BIG BROTHER in the age of INTERNET # (Ongoing - Links, Articles & Videos)

Ron Paul: CISPA is the New SOPA
Ron Paul
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Earlier this year, strong public opposition led by several prominent websites forced Congressional leaders to cancel votes on two bills known in Washington as “SOPA” and “PIPA.” Both of these bills threatened search engines and websites with possible shutdowns if the Justice Department deemed them insufficiently cooperative with our phony “war on terror,” or if they were merely accused of copyright infringement. Fortunately the American public flooded Capitol Hill with phone calls and Congressional leaders dropped both bills.

But we should never underestimate the federal government’s insatiable desire to control the internet. Statists of all parties, persuasions, and nationalities hate the free, unbridled flow of information, ideas, and goods via the internet. They resent the notion that ordinary people can communicate and trade across the world without government filters or approvals. So they continually seek to impose controls, always under the guise of fighting terrorism or protecting “intellectual property” rights.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

China shuts ‘rumor’ blogs in Internet crackdown
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

One of China’s most popular microblogging services has shut several accounts for spreading “malicious” rumours, as Beijing tightens control over the Internet after the ouster of a top leader.

The move followed a broad crackdown on the Internet after rising political star Bo Xilai’s downfall in March, sparking a series of online rumours, including one suggesting his supporters had staged a coup.

Chinese Internet giant Sina said late Tuesday it had closed down four “weibo” accounts, China’s equivalent to Twitter, including one held by the writer Li Delin, whose postings about military vehicles in Beijing sparked the coup rumours.

A posting by a friend on Wednesday claimed Li had disappeared.

“Recently, some lawbreakers have made use of weibo to without reason fabricate and spread malicious political rumours, producing a bad influence on society,” Sina said in an announcement to its more than 300 million users.

CONTINUE: [link to www.rawstory.com]

CISPA, “National Security,” and the NSA’s Ability to Read Your Emails
EFF
Thursday, April 26, 2012

This week the House of Representatives is debating CISPA, the dangerous ‘cybersecurity’ bill that threatens to decimate Internet users’ privacy in the name of security. EFF and a wide variety of other groups have been protesting the law’s provisions giving companies the power to read users’ emails and other communications and hand them to the government without any judicial oversight whatsoever — essentially a giant ‘cybersecurity’ exception to all existing privacy laws.

We’ve already shown how the bill’s definition of ‘cyber threat information’ can lead the companies and government to surveil citizens for a host of reasons beyond critical cybersecurity threats. But we want to focus on one vital portion of the bill that is not getting enough attention: what the government can do with your private information once companies hand it over.

Even though CISPA is styled as a ‘cybersecurity’ bill, it explicitly allows the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA) to use your information for ‘national security’ purposes — expanding the bill far beyond its purported goal. Bill sponser Mike Rogers introduced a package of amendments yesterday, but did not remove “national security” as one of the purposes for which information can be used.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Latest Cybersecurity Bill CISPA Passes First Vote in Congress
Activist Post
Thursday, April 26, 2012

Never mind that no cyber threat has been proven, or even appears imminent, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, which many say is just the reincarnation of the failed SOPA bill, passed a rules vote in the House of Representatives today by a count of 248 to 168.

"This bill in its current form… is an unprecedented, sweeping piece of legislation that would waive every single privacy law ever enacted in the name of cybersecurity," Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

The vote clears the way for a full vote likely to take place today. Facing a veiled veto threat by president Obama because the bill doesn't do enough to protect civil liberties, CISPA is said to be potentially worse for Internet free speech and activism.

The much maligned SOPA bill was intended to give the government the authority to close down and seize domains over suspected copyright infringement. While CISPA is more geared toward private companies sharing information concerning "threats" with the government, thus eliminating user privacy.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

I cruised this fast and I liked it a lot.

