In The News

Google’s Lesson: Innovation Has to Be Accompanied by Reliability

Rob Knake and Adam Segal February 22, 2010
The most important lesson of the Google vs. China may not be about Internet censorship, but rather the importance of security and the reliability of products. As Council of Foreign Relations fellows Rob Knake and Adam Segal write, two tensions highlight the main obstacles in maintaining security and reliability amid the globalized model of innovation spanning geography and time. Shifting research...

Broad New Hacking Attack Detected

Siobhan Gorman February 22, 2010
A spate of cyber attacks over the last year and a half has affected around 75,000 computers belonging to 2,500 companies in 196 countries. NetWitness, the firm that discovered the security breaches, revealed that the attacks were directed at both companies – such as Cardinal Health and Merck – and government agencies to steal contact databases, passwords, credit-card data and other sensitive...

Iran to Suspend Google’s Email

Christopher Rhoads, Chip Cummins, and Jessica E. Vascellaro February 11, 2010
On the eve of celebrations, and antigovernment protests, to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Iran announced the suspension of Gmail, Google’s email service, along with plans for a new, national email service in its stead. Following last year’s disputed presidential election, activists harnessed social media, both for organizing within the country and broadcasting news outside...

In Digital Combat, U.S. Finds No Easy Deterrent

John Markoff, David E. Sanger, and Thom Shanker January 27, 2010
When considering the prospect of a cyberterrorism, defense officials are forced to acknowledge that the enemy holds the cards of “stealth, anonymity and unpredictability.” Even if the general location of an attack’s origin can be determined, it is practically impossible to discover whether it was commercially, politically, or individually motivated. As such, it is difficult to say when a military...

Hungry for New Content, Google Tries to Grow Its Own in Africa

Noam Cohen January 26, 2010
Google grew because it had the best search engine and content to be found. To continue to grow, Google needs to locate and provide more searchable information. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa, where Google struggles to find online content. Consequently, the company has sponsored a contest to encourage students in Tanzania and Kenya to create articles for Wikipedia in Swahili, a second...

The Internet: A Missing Link

Kathrin Hille January 22, 2010
Despite predictions that its spread would bring Chinese society more in tune with the West, the Internet in China “is growing less like the Internet in the rest of the world, not more like it.” Because Western companies like Google, hoping to foster freedom through information, fail to account for Chinese tastes, such as an affinity for playing online games rather than looking for news by...

China and Google: Searching for Trouble – Part II

Jeffrey Garten January 21, 2010
The China-Google tussle is about two visions of the future, according to international trade and finance professor Jeffrey Garten. It is about openness and globalization vs. stability and nationalism. For China, the desire is to continue to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty; if such a goal entails national stability, requiring control of the internet, so be it. To Westerners, who...