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The Air Force on Monday suspended all efforts related to development of a program to become the dominant service in cyberspace, according to knowledgeable sources. Top Air Force officials put a halt to all activities related to the establishment of the Cyber Command, a provisional unit that is currently part of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, sources told Nextgov. An internal Air Force e-mail obtained by Nextgov said, “Transfers of manpower and resources, including activation and reassignment of units, shall be halted.” Establishment of the Cyber Command will be delayed until new senior Air...

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts. One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the...

The USAF wants to make its own botnet to combat forign and domestic threats. (IMG:J.Anderson) Are we in a cyber arms race? The Cyberspace Command, a US Air Force project designed to defend the cyber domain from threats, is alive and kicking with millions of dollars spent on PR and marketing. The USAF says that there is an urgent need to defend the IT infrastructure on US soil, and a recent opinion article written by COL. Charles W. Williamson III details that they are serious in this mission. The goal is to use botnets to help defend the new cyber...

Germany says cyber spying is a vital tool against terrorism Germany's highest court has restricted the right of the security services to spy on the computers of suspected criminals and terrorists.Under the technique, software sent in an email enables the authorities to spy on a suspect's computer hard drive. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said cyber spying violated individuals' right to privacy and could be used only in exceptional cases. Civil liberties activists have warned of an unacceptable invasion of privacy. National precedent The case - which began last year - was brought after the western state of...

A computer nerd from Shepherd's Bush, West London, became al Qaeda's top internet agent, it can be revealed today. Younes Tsouli, 23, an IT student at a London college, used his top-floor flat in W12 to help Islamist extremists wage a propaganda war against the West. Under the name Irhabi 007 — combining the James Bond reference with the Arabic for terrorist — he worked with al Qaeda leaders in Iraq and came up with a way to convert often gruesome videos into a form that could be put onto the Web. Videos he posted included messages from Osama bin...

Illegal Alien Activity Tracking System GSAC (Global Security Analysis, LLC) and The Publishers of GlobalIncidentMap.com, of Washington County, MD are pleased to announce the Illegal Alien Activity Tracking System (IAATS). This is a free, public service website, available October 21st, displaying ongoing Incidences of illegal alien criminal activity, legislation, the growing national security risk and threat of terrorism, plus other significant news. GSAC (Global Security Analysis, LLC) approached the publishers of GlobalIncidentMap.com with an idea of creating a free, public service website that allows everyone from your average citizen to law enforcement , and government agencies and officials, to have...

Habbo Hotel users create a character and can buy furniture A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money. Five 15-year-olds have also been questioned by police, who were contacted by the website's owners. The six teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo rooms. A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by...

Thomas X. Hammes is a retired Marine colonel. He is the author of a seminal book on conducting counter-insurgency warfare. The work is called "The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century." Recently, he made an intriguing proposal on how to battle jihadists on the Internet (a virtual agora where Islamist militants appear to consort with alarming frequency). This is what he said: "For the last few years, individuals and private organizations that are pro-Israeli have been in a daily fight to shut down or deface anti-Israeli Web sites. Unofficial and informal, this Internet Hagana has had...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – The Defense Department receives many attempted cyber attacks each day and has measures in place to aggressively respond to and deter these attacks, a department spokesman said today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman addressed media reports that a computer system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was hacked into by the Chinese military earlier this year. Whitman confirmed that an attack did occur in June but declined to identify the origin of the threat. It is often difficult to pinpoint the true origin of an intrusion into computer systems and even more difficult to...

America prepares for 'cyber war' with China By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 2:06am BST 15/06/2007 China is striving to overtake the United States as the dominant power in cyberspace, according to a senior American general, in what is emerging as a new theatre of conflict between nation states and a growing priority for the Pentagon. The Chinese foreign ministry rejected the Pentagon report as 'brutal interference' Lt Gen Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, said that all of America's foes, including Iran, were looking at ways of hacking into US networks to glean trade and defence...

