce Monday that it will be collaborating with the U.S. Army Battle Command Battle Laboratory in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., over the next several months on what it has dubbed a Subterranean Target Identification program. The program would allow soldiers to use seismic data from the Earth to help them feel out the presence of underground bunkers. Paul Temple, a senior manager for business development at SGI, said the idea was sparked by systems the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has developed for drillers in the oil and gas industry. The company expects to test the technology over the next couple of months and to issue a statement of its feasibility in October." Learn more at News.com.

• 19 Auguast 2005
  

  "For the first time, China and Russia are holding joint military exercises, from August 18-25, on the Jiaodong peninsula in China's Shandong province and in the Yellow Sea, involving 10,000 troops and an array of modern military technology. Should their neighbors in the Asia-Pacific be alarmed? Yes and no. On the one hand, the Peace Mission 2005 exercises attest to a potential challenge by China and Russia to a US-dominated security order in Asia. Yet the exercises also reveal differences in Sino-Russian political goals that will limit future strategic cooperation. Peace Mission 2005, organized within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), reflects growing concern in Moscow and Beijing about the destabilizing political consequences of US military involvement near their borders." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 18 Auguast 2005
  

  "A series of Pentagon initiatives aimed at space militarization and the creation of new types of armament - capable of precisely striking small targets in every corner of the world and neutralizing most of today's anti-aircraft defenses - will likely result in a new power battlefield in the near future. While the implementation of space weapons is likely to increase the capability gap between Washington and other powers at first, a broader vision reveals dangers involved in the move that could affect US interests, for it will likely trigger determined reactions by its competitors. Competitor states could successfully deploy a small number of low-cost orbital weapons, thus forcing the US to design an extremely expensive space defense system. Thus, a space weaponization policy may generate more troubles than advantages for Washington." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 17 Auguast 2005
  

  "A spat between rival computer worm writers has escalated into a destructive free-for-all, with an assortment of worms infecting thousands of computers worldwide and disrupting several high profile companies. The worms all exploit the same bug in the Plug and Play feature of the Windows 2000 operating system. This feature lets Windows PCs recognise and use new hardware, but the bug enables an attacker to break into a computer by sending specially crafted data. The Plug and Play bug only affects the Windows 2000 operating system but, according to analyst figures, this remains the most commonly used operating system on large corporate networks. Microsoft announced the bug, and also released a software patch to squash it, on 9 August. But worm writers were quick to latch onto it, developing code to exploit it automatically within just a few days." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 16 Auguast 2005
  

  "Six could be seen peering out from a chain drug store on Broadway. One protruded awkwardly from the awning of a fast-food restaurant. A supersized, domed version hovered like a flying saucer outside Columbia University. All were surveillance cameras and -- to the dismay of civil libertarians and with the approval of law enforcement -- they've been multiplying at a dizzying rate all over Manhattan. A student at Sarah Lawrence, Alex Stone-Tharp is among a dozen college interns enlisted by the New York Civil Liberties Union to bolster their side of a simmering debate over whether surveillance cameras wrongly encroach on privacy, or effectively combat crime and even terrorism." Learn more in Wired News.

• 15 Auguast 2005
  

  "Two recent defense-related happenings in India and Pakistan are of note. Pakistan has test-fired its first cruise missile, which India believes cannot happen without the help of the Chinese. Second, there are revelations of a quiet but steep climb in India-Israel defense relations, despite stiff competition from Russia, France and United Kingdom, the traditional big suppliers to India. The US, which has opened its arms arsenal to India, is expected to give Israel stiff competition. The two developments in Pakistan and India are inter-linked. They show that despite confidence-building measures, peace talks, synergies in the Iran-Pakistan-India oil pipeline and the recent breakthroughs in trade-related matters, India and Pakistan continue to stockpile arms, and suspicions refuse to subside." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 12 Auguast 2005
  

  "Attention hackers: Uncle Sam wants you. As scam artists, organized-crime rings and other miscreants find a home on the Internet, top federal officials are trolling hacker conferences to scout talent and talk up the glories of a career on the front lines of the information wars. 'If you want to work on cutting-edge problems, if you want to be part of the truly great issues of our time ... we invite you to work with us,' Assistant Secretary of Defense Linton Wells told hackers at a recent conference in Las Vegas. Wells and other 'feds' didn't exactly blend in at Defcon, an annual gathering of computer-security experts and teen-age troublemakers that celebrates the cutting edge of security research." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 11 Auguast 2005
  

  "Cellphones provide a simple yet effective way for terrorists to remotely trigger a bomb. But now a portable device devised by US defence contractor Raytheon could quickly identify and disable such weapons. The device includes a transmitter that mimics a cellphone base station and a metal horn to concentrate the signal from a 10 milliwatt power source in a single direction. Scanning suspicious luggage with the tool tricks a concealed phone into thinking it is in range of a new network base station and blocks it from any genuine stations in the vicinity. The suspect phone will also respond with a 'handshake signal' containing its phone number, allowing a network operator to temporarily disconnect it from the real network, and preventing it from receiving a detonation call. If the suspect phone turns out to be innocent, the worst that happens is that the phone needs re-connection." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 10 Auguast 2005
  

  "Lost in the recent London bombings, along with innocent lives, was any illusion that today's surveillance technology can save us from evildoers. Britain has 4 million video cameras monitoring streets, parks, and government buildings, more than any other country. London alone has 500,000 cameras watching for signs of illicit activity. Studying camera footage helped link the July 7 bombings with four men -- but only after the fact. The disaster drove home some painful reminders: Fanatics bent on suicide aren't fazed by cameras. Research laboratories envision tools that could identify and track just about every person, anywhere -- and sound alarms when the systems encounter hazardous objects or chemical compounds." Learn more in Business Week.

