Sept. 11 attacks prompt changes in other nations
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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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from Britain, Australia, America, and countless other countries -- will be in action to make Iraq safer. In
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Some people fear complacency; others fear forgetting. Six years away from the fire, how should we mark Sept. 11?
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Outside of New York, however, Americans seem to have adjusted to the post-9/11 era, the latest New York Times/CBS News polls suggest.
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Americans remember the victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
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German authorities called for increased  vigilance on Friday against possible terror attacks, saying the  kind of threat detected before the September 11, 2001, attacks  on the United States had resurfaced.
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Fewer international visitors are coming to the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite an initiative announced a year ago by top government officials.
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More than three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and after months of intense lobbying and political battling over how to avoid future attacks, the nation is now, finally, poised to overhaul its intelligence agencies.
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The third year of the US' global "war on terror" saw a number of high-profile terrorist acts in a wide range of countries.
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Iran, Syria, North Korea and more than 100 other nations are pushing to broaden the world's definition of "terrorism" to include the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
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NEW YORK -- Few things united this wildly diverse city more than the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001. But, as the sixth anniversary of that dark day approaches, that sense of unity is being seriously tested amid a cacophony of controversies that has left some New Yorkers sniping at each other...
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NEW YORK -- Few things united this wildly diverse city more than the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001. But, as the sixth anniversary of that dark day approaches, that sense of unity is being seriously tested amid a cacophony of controversies that has left some New Yorkers sniping at each othe...
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A survey by The New York Times shows that those who lost a loved one in the 9/11 attacks differ from the public at large on some political and national issues.
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Terrorism escalates worldwide, but it's not just one 'war.'
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German authorities called for increased vigilance on Friday against possible terror attacks, saying the kind of threat detected before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States had resurfaced.
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There are all sorts of statistics that track how the nation has changed since it last elected a president, perhaps none as telling as this: 98 percent of us remember exactly what we were doing when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Americans are united on this but little else as Election Day nears.
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World leaders and personalities from some 60 countries Tuesday launched a new UN forum aimed at averting the "predicted clash of civilizations" in the wake of September 11 and other terror attacks.