. Military Space News .




.
CYBER WARS
WikiLeaks scandal sparks US intelligence reform
by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) Jan 26, 2012

Anonymous attack Mexico websites to protest copyright law
Mexico City (AFP) Jan 27, 2012 - The shadowy online hackers group Anonymous blocked access to the websites of the Mexican Senate and the Interior Ministry Friday to protest a proposed law to fine people who violate copyright online.

The proposal, from conservative senator Federico Doring, is widely seen as the Mexican version of SOPA -- the US Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act that Wikipedia and other Web giants have denounced as a threat to Internet freedom.

Anonymous announced the attacks on its Spanish Twitter account Friday.

Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire later told a news conference that the ministry's site had been blocked for around five minutes in late morning.

The site had not been compromised and officials were investigating, Poire said.

Doring said on his Twitter account that Anonymous had a right to show it was against his proposal but did not have a right to attack web pages.

He insisted that the proposal "does not contemplate any criminal punishment" and would not sanction users of social networks because they do not make profits.


The WikiLeaks document dump, which saw hundreds of thousands of classified US files leaked, rattled US intelligence officials, forcing them to implement reforms to prevent another such breach.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said changes were being put in place over the next five years that would create a new security "architecture," making it infinitely harder to disclose America's secrets.

The "terrible event," which saw sensitive US diplomatic and military cables exposed for public scrutiny, "caused us to make some changes," Clapper told a Washington think-tank, acknowledging the "challenge" ahead.

"We have to do more to protect data and ensure that the information we are giving is actually going to an authorized recipient," he said.

Chief among the changes are improvements in "labeling," and digital "tagging" of diplomatic cables, Clapper said during remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

At the same time, he said, US officials are eager to ensure information that is intended to be shared can be disseminated without major additional hurdles.

Clapper added that the effort aims to protect US secrets not only from outside enemies, but from actors with the system who do not have specific authorization to distribute sensitive US cables and files.

"Frankly we always had responsibility for detecting insider threats. What WikiLeaks has obviously done is heighten our sensitivity about that," he said.

The controversial anti-secrecy WikiLeaks website began releasing US military documents in July 2010. It dumped the entire archive of diplomatic documents in September 2011, causing huge embarrassment to Washington.

A US military tribunal's investigating officer earlier this month recommended that army private Bradley Manning be court-martialed for allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands of classified US documents to WikiLeaks.

Manning, a specialist in US intelligence systems, served in Iraq from November 2009 until his arrest the following May.

He is accused of turning over to WikiLeaks a massive trove of US military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, some 260,000 classified State Department cables, Guantanamo detainee assessments and videos of US air strikes.

The fact that an Army private could have had access to so much sensitive information has posed a challenge for the intelligence community, amid accusations that data-sharing went too far after the September 11 attacks.

At that time, the community was accused of holding back information that could have been used to prevent the strikes on New York and Washington. After 9/11, inter-agency sharing of classified data increased.

The September 11 attacks "emphasized the need to share" information, said Eric Velez-Villar, deputy assistant director of the FBI, saying that proper information-sharing "can save lives."

Clapper added: "The goal, of course, is to find that nirvana between the responsibility to share and the need for protection."

Corin Stone, an assistant director of national intelligence for policy and strategy, said, "Basically, we seek to restore confidence."

The WikiLeaks scandal has "fundamentally broken trust" in the intelligence community, Stone said. "To restore confidence, we must strengthen security in sharing information."

David Shedd, deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said intelligence services are trying to manage a "tsunami of data" that forces them to ask themselves how to "process that enormous data flow."

Paul Kshemendra, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2010 to head the federal program on intelligence sharing, agreed that the "ocean" of data is growing.

"You need to put a signal in that ocean of noise," he said.

Related Links
Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries




FBI seeking social media monitoring tool
Washington (AFP) Jan 26, 2012 - The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a tool to mine social media for intelligence tips.

The US domestic law enforcement agency is asking information technology contractors about the feasibility of building a tool that would "enhance its techniques for collecting and sharing 'open source' actionable intelligence."

The January 19 open request was published on a website offering federal business opportunities and was first reported by New Scientist magazine.

The FBI said it is seeking an "open source and social media alert, mapping and analysis application solution" for its Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC).

"Social media has become a primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events and the primal alert to possible developing situations," the FBI request said.

"Intelligence analysts will often use social media to receive the first tip-off that a crisis has occurred," it said.

The FBI said the tool "must have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identity, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats."

It would need to be able to "instantly search and monitor key words and strings in all 'publicly available' tweets across the Twitter site and any other 'publicly available' social networking sites/forums."

It would also need the ability to "search the data across a myriad of parameters and view terrorist activities by location, terrorist group, and type of attack and see trends and analytics."

In addition, it would have to be able "to immediately translate into English, tweets and any other open forum publically available social media captured in a foreign language."

Interested parties have until February 10 to respond to the FBI request.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



CYBER WARS
US striving to prevent WikiLeaks repeat: spy chief
Washington (AFP) Jan 26, 2012
The United States is taking "serious and noticeable" measures to prevent another breach of classified files like the massive WikiLeaks document dump, the nation's spy chief said Thursday. James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said changes were being implemented over the next five years that would create a new security "architecture," making it infinitely harder to disclose Americ ... read more


CYBER WARS
NATO sees little progress in missile talks with Russia

Lithuania faults Russia over missile plan on EU borders

Missile Defense "National Team" Awarded C2BMC Contract

US hopes for missile shield accord this year: report

CYBER WARS
US Navy Completes Raytheon Laser-guided Maverick Testing

Israel fears Hezbollah has killer SAMs

Raytheon and Mitsubishi in missile deal

Raytheon Receives Contract for Patriot Missile Upgrades

CYBER WARS
Northrop Grumman Statement on the Global Hawk Block 30 Program

Northrop Grumman, U.S. Navy Test Autonomous Aerial Refueling for Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration

Iraqi outraged by use of US drones: report

'Autonomous' combat drones debated

CYBER WARS
Brazil to assemble Harris tactical radio

Northrop Grumman Wins Award for USAF Design and Engineering Support Program

Fourth WGS Satellite Sends First Signals from Space

Boeing to Build More Wideband Global SATCOM Satellites for USAF

CYBER WARS
US 'bunker-buster' not powerful enough against Iran

L-3 to work on Pakistan F-16 simulators

World's First Net-Enabled Weapon Completes Developmental Testing

Indra Develops a Maritime Surveillance Light Aircraft

CYBER WARS
Philippines flags greater US military presence

Thales Australia and Steyr to work closer

US plans to cut troops, invest in future

French jet firm makes Swiss new offer: report

CYBER WARS
Protest against greater US role in Philippines

US military reaches further into Asia

US seeks greater military ties with China

Iowa readies welcome for China heir apparent

CYBER WARS
Help Avoid Potential Risks From Rapidly Evolving Nano Tech

Graphene: Impressive capabilities on the horizon

Bilayer graphene works as an insulator

Water sees right through graphene


.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement