In The News

Terrorism’s New Avatars – Part II

Gabriel Weimann January 12, 2010
Amid the clamor surrounding intelligence failures and opening of new fronts in counter-terrorism effort, a new link has come to light – the open space of the Internet. Conventional wisdom holds that the war in Afghanistan weakened Al Qaeda and eroded its operational efficiency. Terrorism expert Gabriel Weimann believes this to be far from the truth. Social networking sites, online chat rooms,...

The Fight Over the Future of Food

Claudia Parsons, Russell Blinch, Svetlana Kovalyova November 18, 2009
Population growth and climate change are creating the need for a second Green Revolution. But the form that revolution should take is heavily contested. Activists argue that the second revolution can’t be like the first, which left behind environmental damage and some claim is not sustainable. The debate is further complicated by a divide between developed and developing nations, and differing...

U.S. Eases Grip Over Web Body

Christopher Rhoads October 1, 2009
The World Wide Web might symbolize globalization for many, but control of the architecture remains largely local. Domain names are controlled by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that reports to the US Commerce Department. The premise behind such a structure was that one body controlling web address suffixes like “.com” would ensure ease of use and universal...

Mobile Marvels

September 25, 2009
In the last decade, mobile phones penetrated even the world's poorest communities, as established Western companies and developing world upstarts filled demand for communication that could not be met in time through landlines and traditional mail delivery. Studies suggest that this telecommunications boom leads to substantial growth in GDP per capita. As a result, the developing world's...

Cyber Attackers Target South Korea and US

Matthew Weaver July 9, 2009
North Koreans are thought to be behind a cyber attack aimed at South Korean and US government and business websites. The attack – known as denial of service in which malicious software instructs thousands of personal computers to visit particular websites simultaneously – is not uncommon, though a South Korean professor doubts North Korea had the capability to knock down a website. Whatever the...

Europe Looks To Africa For Solar Power

Tom Zeller Jr. July 6, 2009
With the demand for renewable energy rising, a European project is applying innovative means to harvest energy in Africa. The project known as Desertec will seek to produce power through large fields of solar collection mirrors in North African deserts and then deliver that power back to Europe as electricity. Critics have called the plan inefficient and exploitative given that solar energy can...

Terrorists Recruit For Cyberwar, Official Says

June 26, 2009
Islamic extremist groups are expanding their use of the internet as a tool to further their war against the West. Some jihadi websites offer instructions on hacking. While US defense officals claim jihadists are attempting to recruit computer experts to raise funds through online fraud schemes and perpetrate cyberattacks. US and Italian authorities recently disrupted an Italy-based international...