• 9 Auguast 2005
  

  "Iran's resumption of uranium-processing activities and the EU-US warning of sanctions in response to Iran's rejection of the latest European proposal have set the stage for a full-scale international crisis engulfing the United Nations at a time the world organization can ill-afford the entanglement of this crisis. Already, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned in a recent interview of a Security Council deadlock, given the potential Russia and China veto of any proposed Western sanctions against Iran. This would paralyze the UN at a sensitive time when the burning issues of UN reform could easily be made more complicated as a result of confluence with the Iran crisis." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 8 Auguast 2005
  

  "It's been said that the suicide bombers who cause the scenes of carnage and chaos relayed on American TV screens and front pages must be driven by a cocktail of religious fanaticism and outright insanity. However, some experts — including people who are advising the U.S. government on terrorism — said not only are suicide bombers sane, but also that anyone of us, under the right circumstances, could become one. "Absolutely, this is normal psychology, normal group dynamics," said Clark R. McCauley, a Bryn Mawr College psychology professor who is part of an outside team consulting for the Department of Homeland Security. 'Normal people, given the right circumstances or right set of friends, can become suicide bombers,' said Marc Sageman, a forensic psychiatrist and former CIA officer." Learn more in ABC News.

• 5 Auguast 2005
  "The snapshots of Iraqi prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib were taken by soldiers and shared in the digital military netherworld of Iraq. Their release to the world in May last year detonated a media explosion that rocked a presidential campaign, cratered America's moral high ground, and demonstrated how even a superpower could be blitzkrieged by some homemade downloadable porn. In the middle of it all, a lone reservist sergeant stationed on the Iraqi border posed a simple question: I cannot help but wonder upon reflection of the circumstances, how much longer we will be able to carry with us our digital cameras. The writer was 24-year-old Chris Missick, a soldier with the Army's 319th Signal Battalion and author of the blog A Line in the Sand." Learn more about military blogs in Wired News.

• 4 Auguast 2005
  "Net criminals and hackers are increasingly targeting their attacks at specific organisations, research shows. Worst hit, according to a worldwide survey by IBM, are government departments, financial services, manufacturing and healthcare. Of the 237 million security attacks in the first half of 2005, 137 million were aimed at these four areas. Spam is becoming less attractive as criminals focus on fraud, identity theft and extortion. This has meant a decrease in the ratio of spam to legitimate e-mail from 83% in January to 67% in June. While spam seems to be on the decline, viruses are definitely not. According to IBM, the January average of one in every 52 e-mails infected with some sort of malicious security threat has risen to one in every 28 by June." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 3 Auguast 2005
  "The Iranian government's threat to resume limited nuclear activities after the European Union (EU) missed a deadline on Monday to offer new incentives, and the EU's response, indicate the hardening of positions on both sides. The EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) has rebuffed Iran's call and warned against 'any unilateral move' on Tehran's part that would be 'unnecessary and damaging' and could 'make it very difficult to continue' negotiations. On Tuesday, the EU went as far as to warn Iran that it would end two years of negotiations over nuclear projects if Tehran fulfilled its threats to end its freeze on the enrichment of uranium. The threats are seen by observers in India, which has just signed a nuclear energy pact with the United States, as part of a cynical game of nuclear poker now being played over Iran." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 2 Auguast 2005
  "Here's a new excuse for not getting to work on time on a Monday morning: My car caught a virus. Car industry officials and analysts say hackers' growing interest in writing viruses for wireless devices puts auto computer systems at risk of infection. As carmakers adjust on-board computers to allow consumers to transfer information with MP3 players and mobile phones, they also make their vehicles vulnerable to mobile viruses that jump between devices via the Bluetooth technology that connects them. 'I'm afraid there is a risk in using a Bluetooth connection in cars,' said Yevgeni Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at closely held Russian firm Kaspersky Lab. 'If the smartphones and on-board computers have the same channel to transfer the data ... sooner or later the hackers will find the vulnerability in the operating systems.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 1 Auguast 2005
  "Police are always trying to get inside criminals' minds to predict their next move. In Yonkers, New York, last week a police computer turned this guessing game into a science by correctly forecasting the time and place of a robbery -- and dispatched officers to nab the perpetrators. Lt. James McLaughlin of the Yonkers Police Department technical support unit used a PC to analyze crime statistics and predict the time and location of a robbery before it occurred. McLaughlin's PC said a robbery would occur between 8 p.m. and midnight on July 27 on South Broadway in Yonkers, New York." Learn more in Wired News.

• 29 July 2005
  "Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems is fighting a shareholder action that urges the company to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy for its dealings with the Chinese government, and with other states practicing political censorship of the internet. A shareholder resolution filed last May by the Massachusetts-based investment group Boston Common Asset Management calls for Cisco to add human rights considerations to the criteria it uses to certify resellers. A report from the OpenNet Initiative watchdog group last April singled out Cisco for allegedly enabling the Chinese government's notorious 'Great Firewall.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 28 July 2005
  "Scams involving Internet auctions, as well as identity theft, lotteries, prizes and sweepstakes, top the list of fraud complaints by older Americans, who lost $152 million to con artists last year, U.S. officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday. Internet-based scams are growing and now account for about 41 percent of fraud complaints the Federal Trade Commission receives from people over 50, Lois Greisman of the FTC's consumer protection division told the Senate Committee on Aging. 'This figure is all the more dramatic when one considers that Internet-related fraud represented only 33 percent of all fraud complaints from this age group in 2002,' she said." Learn more at News.com.