The Great Data Sellout Reveals How We Pay For Our Own Enslavement
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Activist Post

The communications devices that we have been baited into using as a means to be within instant touch of our friends, associates, and the latest information, continue to be turned against us.

In addition to surveillance by the apps themselves offering a wealth of personal details to advertisers, smartphones have gained new capabilities to track a user's location with incredible precision. This location data in turn is being used by law enforcement across the country in ways that should be troubling to civil liberties advocates.

Documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that cell service providers are not only willingly handing over all of your data to local police departments but they're also charging an obscene amount of money for the information.

Now California has introduced a bill sponsored by the ACLU and EFF that proposes to limit the unbridled selling of this information by simply reinforcing current wiretap laws that demand a search warrant be issued before obtaining personal data. Naturally with big money at stake the wireless industry has vigorously opposed this legislation.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Thank you!

It's meant to be an 'Everything You Need To Know about BIG BROTHER in the age of INTERNET' kinda thread...

CISPA Passes the House with Amendments Which Make it Even Worse Than it Was
By Madison Ruppert
April 27, 2012
theintelhub.com

The final vote on CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, sponsored by Representatives Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and Dutch Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat, was held today despite it being originally slated for tomorrow.

Brent Daggett previously reported on how dangerous CISPA really is for End the Lie and I have pointed out how over 3,000,000 businesses across the United States – including companies like Google who opposed SOPA – expressed their support for the bill, which likely played a large role in its passage.

It passed with a 248-168 vote and quite unfortunately, the amended version which was voted on is even worse than it was originally, if you can believe that.

While I thought such a thing would never be possible, indeed the final version of CISPA is considerably more dangerous than the previous incarnations.

This is because the amendment, put forth by Representative Ben Quayle, an Arizona Republican, actually expanded the scope of CISPA and allows even more reasons for private information to be shared with the government.

The most insane part about this amendment is that, according to Tech Dirt, it was actually billed as an amendment which would limit the government’s power to obtain personal, private information belonging to Americans.

CONTINUE: [link to theintelhub.com]

Shades of 1984 Emerge in Broadcast TV Copyright Flap
By David Kravets
April 13, 2012

In 1984, Hollywood was arguing that the VCR and home taping would kill its business and wanted the Supreme Court to outlaw the devices from Americans’ living rooms. Luckily for Americans and Hollywood, the Supreme Court recognized the power of innovation and the limits of copyright in a 5-4 decision that helped unleash a revolution in home entertainment that included a multi-billion-dollar market in videotape and DVD sales and rentals.

Fast forward three decades and we’re right back to 1984. Broadcasters including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and Univision are set to appear in court next month to urge a New York federal judge to block the latest television-viewing technology they claim will bankrupt their business model.

It’s not quite George Orwell’s 1984. But it is legal déjà vu.

To understand the latest legal jockeying, substitute the term VCR with Aereo. The upstart, Aereo, opened for business last month and supplies internet streams and a DVR service for over-the-air broadcasts to its New York customers. In other words, Aereo lets those in New York who want to watch on their iPad what they can pull down for free from the public airwaves to their TV with an antenna. For the moment, the service is free, but will soon charge $12 monthly.

Echoing Hollywood’s arguments against the VCR before the Supreme Court, broadcasters claim Aereo will doom them and are asking a federal judge to ban the service.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

Feds Want Way to Hack Xboxes and Wiis for Evidence
By Kim Zetter
April 9, 2012

Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used gaming console.

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project to find ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive information about gamers stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to Obscure Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool that will siphon data from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other consoles.

The $177,000 contract requires the company to create new hardware and software tools that can extract data from gaming consoles, and to purchase used gaming consoles outside the U.S. to determine what data was left on them by previous owners that can be extracted, including information about communications with other gamers, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

Gaming consoles can store sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers and addresses. Newer systems also allow users to communicate with one another via messaging and chat systems, and the government is interested in knowing what data is stored in the systems and can be siphoned out of them. But the systems often employ anti-tampering technologies that can make extracting data from them difficult.

