Conflict & Security archives: January-February 2004

• 27 February 2004
  "Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program will end Saturday, China says. A Chinese official said Friday that differences among delegates were "narrowing." But South Korea's chief negotiator, Lee Soo-Hyuck, said delegates had run into more problems and were nowhere near a final agreement. The differing accounts came shortly after the third day of talks ended Friday. Delegates have agreed to keep talking for another day in an attempt to hammer out their differences, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said." Learn more about the breakdown of these important talks at CNN.com.



• 26 February 2004
  "Many hotels have added high-speed wireless connections for executives to surf the Internet or access corporate data on the road. But in the time it takes you to check out of your hotel, a hacker could have checked in to your computer and logged on to your confidential files while they sit in the lobby...'Most hotels claim to offer secure broadband services, but most do not know enough about security issues to ask their providers the right questions,' David Garrison of STSN, a broadband security firm told CNN." The abundance of corporate information traveling through insecure wireless connections is creating a prime target for cybercriminals. Learn more at CNN.com.



• 25 February 2004
  "Australia is upgrading a radar system that could be used as part of the U.S. missile defense shield, the defense minister announced Tuesday. Robert Hill said the government is spending $48 million improving the indalee Operational Radar Network that can detect ships and aircraft up to 1,243 miles beyond Australia's northern border...Australia announced in December that it would join the American plan to build a missile defense system, calling the threat of ballistic missiles too grave to ignore." Although the U.S. and Australia are literally at opposite ends of the globe, their governments are discussing a possible partnership to create a missile defense shield. Read about it in Yahoo News (link no longer active).



• 24 February 2004
  "The government is still financing research to create powerful tools that could mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists despite an uproar last year over fears it might ensnare innocent Americans. Congress prevented the Pentagon from developing the terrorist tracking technology because of the outcry over privacy implications. But some of those projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, according to congressional, federal and research officials." In an effort to combat the threat of future terrorism, the U.S. government is torn between the need to gather information and the controversy that such "data mining" stirs. Read more in today's Wired News.



• 23 February 2004
  "The Pentagon needs 21st-century analytical tools to replace the outmoded war games of yore, which, despite improvements in computer power, are still one-dimensional, culturally blinkered and of small use in devising strategies for so-called asymmetric warfare in a world of Afghanistans, Iraqs, al Qaedas, smart bombs, Predators and the threat of bioterror. And so it has earmarked well over $100 million to determine whether the agent-based models produced by Lustick and others can advance the strategic game." Is it possible for the military to use computer games to predict the behavior of enemies, allies, and terrorists? It may sound far-fetched, but the U.S. government is attempting to utilize computer game style simulations in just such a manner. Read more at Popular Science.



• 20 February 2004
  "An Air Force report is giving what analysts call the most detailed picture since the end of the Cold War of the Pentagon's efforts to turn outer space into a battlefield. For years, the American military has spoken in hints and whispers, if at all, about its plans to develop weapons in space. But the U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan changes all that. Released in November, the report makes U.S. dominance of the heavens a top Pentagon priority in the new century. And it runs through dozens of research programs designed to ensure that America can never be challenged in orbit -- from anti-satellite lasers to weapons that 'would provide the capability to strike ground targets anywhere in the world from space.'" Learn more at Wired News.



• 19 February 2004
  "Russia has successfully tested a hypersonic anti-Star Wars weapon capable of penetrating any prospective missile shield, a senior general said Thursday. The prototype weapon proved it could maneuver so quickly as to make 'any missile defense useless,' Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, told a news conference. He said that the prototype of a new hypersonic vehicle had proved its ability to maneuver while in orbit, thereby making it able to dodge an enemy's missile shield." Although it is supposedly not a warning directed at the United States, a recent Russian missile test indicates that any American missile defense system could be useless. Read more at Yahoo News (link no longer active).