• 27 July 2005
  "Nuclear non-proliferation can readily be compared to basic economics. Like the regulation of any functioning market, it's about influencing demand and supply. But what the failure of the May review conference of the parties to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has shown, regulating demand has been quietly neglected in favor of regulating supply. On the demand side of proliferation there is the largely theoretical question as to why states decide to acquire nuclear weapons. On the supply side, there is the more practical question as to how states go nuclear...theories that aim to explain why states seek nuclear weapons remain piecemeal at best.Why did the Ukraine return its arsenal to the Soviet Union, which unarguably represented the gravest threat to its newfound independence?" Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 26 July 2005
  "Along a crowded stretch of highway just south of Miami's downtown is a shopping area that might be called the data theft capital of the United States. In the wireless hacker equivalent of a drive-by shooting wave, criminals obtained the cardholder information of tens of thousands of customers at four major stores there, including a DSW Shoes retail outlet that appears to have been the initial source of a chainwide data breach. Recent investigations reveal that the thieves singled out stores with strong wireless signals and weakly protected data. While their exact methods are not known, they could have parked a car outside a store or set up in the local Starbucks, using a laptop computer outfitted with an off-the-shelf wireless receiver." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 25 July 2005
  "Hackers who seek out loopholes in popular programs could soon get cash rewards for their finds. Security firm Tipping Point is setting up a scheme that will see it spend substantial sums to buy bugs sent in by researchers that join the project. Those who top the scheme's rewards system could be earning $50,000 a year from their bug hunting. Although Tipping Point is collecting the bugs, it said it would share finds with other security firms. Many small security companies make their living by exhaustively analysing popular programs, such as Microsoft Windows, for loopholes and bugs. If these bugs go unpatched they could leave the users of these programs vulnerable to exploitation by criminal hackers." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 22 July 2005
  "Volunteers taking part in tests of the Pentagon's 'less-lethal' microwave weapon were banned from wearing glasses or contact lenses due to safety fears. The precautions raise concerns about how safe the Active Denial System weapon would be if used in real crowd-control situations. The ADS fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam, which is supposed to heat skin and to cause pain but no physical damage. Little information about its effects has been released, but details of tests in 2003 and 2004 were revealed after an organisation campaigning against the use of biological and non-lethal weapons - requested them under the Freedom of Information Act." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 21 July 2005
  "India is emerging as a decisive player in US-China bilateral relations, often regarded as the real landmark of this decade's geopolitics. New Delhi launched a potentially revolutionary 'strategic partnership for peace and prosperity' with China on April 11. The move was aimed at ending the Sino-Indian border dispute on Aksai-Chin (existing since 1962), and at boosting mutual trade and economic ties. Prospects for a more cooperative relationship between the two Asian giants are to be read in light of regional powers' ambitions to reshape the world order along the guidelines of a balanced multipolarity - a goal already expressed by China, France and Russia, among other states." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 20 July 2005
  "The science of the very small has big military, economic and security implications for the future. From molecular manufacturing to incredibly smart chemical weapons, the raw materials and ultimate paraphernalia that nanotechnology will enable boggle the imagination of even science fiction aficionados. However, experts who scrutinize the science and significance of nanoscale devices differ on how this kind technology will affect future generations as well as on what should be done today to keep the United States out front in this field. Primary issues of concern include who should be keeping an eye on developments in the field. Nanotechnology may or may not turn out to be a disruptive force, but it is, without a doubt, an enabler." Learn more in Signal Magazine.

• 19 July 2005
  "Computer attacks cost U.S. companies, government agencies and universities far less than they did a year ago, a new survey says. But what was good for them may be bad for consumers and employees. Figures from the Computer Security Institute, an organization of information-security professionals, and the FBI show that more computer systems are better prepared to identify and fend off computer attacks. Yet the report, released last week, also concludes that profit-minded hackers are targeting enterprises with large customer and employee databases. 'The crooks are shifting their focus' to stealing the personal information of individuals, says Robert Richardson, CSI's editorial director. 'That's where the money is.'" Learn more in USA Today.

• 18 July 2005
  "Want to find a long-lost college buddy? Think your husband or wife is cheating on you? Numerous Web sites make being a private investigator as easy as double clicking. There's Yahoo People Search, which allows people to type in a name and get an address and phone number. Typing a phone number into Google can bring up phone book results including addresses. Other common directories include Switchboard and WhitePages.com. The basic information those sites provide is fairly innocuous, not much more than what people find in a good phone book. But smaller, lesser-known Web sites are cropping up that offer a speedy way to get much more sensitive information." Learn more at News.com.

• 15 July 2005
  "CTV News has learned Canada's ultra-secret spy agency recently detected what the Communications Security Establishment says were: 'a series of sophisticated intrusions into the federal government's computer systems.' The agency, Canada's national cryptologic agency, says the attacks were minimal, and refuses to divulge exactly what the hackers were after or reveal their identities. But Julie Spallin, federal director of The Canadian Cyber Response Centre, admits: 'There is a threat to Canada in the cyber realm.' Spallin says the hackers targeted specific, sensitive information. 'Economic information is typically the most sought after' in these types of intrusions, she reveals. Foreign intelligence agencies and organized crime have been known to attempt to steal information over the Internet." Learn more at CTV.com.

• 14 July 2005
  "Within hours of the London bombings, a renewed call went up for the United States to use its considerable technology heft to prevent similar attacks on the nation's transit system. Public transit's chief lobbyist said its members need $6 billion to upgrade security, and Congress is expected to increase funding in the coming weeks. Sensing opportunity, some technology companies aggressively advertised their potential to create gadgets to detect bombs and chemical and biological weapons. But ideas such as smoke-detector-like devices sounding an alarm when a bomb-porting terrorist enters a train station are years and billions of dollars from fruition — if ever. The best current defenses for the country's subways, buses and trains, security experts say, remain decidedly low tech: human vigilance and bomb-sniffing dogs." Learn more in USA Today.