Obscure Technologies was chosen for the contract in part due to its extensive reverse-engineering experience in general and its specific experience in exploiting digital rights management technologies, according to a government document justifying the award of the contract to Obscure Technologies. The company’s lead scientist previously reverse-engineered the Microsoft Xbox, according to the document.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

CYBER INTELLIGENCE AND INTERNET SPYING: House Passes Draconian Internet Spying Bill
by Tom Burghardt
April 29, 2012
Antifascist Calling...

On April 26, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the draconian Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523 or CISPA) by a vote of 248-168, with 206 Republicans and 42 Democrats voting in favor.

If the legislation passes muster in the Senate and is signed by President Obama (who has threatened a veto, but don't hold your breath), it would allow private firms - internet service providers (ISPs), telecoms and wireless providers - to hand over personal information about users to law enforcement and security agencies.

This unprecedented power-grab by a cabal of giant corporations and the federal government would take place under the guise of "cybersecurity," the latest front in the secret state's assault on Americans' civil liberties and privacy rights.

While the bill's sponsors and supporters claim that any "information-sharing" of personal data would be "voluntary," it would occur without benefit of a warrant or a court order and automatically "exempts such information from public disclosure."

Denouncing the bill, the ACLU's Michelle Richardson said that CISPA's "biggest and most fundamental flaw" is that it empowers "the military, including agencies like the NSA, to collect the internet records of Americans' everyday internet use."

CISPA is the latest in a series of repressive measures that have incrementally rolled-back the Bill of Rights since 1995's Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 terrorist provocations. Under successive Democratic and Republican administrations fundamental constitutional protections, specifically those guaranteed by the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, have been gutted.

Beginning with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), which severely limited the rights of prisoners to obtain habeas corpus relief from federal courts, 2001's Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) which handed the Executive Branch carte blanche to wage endless, undeclared wars, and now the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), which empowers the President to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison anyone, anywhere in the world declared a "terrorist," including American citizens detained on U.S. soil, without charge or trial, the architecture of a police state is firmly in place.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

The nanos we breath are going to be the ultimate trackers.

The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules
30 April 2012

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled.

The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly pirated free music and video.

Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.

CONTINUE: [link to www.bbc.co.uk]

Search Engines Google-Bing et al To Obama Rescue?
May 3, 2012
By Lawrence Sinclair

Last week in Hell Hath No Fury Like A Scorned White House Sinclair News reported on how Google along with Bing; Ask; Dogpile; Yahoo had started manipulating the search results which were provided on the search term Larry Sinclair in an effort to push Sinclair News into the dark depths of cyberspace.

Monday April 30, 2012 Sinclair News met with a Company which specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Internet Advertising to see what we could do in order to prevent Google and the other search engines from trying to destroy Sinclair News web rankings. In this meeting we discovered a great deal about what has happened since the White House Press Secretary took a shot at us last week WH Press Sec. Carney Takes Shot At Sinclair News. First we want everyone to remember the names Google and Blue States Digital as both will be involved in a good deal of Internet manipulation and personal attacks during this 2012 election cycle. In 2008 Google was accused of and had even admitted to manipulating its search results to display specific results before others. Blue States Digital is the company that made it possible for the Obama for America campaign to attack Obama opponents and anyone who spoke out against Obama by using the Campaign’s own web site to send out emails using other individuals email addresses.

CONTINUE: [link to www.lsnewsgroup.com]

Positive Ruling in Illegal Download Case Deals Another Blow to Copyright Trolls
Joe Wright
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Activist Post

Copyright trolls like the infamous Righthaven continue to fail in their attempt to intimidate people into settling cases that amount to nothing more than a shakedown for cash. In fact, Righthaven has had to pay hundreds of thousands in attorney fees and court costs for their frivolous lawsuits.

