In The News

Pakistan to Ban Encryption Software

Josh Halliday, Saeed Shah September 1, 2011
Protecting privacy is good for business. Yet the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has ordered internet providers in the world’s sixth largest nation to report any customers using virtual private networks to browse the web. The directive could disrupt the work of investors, entrepreneurs and researchers who routinely rely on virtual private networks, including encrypted emails, for secure...

The War on Web Anonymity

Marcel Rosenbach, Hilmar Schmundt August 11, 2011
Internet users, like patrons at a library or a grocery store, value privacy and cringe about how reporting even a few choices may influence advertisers, insurers or creditors to make incorrect assumptions about an individual’s health or career prospects. Internet companies, politicians and law-enforcement agencies, even in democratic societies, though express concerns that anonymity leads to...

Operation Shady Rat – Unprecedented Cyber-Espionage Campaign and Intellectual-Property Bonanza

Michael Joseph Gross August 9, 2011
For skilled hackers, computers of top corporations and governments are as easy to break into as a locked car. For at least five years, hackers had secret access to computer systems of the United Nations, ASEAN, national governments, multinational corporations, defense contractors, media, Olympic committees and other groups, as discovered by the cyber-security firm McAfee. Operation Shady Rat...

Beyond Debt Woes, A Wider Crisis of Globalization?

Peter Apps August 8, 2011
In recent decades, the world economy thrived on globally-driven growth and tightening interconnections among nations. In the process, nation states have lost control of the internet, financial markets, exploitation of natural resources and other global forces. “In the short term, that leaves policymakers looking impotent in the face of fast-moving markets and other uncontrolled and perhaps...

Anders Breivik's Roots in Right-Wing Populism

Frank Patalong July 25, 2011
A bombing-shooting attack in Norway has left more than 70 people dead, mostly teenagers, and prompts nations to reflect on rising right-wing extremism and resentment. Populist opposition to immigration, a fast-changing culture and globalization of the economy is a potent political force. The impact of this cocktail can be seen in a 1500-page online manifesto, largely quoting other right-wing...

Resist the Temptations of the Cloud!

Richard Stallman July 21, 2011
Because of ready internet access, personal computing increasingly depends on outside sources for software tools and data storage and analysis. However, companies that provide remote-computing or so-called “cloud” services can ultimately limit or track individual users’ access, allowing law-enforcement agencies or more nefarious parties to snoop around. “The abusiveness of proprietary software has...

Microsoft Strikes Deal With China's Biggest Search Engine Baidu

Censorship is part of the deal July 5, 2011
Microsoft has entered a deal to provide English-language results for China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, and also comply with the Chinese government’s demands for censorship. The deal opens the huge, growing Chinese market to floundering Bing – but could also alienate users in China and elsewhere who support absolute internet freedoms. Google remains the globe’s dominant search engine, reports...