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Sat, 22 May 10
German minister stresses privacy rights with Google chief
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/German_minister_stresses_privacy_rights_with_Google_chief_999.html
Berlin (AFP) May 20, 2010 - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met Google co-founder Larry Page Thursday, the ministry said, amid tensions over its controversial Street View service and the sanctity of private data.

In an unusual half-hour, closed-doors meeting at the ministry with a foreign business executive, Westerwelle also took up the issue of censorship in China and other countries which have posed challenges to the US-based Internet giant.

"Minister Westerwelle underlined the importance of freedom of expression on the Internet and he heard about the experiences of the company in China and other countries," his office said in a statement.

"In the context of the current debate about Google's Street View, Minister Westerwelle stressed the importance of data protection in Germany. Anyone who believes in the rights of citizens to their freedoms should recognise the importance of data protection."

The meeting came after prosecutors in the northern city of Hamburg, where Google's German unit is based, opened a preliminary probe against the company after it admitted to mistakenly gathering personal data with its Street View mapping service.

Google said last week that it was halting the collection of WiFi network information for Street View because it had inadvertently collected personal data sent via unsecured systems. It has since apologised.

German authorities have been among Google's chief critics over Street View, which began in 2006 and allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps.

A foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that the meeting with Page had been scheduled weeks ago and said it was common for Westerwelle, chairman of the pro-business Free Democrats, to meet with "entrepreneurs".

"There was the interest on both sides to have a conversation," the spokesman said.

Meanwhile in March, Google stopped filtering results on its Chinese-language search engine to protest government censorship and what it said were China-based cyberattacks.

The issue touched off a war of words between Beijing and Washington over Internet freedom, adding to a host of other bilateral trade disputes.

Wed, 19 May 10
Google ends WiFi collection after personal data captured
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Google_ends_WiFi_collection_after_personal_data_captured_999.html
Washington (AFP) May 15, 2010 - Google is halting the collection of WiFi network information for its controversial "Street View" mapping service after admitting it mistakenly gathered personal data sent over unsecured systems.

The Internet giant had insisted previously that it was only collecting WiFi network names and addresses with the Street View cars that have been cruising cities around the world taking photographs for the Google Maps service.

"It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (ie non-password-protected) WiFi networks," Alan Eustace, Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post Friday.

Eustace said Google was "profoundly sorry for this error," which is likely to intensify criticism of Street View by privacy advocates and officials.

The Mountain View, California-based Google said it will end the collection of WiFi network information entirely by the Street View cars which have been used in over 30 nations, and was taking steps to delete the private data.

Street View, which is available for the United States and certain other countries, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and "walk" through cities such as New York, Paris or Hong Kong.

WiFi network information allows Google to build location features into mobile versions of Street View such as directions or nearby restaurants.

Amid concerns that thieves could use pictures of private houses to gain access and that photos of people were being published without their consent, Street View already blurs faces and car registration plates.

The collection of WiFi network information by Street View, which began in 2006, has already come in for criticism, particularly in Germany.

Eustace said a coding error was responsible for the collection of personal data sent by people over unsecured WiFi networks.

Google did not specify what data was gathered but it could potentially include emails or details about which websites a person had visited, for example.

Eustace said Google discovered that personal data had been swept up a week ago following a request to audit WiFi data from the Data Protection Authority in Hamburg, Germany.

"As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible," he said.

"We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it," Eustace said.

"Given the concerns raised, we have decided that it's best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely," he added.

A Google spokesperson said about 600 gigabytes of personal information had been gathered, roughly the amount as in a standard computer hard drive.

Eustace said the data was just fragments. "Because our cars are on the move, someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by, and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second," he said.

"Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short," he said. "We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake."

John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that is a frequent critic of Google, said the company had demonstrated a "lack of concern for privacy."

"Its computer engineers run amok, push the envelope and gather whatever data they can until their fingers are caught in the cookie jar," Simpson said.

"The takeaway from this incident is the clear need for government oversight and regulation of the data all online companies gather and store," he said.

Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said "Google has placed data collection before user privacy -- the DNA of the company is to harvest data for online marketing.

"Top management needs to ensure that privacy -- not data collection -- come first," Chester said.

Google said Street View cars have been collecting WiFi data in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States.