Now a New York judge, Gary Brown, has joined many others in highlighting an additional failure by those who seek damages for copyright infringement: your IP address is not necessarily you. This ruling backs others around the country according to Mitch Stoltz from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, interviewed by RT in the video below.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

New York judge rules an IP address is not a person



Last Edited by RoXY on 05/08/2012 06:14 PM

FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now
by Declan McCullagh
May 4, 2012

CNET learns the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel's office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

"If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding," an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI's draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.

The FBI's proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks.

CONTINUE: [link to news.cnet.com]

Everyone Has Been Hacked. Now What?
By Kim Zetter
May 4, 2012

The attackers chose their moment well.

On Apr. 7, 2011, five days before Microsoft patched a critical zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer that had been publicly disclosed three months earlier on a security mailing list, unknown attackers launched a spear-phishing attack against workers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The lab, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, conducts classified and unclassified energy and national security work for the federal government.

The e-mail, purporting to come from the lab’s human resources department, went to about 530 workers, or 11 percent of the lab’s workforce.

The cleverly crafted missive included a link to a malicious webpage, where workers could get information about employee benefits. But instead of getting facts about a health plan or retirement fund, workers who visited the site using Internet Explorer got bit with malicious code that downloaded silently to their machines.

Although the lab detected the spear-phishing attack soon after it began, administrators weren’t quick enough to stop 57 workers from clicking on the malicious link. Luckily, only two employee machines were infected with the code. But that was enough for the intruders to get onto the lab’s network and begin siphoning data. Four days after the e-mails arrived, administrators spotted suspicious traffic leaving a server.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

MI6 Codebreaker Attended U.S. Security Conference Before His Death
By Kim Zetter
May 3, 2012

A top British codebreaker who died a mysterious death in his flat two years ago had just returned from a computer security conference in the United States before his death, according to information disclosed during an inquest this week.

The body of Gareth Williams, a codebreaker with Britain’s MI6 spy agency, was discovered stuffed into a sports bag in his bathtub on Aug. 23, 2010, though he’s believed to have been killed Aug. 15.

Williams had just returned to London on Aug. 11 after spending six weeks in the United States, where he attended the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas as part of a contingent of British spies, according to witnesses who spoke at the inquest. He attended Black Hat in 2008 as well.

It’s believed Williams may have also attended Black Hat’s companion hacker conference, DefCon, which follows Black Hat and draws many of the same attendees. In 2010, Black Hat was held July 24 to 29, while DefCon ran from July 30 to Aug. 1.

Black Hat is one of the top security conferences in the world, targeting the professional security crowd, while DefCon is geared more specifically to hackers. Law enforcement agents, the military and undercover spies regularly attend both conferences — often undercover — to keep pace with the latest research and learn what hackers are up to. They also recruit hackers for professional work.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

Last Edited by RoXY on 05/09/2012 06:19 AM

Popular Surveillance Cameras Open to Hackers, Researcher Says
By Kim Zetter
May 15, 2012

In a world where security cameras are nearly as ubiquitous as light fixtures, someone is always watching you.

But the watcher might not always be who you think it is.

Three of the most popular brands of closed-circuit surveillance cameras are sold with remote internet access enabled by default, and with weak password security — a classic recipe for security failure that could allow hackers to remotely tap into the video feeds, according to new research.

The cameras, used by banks, retailers, hotels, hospitals and corporations, are often configured insecurely — thanks to these manufacturer default settings, according to researcher Justin Cacak, senior security engineer at Gotham Digital Science. As a result, he says, attackers can seize control of the systems to view live footage, archived footage or control the direction and zoom of cameras that are adjustable.

“You can essentially view these devices from anywhere in the world,” Cacak said, noting that he and his security team were able to remotely view footage showing security guards making rounds in facilities, “exceptionally interesting and explicit footage” from cameras placed in public elevators, as well as footage captured by one high-powered camera installed at a college campus, which had the ability to zoom directly into the windows of college dorm rooms.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

This Week in Internet Censorship: India, Iran, Brazil, Russia, and More
Eva Galperin
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
EFF

Iran Continues March Towards “Halal Internet”
This past weekend, Iran’s minister of telecommunications announced that domestic institutions including banks, telecom companies, insurance firms, and universities are now prohibited from dealing with emails that do not come from an “.ir” domain name.

This means that customers who use foreign email clients such as Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail will have to switch to domestic Iranian accounts, which are subject to Iranian legal jurisdiction.

While the announcement suggests that the use of foreign email clients leaves Iranian data vulnerable security breaches, the forced move to domestic email services makes it easier for the government to monitor its own citizens. The Telecommunications Ministry that “that the crackdown is an attempt to ensure confidential information is safe” from foreign email providers who allegedly collect user data, making them insecure for Iranian institutional use.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Google's New Search Tool to Use CIA and World Bank as Sources for 'Facts'
Eric Blair
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Activist Post

Google is making a big change to how it displays results in it's dominant search engine. It is rolling out a new feature called the Knowledge Graph which breaks from the traditional practice of matching keywords with webpages.

According to an article on Blog Tips about Google's Knowledge Graph, immediate answers or "facts" from pre-selected sources like the CIA Factbook, Wikipedia, and the World Bank will be provided in search results along side the organic results:

Instead of using the typical search strength of a particular answer, this new feature will draw "facts" from places like Wikipedia for historical information, CIA World Factbook for geopolitical answers, the World Bank for economic facts, Freebase for information about people and other predetermined sources.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

UN to Control World’s Information and Communications From Internet Hub in Africa
Susanne Posel, Contributor
Monday, May 21, 2012
Activist Post

In a report from the World Bank, Africa’s economic development was outlined as a “golden opportunity for a green future”.

At the 4th Africa Carbon Forum (ACF) “The vast potential represented by African countries in the fight against climate change cannot be underestimated,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“The Africa Carbon Forum is where potential projects and developers and funders can meet, exchange ideas, and – it is hoped – take the concrete steps toward greening Africa’s future.”

The ACF held a conference where policymakers, project developers, and private investors discussed climate-smart agriculture, public and private partnerships and funding for projects. However, it is clear that Africa holds more promise than just the inception of carbon emission reduction and carbon finance.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Proposed legislation in NY would remove anonymous postings on websites

Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to "remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post."

Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte said the legislation would cut down on "mean-spirited and baseless political attacks"

NYS is going after those big bag cyber bullies

Heres the bill:

[link to assembly.state.ny.us]

Call to Action: Join the Fight Against Cyber Spying Proposals in the Senate
Rainey Reitman
Friday, May 25, 2012


EFF and an array of civil liberties organizations are engaged in a pitched battle against the privacy-invasive legislation Congress is pushing under the guise of promoting “cyber security.”

Everyone agrees that network security is important, but a thinly disguised mass surveillance bill won’t help address the needs of our country in defending our networks.

Even when faced with wide-ranging opposition from security experts and the Obama Administration, the House of Representatives managed to ram through CISPA, a bill widely decried as empowering the military to collect the Internet records of Americans’ everyday Internet use. Now the fight is moving to the Senate, and the word from DC is that a vote on cybersecurity measures could happen in early June.

That gives us little time to waste in fighting this legislation. We need the Internet community to rise up and fight for online freedoms in the cybersecurity debates. Here’s how you can help:

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Google Says It Removes 1 Million Infringing Links Monthly
By David Kravets
May 24, 2012 |

Each month, Google removes more than 1 million links to infringing content such as movies, video games, music and software from its search results — with about half of those requests for removal last month coming from Microsoft.

