ubiwar . conflict in n dimensions

All quiet out there on the interwebs. Some kind of holiday going on Stateside, I believe. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Yanqui!

Combat Camera in Seine-Saint-Denis – Thomas Rid, Kings of War

Gamer Steals From Virtual World to Pay Real Debts – New York Times

China Bans Gold Farming!! … Er … But In Fact It Hasn’t – Richard Heeks, ICTs for Development

Innovation: Physics brings realism to virtual reality – Colin Barras, New Scientist

MI6 Boss in Facebook Entry Row – BBC

Cyberwarfare – Charlie Rose in conversation with Michael McConnell, James Lewis and David Sanger

Organizing for cyberwar – “we might be a vapour” – Kotare, The Strategist

“Spectre Force” – No Managers Need Apply – Peter Hodge, Global Dashboard

Human Rights and Internet Regulation – Ian Brown

And this week’s prize for Most Bizarrely Mismatched Press Campaign: Daily Mail – Join the Campaign to Prevent Gary Mackinnon’s Extradition to the US

… UK is Violent Crime Capital of Europe:

The UK had a greater number of murders in 2007 than any other EU country – 927 – and at a relative rate higher than most western European neighbours, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

It also recorded the fifth highest robbery rate in the EU, and the highest absolute number of burglaries, with double the number of offences recorded in Germany and France.

Overall, 5.4 million crimes were recorded in the UK in 2007 – more than 10 a minute – second only to Sweden.

Sweden? SWEDEN? Well, at least we’re more violent than the US or South Africa. See you down the pub. Woe betide you if you look at me funny though …

I’m not as much of a cyberwar nay-sayer as some but I certainly think that a modicum of common sense, restraint and proof should be de rigeur for any consideration of the forthcoming datapocalypse that seems to inform much of contemporary cyber strategy. Evgeny Morozov has a long article in the Boston Review on this theme, Cyber-Scare: The Exaggerated Fears Over Digital Warfare:

It is alarming that so many people have accepted the White House’s assertions about cyber-security as a key national security problem without demanding further evidence. Have we learned nothing from the WMD debacle? The administration’s claims could lead to policies with serious, long-term, troubling consequences for network openness and personal privacy.

The policy angle is particularly pertinent. Badly framed policy is bad policy. Simple. If it’s predicated on political expediency or sheer ignorance then it can only succeed in screwing things up for all of us.

It’s a good article but I draw your attention to some of the comments too. One in particular from Winn Schwartau, who criticises Morozov for ignoring the history of cyber attacks. Just clicking through to Schwartau’s site which leads with the strapline, ‘Security is really about people and the technology should be absolutely incidental’. I rather like that and it rings true with someone who is constantly counselling a very similar attitude.

US and Russia Differ On a Treaty for Cyberspace – John Markoff & Andrew Kramer, New York Times

Russia favors an international treaty along the lines of those negotiated for chemical weapons and has pushed for that approach at a series of meetings this year and in public statements by a high-ranking official.

The United States argues that a treaty is unnecessary. It instead advocates improved cooperation among international law enforcement groups. If these groups cooperate to make cyberspace more secure against criminal intrusions, their work will also make cyberspace more secure against military campaigns, American officials say.

“We really believe it’s defense, defense, defense,” said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified because authorization had not been given to speak on the record. “They want to constrain offense. We needed to be able to criminalize these horrible 50,000 attacks we were getting a day.”

Jeff Carr at Intelfusion responds with an excerpt from a Russian article, Russian Federation Military Policy in the Area of International Information Security: Regional Aspect, Voyennaya Mysl (Military Thought), January 2007 [full article via here, purchase required]:

(The) main objectives will be to disorganize (disrupt) the functioning of the key enemy military, industrial and administrative facilities and systems, as well as to bring information-psychological pressure to bear on the adversary’s military-political leadership, troops and population, something to be achieved primarily through the use of state-of-the-art information technologies and assets.

Read the rest of the extract here, also here.

The US is indeed, ‘an inventive nation’, and this article asks many right questions. It seems to forget however that just because ‘physical distinctions such as political borders are unhelpful and can be dangerously confusing’ is not a reason for embracing offensive cyber capabilities based solely on US requirements. Or is this actually the way things are going, or need to go?

Obama and Cyber Defense – Gordon Crovitz, Opinion, Wall Street Journal

The military is far ahead of civilian agencies such as Homeland Security and is now focused on cyber offense as well as defense. Cyberspace, says Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, is the new “domain,” joining the traditional domains of air, land and sea. Each is a focus for both defense and attack. The U.S., a decade behind China, is now officially focused on using cyber warfare offensively as well as defensively.