Wed, 19 May 10
Pentagon says military response to cyber attack possible
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Pentagon_says_military_response_to_cyber_attack_possible_999.html
Washington (AFP) May 12, 2010 - The Pentagon would consider a military response in the case of a cyber attack against the United States, a US defense official said on Wednesday.

Asked about the possibility of using military force after a cyber assault, James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said: "Yes, we need to think about the potential for responses that are not limited to the cyber domain."

But he said it remained unclear what constituted an act of war in cyberspace.

"Those are legal questions that we are attempting to address," Miller said at a conference in Washington, adding that "there are certainly a lot of grey areas in this field."

He said hostile acts in cyberspace covered a wide range, from digital espionage to introducing false data into a network, that did not necessarily represent full-blown war.

But he said the threat to US networks from terrorists, criminals and others was real and growing.

"Over the past decade, we've seen the frequency and the sophistication of intrusions into our networks increase," he said. "Our systems are probed thousands of times a day."

The Defense Department has about 90,000 employees and troops using computer networks, with about seven million computer devices, he said.

The US military recently created a new cyber command that will be led by Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, head of the secretive National Security Agency. Alexander was confirmed in his post by the US Senate last week.

In his written testimony to Congress, Alexander said that the new cyber command would be prepared to wage offensive operations as well, despite the risk of sustaining damage to US networks.

He told lawmakers that he expected digital operations to take place as part of a wider military campaign, but that special legal authority would be required to respond to a cyber attack staged from a neutral country.

Tue, 11 May 10
Cybersecurity meet ends with calls for global cooperation
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cybersecurity_meet_ends_with_calls_for_global_cooperation_999.html
Dallas, Texas (AFP) May 5, 2010 - Government and business leaders wrapped up a cybersecurity conference here Wednesday agreeing that only global cooperation can protect a vulnerable Internet and interconnected world.

"When it comes to our readiness to protect ourselves from cyberattacks we are not prepared, we are not even close to ready," said Tom Ridge, who headed the US Department of Homeland Security under former president George W. Bush.

Cyberspace has emerged in the 21st century as a new domain along with land, sea, air and space, Ridge told the 400 participants from 40 countries attending the first Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit hosted by the EastWest Institute.

"It's time, one might argue past time, to build the trust and establish the laws, treaties and agreements for the cyberspace domain in this 21st century," he said. "Collective action is and must be our goal."

During three days of talks here, government officials, business leaders and cybersecurity experts discussed how to cope with the myriad threats to computer networks -- from criminal hackers seeking financial gain to cyber terrorists out to wreak havoc to nations equipped with cyber warfare capabilities.

While warning that the dangers can never be eliminated entirely, they said a number of steps could be taken to protect power grids, financial markets, rail and air transportation, communications systems and other critical sectors.

"We need to exchange -- and there are certain conditions of course -- information about vulnerabilities, threats, attacks," said Patrick Pailloux, director general of France's Network and Information Security Agency.

"We should conduct joint cyber defense exercises," he said.

China, which has been accused of waging cyberattacks on Google and heavily censors the Web, joined calls for international efforts to secure cyberspace while at the same time urging respect for "Internet sovereignty."

"International cooperation is very much needed," said Liu Zhengrong, the deputy director general of the State Council Information Office's Internet Affairs Bureau.

But the "Internet sovereignty of each country needs to be respected" and "different national and cultural conditions" taken into account, Liu said.

Both government and business representatives stressed the need for the public and private sectors to forge a partnership.

"Each government has to enlist the support of its private sector for cybersecurity," said Kamlesh Bajaj, chief executive of the Data Security Council of India. "No government can fight cyber crime in isolation."

Bajaj warned that while much can be done to protect digital infrastructure against electronic attacks, "vulnerabilities will continue to exist.

"Cybersecurity is not a technology problem that can be solved," he said. "It is a risk to be managed."

Protecting user privacy and educating policy-makers and the public to the seriousness of the threats in cyberspace were cited as other major challenges.

"When you mention cybersecurity to most members of Congress their eyes just glaze over," said Michael McCaul, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Texas. "Yet it's one of the most serious issues that we face in this century."

Speaking of cyber espionage, McCaul said "if we caught agents of a foreign power breaking into the Pentagon, stealing physical files, file cabinets, you can imagine the response from the media.

"And yet that's happening in the virtual world every day," he said.

