A Weapon We Can’t Control

New York Times – Misha Glenny

During the cold war, countries’ chief assets were missiles with nuclear warheads. Generally their number and location was common knowledge, as was the damage they could inflict and how long it would take them to inflict it.

Advanced cyberwar is different: a country’s assets lie as much in the weaknesses of enemy computer defenses as in the power of the weapons it possesses. So in order to assess one’s own capability, there is a strong temptation to penetrate the enemy’s systems before a conflict erupts. It is no good trying to hit them once hostilities have broken out; they will be prepared and there’s a risk that they already will have infected your systems. Once the logic of cyberwarfare takes hold, it is worryingly pre-emptive and can lead to the uncontrolled spread of malware.

International conference against commercial sexual exploitation of children in Tokio, Japan

Deutsche Kinderhilfe – Georg Ehrmann

First of all admitting, that Deutsche Kinderhilfe used to support the law regulated access blocking in 2009, I described the severe disappointments by reluctant policy makers hiding behind a false sense of security, ignoring that harming contents can turn up again on other websites easily, just to calm the voters. Bothered by doubtful statistics, created to support access blocking only, the Deutsche Kinderhilfe is now convinced that access blocking is neither an effective nor a desirable method. The opposite is true. Nowadays, defeating blocking system and moving web sides automatically is a breeze for criminals even with smattering knowledge.

Evgeny Morozov curbs Web enthusiasm

Los Angeles Times – James Rainey

His next book will include an attack on the „open data“ movement. In one cautionary example, the Indian state of Karnataka put millions of property records online in the name of convenience and transparency.

„The wealthy and the powerful used this new data to evict the poor, find the right people to bribe and so forth,“ Morozov said. „The moral of the story here is that transparency and efficiency should not be pursued for their own sake. They should serve as enabling factors to other goods and values.“

Globale Wanderungstrends im E‑Mail-Verkehr entdeckt

Max-Planck-Institut fürr demografische Forschung – Emilio Zagheni

Zusammen mit Ingmar Weber von Yahoo! Research wertete er den weltweiten E‑Mail-Verkehr von 43 Millionen Benutzerkonten des Internetdienstleisters Yahoo! aus. Für Nachrichten, die zwischen September 2009 und Juni 2011 geschrieben wurden, ermittelten die Forscher anonymisiert den Wohnort des Absenders – und damit letztlich sein Wanderungsverhalten. Sie nutzten dazu sogenannte IP-Adressen, aus denen sich für jedes Gerät bestimmen lässt, aus welchem Land es eine E‑Mails versendet.

Neben Datum und Ursprungsland jeder Mail verwendeten sie auch den Geburtstag und das Geschlecht des Absenders, die dieser in seinem Benutzerkonto angegeben hatte. Eine Person wurde dann als Migrant gezählt, wenn sie den Ort, von dem aus sie die Mehrheit ihrer Mails verschickt, dauerhaft änderte. So konnten Zagheni und Weber gezielt die Wanderungsströme aus fast jedem und in fast jedes Land der Welt messen.

PGP founder, Navy SEALs uncloak encrypted comms biz

The Register – Iain Thomson

Phil Zimmermann and some of the original PGP team have joined up with former US Navy SEALs to build an encrypted communications platform that should be proof against any surveillance.

The company, called Silent Circle, will launch later this year, when $20 a month will buy you encrypted email, text messages, phone calls, and videoconferencing in a package that looks to be strong enough to have the NSA seriously worried.

The Tor Project helps journalists and whistleblowers go online without leaving a trace

Nieman Lab – Adrienne LaFrance

With an infusion of Knight News Challenge funds announced Monday, Tor will establish a multilingual help desk so that people using the software around the world can get instant assistance any time.