• 13 July 2005
  "The Guardian of June 9 reported the disappearance from the International Atomic Energy Agency of a set or sets of detailed engineering plans for making nuclear materials and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). While there never have been any significant scientific secrets on the nuclear bomb, there has been somewhat restricted engineering information that would enable others to speed up, make more cheaply and avoid obvious tell-tale aspects of acquisition. Now we must assume that production information is widely available. It appears that this is a more important stage in the increasing insecurity of the world than may have been realized." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 12 July 2005
  "To Karl, a 38-year-old former cabdriver hoping for a career in real estate sales, the help-wanted ad radiated hope. The ad sought 'correspondence managers' willing to receive parcels at home, then reship them overseas. The pay: $24 a package. Karl applied at kflogistics.biz, a fraudulent Web site imitating a legitimate site. He quickly received an e-mail notifying him he had landed the job, followed by instructions on how to take receipt of digital cameras and laptop computers, affix new labels and 'reship' the items overseas. Easy enough. Within weeks, he had sent off six packages, including digital cameras and computer parts, to various addresses in Russia. Little did Karl know he had become an unwitting recruit in a growing scheme to assist online criminals." Learn more in Wired News.

• 11 July 2005
  "For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. 'Directed-energy' pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on 'Star Trek' could be set to kill or merely stun. Such weapons are now nearing fruition. But logistical issues have delayed their battlefield debut — even as soldiers in Iraq encounter tense urban situations in which the nonlethal capabilities of directed energy could be put to the test...The hallmark of all directed-energy weapons is that the target — whether a human or a mechanical object — has no chance to avoid the shot because it moves at the speed of light." Learn more in USA Today.

• 8 July 2005
  "Japan is embarking on a historic and potentially dangerous journey into space, urged on by the US, which seeks a more heavily armed and militarily active partner in the Asia-Pacific...Japan is working on both military and civilian space technologies, developing so-called 'missile defense' systems, new generations of military spy satellites, and planning for manned stations on the moon. All of these programs will come at a tremendous cost to Japanese taxpayers and will set the course for a more aggressive foreign policy in the coming years. Most important, Japanese military space developments dramatically link Japan and the US militarily...to counter China's development as a global economic competitor." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 7 July 2005
  "The Air Force is eyeing a seldom-used region of the Earth's atmosphere called 'near space' for communications and intelligence-gathering with one of the oldest types of aircraft — balloons. The air at 65,000 feet and higher is too thin for most traditional airplanes, so military officials are testing unmanned helium balloons at those altitudes. This frigid part of the atmosphere is above most weather but well below low Earth orbit, where the far costlier space station and satellites operate. A key advantage of balloons and blimps is they may be able to stay aloft much longer than an airplane." Learn more in USA Today.

• 6 July 2005
  "The most expensive wares in Moscow's software markets, the items that some Russians are calling a threat to their personal safety, aren't on public display. It takes less than 15 minutes to find them, however, at the teeming Gorbushka market, a jumble of kiosks selling DVDs, CD-ROMs and an array of gadgetry in an old factory west of downtown. In Moscow these days, among people who deal in stolen information, the category of everything is surprisingly broad. This Gorbushka vendor offers a hard drive with cash transfer records from Russia's central bank for $1,500 (Canadian)." Learn more in the Globe and Mail.

• 5 July 2005
  "Driven in part by fears of terrorism, government secrecy has reached a historic high by several measures, with federal departments classifying documents at the rate of 125 a minute as they create new categories of semi-secrets bearing vague labels like 'sensitive security information.' A record 15.6 million documents were classified last year, nearly double the number in 2001, according to the federal Information Security Oversight Office. The increasing secrecy - and its rising cost to taxpayers, estimated by the office at $7.2 billion last year - is drawing protests from a growing array of politicians and activists, including Republican members of Congress." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 4 July 2005
  "Several facets are being highlighted after the 10-year defense agreement titled the "New Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship" was signed this week by Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his US counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld. India has always been wary of the US as a reliable partner in defense, due to its penchant for imposing sanctions that affect supplies and maintenance. The offer for joint weapons production, apart from sales of weapons, sets the tone for a long-term relationship - though how matters finally pan out is still quite open. The agreement also sets the stage for the visit to the US of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh three weeks from now." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 1 July 2005
  "Suspected internet pirates in 11 countries have been raided in a global operation against illegal distributors of movies, games and software. Led by the FBI, the search and seizure operation netted copyrighted material worth $50m and led to seven arrests. Eight servers used to distribute the pirated goods to net users and file-sharing networks were shut down. Pirated films on offer via the pirate networks included Revenge of the Sith, said US Justice Department officials. The raids came out of three FBI undercover operations run out of Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte in North Carolina." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 30 June 2005
  

  "An avalanche of new rules for corporate data security and stiff penalties for information burglars are included in a far-reaching bill introduced Wednesday in the U.S. Senate. The bill represents the most aggressive--and at 91 pages, the most regulation-oriented--legislative proposal crafted so far in response to a slew of high-profile security breaches in the last few months. One portion of the bill, named the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, restricts the sale or publication of Social Security numbers. Also, businesses would be prohibited from requiring SSNs except in a narrow set of circumstances such as obtaining credit reports and applying for a job or an apartment." Learn more at News.com.

• 29 June 2005
  

  "The vulnerability of the U.S. milk supply makes it a tempting target for terrorists armed with botulinum toxin, a new study contends. Contamination of the milk supply could easily make hundreds of thousands of people severely ill with botulism, a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, the study authors suggest.To show the ease with which milk could be infected with botulism, study authors Lawrence M. Wein and Yifan Liu of Stanford University constructed a mathematical model that took into account the nine-stage 'cows-to-consumers' supply chain." Learn more at Forbes.com.

• 28 June 2005
  

  "The White House has decided to reject classified recommendations by a presidential commission that would have given the Pentagon greater authority to conduct covert action, senior government officials said Monday. The decision is a victory for the Central Intelligence Agency, which has long been the principal architect and instrument of the secretive operations. The agency has been struggling to retain its authority in the power structure headed by John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, especially as the Pentagon has pressed for a greater role in intelligence operations." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 27 June 2005
  

  "The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the cold war, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive that a speck can cause cancer. Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Officials say the program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 24 June 2005
  

  "The Defense Department and a private contractor have been building an extensive database of 30 million 16-to-25-year-olds, combining names with Social Security numbers, grade-point averages, e-mail addresses and phone numbers. The department began building the database three years ago, but military officials filed a notice announcing plans for it only last month. That is apparently a violation of the federal Privacy Act, which requires that government agencies accept public comment before new records systems are created...[the undersecretary of defense] said the database was just a tool to send out general material from the Pentagon to those most likely to enlist." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 23 June 2005
  

  "What comes to mind when you think of wireless Web surfing? It may not be security, or lack of it. There are nearly 30,000 public wireless 'hot spots' in the United States at places such as parks and cafes, but there's more to consider than just where to log on. The convenience comes with a caveat. 'Understand that the information you're sending is very similar to standing up here in the park and shouting out all the information -- would I normally do that?' said Richard Rushing, a wireless expert with security firm Air Defense who visited an Atlanta park to show security vulnerabilities. Rushing is considered an 'ethical hacker' and works with companies to strengthen their wireless networks." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 22 June 2005
  

  "The chance of an attack with a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next 10 years runs as high as 70 percent, arms experts have predicted in a U.S. survey. Most of the more than 80 experts surveyed in the report released on Tuesday believed one or two new countries will acquire nuclear weapons in the next five years, with two to five countries joining the nuclear club during the next decade. The survey, commissioned by U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, also showed that four out of five people said their country was not spending enough on non-proliferation efforts. The most likely scenario for a nuclear attack would be for terrorists to use a weapon they made themselves." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 21 June 2005
  

  "'Want drive fast cars?"'asks an advertisement, in broken English, atop the Web site iaaca.com. "Want live in premium hotels? Want own beautiful girls? It's possible with dumps from Zo0mer." A 'dump,' in the blunt vernacular of a relentlessly flourishing online black market, is a credit card number. And what Zo0mer is peddling is stolen account information for Gold Visa cards and MasterCards at $100 apiece. It is not clear whether any data stolen from CardSystems Solutions, the payment processor reported on Friday to have exposed 40 million credit card accounts to possible theft, has entered this black market. But law enforcement officials and security experts say it is a safe bet that the data will eventually be peddled at sites like iaaca.com." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 20 June 2005
  

  "CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an 'excellent idea' where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened. In an interview with TIME magazine published Sunday, Goss said part of the difficulty in capturing bin Laden was 'sanctuaries in sovereign nations.' The magazine asked Goss when bin Laden would be captured. 'That is a question that goes far deeper than you know,' he said. 'In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 17 June 2005
  

  "The random chatter of several hundred Microsoft engineers filled the cavernous executive briefing center recently at the company's sprawling campus outside Seattle. Within minutes after their meeting was convened, however, the hall became hushed. Hackers had successfully lured a Windows laptop onto a malicious wireless network. 'It was just silent,' said Stephen Toulouse, a program manager in Microsoft's security unit. 'You couldn't hear anybody breathe.' The demo was part of an extraordinary two days in which outsiders were invited into the heart of the Windows empire for the express purpose of exploiting flaws in Microsoft computing systems." Learn more in News.com.

• 16 June 2005
  

  "For 65 years, the Mojave Desert has spawned the fastest, highest-flying and most agile airplanes in the world. This vast expanse of scrub and Joshua tree forests encompasses the U.S. Air Force’s deadly-secret Area 51 in Nevada, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, and, at Mojave airfield itself, Burt Rutan’s sci-fi enclave, Scaled Composites. At the heart of it all is the flight-test center at Edwards Air Force Base—and here is where a very nontraditional confrontation over the future of air combat is beginning to play out. In one corner of the base resides the USAF’s current star project, the Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor...In tests last year, the pilots of older F-15s that engaged the Raptors in simulated combat never saw the airplane that 'hit' them." Learn more in Popular Science.

• 15 June 2005
  

  "Apple iPods have become the tool of choice for some fraudsters who use them to download vast quantities of corporate information either to sell to rivals or to support their own start-up operations. Anti-fraud experts warned yesterday that the machines, along with other music players, that boast hard drives with up to 20Gbytes of memory, could become widely used by employees to fool security officials and breach data security rules. In one case a recruitment agency found much of its client database had been copied to an iPods's memory and used to defraud the firm. Staff who have been given the sack or missed out on promotions are the most likely to turn to this type of fraud." Learn more in the Guardian.

• 14 June 2005
  

  "Chinese bloggers, even on foreign-sponsored sites, better chose their words carefully--the censors are watching. Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.'s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities --such as democracy, freedom, and human rights. However, the restrictions appear to apply only to the subject line of such entries. Writing them into the text seems to be no problem. Microsoft's Chinese staff could not be reached immediately for comment. However, a spokesman at the tech giant's headquarters in Seattle acknowledged that the company is cooperating with the Chinese government to censor its Chinese-language Web portal." Learn more in Information Week.