Enhanced cooperation among law enforcement and a greater ability to track down and punish perpetrators of cyber crime were also identified as pressing needs.

"We have an enormous number of bad actors who are able to be completely anonymous," said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive of Texas-based computer giant Dell. "Can you think of any secure system where people can operate anonymously?"

Retired US Air Force Lieutenant General Harry Raduege, former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, pointedly reminded participants that reaching a consensus on cybersecurity issues will not be easy.

"When I think of the rules of the road, some people drive on the left side of the street and some people on the right so that can cause some healthy collisions," Raduege said.

Tue, 11 May 10
Cybersecurity experts share their 'nightmares'
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cybersecurity_experts_share_their_nightmares_999.html
Dallas, Texas (AFP) May 6, 2010 - Cybersecurity experts from around the world meeting on ways to protect the Internet say they still have fears of "nightmare" scenarios in which attacks could cripple critical computer networks.

"I live in a world of nightmares," Patrick Pailloux, director general of France's Network and Information Security Agency, told participants in the first Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit which ended on Wednesday.

"Each subject is a nightmare: electricity, power grids, transportation, airplanes, water supply, finance, the banking system, the health system," Pailloux said.

"My biggest nightmare is that we don't have enough time to prepare us for the nightmares," said the head of France's cyber defense efforts.

Pailloux was among the 400 participants from 40 nations who attended the meeting hosted by the EastWest Institute think tank to come up with ways to protect the world's digital infrastructure from cyber threats.

The cybersecurity experts, government officials and business leaders agreed that only global cooperation could protect computer networks under constant attack from ever mutating viruses, worms, spam and a host of other dangers.

White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt said his "nightmare scenario" would involve a loss of communications.

"You have some kind of a physical event -- whether it's a natural disaster, whether it's a direct attack -- and you somehow because of a cyber insecurity do not have an ability to communicate or direct emergency response," he said.

"As far as a single incident that could take place that's probably the one I worry about the most," Schmidt said.

Michael McCaul, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Texas, expressed concern about a "denial of service attack that shuts down power grids and causes major blackouts across the country."

Denial of service attacks can paralyse websites by overwhelming them with requests from thousands of zombie computers.

"Everything is tied to the Internet therefore everything is vulnerable," McCaul said. "With a click of a mouse you can blow up power grids."

"The energy sector is really the Achilles heel of every nation and every business and every citizen," said Melissa Hathaway, the former acting senior director for cyberspace for the US National Security and Homeland Security Councils.

McCaul also said not all threats exist in cyberspace, pointing to the undersea cables that carry Internet traffic between the continents.

"The Internet cable is a physical thing," he said. "It's not virtual.

"It's exposed off the coast of Egypt. That could be physically attacked and would literally shut down the Internet," he said.

A number of participants in the conference said one of their greatest fears is that people could simply lose confidence in the Internet unless measures are taken to crack down on such things as identify theft and credit card fraud.

If the public decides over time that the Web is no longer a safe place to do business it could deal a crippling blow to electronic commerce, they warned.

"If the bad guys win they erode the fundamental confidence that people have in communications networks and services," said Randall Stephenson, chairman, chief executive and president of US telecom giant AT&T.

"And I tell you that confidence is critical," he said in a closing speech to the gathering. "Without it all this great human and economic progress that's been powered by advanced communications stands at risk."

Tue, 11 May 10
Cybersecurity summit kicks off with calls to action
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cybersecurity_summit_kicks_off_with_calls_to_action_999.html
Dallas, Texas (AFP) May 3, 2010 - Securing cyberspace needs more public-private cooperation and a greater ability to identify and punish perpetrators, officials and business leaders said as a conference got underway.

"We have an incredibly threatening environment out there right now," US Homeland Security Deputy Undersecretary Philip Reitinger said at a dinner kicking off the first World Cybersecurity Summit in Dallas Monday.

"If we let our attention waver for a second we're going to be in a world of hurt," Reitinger said, calling for a sustained focus on cybersecurity and not just "Band-Aids."

Udo Helmbrecht, executive director of the European Network and Information Security Agency, said it was the "responsibility of governments to make a legal framework" to help tackle threats in cyberspace.

"We need to see that it's a global threat," Helmbrecht said, that requires a "global approach."

The Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit, hosted by the EastWest Institute think tank, features three days of discussions on ways to protect the world's digital infrastructure from electronic threats.

Some 400 government officials, business leaders and cybersecurity experts from China, France, Germany, India, Russia, the United States and three dozen other countries are attending the gathering, which is being held in the wake of cyberattacks on Google which the Internet giant said originated in China.

"Technology is definitely outpacing the creation of law and policies," said Kamlesh Bajaj, chief executive of the Data Security Council of India.

"If you look at global cyberattacks, many of them remain unresolved," Bajaj said. "The law enforcement effort leaves much to be desired.

"The Internet is said to be the perfect platform for plausible deniability," Bajaj continued. "Attribution is a major problem. This problem has to be solved and it's an international problem."

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive of US computer giant Dell, agreed that the ability of cyber criminals and others to easily hide their tracks on the Web was a major problem and one that needs to be addressed.

"We have an enormous number of bad actors who are able to be completely anonymous," he said. "Can you think of any secure system where people can operate anonymously?"

"These are important questions for governments and societies to answer," Dell said. "But I think ultimately if you have a perpetuation of anonymous actors and an increasingly pervasive set of systems that are critical to infrastructure and commerce and everything else in the world this is a bad accomodation."

Dell also said governments and businesses will need to work together. "It's not just the private sector -- we need all parties to be involved in this," he said.

Without identifying specific countries, Dell added that "those nations that don't pursue these issues aggressively may find themselves as less desirable locations to do business or to do business with."

Reitinger said recognition was needed that "we're trying to do is run our economy, our critical services, on an Internet ecosystem that is fundamentally insecure."

"That doesn't mean it's not great, that it doesn't give us a lot of benefits but it wasn't designed to give us the security we need," he said.

"It's important not to demonize the technology," Reitinger cautioned. "The vast majority of the people using the Internet are good people, it's just too hard to secure yourself and too hard to protect your family.

"We need both public-private partnerships and advanced technology to make that easier to do," the US Homeland Security official said.

Tue, 11 May 10
Governments and human rights warriors battle online
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Governments_and_human_rights_warriors_battle_online_999.html
Sunnyvale, California (AFP) May 4, 2010 - Governments are ramping up online attacks on human rights advocates as the Internet becomes a key battleground for fights against oppression and censorship.

"The cyberwarfare is increasing," Balatarin.com director Mehdi Yahyanejad said Tuesday at an annual Business & Human Rights Summit at the Yahoo! campus in the California city of Sunnyvale.

"If you have a blog or an email on a controversial website you are going to get targeted. Governments understand this is an important issue for them."

Yahyanejad is director of Balatarin.com, a popular Iranian website where people share links to Internet pages they find interesting.

Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook and Twitter are increasingly in cross-hairs of governments bent on stifling criticism and thwarting efforts to organize protests or share news.

Google spotlighted the issue this year when it stopped providing censored Internet results in China in response to attacks by hackers mining the US technology giant for information about human rights activists in that country.

"This was something that Google chose to do based on our code of ethics," company spokesman Scott Rubin said while taking part in a panel at the summit.

"We would love to offer search there but it has to be uncensored."

Conventional threats against people voicing dissent online include hacking of Internet accounts, "distributed denial of service" attacks that overwhelm servers with requests, and infecting machines with spy viruses.

"As we've seen in the attack on Google and others the fact that you have a highly motivated assailant is not just a vulnerability for human rights it is a vulnerability to your engineering infrastructure," said Danny O'Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Unconventional" online attacks include governments using personal information about citizens to impersonate them and seize control of online accounts or domain names by tricking Internet service providers.

Some governments use terms of service at Internet companies to have photos, videos or other content taken down with claims that material is offensive or violent, said AccessNow.com co-founder Kim Pham.

"As more people get on line, governments see the significance of the Internet and try to harness situations," Pham said. "It is in their interest to clamp down. It is inevitable."

YouTube is "slowly rolling out around the world" a system that will let people appeal the removal of videos they have uploaded to the website, according to Rubin.

"Where ever possible we will enable as much expression as we can," Rubin said. "We are working on greater transparency all the time."

US government and Internet representatives that took part in panels at the summit skirted comment regarding Google's decision to put free expression over profit in China's booming market.

A theme at the first summit was Internet giants and rights advocates uniting in a Global Network Initiative (GNI) for solidarity "in the advancement of user rights to freedom of expression and privacy."

Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Google are GNI members.

Google has essentially been left standing alone in its China move, with firms such as US technology colossus Microsoft opting for "engagement" strategies that bow to Internet censorship rules in that country.

Yahoo! has publicly backed Google. Five years ago Yahoo! sold its operations in China to Alibaba.com, taking a stake in the company as part of the deal.

"The decision to pull out of China was entirely our own," Rubin said. "In regard to whether there is ongoing support, it is up to each individual to decide that."

Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program director Ebele Okobi-Harris contended that the GNI set principles for members and did not dictated courses of action.

"There isn't a monolithic view," Okobi-Harris said. "You would find fair disagreement."

Tue, 4 May 10
Governments, businesses to discuss cybersecurity threats
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Governments_businesses_to_discuss_cybersecurity_threats_999.html
Washington (AFP) May 3, 2010 - Government officials and business leaders from around the world will begin a three-day meeting in Texas Monday to discuss what all agree is an area of common and growing concern: cybersecurity.

The Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit, hosted by the EastWest Institute (EWI), opens in Dallas and will feature discussions on ways to protect the world's digital infrastructure from electronic threats.

Among those scheduled to address the gathering, being held in the wake of sophisticated cyberattacks on Google which the Internet giant said originated in China, are President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor James Jones and White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt.

The EWI, a non-partisan think tank, is bringing together 400 government officials, business leaders and cybersecurity experts from China, France, Germany, India, Russia, the United States and nearly three dozen other countries to "map the dangers and areas of cooperation" in cyberspace.

"The skyrocketing severity and frequency of cyberattacks against businesses, governments and other institutions globally pose an ominous threat to the stability of the international economy and peace itself," according to the EWI.

"Nations have well established rules of the game on land, sea, air and in outer space," it said. "There is a significant lack of such rules in the fifth common domain -- cyberspace."

Ahead of the meeting, the EWI and Public Strategies conducted a survey of government officials, business leaders and cybersecurity experts on their perception of the dangers in cyberspace.

Thirty-four government officials and 103 business executives or experts, many of whom plan to attend the cybersecurity summit in Dallas, responded to the April 19-26 survey, for which they were guaranteed anonymity.

When asked to rate the cybersecurity threat to governments and businesses on a scale of one to 10 with nine or 10 representing a "profound threat," more than 80 percent of both groups agreed that the threat ranked a six or higher.

Forty-eight percent of both groups said they faced a "profound threat" while only three percent from each category said they faced "no threat."

Only four percent of the government officials and eight percent of the business leaders and cybersecurity experts rated the security of government computer systems and those of businesses as "very secure."

Sixty-seven percent of government officials said their computer grid was "not very secure" while 33 percent of business leaders and experts said the computer systems of businesses in their country were not very secure.

"The consensus on threat levels is quite high," said EWI vice president Andrew Nagorski. "There's a general understanding that if there are major cyberattacks this is going to have a major economic impact."

Participants in the survey also agreed that international tensions are likely to escalate if concerns over cybersecurity are not addressed.

Sixty-seven percent of the government officials said that if current cybersecurity policies prove ineffective, "deteriorating relations, angry recriminations and growing distrust" could result among countries such as China, India, Russia and the United States.

Fifty-one percent of the business leaders and experts expressed the same fear.

"This survey demonstrates how much more we need to do to implement policies that keep pace with the breakneck speed of technological advances," said EWI president and chief executive John Edwin Mroz.

"We need private-public partnerships and we need international cooperation to make cyberspace safe and secure," he said. "These results point to an urgent need to build trust, not only between countries but also between governments and businesses on a global level."

Tue, 4 May 10
LockMart Demos Future Of Net-Enabled Warfare At JEFX 10
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/LockMart_Demos_Future_Of_Net_Enabled_Warfare_At_JEFX_10_999.html
Fort Worth TX (SPX) May 03, 2010 - A Lockheed Martin F-16 demonstrated enhanced networked-enabled capabilities during the U.S. Air Force's Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2010 (JEFX 10), April 13-23, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

JEFX, planned and executed by the Global Cyberspace Integration Center, is a venue for innovative command and control (C2) and targeting technologies. This year's event focused on improving the U.S. forces' ability to conduct irregular warfare (IW).

