Free Republic

It's the evil them versus the inept us. Today’s threats to U.S. national security range from the bloody reality of terrorist suicide bombers to weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. information infrastructure is a vital element of U.S. national security, but the design and management of software render its terminals, nodes and networks demonstrably vulnerable to malicious manipulation. Insofar as the government’s role, the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations recognized their limited leverage over public/private systems and prudently opted to plead for partnerships in policing the information highway. However, the public sector has been reluctant to share data...

Hu-Jiang power struggles enter cyberspace By Tian Jing and Feng Liang HONG KONG - China's power struggles have moved from the corridors of Zhongnanhai and the pages of influential publications to the Internet. Censorship is second-nature to Chinese authorities, but surprisingly, at least two highly critical websites appear to be sanctioned, despite - or because of - their harsh criticism of official corruption and malfeasance. There is widespread speculation that reformist President Hu Jintao is encouraging freedom of speech in cyberspace in order to build public support and consensus for his views and to discredit his opponents. He has been...

WASHINGTON – Despite a government crackdown, Al Qaeda continues to recruit members in U.S. prisons. U.S. officials said Al Qaeda’s recruitment has been facilitated by Muslim clergy with access to federal and state prisons. They said the organization has succeeded in winning new members despite tighter rules instituted by authorities since the Al Qaeda suicide attacks in September 2001. “These terrorists seek to exploit our freedom to exercise religion to their advantage by using radical forms of Islam to recruit operatives,” FBI counter-terrorism chief John Pistole said. “Unfortunately, U.S. correctional institutions are a viable venue for such radicalization and recruitment.”...

More than 1,000 Russian would-be "cyber-brides" are lobbying the US Congress to halt laws aimed at protecting them from exploitation. The women, who are members of the biggest American-owned dating agency that recruits in the former Soviet Union, claim that the new laws would destroy their hopes of finding husbands over the internet. A bill passing through Congress would force American matchmaking agencies - mostly run from websites - to give foreign women details of the marital history and any criminal record of suitors. Supporters say that the move - inspired by the death of Anastasia King, 20, who was...

By Kieren McCarthy Posted: 07/18/2002 at 02:01 EST VeriSign is attempting to push through a proposal which will effectively see one company control .com and .net Internet domain names, despite huge opposition from everyone else in the market. Under its proposals, a new domain "wait listing service" (WLS) will be set up that supersedes all other domain renewal services and run by one company, SnapNames, with which Verisign has a close relationship. Under the plan, anyone will be able to pay SnapNames $35 to "reserve" a particular .com or .net domain name were it not to be renewed. VeriSign claims...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Minnesota woman who wrote a message on the Internet critical of an Alabama scholar cannot be sued for libel in the scholar's home state. The woman's lawyer said the ruling shows that free-speech rules covering newspapers, magazines or television also apply to a new medium like the Internet. The high court vacated a $25,000 judgment against Marianne Luban, whose criticism on an Internet newsgroup devoted to Egyptology was directed at Katherine Griffis, a scholar living in Alabama. The Internet posting mentioned that Griffis had ties to Alabama,...

[...]Unsettling signs of al Qaeda's aims and skills in cyberspace have led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are at the threshhold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed. The new threat bears little resemblance to familiar financial disruptions by hackers responsible for viruses and worms. It comes instead at the meeting points between computers and the physical structures they control.By disabling or taking command of floodgates in a dam, for example, or of substations handling 300,000 volts of electric power, U.S. analysts believe an intruder could use virtual tools to destroy real-world lives and property....

SALT LAKE CITY (May 14, 2002 6:09 p.m. EDT) - Are we ready for the next terrorist attack? It doesn't look like it. In Afghanistan, the war against terrorism has been waged with brilliance. But in the American homeland, bureaucratic inertia and procrastination are hobbling preparations to meet a new terrorist assault. The likeliest attack would be one from cyberspace, according to experts who say those who wish the U.S. harm have the capacity to orchestrate it. Its potential targets are the U.S. air traffic system, the nation's financial network, or other critical operations whose computer systems are vulnerable to...

I am just coming back from a HORRIBLE experience. I am starting to get into this hobby online called cartoon dolls, that many of you with girl kids, probably already know about, it's very popular. Well I went deeper, there's a chat program called the palace, and I thought I would go into that, thinking, it would have pretty sets, etc. I was shocked. And I live in San Francisco, so I'm not too shockable. But I'm disgusted. People with KIDS need to be aware, in a BIG WAY what is going on in these cyber rooms like the palace,...