Plot by German Cell Detailed on Internet
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BERLIN, Sept. 11 -- A terrorist cell broken up in Germany last week was planning to attack the huge Ramstein Air Base, a U.S. and NATO facility, and a U.S. consulate by the end of the year, German authorities reported Tuesday, citing an assertion of responsibility posted by a Central Asian milita...
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What does the Internet look like? A free new Web service from Akamai Technologies Inc. offers a peek, providing a sort of Internet weather report on global traffic tie-ups, cyberattacks and spikes in activity.
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You could soon surf the internet and make a cell phone call from the air. The Federal Communications Commission is now open to the possibility.
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Silly idea gains steam Austria has become one of the first countries to officially sanction the use of Trojan Horse malware as a tactic for monitoring the PCs of suspected terrorists and criminals.â¦
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An IBM study expects viruses to crawl into cars and cell phones. Also:  Research finds more people banking online and the trend growing.... The Medicare budget swells past expectations.... and more.
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(InfoWorld) - In the five years since terrorists attacked the U.S., Europe has been the target of extremist attacks, as has India. Bombings in London and Madrid and a recent failed attempt to blow up passenger trains in Germany have prompted a security clampdown never seen on the Continent. Throughout the European Union, governments are grappling with how to guard against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Indian IT services companies have beefed up efforts to protect data. The discovery of bombs in two German trains in July pushed up several security measures on the political agenda there. In September, the German government agreed to a new antiterror database, which will be available to authorities across the country and contain information such as a person's religion, travel history, telephone number and Internet data and bank details. It also approved increased use of video surveillance in public areas. These measures reflect a gigantic shift in thinking about privacy in Germany, which has been highly sensitive about data protection and surveillance because of its Nazi history and, more recently, the Stasi secret police in the former communist-run East Germany. The need to tighten security has created demand for new technologies to help authorities combat terrorism. The German subsidiary of IBM Corp., for instance, is working on new technology that will enable computers -- not human beings -- to filter information from the cameras monitoring public areas and other locations. Two German companies have developed a new biometric system for identifying airline passengers. Lufthansa Systems Group GmbH, the IT services arm of German airline Lufthansa AG, and high-security document producer Bundesdruckerei GmbH have developed the SecBoard system. The companies hope that the system, designed to conduct biometric checks on passengers prior to boarding an aircraft, will play a significant role in "trusted passenger" programs planned by the airline industry to increase security. In the U.K., the government is close to activating part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) of 2000 that deals with encrypted data, one in a set of powers covering electronic surveillance and wiretapping. Authorities say the increased use of encryption is hampering their access to information on suspectsâ computers. RIPA would allow police to demand that a suspect decrypt data or face up to two years in jail. The encryption measure in RIPA has remained dormant since the techniques werenât widely used when the law was passed, according to the U.K. Home Office. Terrorist suspects already face up to five years for failing to decrypt data or provide an encryption key. But critics contend the law, which would apply in more than terrorism-related investigations, gives too much power to law enforcement and has the potential for abuse. High-ranking officials could demand the decryption of data without a court order, and the law binds to secrecy those served with a request. Experts say the law could increase the chance that, if seized, a companyâs mission-critical data could be mishandled. Elsewhere in Europe, heads of state met to discuss 57 antiterrorism measures two weeks after the March 11, 2004 bombings of four crowded commuter trains in Madrid. Among the measures discussed were the surveillance of telecommunications, Internet communications and air transportation. Civil liberties groups accused them of using the fight against terrorism as an excuse to increase police powers. E.U. legislation was slow to follow but, from September 2007, telecom carriers and ISPs (Internet service providers) must keep data on all mobile and fixed-line calls for between six months and two years. From March 2009, they must keep data on VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls, Internet connections and e-mail messages. Law enforcement officials will be able to demand the date and time of calls and messages, but not their content, and identifying information of the calling or sending and receiving parties. In India, the Sept. 11 attacks were not a watershed event because the country experienced frequent attacks by Kashmiri separatist groups demanding independence. Even before Sept. 11, some of the large Indian IT services companies had hardened data centers supporting their offshore businesses, said T. R. Madan Mohan, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Inc. After Web sites of a ministry of the Indian government and an Indian atomic energy agency were hacked, and anti-India messages posted on these sites, Indian businesses showed increased concern about the need for intrusion detection and related security measures, he added. Infosys Technologies Ltd., Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, already had disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place before Sept. 11, said a spokeswoman for the company in Bangalore. However, those attacks brought the threat of terrorism into sharp focus for Indiaâs export-oriented industries, such as software outsourcing, because U.S. and European customers began worrying about the preparedness of their Indian suppliers for terrorist attacks. (Reported and written by John Blau in Dusseldorf, Germany; Peter Sayer in Paris; Jeremy Kirk in London; and John Ribeiro in Bangalore, India, and assembled by Grant Gross in Washington, D.C.)
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InfoWorld - The personal details of thousands of mostly U.S.-based PC users have been discovered stashed on a server located in France, another indication of use of the Internet to collect personal data on a vast scale.
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A close-up view of the human genome reveals its innermost workings to be far more complex than first thought.
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Leaked classified documents could point to a Skype and SSL intercepting system that could be launched in southern Germany next month.
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An alert worker at an Austrian Internet firm was key to uncovering a case this week involving 2,360 viewers.
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Germany's competition watchdog, the federal cartel office, said it was investigating telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom and cable operator Kabel Deutschland on suspicion they sought to distort competition in the area of high-speed Internet access.
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InfoWorld - Widgets, or small Web applications that supply useful information direct to the desktop, could soon be appearing on your cell phone screen.
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The Pentagon is trying to figure out how to beat jihadists in the propaganda war.  So they're looking to build virtual versions of Middle Eastern countries, to see how "media and rumor propagation" works over there.  Good luck.
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(InfoWorld) - The German government has agreed to implement a sweeping set of security measures aimed at protecting critical IT infrastructure in the country. The measures are part the National Plan for Protection of Communications Infrastructure approved more than two years ago by the German federal government and applicable to all federal departments and agencies. The move to implement the plan follows last week's German media report about continuedÂ efforts by Chinese hackers to plant Trojan horse programsÂ on government computers. Security experts from Germany's Federal Office for Information Security and Federal Data Protection Office discovered in May Trojan horse programs in computers used in several government ministries, including the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Economics and the Research and Development Ministry, as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, and say theÂ attacks by Chinese hackersÂ continue, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported on Aug. 27. The IT security policies that the federal government will implement have been developed in cooperation with more than 30 large German companies that offer critical infrastructure services such as electricity, natural gas, banking, and telecommunications, and depend on secure and reliable communication systems to operate their networks. The companies have also agreed to implement the IT security measures within their organizations. With Islamic radicals targeting German troops and others working in Afghanistan in recent weeks, government officials, including Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang SchÃ¤uble, point to a heightened threat level that makes IT security an issue of increasing urgency. Additional information about the IT security plan is available on the federal government's Web site. Â
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An Israeli organization charged with locating the property of victims of the Holocaust has put its findings on the Internet.
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An adapter made by Siemens allows phones to make calls using the Internet or the traditional phone network.
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The BBC is investigating claims a German comedy bears a close resemblance to its hit show The Office.