Lockheed Martin's participation, under the sponsorship of Air Combat Command, centered on the potential benefits of Internet Protocol (IP)-based applications in an irregular warfare context while conducting close air support (CAS) missions. Lockheed Martin's efforts tied in with Air Force Special Operations Command enhanced capabilities in an integrated operational thread.

During the two week experiment, F-16 pilots demonstrated the capability of the Lockheed Martin Sniper SE advanced targeting pod's enhanced resolution sensor suite for improved combat identification of ground targets. Sniper SE's ability to simultaneously track multiple ground vehicles moving through a complex urban environment lowers the pilot's workload while increasing mission effectiveness.

Using Cursor on Target protocol, continuous targeting information on moving ground vehicles was automatically transmitted to Special Operations Forces (SOF) teams via a Harris Corporation Falcon III AN/PRC-117G radio using the Advanced Networking Wideband Waveform (ANW2) capability.

The wideband networking allowed the formation of mobile ad-hoc radio networks and enabled the transmission of high-bandwidth data and streaming video. Ground teams, each using the U.S. Special Operations Command developed Battlefield Air Operations Kit, subscribed to the F-16's network to display the vehicles' real-time location on each SOF ground operator's map display.

Full motion video from Sniper SE was simultaneously streamed over the network as pilots and SOF teams coordinated attacks using simultaneous text messaging, chat and annotated imagery.

In addition to exploring ANW2 capabilities, Lockheed Martin also demonstrated the use of the Rockwell Collins-developed Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) to collaborate with a wide group of airborne and ground C2 nodes.

Acting as a gateway and using the space-based Integrated Broadcast Service (IBS), air crews received current intelligence information on friendly and enemy forces, then automatically translated and republished the information via TTNT, ANW2 and Link 16.

"Improving the SA (situational awareness) of the pilots is vital," said Colonel Tim Forsythe, chief of Air Combat Command's combat aircraft division. "If we can pump data into those cockpits before we launch or even update it while we're on the fly via IBS it will generate more awareness for the pilot arriving in the collaboration airspace of CAS and IW."

"Partnership with the warfighter is absolutely essential in developing robust product roadmaps," said Mark Jefferson, director for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Horizontal Integration. "Our ability to integrate advanced capabilities and new technologies into current and challenging environments, such as the irregular warfare operations developed for JEFX 10, allows us to experiment with the fundamental elements necessary for tomorrow's net-enabled warfighting."

Tue, 4 May 10
Russia Needs To Develop Computer Games Industry
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia_Needs_To_Develop_Computer_Games_Industry_999.html
Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) May 03, 2010 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday the country needs to develop its own computer games industry.

"We cannot always count on foreign games; there is always space for them on the Russian market," Dmitry Medvedev said at a session of the Commission on Modernization and Technological Development of Russia's Economy.

He added that one of the committee's future sessions would be devoted to discussing the development of the computer technology industry.

The Russian president visited on Thursday a factory of computers and computer games producer Craftway Corporation.

He was shown the computer game "Il-2 Fighter," which is set in World War II and features Russian combat aircraft.

"This is a good way to see the development of events at that time," Medvedev said, adding that nowadays teenagers are more interested in playing computer games than reading books. Russian 'Silicon Valley' to enjoy unprecedented privileges The high-tech business park the Kremlin is setting up near Moscow as the Russian 'Silicon Valley' will enjoy unprecedented privileges and will be exempt from major taxes, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

Medvedev was speaking at a meeting of the commission for the economy's modernization and technological development.

Medvedev said residents of the technological park will enjoy tax holidays during a period of ten years and will be exempt from the payment of profit tax, VAT, property and land taxes until their annual sales reach 1 billion rubles ($34 million) and eventually until their accrued profits amount to 300 million rubles ($10 million).

The president also gave instructions to prepare and submit a bill to the lower house of parliament in May on the special status of the innovation center in Skolkovo near Moscow.

Medvedev said the bill would be a basic document to reflect "the special economic and legal status of the Skolkovo center.'

Russia considers the development of the high-tech and innovation sector its top priority and has pledged billions of U.S. dollars to finance the sector, which it hopes will end the country's dependence on raw material exports.