The U.S. is an inventive nation, so we’ll get to the right answer on security if we ask the right questions. What if the only way the military can block a cyber attack is to monitor domestic use of the Web, since foreigners use the Web to launch cyber attacks? What is a “reasonable” search in a virtual world such as a global communication network? What’s the proper response to cyber attacks?

If cyber war is a new form of war, wouldn’t most Americans adjust their expectations of reasonable privacy to permit the Pentagon to intrude to some degree on their communications, if this is necessary to prevent great harm and if rules protecting anonymity can be established? Finally, wouldn’t it be better for politicians to encourage a frank discussion about these issues before a significant attack occurs instead of pretending there are no trade-offs?

Read the rest here.

Cyber Armies are Gearing Up in the Cold War of the Web – Misha Glenny, The Guardian

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent – Bruce Etling, John Kelly, Robert Faris and John Palfrey, Berkman Center [pdf]

Terrorist Financing on the Internet – Mike Jacobson, CTC Sentinel

Enhancing the Digital Native/Immigrant Taxonomy – Matt Armstrong, MountainRunner

Roundup Global Internet Activism Course – Trebor Scholz

The Israel-Gaza Conflict: Social Media Become the Informational Front Line – Trebor Scholz

How Terrorist Groups Resemble Manufacturing Firms – Physics arXiv Blog

Regional E-Crime Squads to be Created to Combat Cybercrime – OUT-LAW News

Reading Machine to Snoop on Web – Mark Rutherford, Military Tech

The Trouble with War Games – Benjamin Pauker, Intelligent Life

CTRL-V: The Cinema Effect – Greg Smith, Serial Consign

Facebook v. Google v. the Techno-Aquarians – Berin Szoka, Technology Liberation Front

Who Should Be Responsible for Assuring Fundamental Freedoms in Virtual Worlds? – Sterling Wright, Metanomics

WWIII Propaganda Posters [via ComingAnarchy]

State of Play VI from a Security and Surveillance Perspective – Roderick Jones

Net Surveillance and Filters are a Reality for Europe, Too – Kevin Anderson, The Guardian

David Steven at Global Dashboard suggests that all may not be lost for Jacko fans left bereft by the demise of their flawed hero. A certain CGS (Ret’d) might be available to step into the breach:

Terrorists Recruit for Cyberwar, Official Says -  AP

Cyberbullying Legislation: Why Education is Preferable to Regulation – Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer, Technology Liberation Front

Kids Martyrdom Videos Get New Sophistication, Huge Audience – IPT @ Counterterrorism Blog

Spacebook Brings Secure Social Networking to NASA – John S. Monroe, Federal Computer Week

Vigil for Iran in Second Life – Roderick Jones, MetaSecurity

Google Maps Track Iran Protests – Kim Zetter, Threat Level

Urban Screens as Skeuomorph – Nicholas Nova, Pasta & Vinegar

Expert: Cybersex to Go Mainstream – Dusan Writer

Today’s Coolness Award goes to: Photo of the Day – Stunning Volcano Eruption Seen From Space – Thoughts of a Technocrat

Today’s Crassness Award goes to: Gordon Brown – Twitter Would Have Stopped Rwandan Genocide -The Guardian

A reminder for all of you in London tomorrow. There are still a few places left…

International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

ICSR welcomes you to the following seminar:

Insurgency, Terrorism, and Popular Support: How Useful are Historical Analogies?

Speaker: Dr Thomas Rid, Johns Hopkins University

Dr Rid is Calouste Gulbenkian Fellow at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Previously he worked for the RAND Corporation, the Institut Français des Relations Internationales in Paris, and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin.

He is the co-author of War 2.0. Irregular Warfare in the Information Age (Praeger 2009) and author of War and Media Operations. The U.S. Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq (Routledge 2007).

Moderated by: Tim Stevens, Associate Fellow, ICSR
Date: 25 June 2009
Time: 1-2pm

War Studies Meeting Room

King’s Building, Strand Campus

King’s College London

RSVP for this Event

For more information, please call 020 7848 2065.

Friend and colleague Nick Fielding has just emailed me to let me know about his blog, Circling the Lion’s Den, subtitled ‘a glance at the conflict in Afghanistan’. Nick is an old Afghanistan hand and perhaps best known as a journalist and c0-author of Masterminds of Terror (with Yosri Fouda) and Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terrorism (with Mark Hollingsworth). The blog’s existence has hitherto been unrevealed to me but I’m happy to recommend it and Nick’s other work to readers. He’s got a nose for a story and is a damn good writer, and Circling the Lion’s Den is an addition to the Afghan-watching blogosphere, alongside Registan, Ghosts of Alexander, and the like. Thanks for the tip, Nick!