• 13 June 2005
  

  "Virus writers have adopted a new tactic to try to make sure their malicious programs reach as many victims as possible. Instead of releasing Windows viruses intermittently, many creators of worms and trojans are pumping them out with increasing frequency. For a while new variants of one virus, called Mytob, were appearing every hour. Some viruses appear in hundreds of different guises. This tactic is designed to fox security firms that use software to scan e-mail attachments for the signatures of known viruses. The variants are appearing far faster than firms can analyse them and update their scanners to spot the malicious code. The tactic seems to be paying off." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 10 June 2005
  

  "A year-long campaign by the Hu Jintao government to silence unofficial voices in China and to assert control over independent expression continues with an order this week for all Chinese websites and bloggers to register their real names with authorities, or be closed by June 30. Tens of thousands of Chinese use cyberspace to publish views on subjects ranging from politics to relationships, and have been able to avoid official censure by writing anonymously. But now Internet activity will be monitored in real time by Information Ministry computers. Sites and users not registered may be arrested. Official efforts to police cyberspace here comes amid a host of new measures and events that underscore a broad tightening of controls by the central government." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 9 June 2005
  

  "Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators. The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale. Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran." Learn more in the Guardian.

• 8 June 2005
  

  "Recently a publicist offered me a nice little scoop involving two of her clients, who planned to post a list of 10 U.S. advertisers that have been flouting the Can-Spam Act of 2003 by ignoring consumers' demands to unsubscribe. Instead of cutting down on spam, attempted delisting just generated more mounds of e-mail. Would I be interested? Sure, I said. I hate spam as much as the next guy -- provided the next guy thinks spammers should be forced to visit every single person they have bombarded with junk e-mail and manually delete each ad. I also knew just how murky a world spam is, and how difficult it is to police, since nothing and no one is what it seems to be." Learn more in an article by Adam Penenberg of Wired News.

• 7 June 2005
  

  "Network security experts F-Secure say there's a relatively simple reason why even the savviest cell phone owners are falling prey to a new virus. Phone owners are duped because the virus, known as Commwarrior, is attached to premium cell phone e-mail known as MMS, which makes incoming e-mail look as if it was sent by someone the victim knows, according to F-Secure's analysis of an interview with a Commwarrior victim in Finland.'"People just are unwilling to mistrust something coming from a friend,' F-Secure representative Marie Clark wrote in an e-mail." Learn more at News.com.

• 6 June 2005
  

  "Two people in an office here were having a tête-à-tête, but it was impossible for a listener standing nearby to understand what they were saying. The conversation sounded like a waterfall of voices, both tantalizingly familiar and yet incomprehensible. The cone of silence, called Babble, is actually a device composed of a sound processor and several speakers that multiply and scramble voices that come within its range. About the size of a clock radio, the first model is designed for a person using a phone, but other models will work in open office space. The voice scrambling technology used in Babble was developed by Applied Minds. Learn more in the New York Times.

• 3 June 2005
  

  "When Google Inc.'s 19 million daily users look up a long-lost classmate, send e-mail or bounce around the Web more quickly with its new Web Accelerator, records of that activity don't go away. In an era of increased government surveillance, privacy watchdogs worry that Google's vast archive of Internet activity could prove a tempting target for abuse. Like many other online businesses, Google tracks how its search engine and other services are used, and who uses them. Unlike many other businesses, Google holds onto that information for years." Learn more at CNN.com (link no longer exists).

• 2 June 2005
  

  "A federal initiative as ambitious as the Manhattan Project is needed to protect the nation from infectious diseases, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, said Wednesday in a lecture at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Frist, who studied medicine at Harvard, said the effort would defend against both bioterrorism and diseases that are spread naturally. He said that the United States and the rest of the world were unprepared for a potential pandemic despite signs that emerging viruses like the avian flu are capable of causing sharp losses of life. Dr. Frist said he had not yet developed an estimate of the costs to the federal government of his proposal." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 1 June 2005
  

  "It looks like a watermelon-sized eyeball on wheels that glows in hues of purple, blue and orange while gurgling with whimsical buzzes and rings. The new Roborior gadget works as interior decor, but it's also a virtual guard dog because it has a digital camera, infrared sensors and videophone capability to notify you of intruders while you are away from home. The $2,600 contraption by Japanese robot maker Tmsuk Co. and electronics company Sanyo Electric Co. can connect with the owner's mobile phone to relay streaming video taken on the robot's digital camera. It can be remote-controlled with a handset to go forward, backward, left or right. The buttons also adjust the angle of the digital camera to look up or down." Learn more in ABC News.

• 31 May 2005
  

  "Companies offering internet-based phone services in the US have been given just 120 days to ensure that their lines provide access to the emergency services, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled last week. Internet phone services, known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP, have been heralded as the future of telephony, as they promise virtually free phone calls. But the FCC ruling threatens to burst the VoIP bubble. The new rules are likely to push up the cost of VoIP calls, and could also reduce competition by squeezing smaller companies out of the market." Ready access to emergency services provides a form of security appreciated by many, but insisting on its availability has its consequences as well. Read more at Britain's New Scientist.

• 30 May 2005
  

  "Companies offering internet-based phone services in the US have been given just 120 days to ensure that their lines provide access to the emergency services, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled last week. Internet phone services, known as voice over internet protocol or VoIP, have been heralded as the future of telephony, as they promise virtually free phone calls. But the FCC ruling threatens to burst the VoIP bubble. The new rules are likely to push up the cost of VoIP calls, and could also reduce competition by squeezing smaller companies out of the market." Ready access to emergency services provides a form of security appreciated by many, but insisting on its availability has its consequences as well. Read more at Britain's New Scientist.