The search and advertising giant revealed the data Thursday as it released sortable analytics on the massive number of copyright takedown requests it receives — adding to its already existing data on the number of times governments ask for users’ personal data.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

U.K. Supreme Court to Rule on Assange Extradition Appeal
By Kim Zetter
May 23, 2012 |

After months of anticipation, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will get a final ruling from a British court next Wednesday on his appeal of an extradition order to Sweden to face sex crimes allegations.

Assange, who has been under house arrest for a year and a half, asked the Supreme Court last February to overturn an order extraditing him to Sweden on grounds that the European arrest warrant issued against him was invalid because the Swedish prosecutor behind it was “working for the executive” and was therefore not a proper judicial authority, as the law requires.

Swedish authorities have maintained that the arrest warrant was proper and valid because in the early stages of an investigation when an arrest is first being sought, judicial authorities do not have to be independent or impartial.

Should the seven justices of the Supreme Court agree with Sweden and uphold the extradition ruling, Assange will have one last chance to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]

FBI secretly creates Internet police
25 May, 2012

The FBI was rather public with its recent demands for backdoor access to websites and Internet services across the board, but as the agency awaits those secret surveillance powers, they're working on their own end to have those e-spy capabilities.

Not much has been revealed about one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s newest projects, the Domestic Communications Assistance Center, and the FBI will probably try to keep it that way. Despite attempting to keep the DCAC largely under wraps, an investigation spearheaded by Cnet’s Declan McCullagh is quickly collecting details about the agency’s latest endeavor.

Governmental agencies have been searching seemingly without end for ways to pry into the personal communications of computer users in America. Congressional approval and cooperation from Internet companies could be an eternity away, of course, but the FBI might be able to bypass that entirely by taking the matter into their own hands. At the Quantico, Virginia headquarters of the DCAC, federal workers are believed to be already hard at work on projects that will put FBI spies into the Internet, snooping on unsuspecting American’s Skype calls, instant messages and everything else carried out with a mouse and keyboard.

CONTINUE: [link to rt.com]

Deadline Approaches for Russia and China led UN Internet Takeover
May 26, 2012

The Daily Caller – by Josh Peterson The State Department is expected to finally name a lead negotiator next month for high level international talks with the U.N. in December that would decide the fate of the Internet, a senior U.S. official told Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio last week.

The nomination would come nearly a year after then-Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin announced in June 2011 that he and his allies sought to establish international control over the Internet. At the time, Putin had “reaffirmed” Russia’s support of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — a little-known U.N. agency responsible for the international regulation of long-distance calls and satellite orbits — as his preferred instrument to bring about international cooperation on cybersecurity and Internet issues. Russia is a co-founder of the ITU, dating back to 1866.

CONTINUE: [link to fromthetrenchesworldreport.com]

Meet ‘Flame’, The Massive Spy Malware Infiltrating Iranian Computers
By Kim Zetter
May 28, 2012

A massive, highly sophisticated piece of malware has been newly found infecting systems in Iran and elsewhere and is believed to be part of a well-coordinated, ongoing, state-run cyberespionage operation.

The malware, discovered by Russia-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, is an espionage toolkit that has been infecting targeted systems in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the Israeli Occupied Territories and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa for at least two years.

Dubbed “Flame” by Kaspersky, the malicious code dwarfs Stuxnet in size – the groundbreaking infrastructure-sabotaging malware that is believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear program in 2009 and 2010. Although Flame has both a different purpose and composition than Stuxnet, and appears to have been written by different programmers, its complexity, the geographic scope of its infections and its behavior indicate strongly that a nation-state is behind Flame, rather than common cyber-criminals — marking it as yet another tool in the growing arsenal of cyberweaponry.

The researchers say that Flame may be part of a parallel project created by contractors who were hired by the same nation-state team that was behind Stuxnet and its sister malware, DuQu.

“Stuxnet and Duqu belonged to a single chain of attacks, which raised cyberwar-related concerns worldwide,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. “The Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, and it’s important to understand that such cyber weapons can easily be used against any country.”

CONTINUE: [link to www.wired.com]