Sweden will open the first 'diplomatic representation' in the virtual reality of web-based Second Life, a fantasy world inhabited by computer-generated residents, on May 30, the Swedish Institute said Friday. "The Second House of Sweden, the world's first virtual embassy in Second Life will be inaugurated on May 30," the institute said in a statement. Related Articles Swedish taxman sets sights on Second Life 31st January 2007 Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life 26th January 2007 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version Submit to Digg.com Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Director General of the Swedish...

London - US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said in an interview published on Friday that cyber attacks, such as the one unleashed on Estonia this week, will "become more of an issue" in the future. Estonia had urged its allies in the European Union and Nato to take firm action against the cyber attacks that have hit the Baltic state amid a bitter row with Russia over a Soviet war memorial. "We need to prepare ourselves because this is likely only to become more of an issue in the future," Negroponte told the Financial Times and other European...

Cyber terror threat is growing, says Reid By George Jones, Political Editor Last Updated: 4:07am BST 26/04/2007 Terrorists could attempt to cause economic chaos or plane crashes in an electronic attack on the UK's computer networks John Reid, the Home Secretary, said yesterday. Cyber terrorism could target air traffic control systems Mr Reid's warning of the "devastating consequences" of cyber terrorism came as he said the reshaping of the Home Office would enable him to "wake up and think about the security of the nation first and foremost every morning". The Home Office is to be split on May 9,...

Cyber attack depletes cell phone batteries Peter Weiss Bad guys armed with computers might remotely and secretly drain the batteries of cell phones, a new study shows. By commandeering communications channels that cell phones use to capture images and video from the Internet, attackers might repeatedly awaken an idle phone from a low-power slumber into a state of readiness that saps its electric power. In multiple tests on a Nokia 6620 phone, computer scientists Hao Chen, Denys Ma, and Radmilo Racic of the University of California, Davis used a fake server to repeatedly send information to the phone, depleting the...

MONTREAL - A website that revels in pain, blood, death and darkness is the common link between several homicides, rapes, a church arson and now the Dawson College rampage. Gunman Kimveer Gill blogged at VampireFreaks.com, a popular online refuge where the Goth sub-culture shares morbid poetry, death metal music, details of violent sex and black musings rooted in social alienation and personal despair. Gill, 25, referred to himself in one seething online post as ''the Angel of Death.'' On Wednesday, armed with an assault rifle, he went on a murderous rampage at Dawson College in Montreal, killing one woman and...

3/6/2006 - ROME, N.Y. (AFPN) -- Forty men and women from across the country will focus on a futuristic "cybercraft" as they participate in the 2006 Class of the Advanced Course in Engineering Cyber Security Boot Camp. A joint selection committee of Syracuse University and Air Force Research Laboratory officials reviewed the credentials of applicants and identified 40 candidates who will make up the class of 2006, comprised of 36 new students and four returning graduate assistants. The profile of the 36 students of the ACE 2006 class includes 33 men and three women who attend colleges in 22 states...

2/13/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Tech. Sgt. Jeff Barefoot has a strong presence in the courtroom. Three times he's stepped up to testify in court, and three times the defendants suddenly took a plea deal to avoid Sergeant Barefoot on the witness stand. Not because of his imposing stature or his 20 years of military experience, but from the knowledge he brings as an expert witness. Sergeant Barefoot is a computer forensics examiner for the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center located between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md. The center is under the executive agency of the secretary of the...

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Jan. 24, 2006) -- Fewer people would know about a deployment or operation if you screamed it out at the Superbowl than if you posted it on a Web log or blog. Common sense will tell you not to discuss sensitive subjects on the streets of Baghdad. The same common sense should apply on the highways of cyberspace. Soldiers need to keep this in mind, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it could land them in a world of trouble. The technology of communication is a double-edged sword and...