• 27 May 2005
  

  "The CIA is conducting a secretive war game, dubbed "Silent Horizon," this week to practice defending against an electronic assault on the same scale as the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. The three-day exercise, ending Thursday, was meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA asked them not to disclose details of the sensitive exercise taking place in Charlottesville, Va., about two hours southwest of Washington. The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional alliance of anti-American organizations, including anti-globalization hackers." Learn more at ABC News.

• 26 May 2005
  

  "The Asian way of resolving conflicts - sweeping disputes or areas of disagreement under the carpet and focusing on developing economic relations - has failed. This is proven by a series of long-standing disputes that have exploded in recent weeks, including a maritime territorial dispute in the Sulawesi Sea between Malaysia and Indonesia, a dispute between South Korea and Japan over the Tokdo/Takeshima islets, and growing tensions between China and Japan over Japan's republishing of a controversial textbook and over potentially energy-rich territory in the East China Sea. The escalation of these disputes has highlighted the urgent need for Asian states to reform their multilateral conflict and dispute resolution mechanisms." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 25 May 2005
  

  "Environmental and animal rights extremists who have turned to arson and explosives are the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat, the FBI has told lawmakers. Groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front and the Britain-based SHAC, or Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, are 'way out in front' in terms of damage and number of crimes, John Lewis, the FBI’s deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate hearing Wednesday. 'There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions,' Lewis said." Learn more at MSNBC.com.

• 24 May 2005
  

  "India recently successfully placed its 11th remote-sensing satellite Cartosat-1 into orbit - blasted into space by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - stretching further its record to 12 launches, including broadcast satellites, without any failure, though there have been glitches. The stage is now set for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), run by the government, to carry out a fully fledged commercial launch, with a little help from the US, by the removal of sanctions on dual-use technologies... While India's space program, largely developed by indigenous scientists with help from European partners and the US earlier, deserves kudos, similar technology is being used to build synergies into another arena - India has also announced that it will test-fire its longest range surface-to-surface missile, Agni III, capable of delivering nuclear payloads." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 23 May 2005
  

  "Sen. Ted Stevens wanted to know just how much the Internet had turned private lives into open books. So the senator, a Republican from Alaska and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, instructed his staff to steal his identity. 'I regret to say they were successful,' the senator reported at a hearing he held last week on data theft. His staff, Stevens reported, had come back not just with digital bread crumbs on the senator, but also with insights on his daughter's rental property and some of the comings and goings of his son, a student in California. "For $65, they were told they could get my Social Security number," he said. That would not surprise 41 graduate students in a computer security course at Johns Hopkins University. With less money than that, they became mini-data-brokers themselves during the last semester." Learn more in News.com.

• 20 May 2005
  

  "If anyone in South Korea is living in the shadow of the North Korean Bomb, it is the people of Ilsan, a town of 500,000 situated north of Seoul just a few kilometers from the gash of barbed wire and land mines that has divided the Korean peninsula since 1953. From a local lookout point, the town's residents can peer across a stretch of river at the scrubby, brown hills of North Korea, knowing that hidden from view are bunkers, artillery and rockets that could turn their town into rubble in an hour. But for people like Kim In Tae the weaponry poses no more of a threat than a stand of pine trees. 'Unless the U.S. attacks North Korea first, I'm not nervous,' Kim says. Kim's faith in the good intentions of his heavily armed neighbor is prevalent throughout most of South Korea." Learn more in Time Magazine.

• 19 May 2005
  

  "It sounds like classic sci-fi: Robots, linked by a common network, roam the land. When one unit discovers something, they all know it instantly. They use artificial intelligence to carry out their mission. Soon, such marching orders will be real, carried out by robot groups known as 'swarms' or 'hives'... "We're very interested" in hive or "swarm" technology, said Dennis Muilenburg, FCS program manager at Boeing, which is being paid $21 billion by the Army to oversee hundreds of contractors working on the FCS program. The FCS family of ground and aerial robots now under development would include a 25-pound 'flying fan' that could be carried in a soldier's backpack." Learn more in USA Today.

• 18 May 2005
  

  "The U.S. Air Force is seeking President Bush's approval of a national security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing White House and Air Force officials. A senior administration official said a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a less aggressive use of space, involving spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts, the report said. Any deployment of space weapons would face financial, technological, political and diplomatic hurdles, as well as almost surely opposition from U.S. allies and potential enemies alike, fearing an arms race in space." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 17 May 2005
  

  "Today's soldiers are more power hungry than ever, and the army believes flexible solar cells can provide the extra juice. The military is testing lightweight materials that harness the sun's rays and feed electronic devices wherever mobile warriors travel. Keeping the power on for soldiers -- who rely on night vision goggles, laptops, communications devices, and GPS units -- requires 150 tons of batteries per year, according to Lynn Samuelson, a research chemist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, in Natick, Massachusetts. Batteries are frequently airlifted to remote troops and distributed to soldiers, who carry two dozen spares and must also make sure they are not discarded so that their movements can be tracked." Learn more in the Technology Review.