• 18 February 2004
  "A lone, elderly guard sits at the entrance to the Scomi Precision Engineering plant, a drab single-story building in the middle of a tree-lined industrial park in Kuala Lumpur. The plant, supposedly a supplier to Libya's nuclear-weapons program, is still up and running, contrary to CIA Director George Tenet's recent assertion that Malaysian authorities had shuttered it." The U.S. and the rest of the international community has recently learned a great deal about the nuclear weapons "black market." Yet, the question remains, is anything being done to punish those involved? Learn more about how little is being done to punish those who aided in the proliferation of nuclear weapons in a disturbing article in this week's Newsweek.



• 17 February 2004
  "Iran declared its plans to sell nuclear reactor fuel internationally, establishing the Islamic republic as a country in possession of technology the United States wants to keep from spreading. Announcing the decision on Sunday, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Iran has made an 'important achievement' in possessing the technology to enrich uranium, and insisted the project would be for peaceful use...The United States seeks to restrict countries from acquiring uranium enrichment technology, and Iran's sale of fuel internationally would prove it already possesses the capability. Washington suspects Iran of conducting a secret program to build nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists its program is geared only toward energy production." Learn why Iran's announcement to export enriched uranium is raising security concerns at CNN.com.



• 16 February 2004
  "Dan Geer lost his job, but gained his audience. The very idea that got the computer security expert fired has sparked serious debate in information technology. The idea, borrowed from biology, is that Microsoft has nurtured a software 'monoculture' that threatens global computer security. Geer and others believe Microsoft's software is so dangerously pervasive that a virus capable of exploiting even a single flaw in its operating systems could wreak havoc...In biology, species with little genetic variation -- or 'monocultures' -- are the most vulnerable to catastrophic epidemics. Species that share a single fatal flaw could be wiped out by a virus that can exploit that flaw." Learn more about Geer's study at Wired News.



• 13 February 2004
  "Even as Osama bin Laden remains at large, Al Qaeda may be anointing new, younger leaders to carry on his cause. Some experts go so far as to call this coterie terrorism's next generation. These men may be behind a recent wave of attacks in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. Abu Musab Zarqawi, the main suspect in this week's bombings in Baghdad, is but 37 years old. Most of this generation looked to Mr. bin Laden for inspiration, not direction. Most trained in Al Qaeda's Afghanistan camps. Most are so devout they have memorized the Koran. They are better educated than their predecessors - and, as independent operators, they may be more difficult to control." Learn more about this next generation of young terrorists in today's Christian Science Monitor.



• 12 February 2004
  "The break for American intelligence operatives tracking Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear network came in the wet August heat in Malaysia, as five giant cargo containers full of specialized centrifuge parts were loaded into one of the nondescript vessels that ply the Straits of Malacca...That seizure led to the unraveling of a trading network that sent bomb-making designs and equipment to at least three countries — Iran, North Korea and Libya — and has laid bare the limits of international controls on nuclear proliferation." Read more about how the U.S. unraveled this nuclear network and what is has taught us about nuclear proliferation in an in-depth report in today's New York Times.



• 11 February 2004
  "President Bush is to announce a new proposal on Wednesday to limit the number of nations allowed to produce nuclear fuel, senior administration officials said Tuesday. He will declare that the global network in nuclear goods set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, developer of Pakistan's bomb, exposed huge gaps in accords to stop the spread of nuclear weapons technology, they added. In an afternoon speech at the National Defense University, they said, Mr. Bush will call for a re-examination of what one official called the 'basic bargain' underlying the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: that those states that promise not to pursue nuclear weapons will receive help in producing nuclear fuel for power generation." Learn more about this new U.S. proposal in today's New York Times.



• 10 February 2004
  "A flood of federal money has led to a building boom for high-security 'hot labs,' where the world's deadliest germs and potential bioterrorist weapons can be studied. The laboratories would more than triple the space to develop vaccines and treatments for anthrax, plague, hemorrhagic fevers and other killer pathogens, officials estimate. Scientists, biodefense experts and officials say the shortage of Biosafety Level 3 and 4 labs, those that handle the most dangerous forms or the most lethal germs, has hindered research on vaccines and treatments for diseases they cause." Yet, some scientists argue that these high-security labs reduce scientific openness, ultimately diminishing the quality of scientific research. Read more in today's New York Times.



• 9 February 2004
  "Sitting at his laptop, Chris O'Ferrell types a few words into the Google search engine and up pops a link to what appears to be a military document listing suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members, date of birth, place of birth, passport numbers and national identification numbers. Another search yields a spreadsheet of names and credit card numbers...And it is all legal, using the world's most powerful Internet search engine. Cybersecurity experts say an increasing number of private or putatively secret documents are online in out-of-the-way corners of computers all over the globe, leaving the government, individuals, and companies vulnerable to security breaches." Learn more about this disturbing trend in the Washington Post.



• 6 February 2004
  "A patron walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender asks to see some ID. Without asking permission, the barkeep swipes the driver's license through a card reader and the device flashes a green light approving the order. The bartender is just verifying the card isn't a fake, right? Yes, and perhaps more....The magnetic strips and bar codes on the back of most state's driver's licenses contain more information than people think." Although many people don't realize it, electronically "reading" a driver's license gives bars access to personal information like your phone number, income range, and marital status. Learn more in this in-depth report by Kim Zetter of Wired News.



• 5 February 2004
  "While Washington is preoccupied with limiting weapons of mass destruction, many security specialists believe it has underestimated the risk of destabilization by terrorists and other extremists who have unhindered access to conventional small arms. 'Although the exact numbers are lacking and may never be at hand, there is no doubt that these are the weapons that have caused most of the violent, unnatural death and destruction of the 20th century,' US researcher Aaron Karp noted in a study for the UN." Read more about the threat that the proliferation of small arms poses to international stability in the Asia Times.



• 4 February 2004
  "The nuclear black market that supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea is small, tight-knit and appears to have been badly hurt by the exposure of its reputed head, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, diplomats and weapons experts told The Associated Press. They describe the network that circumvented international controls to sell blueprints, hardware and know-how to countries running covert nuclear programs as involving people closely dependent on one another." The ongoing investigation into Pakistan's nuclear program is providing new insights into the mysterious black market for nuclear weapons. Learn more about international investigators' findings at Yahoo News (link no longer active).



• 3 February 2004
  "Although privacy worries led several states to pull out of a federally funded crime and terrorism database project, others are actively considering joining and thereby sharing information on their citizens, The Associated Press has learned. Mark Zadra, chief investigator for Florida state police, which runs the Matrix project, said organizers have given presentations to more than 10 Northeastern and Midwestern states in recent weeks, arguing at each stop that the database is an invaluable law enforcement tool." Learn more about the Matrix (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) project and why some are concerned that it could erode privacy and civil liberties in the Wired News.



• 2 February 2004
  "Imagine being able to pinpoint someone's location anywhere in the world simply by typing a few keywords on your PC. That is what software partly funded by the US military is trying to do. The MetaCarta program works by analysing thousands of documents and cross-checking the results with a massive geographical database. So far it has largely been used by US intelligence agencies to analyse the huge amount of information collected as part of the war on terror." Learn how a U.S. company is utilizing computer technology to track suspected terrorists across the globe in BBC News.



• 30 January 2004
  "Microsoft promised Thursday to pay $250,000 to anyone who helps authorities find and prosecute the author of a fast-spreading computer virus. The cash reward is the third so far under a $5 million program Microsoft announced in early November to help U.S. authorities nab authors of unusually damaging Internet infections aimed at consumers of the company's software products...'This worm is a criminal attack,' said Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel. 'Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch this criminal.'" Learn how companies like Microsoft are hoping to catch cyber-criminals by utilizing to bounty hunting methods akin to those used to catch bank robbers in the 1800s at Wired News.



• 29 January 2004
  "Homeland Security officials unveiled on Wednesday a new cyber-alert system to help protect the nation from attacks on computer-based networks and to prevent any attacks elsewhere from affecting cyberspace. The National Cyber Alert System, described in a telephone briefing, will include alerts and bulletins distributed by e-mail subscription and through a government Web site." Learn how the U.S. government is beginning to address computer viruses and hackers as threats to homeland security at CNN.com.