Source: RIA Novosti

Tue, 4 May 10
LockMart Supports National Security Agency's 2010 Cyber Defense Exercise
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/LockMart_Supports_National_Security_Agency_2010_Cyber_Defense_Exercise_999.html
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 27, 2010 - Teams of cyber security experts from the National Security Agency and the nation's service academies are squaring off this week in one of the nation's most expansive and sophisticated cyber "war games," the Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX). Lockheed Martin is host for the CDX command center and network hub at its Greenbelt facility for the week-long event.

"Cyber security has never been as crucial to global security as it is today," said Darrell Durst, Vice President of Cyber Solutions for Lockheed Martin.

"NSA is leading the charge of developing the next generation of cyber experts through CDX, and we're very proud to support them in that mission. Participants will test drive real-world strategies and tactics for building smart cyber defenses, fending off hackers, and eradicating malware - all critical cyber security skills."

Lockheed Martin helped NSA establish a secure network for the exercise, which links all the academies with CDX headquarters at the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenbelt. The company is also providing technical support and expertise for CDX preparation and execution. This is the eighth year that Lockheed Martin is supporting and hosting the CDX.

Lockheed Martin is a leading provider of cyber security technology and services to the NSA and a number of defense and intelligence agencies.

The corporation recently opened the NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center in Gaithersburg, Md. The NexGen Center serves as the hub of a nationwide network of cyber research and development labs, including the Wireless Cyber Security Center in Hanover, Md., and two Security Intelligence Centers in Denver and Gaithersburg.

Tue, 4 May 10
NATO's cyber-brains gaze at the future of war
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NATOs_cyber-brains_gaze_at_the_future_of_war_999.html
Tallinn (AFP) April 24, 2010 - Behind the walls of a high-security lab, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's top cyber-minds are trying to predict the evolution of conflict in an Internet-dependent world.

While they play down disaster-movie scenarios of total meltdown, experts warn cyber-attacks will be part and parcel of future fighting.

Tallinn is home to a cutting-edge unit known in NATO-speak as the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. The city is the capital of Estonia, whose flourishing hi-tech industry has earned it the label "E-Stonia".

"Definitely from the cyber-space perspective, I think we've gone further than we imagined in science fiction," said Ilmar Tamm, the Estonian colonel at its helm.

Its base is a 1905 building where military communications experts have toiled away since the days of carrier pigeons and the telegraph.

The centre's dozens of experts second-guess potential adversaries, gazing into what they dub the "fifth battlespace", after land, sea, air and space.

"The whole myriad and complex area makes it a very difficult problem to solve, and at the same time it keeps a very convenient grey area for the bad guys," explained Tamm.

"Many states have realised that this is really something that can be used as a weapon... That we should not ignore. It will have a future impact," he said.

"I'm not so naive that I'd say conventional warfare will go away. But we should expect it to be more combined," he added.

Bitter experience taught Estonia -- one of the world's most wired places and a NATO member since 2004 -- all about cyber-conflict.

The minnow country of 1.3 million people suffered blistering attacks in 2007 which took down business and government web-based services for days.

"It clearly heralded the beginning of a new era," its Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo told AFP.

"It had all the characteristics of cyber-crime growing into a national security threat. It was a qualitative change, and that clicked in very many heads," he added.

The assault came as Estonian authorities controversially shifted a Soviet-era war memorial from central Tallinn to a military cemetery.

The monument, erected when Moscow took over after World War II, following independence in 1991 became a flashpoint for disputes about the past with Estonia's ethnic-Russian minority.

Tallinn was rocked by riots as the memorial was moved. Estonia blamed Russia for stoking the strife, and also claimed the cyber-offensive had been traced to official servers in Moscow.

Russia, whose relations with Estonia are rocky, denied involvement.

For Aaviksoo, cyber-attacks may "present a stand-alone security threat or a combined security threat".

An example of the latter, he noted, came during Russia's 2008 war with ex-Soviet Georgia, as hackers hit Georgian websites while Moscow's troops moved in.

"Cyber-security, cyber-defence and cyber-offence are here to stay. This is a fact of life," Aaviksoo said.

In a report this month, Canadian researchers said a China-based network had stolen Indian military secrets, hacked the Dalai Lama's office and hit computers around the world.

A University of Toronto team traced the attacks to servers in Chengdu, China, but could not identify the culprits. Chengdu is home to Chinese military communications intelligence units.

"Some reports have, from time to time, been heard of insinuating or criticising the Chinese government... I have no idea what evidence they have or what motives lie behind," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Proving a formal state role in cyber-attacks is close to impossible, because of their fluid nature.

