Can terrorists use the Net to avoid wiretaps?
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Can members of Al Qaeda use voice over Internet technology (VOIP) to avoid wiretaps?
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By Fred Reed, The Washington Times  Jun. 9--CRIME ONLINE EASY TO SIDESTEP: I don't get it. I keep reading  that cybercrime is out of hand, even that national security is being  compromised.
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Researchers find that net users are not as secure as they think. Among surveyed adults who believed they were safe from online threats, most had spyware running on their home computers and few had firewall protection.
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Traceroute Security researcher Jose Nazario has uncovered circumstantial evidence of the use of botnets in politically-motivated denial of service attacks.â¦
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The US Interior Department can keep its computers connected to the Internet despite the fact that hackers could manipulate royalty payments owed to American Indians
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By Steve Lawson  HOW paranoid are you about leaving a trail of evidence every time you surf the net?  If the answer is 'very' then news of a new privacy tool will have you reaching for the download button. But hang on a minute.
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By Matt Moore  FRANKFURT, Germany - Some European countries are proposing outlawing the use of fake information to open e-mail accounts or set up Web sites, a move intended to help terrorism investigations but which could face resistance on a privacy-conscious continent.
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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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Al Qaeda is using the Internet and video outlets with growing speed, volume, and sophistication.
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Be afraid: There's no such thing as a secure network.
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By Vaisman, Fima  Fiber cabling is best for IP security networks, but connectivity may not always be possible. Digital video surveillance is becoming a distributed IP network application.
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(InfoWorld) - A Russian computer security expert predicts that terrorists could seek to target the country's critical infrastructure through electronic warfare, a strategy that could raise the stakes in how Russia handles computer crime. While terrorists aren't believed to currently have the know-how to disrupt critical infrastructure, it would be "very dangerous" if they start learning, said Valery Vasenin, head of the Computer Security Department at the Institute for Information Security Problems (IISP) at Moscow State University. "I think the phenomenon of terrorism will go in this direction," Vasenin said in an interview at his office. "This is probably the most important problem for the coming years." Russia's energy grid is a possible target, which could cause widespread blackouts. The air transportation or fuel distribution systems are other possible targets, Vasenin said. Russia has experienced chilling episodes of terrorism. In September 2004, 331 people, more than half of whom were children, were killed when Chechen separatists stormed a school in Beslan. In October 2002, Chechen rebels took 850 people hostage in a Moscow theater; 117 died after Russian forces used a poisonous gas before entering the premises. No major cyberterrorism incident in Russia has been recorded. However, the country's infrastructure is becoming more networked and less isolated than before, which could make it more vulnerable to cyberattacks, Vasenin said. "Russia, at the moment, is average in terms of computer security, like the rest of the world," Vasenin said. In the 1990s, the Internet in Russia was still viewed as something of a domain for academics, Vasenin said. But the rapid change of technology and emergence of threats has led to greater attention to security issues, he said. Moscow State University's IISP was established in 2004 to study network security, the psychology of human behavior and the Internet, along with computer forensics and judicial issues. Russia lacks laws that clearly define computer crime, he said, making it difficult for Internal Affairs Ministry agents to investigate and bring cases. IISP is studying other countries' computer crime laws and formulating recommendations. "They [the Internal Affairs Ministry] are somewhat unarmed," Vasenin said. "We understand we [Russia] have these problems related to legislation, just as there are worldwide problems." Through June, Russia recorded 8,400 computer-related crimes, according to figures released by the Internal Affairs Ministry in October. Forty-three percent of the cases were related to online auction fraud, with the remainder comprising information theft, unauthorized access, child pornography violations and others, the ministry said. Boris Miroshnikov, who heads the cybercrime department in Russia's Internal Affairs Ministry, has called for more trained experts to handle criminal cases that often cross international borders. Miroshnikov's comments at a cybersecurity conference were published earlier this year by Moscow State University. "Do we have today a school of experts in the field of cybercrimes?" Miroshnikov told conference participants. "Unfortunately, I do not think so." (Pavel Kupriyanov of Computerworld Russia contributed to this report.) Â
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Wireless networks giving computer users  Internet access from anywhere in the home could expose them to  eavesdropping and programmers should make their security  software easier to use, researchers say.
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Hackers could bypass security warnings and download malicious content.
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Psiphon could help web surfers avoid snoops in countries that restrict internet access. In 27B Stroke 6.
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i-Spy Surveillance cameras outfitted with internet technology are open to tampering and interception, security experts warn.â¦
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Here's how nontechnical users can secure their own instant-messaging conversations such that an attacker is unable to listen in (be it the government or a nosy neighbor).