Vietnam’s communist government knows that it is impossible to monitor the country’s 5,000 cyber cafes, so it’s forcing the cafe owners to be its eyes and ears. Last July, a government directive informed cafe owners that they will have to take a six-month course so that they can better monitor their cyber customers. The Vietnamese government is justifying its move for reasons of “national security and defense” — that is, to protect itself against online journalists who, it says, “provide sensationalist news and articles while others even publish reactionary and libelous reports and a depraved culture.” Reporters Without Borders (RWB),...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers Tuesday he still doesn't know how much it will cost to complete the bureau's computer overhaul, already well over budget and behind schedule. He also refused to state publicly the cost of the initial phase of the Sentinel system, the planned successor to a failed project that was supposed to greatly improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases. "There are certain sensitivities involved," Mueller told the Senate Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, explaining that the FBI soon would invite contractors to compete for the work. The FBI has yet...

ATC Announces Cyber-Attack ATC Press Release - 02/17/05On January 11, 2005, the Anti-Terrorism Coalition (ATC) was attacked by unknown hackers. Around 6 pm Eastern Standard time, January 11, 2005, the ATC-owned Facts About Islam website was attacked. All of the accounts on which it was hosted on were completely destroyed within an hour. Shortly after the attacks, a message was posted by one of the suspected attackers: "I WILL CONTINUE HACKING DOWN YOUR FILTHY ZIONIST SCUM WEBSITES UNTIL THEY DISAPEER! ALAHU AKBAR! f***ink k***s!" The ATC immediately went to a Red Alert and increased its security. Early on January 12,...

We all know about high school bullying but have you heard of cyber-bullying? It's real and three Loranger High School students have been arrested for it. You're looking at computer equipment confiscated as part of the Attorney General's High Tech Crimes Unit investigation. They say the bullying started when a 15-year-old female student created a website picking on a 14-year old male student. He responded with his own site featuring poems with threatening language. A concerned parent alerted the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff, and he contacted authorities. They say the language was so graphic, it crossed the line and is considered...

today's joke... brought to you by www.iowapresidentialwatch.com  

Here's some follow-up on the Santorum/Cyber School issue. I believe the Dems will bring it up again, so get the facts now. I live close to Penn Hills, and have the inside scoop. First, an article from the local paper describing the woman that started the whole issue: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04327/415581.stm Mrs. Vecchio works for the PA Turnpike as a toll collector. This is a position that pays pretty well compared to the responsibilities involved, and is well-known to be a politically-appointed job. Penn Hills is a heavily Democratic community, and her position on the school board and as chairwoman of the...

Attack used FEMA site to take offline over 5 million other sites in official act of "cyber terrorism": Millions of websites were recently brought down due to a security breach of FEMA’s DMAT servers, according to a source where the servers were initially compromised. Victims including multitudes of e-commerce and government sites. No one knows yet truly how deep the breach went. DMAT is the Disaster Medical Assistance Team for the United States Public Health Service and is the medical wing of the NDMS (National Disaster Medical System), which serves the Department of Defense, Department of veterans Affairs, the Department...

A cyber attack that affected thousands of machines in Australia was launched from a Singapore computer, news reports said today. A Pacific Internet customer's server has been identified as the one turned into a rogue computer last month, hitting an Australian university computer network and affecting 10,000 machines, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) told The Straits Times. The regulator could not identify the attacker or his location and knew no motive for the attacks. It is believed the attacker probably gained control of the server without the knowledge of its owner or Pacific Internet, on whose network the server was...

Like a steaming cup of fraggin' with your morning latte? If you live in Los Angeles and are under 18, you'll soon be out of luck. Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance to restrict minors' access to Internet cafes in general--and to game parlors in particular. According to the LA Daily News, the ordinance affects "cybercafes," or any establishment that "provides five or more computers with Internet access." The council identified 30 cybercafes, LAN parlors, and Korean-style "PC Baangs" as falling under the ordinance, most of which are located in the San Fernando Valley. To even open...

Government and industry experts are reporting a mysterious, large-scale Internet attack against thousands of popular Web sites. The virus-like infection tries to implant hacker software onto the computers of all Web site visitors. Industry experts and the Homeland Security Department are studying the infection to determine how it spreads across Web sites and find adequate defenses against it. A government warning says even Web sites trusted by users may contain the potentially malicious code. The infection appears to target at least one recent version of Microsoft's Internet Information Server, which is popular among businesses and organizations. The United States Computer...

