In The News

Can the Internet Tame Governments? – Part I

James Cowie February 9, 2011
Debate rages in the West about whether the internet in authoritarian states is a tool for winning freedoms or another device for control. In the wake of Egypt’s mass protests emerged the first case of a government’s attempt to sever an entire nation from internet access. This YaleGlobal series explores governments and the internet, and which is the taming force. The first article, written by...

A Walled Wide Web for Nervous Autocrats

Evgeny Morozov January 13, 2011
The philosophy of the open-source software movement maintains that the internet is a vehicle for free speech, too essential for proprietary ways. Suspicion that US law enforcement officials have requested backdoor access from US software producers has alarmed governments and users around the globe. Moving to end dependence on US products, Russia will require public institutions to rely on open-...

Hackers Crack Open Mobile Network

January 12, 2011
As soon as any technology is unveiled, the adept and curious test its boundaries, often discovering flaws. Using four phones and open-source software, a pair of researchers demonstrated how they could monitor targeted mobile calls and texts at the Chaos Computer Club Congress in Berlin. Any call made over the Global System of Mobile Telecommunications, or GSM – about 5 billion devices in all – is...

The Post-WikiLeaks World – Part II

Rebecca Wexler December 17, 2010
After WikiLeaks released secret diplomatic cables, the US government strives to apologize for sensitive breaches in confidences and punish all involved. Internet privacy is elusive for both individuals and powerful institutions, and this two-part series examines responses to leaks from governments and internet chat forums. The second article describes a motley group of strangers who apply...

Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

Noah Shachtman December 15, 2010
In a classic case of closing the barn door after the horse has run off, the Pentagon has ordered troops against using CDs, flash drives or other removable devices on the Department of Defense system for classified documents. The military is targeting what it labels an “insider threat,” after the release of thousands of classified US State Department cables. The US suspects a young Army private,...

WikiLeaks Battle: A New Amateur Face of Cyber War?

Peter Apps December 9, 2010
Angry amateurs have emerged to disrupt websites of companies that decline to do business with WikiLeaks as it continues gradual release of more than 250,000 US State Department documents. Targets include credit-card companies that decline to accept donated funds to WikiLeaks and technology companies that have dropped their server support. Governments have long anticipated battle with terrorists...

Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality

Tim Berners-Lee November 26, 2010
In just 20 years, the world has come to take the instant connections of the worldwide web for granted. The web’s creator – Tim Berners-Lee – lists emerging threats to the vast store of linked data in an essay for Scientific American, including fragmentation, exclusivity by social networking sites like Facebook, slowing traffic to non-customers and monitoring individual online habits. The essay is...