• 16 May 2005
  

  "As a tense calm returned to Uzbekistan Sunday in the wake of weekend clashes that killed hundreds of protesters, speculation mounted about President Islam Karimov's ability to maintain his grip on power. The violence in the eastern city of Andijon, sparked by charges of 'religious extremism' against 23 businessmen, was the worst in a string of reprisals over the past year against those trying to air political and economic grievances. Experts say Mr. Karimov's tough, secular dictatorship has jailed thousands of dissidents in recent years on such charges even as the country's 26 million people have faced economic hardships. But its authority may be starting to crack under the weight of a popular revolt in March in neighboring Kyrgyzstan as well as pro-democracy rhetoric from President Bush during a swing through the former Soviet Union last week." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 13 May 2005
  

  "Both Pakistani and US intelligence believe that they are hot on the heels of Osama bin Laden, after his trail went cold months ago. 'Both the US and concerned Pakistani authorities are positive that in the coming days we shall be around Osama bin Laden,' a senior Pakistani official told Asia Times Online in an exclusive interview, speaking on condition of anonymity. The potential breakthrough in the hunt for bin Laden follows the arrest of al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi in Pakistan last week, and an important lead he divulged during interrogation. Abu Faraj was interrogated by various agencies, including Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Britain's MI6 and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is according to the Pakistani official, who was assigned by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf to coordinate and oversee investigations involving recent al-Qaeda detainees in Pakistan." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 12 May 2005
  

  "Ah, the smell of money -- there's nothing quite like it. Some people, in fact, may soon be looking for ways to mask the special odor. Drug traffickers who ship profits abroad in suitcases are not apt to be thrilled with some inventions developed by federal scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory. One sniffs the air -- it can pick up a stack of bills from about 10 feet away -- for currency's chemical signature. Another beams electrons through packages or luggage to detect trace metals in the green ink. And a third project, not yet started, would scan serial numbers of individual bills into a database. It's unclear whether the legal system would view seized bills found through the devices as admissible, and privacy advocates fear such inventions would infringe on civil liberties if adopted." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 11 May 2005
  

  "A gun that spits out ball bearings after spinning them to extreme speeds is being developed by a US inventor. The novel design has already caught the imagination of some defence industry experts. The weapon, called DREAD, was invented by Charles St George, a veteran of the US firearms industry who founded the company Leader Propulsion Systems to promote the idea. He claims a major US defence company has shown an interested in developing it further and has produced a promotional video showing a prototype in action. He says a new prototype will be developed in August 2005. The gun consists of a mounted circular chamber that spins the metal ball bearings to high speed. A release mechanism on one side spits the balls out one behind the other, a handful at a time." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 10 May 2005
  

  "Federal officials and computer security investigators believe that the theft of software from Cisco Systems computers last year was only part of a more extensive security breach in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated, according to a published report. The New York Times reported that the investigators now believe the attacks involved computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories. They are now looking at a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe, in the probe, according to the paper, with attention is focused on a 16-year-old in Uppsala, Sweden, who was charged in March with breaking into university computers in his hometown." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 9 May 2005
  

  "Blue-chip companies are sponsoring more than TV shows and golf tournaments to promote their products: They are inadvertently underwriting computer spyware too. Larry Ingram found that out last month after spyware infested computers owned by Minnesota's Hennepin County. The uninvited software spewed ads for such companies as car maker Mercedes-Benz and online travel agency Travelocity.com. Ingram, who oversees security for the county's 11,000 computers, said those companies might have relied — perhaps unknowingly — on unscrupulous advertising middlemen." Learn more in LA Times.

• 6 May 2005
  

  "White House and Pentagon officials are closely monitoring a recent stream of satellite photographs of North Korea that appear to show rapid, extensive preparations for a nuclear weapons test, including the construction of a reviewing stand, presumably for dignitaries, according to American and foreign officials who have been briefed on the imagery. North Korea has never tested a nuclear weapon. Bush administration officials, when asked Thursday about the burst of activity at a suspected test site in the northeastern part of the country, cautioned that satellites could not divine the intentions of Kim Jong Il." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 May 2005
  

  "Australian scientists believe they have developed an unbreakable information code to stop hackers, using a diamond, a kitchen microwave oven and an optical fiber. Researchers at Melbourne University used the microwave to 'fuse' a tiny diamond, just 1/1000th of a millimeter, onto an optical fiber, which could be used to create a single photon beam of light which they say cannot be hacked. Photons are the smallest known particles of light. Until now, scientists could not produce a single-photon beam, thereby narrowing down the stream of light used to transmit information." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 4 May 2005
  

  "Ben Edelman may be spyware's most dangerous enemy. The 25-year-old researcher has spent years analyzing how spyware and adware programs work and publicizing his findings. That often results in red faces and, occasionally, lawsuit threats from companies like WhenU and Claria, formerly known as Gator...A law student at Harvard University, Edelman is also working on a doctoral degree in economics. CNET News.com caught up with him after he spoke at a conference in San Francisco." Read this fascinating interview on the nature of spyware and some of the corporations that are behind its proliferation, at News.com.

• 3 May 2005
  

  "Keith Maydak's jail cells are roomier than most. Must be all that cyberspace. State and federal prisons don't let inmates use Internet computers behind bars — and the Allegheny County Jail doesn't either. Yet Maydak has answered a reporter's e-mails from the Pittsburgh jail, and later an Ohio lockup, while he awaits sentencing for violating probation on a 900-number phone scam that cost AT&T $550,000 dollars. Thousands of other inmates access the Internet indirectly using inmate telephone and mail privileges and a network of family, friends or activists. Once on the Web, they enlist celebrities like Susan Sarandon to plead their case, pillory the prosecutors who imprisoned them, or simply find pen pals." Learn more in USA Today.

• 2 May 2005
  

  "Former CIA chief James Woolsey affirms the work of a special commission investigating the threat of a nuclear-bomb generated electromagnetic pulse attack on the U.S. by rogue states or terrorists and is urging the country to take steps necessary to protect against the potentially devastating consequences. In testimony before the House International Terrorism and Non-Proliferation Subcommittee, chaired by Ed Royce, R-Calif., Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993 through 1995, referred to the nuclear EMP threat, characterized in intelligence circles, he said, as 'a SCUD in a bucket.'...Woolsey, like the commission, specifically mentioned the new dimension a nuclear Iran would add to the risk of such an attack." Learn more at World Net Daily.

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