Prosecutors claim Al-Hussayen lied on visa application 04/15/2004 By BOB FICK  / Associated Press Government lawyers claim a University of Idaho graduate student hid his connection to an Islamic organization they say has terrorist ties so he could remain in the United States. Had Sami Omar Al-Hussayen revealed his involvement in the Islamic Assembly of North America, immigration officials would have been aware that he might be involved in fostering terrorism, assistant U.S. attorney Kim Lindquist said Wednesday in U.S. District Court. The defense maintains Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national who was months away from earning a doctorate in computer science when...

Cyber women test what's real By Jo Twist BBC News Online technology reporter Software cyberbabes, created by powerful computers, sophisticated modelling packages and active imaginations are getting extremely human-like. Rene Morel's 3D model has a very human face Virtual cyberbabes are used in advertising campaigns, hit shoot-em-up games, and the pop industry, from Lara Croft to virtual pop idols, T-Babe and Diki or DK-96. Some of the best 3D models around are currently on show at an exhibition which has just opened in London called Perfectly Real: Women in Bits and Bytes. But they raise questions about what people...

WASHINGTON - First came the Internet in the late1960s, electronically linking computers around the world. The `90s brought the World Wide Web, making it possible to exchange words, pictures, music, videos and information of every sort. Now comes the Grid, a third wave in the evolution of the cyberworld that promises to give users access to unprecedented computing power, services and data no matter where they are located. Ultimately, supporters say, the Grid will be like having a supercomputer at your fingertips. Astronomers in Massachusetts and California could share the same telescope in Hawaii without leaving their offices. A travel...

FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigators have tracked the source of the fast-moving Sobig virus and are working with Internet service providers to try to stop the next phase in the virus's attack, which was expected to begin at 3 p.m. Eastern Time Friday afternoon. The FBI has served a grand jury subpoena on Easynews.com, a Phoenix-based Internet service provider that provides access to "Usenet," a worldwide online bulletin board system. According to a source with knowledge of the investigation's focus, the person or persons who released the latest version of Sobig used an Easynews.com account to release the...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- "If you think the recent blackout in the Northeastern US wreaked havoc, watch out for the attack of the 'Worms,'" says executive and author John Mariotti. "The Sobig F and Blaster worms are just warm-ups for the real attack," states Mariotti a noted corporate executive, business writer and novelist. "Nobody paid attention to the warnings before 9/11, and nobody is listening to the warnings now." "When I wrote 'THE SILENCE,' I knew the technology existed to plant 'back doors and Trojan Horses' in millions of computers. When an evil force takes control of...

Evidence gathered by Microsoft, the FBI, and the Secret Service on the worldwide attacks made against the computers running the Windows operating system fits the profile of 'terrorist activity.'Industry sources citing Mirosoft officials told World Tribune.com that the recent attacks from the 'Blaster' worm and its variants, coupled with an email virus called 'SoBig-F' show signs of a coordinated attack by an entity wanting to disrupt world commerce.Microsoft is cooperating with both the FBI and the Secret Service and will report their findings in the next few days.While at present no terrorist organizations have claimed responsibility for these attacks in...

<p>Although government and energy-industry officials have continued to state that Thursday's massive power blackout was not an act of terrorism, they are unable to rule out the possibility that a computer hacker plunged 50 million people into darkness, a source told Fox News Monday.</p>

The Department of Homeland Security thinks Al Qaida terrorists might try to land jobs inside U.S. financial institutions, and from there launch attacks on the nation’s economy, MSNBC.com has learned. An “information bulletin” was sent out to the nation’s financial firms late Friday night, warning of “internal cyber threats.” But, as is the case with many Department of Homeland Security notices, the warning is vague and does not indicate an attack is imminent. “There is some new information, but obviously for classified reasons we can’t get into a lot of the background,” Wray said. “There is new intelligence that indicated...

Tallahassee - The War began silently this morning at around 2:00 AM EST. Complaints to Internet Service providers are up, and it's all because of a handful of people who have nothing better to do than attempt to destroy our normal way of life. The Computer Dudes in Tallahassee are in a bit of a tizzy this afternoon. While preparing for the launch of their new Web Communications Tool, they were caught off guard early this morning by what seems to be an cyber attack. "This is a serious attack, and these hackers are just practicing today. It's going to...

By TED BRIDIS AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER WASHINGTON -- The government and private technology experts warned Wednesday that hackers plan to attack thousands of Web sites Sunday in a loosely coordinated "contest" that could disrupt Internet traffic. An early-warning network for the technology industry, operating with the Department of Homeland Security, notified companies that it received "credible information" about the planned attacks and already has detected surveillance probes by hackers looking for weaknesses in corporate and government networks. "We emphasize that all Web site administrators should ensure that their sites are not vulnerable," wrote Peter Allor of Internet Security Systems Inc.,...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Acting Chief Information Officer Bruce Morrison gave testimony earlier this week before the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census. He outlined to subcommittee members the current state of cyber security as it relates to national defense and commerce. "We have long established a strong perimeter defense with technical, physical, and personnel controls, anti-virus, firewalls, intrusion detection, and incident reporting," said Morrison. "However, we realize that a sound cyber security program is built upon a defense-in-depth strategy that includes management controls as well as technical and operational measures. What we have lacked in...

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003 1:10 p.m. EST Dish It Back to Cyber Protesters Another group is about to endanger national security and interrupt the workings of the White House and Congress by cyber-marching on Washington tomorrow. Moveon.org (whose phone number is 510-524-6100, and whose e-mail addresses are Press@moveon.org, info@moveon.org, info@moveonpac.org, and wboyd@moveon.org, and doug@moveonpac.org, just in case you want to, oh, we don't know, bombard them with phone calls and e-mail), claims to be trying to build public advocacy groups to better represent the "public." But it is really just protesting the "war on Iraq," which, in case anyone has...

George W. Bush has backed plans to launch a cyber-attack on Iraqi computer networks if war breaks out, while raising the US terror alert to 'high'. George W Bush: the US is resolved to act The US president signed a secret directive last July ordering the Government to develop guidelines to determine when and how to disrupt enemy computer systems, a strategy which military analysts believe could dramatically reduce war causalities. Invading foreign computer networks could enable the military to shut down radars and electrical plants, and to disrupt phone lines without firing a shot. The news came as the...

US business fears concerted cyber attack next year New research suggests most American businesses are expecting a major internet attack next year. The Business Software Alliance asked 600 IT professionals responsible for network security to assess the risk. It found 60% believe the private sector is at risk of a concerted attack in the next 12 months, possibly from terrorists. Only 18% believe the sector as a whole is sufficiently equipped to defend against one. The findings mirror a BSA survey of government network security officials last month. Industry group president Robert Honeyman said the findings are particularly sobering in...

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Power and energy companies have become targets for computer hackers, who have managed to penetrate their networks and other systems.</p> <p>The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that energy and power companies have been hit with an average 1,280 significant attacks in the last six months, far more than companies in any other industry.</p>

This is a report I wrote back in 1999 that is fully documented with references and original sources. You may find it very interesting! It is a free pdf file. Terrorism, Y2k & FEMA - 55 pages [PDF Adobe File] Free Report 1999 Report detailing (w/ sample excerpts):1.) Corporate & Government Computers Sabotaged by Foreign Programers "Michael Vatis of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the top U.S. "cybercop", warned in early October (99) that changes to computer software that might threaten security could have been planted by foreign contractors under the guise of Y2K fixes." 2.) Homeland Defense Created...

U.S.: Cyber Strike Could Earn Military Response Computer hackers who attack the United States through the Internet and expect an online response could be in for a shock. The United States' top cyber security advisor warned Wednesday that a cyber attack by a foreign government or terrorist group could bring a reply in the form of real-world cannon, tanks and bombers. The CIA said last year that the United States, China and Russia are among the countries known to be actively training cyber soldiers. Bush cyber security advisor Richard Clarke added to the list Iran, Iraq and North Korea --...