• 28 January 2004
  "A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years. 'We are really excited about this, even though it's early days. It has considerable potential,' Simon Oestergaard, chief executive of developing company Aresa Biodetection, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. The genetically modified weed has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) evaporating from explosives buried in soil." Learn how this Danish company is hoping to use "flower-power" to detect land mines at Reuters.



• 27 January 2004
  "A computer virus disguised as a text file attached to a technical email has spread to thousands of computer systems worldwide since appearing on Monday. The speed of its spread makes the virus - variously dubbed MyDoom, Novarg and MiMail.R - one of the fastest moving ever seen. UK-based email filtering firm MessageLabs says it saw 1.2 million copies pass through its systems between 1300 GMT Monday and 0900 GMT on Tuesday. The deluge of extra email created by the virus caused disruption to some parts of the internet on Monday evening, according to US internet monitoring firm Keynote Systems." Learn why many worry that this complex new computer virus could cause an "epidemic" across the internet in the New Scientist.



• 23 January 2004
  "After more than a decade of dealing with a North Korea that might already have a bomb or two-no one has known for sure-does it matter that it is now claiming to be ready to build more? It certainly seems to matter a lot to North Korea that America takes its nuclear threats seriously." Trying to find one's way through North Korea's political maze is no easy task, and it is clear that Pyongyang is uninterested in making it easy. The editors of the Economist try to help us sort it all out.



• 21 January 2004
  "When the next killer computer virus strikes, who are you going to call? Most probably ponytailed Mikko Hypponen, a Finnish virus hunter with the Helsinki-based firm F-Secure. He and his team, who track and crack several new hacker codes each day, were instrumental in diffusing last summer's omnipresent So Big virus. He spoke last week with Newsweek's Rana Foroohar about the tech dangers that lie ahead." Read why this expert is concerned that the "fourth stage" of computer viruses could unleash viruses capable of infecting every single public e-mail address in the world in this week's Newsweek International Edition.



• 20 January 2004
  "Computer security experts fear a new worm that began spreading rapidly across Australian e-mail networks on Sunday could be a rehearsal for a more concerted attack in coming weeks. The worm--dubbed Bagle-A--carries an expiration date, possibly indicating that more robust versions of the worm could be slated for release soon, said Daniel Zatz, security director for Computer Associates Australia...Comparing Bagle to the infamous Sobig virus that flooded global e-mail networks last year, Zatz said he fears that a more virulent version of the new worm could appear soon." Learn more about this latest cyber-security threat at CNET News.



• 19 January 2004
  "President Bush's plan to expand the exploration of space parallels U.S. efforts to control the heavens for military, economic and strategic gain...Theresa Hitchens of the private Center for Defense Information said the capabilities to conduct space warfare would move out of the realm of science fiction and into reality over the next 20 years or so." Learn more about how the United States' renewed interest in Space exploration could carry significant strategic and economic implications at Reuters (link no longer active).



• 16 January 2004
  "Trend Micro Inc., the world's third-largest anti-virus software maker, said on Friday computer virus attacks cost global businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2003, a sum that would rise this year. Companies lost roughly $20 billion to $30 billion in 2002 from the virus attacks, up from about $13 billion in 2001, according to various industry estimates." Learn more about how the increasing volume of computer viruses and other cyber-security threats are affecting the global economy in a report by Jennifer Tan published by Reuters (link no longer active).



• 15 January 2004
  "Even with growing security budgets and abundant technology choices, 2003 was a mixed year for information security professionals. Internet business processes, new technologies and more regulations combined to impose unique security concerns on overburdened security staffs. What's more, the year was punctuated by numerous malicious code attacks that led to business interruption, constant emergency activity and lots of overtime. Security will remain a hot topic in 2004, but while the general theme may seem the same, the particular notes will be different." Read more about some of 2004's potential computer and internet security concerns at CNET News.