"We're seeing opportunism in terms of citizens bandwagoning on these big events. The role of the state in this is all rather mysterious," said Rex Hughes of the Chatham House think-tank in London.

"I'm sceptical that we'll see an actual cyber-war, where countries will exclusively attack one another over the Internet," he said.

"It remains to be seen if the great cyber Pearl Harbor or 9/11 comes," he added.

Tue, 4 May 10
US Needs New National Strategy In Era Of Cyberaggression
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_Needs_New_National_Strategy_In_Era_Of_Cyberaggression_999.html
Cincinnati OH (SPX) Apr 21, 2010 - Deterrence won't work as a posture for protecting the United States from those who use cyberaggression to damage the country. So says a new paper from UC, which suggests that to remain safe in cyberspace, the U.S. must be more prepared to go on the offensive.

The nominee to head the Pentagon's new CyberCommand testified in front of Congress late last week that employing Cold War strategies to cyberwarfare challenges may not work for the United States.. A newly published research paper by a University of Cincinnati professor and colleagues goes a step further and concludes more directly that deterrence can not serve as the primary national cybersecurity strategy.

In testimony on April 15th before the U.S. Congress, Lt. General Keith A. Alexander offered his view that a Cold War approach of nuclear deterrence as a strategy for securing the United States might not translate effectively into the new realm of cyberwarfare, an area where the U.S. is just beginning to think about broader strategic approaches.

That same subject area is addressed in a new article in the "Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management" by UC Professor of Political Science Richard Harknett and co-authors John Callaghan and Rudi Kauffman. They say that to deal with cyberaggression, a more traditional model of warfighting will have to become the focus if cyberspace is to become more secure and safe.

In their article, "Leaving Deterrence Behind: War-Fighting and National Cybersecurity," Harknett and his co-authors argue that "the inherent characteristics of cyberspace require adoption of a full war-fighting posture that moves out of the fifty-plus year comfort zone of deterrence as the dominant strategic anchor... We must organize thinking about managing cyber-leveraged war so that damage is contained and reduced. Counter-intuitively, these futuristic threats require us to adopt the historical posture of traditional warfare."

By traditional warfare, the authors mean the traditional offense-defense framework that has defined war strategy throughout much of history. While a deterrence posture works in a nuclear context when the alternative for both sides is mutually-assured destruction, several factors unique to cyberwarfare make applying the deterrence model an awkward fit.

For one thing, cyberwarfare is an offense-dominated enterprise. Attacks can be carried out cheaply and in ways that make determining responsibility a slow process and difficult to establish. Deterrence is also undercut by the possibility of attackers using previously unknown approaches that greatly diminish their susceptibility to responses.

Harknett and his co-authors suggest the establishment of a three-tiered "continuum of cyberaggression" to help guide U.S. strategy in responding to attacks. They write: "Implicit in this categorization is that not every cyber threat reaches the level of national security concern, but given the unique, ubiquitous and dual-use nature of digital and computer technology, a national cybersecurity strategy must comprehensively consider the interconnectivity across the continuum of cyberaggression."

The three proposed tiers, in order of severity, are cybercrime, cyberespionage and reconnaissance, and the most serious level, cyber-leveraged war. The highest level would cover not just purely digital attacks, but also those that lead to disruption or destruction of physical infrastructure as well, such as a broad attack against the electric grid.

It is at this highest level that the United States needs to adopt policy that is oriented toward containing damage as well as for fighting in an offensive posture against those who would seek to engage in cyber-leveraged war. Being well-prepared, both offensively and defensively, will produce caution in the minds of others about attacking, and, thus, the strategy can produce a residual deterrent effect. But, the authors believe, this is likely to be temporary and under constant pressure.

"Importantly, as the ubiquity of cyber grows societally across the globe, effective norms against cyberaggression will become increasingly important in reigning in unacceptable forms of behavior in this new realm of human interaction," Harknett and colleagues write. This line of argument seems to parallel thoughts by Lt. General Alexander, who called on Congress to consider new legal and policy contexts for cyberspace.

In the end, however, Harknett and his co-authors conclude that "in facing down threats to national security, the United States must organize itself around the reality of war preparation and fighting, rather than the hope of avoidance, as the principle upon which cybersecurity will be advanced."