• 13 January 2004
  "Some major employers are banning camera phones on the job amid growing fears the high-tech gadgets pose serious threats to workers' privacy and company secrets. The phones, which average about $150, allow users to take pictures and transmit them globally. Companies fear employees will use the phones to send images of new products or other company information, or else to take pictures of unsuspecting co-workers in locker rooms or bathrooms." Find out why many are worried that camera phones are posing new threats to personal and corporate security in Yahoo News (link no longer active).



• 12 January 2004
  "The decision by India and Pakistan to commence a composite dialogue on contentious issues, including Kashmir, has been welcomed as a significant breakthrough in bilateral relations. However, the international applause that has greeted the handshake between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President General Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad has failed to resonate in the Kashmir Valley." Read more about this ongoing conflict at The Asia Times.



• 9 January 2004
  "Eric F. Bourassa, a privacy advocate at the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, knows how difficult it is to keep personal financial information personal. But even he was surprised at how easy it was for The Boston Globe to obtain his private bank account information." For a disturbing look at one of the ways in which our personal security is being threatened by the growth of firms that traffic confidential personal information take a look at this report by The Boston Globe.



• 8 January 2004
  "Today's soldiers carry as much as 100 pounds of equipment. That's exhausting, even for the toughest grunt. In the future, the Army wants to dump up to half that gear onto the back of a drone. But military scientists are worried that robots with wheels won't be able to follow their human masters across mountain passes, up stairs and through forest trails...So the Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, has just doled out $2.25 million to two robotics firms to prototype a big, mechanical dog capable of carrying ammunition, food and supplies into battle." Learn more at Wired News.



• 7 January 2004
  "The blue dots moving on the computer screen are US tanks and Humvees, the red ones are the enemy American soldiers must kill or capture. This is not a video game but how the most high-tech division of the US army conducts operations in Iraq." Learn more about the ways in which the U.S. military is utilizing cutting-edge technology in today's New Zealand Herald.



• 6 January 2004
  In exchange for a series of American concessions, North Korea is offering to halt nuclear activities and engage in a six-nation talk. "Pyongyang has called its offer 'one more bold concession' aimed at resolving the standoff over its nuclear weapons programs. North Korea would stop testing and producing nuclear weapons, as well as cease operating its nuclear power industry, the official North Korean state news service (KCNA) reported Tuesday." To find out more about the latest possiblity for talks between the United States and North Korea, check out today's headlines at CNN.com



• 5 January 2004
  "As the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) opened its summit in the Pakistani capital Islamabad under a dense umbrella of security, the leaders of India and Pakistan made their first cautious moves in more than two years to shake hands and brush off piles of accumulated mistrust." One region with great potential for a conflict with global implications is south Asia, but it hasn't been been the focus of media attention for some time. What's going on between these two hostile nuclear powers? As Owais Tohid reports for Boston's Christian Science Monitor, it's not bad news for a change.



• 2 January 2004
  "About the size of a grain of rice, VeriChip™ is the world’s first subdermal, radio frequency identification (RFID) microchip that can be used in a variety of security, financial, emergency identification and other applications." The key word here is "subdermal". In line with Jeff Harrow's essay in our Commentary section, we are rapidly moving to a point where humans can be tracked continuously. This press release from Applied Digital Solutions discusses a chip planted beneath the skin that will verify a person's identity when making a purchase, but its uses can go much further...and probably will.



• 1 January 2004
  "There's no need to imagine a worst-case scenario for Internet security in the year 2010. The worst-case scenario is unfolding right now...today's sloppiness will become tomorrow's chaos." Will there be a "digital Pearl Harbor" and, if so, what will happen? Scott Berinato's article at ComputerWorld is one of the more comprehensive and comprehensible reports offered on this topic, underlining the importance of recognizing that this is a concern we must deal with today or face a global catastrophe tomorrow. It's reminiscent of some of the reports of the late 90's warning of the potential for a major terrorist attack that were ignored prior to September 11, 2001.


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