"The above cases [Ali Al Marri, Imam Samudra author of "Hacking, Why Not" and Younes Tsouli, aka Terrorist 007] are particularly troubling because of the upward trend of terrorists communicating on and using the internet as a learning tool. In both the Samudra and Terrorist 007 cases, they left their successful tradecraft on web pages and in chat rooms for aspiring terrorists to learn and grow from."
Germany's Constitutional Court released a ruling severely limiting the government's ability to monitor the systems of suspected terrorists:
"The now invalid law in North Rhine-Westphalia had allowed authorities to access a suspect's hard drive and keep it under regular surveillance -- under the condition that they expected to find evidence of anti-constitutional activity.
"Such a massive intrusion should not be possible on such vague grounds, the Karlsruhe court decided. Rather, the state may secretly spy on someone only if there is strong evidence that personal safety, lives, freedom, state property or the foundation of human existence are endangered. And only with permission from a judge."
The Dallas Police Website was replaced with anti-American protests Monday evening. Little information on motive or source have been provided.
Anti-American rant takes over Dallas police Web site"Whoever hacked into the site also posted a doctored photograph showing American troops watching over four people lined up against a wall.
Each of the four prisoners had lines leading away from their faces to individual head shots of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential contender..."
"Less attention, however, has been paid to state sponsors of illicit computer activity, which are increasingly using the Internet to conduct espionage, deny services to domestic and foreign audiences, and influence global opinion. In addition, insufficient focus has been given to how terrorists exploit the Internet as a tool for recruiting, fund raising, propaganda, and intelligence collection and use it to plan, coordinate, and control terrorist operations. Combating these malicious activities on the Internet will require the cooperation of federal entities, as well as friendly and allied countries and the private sector."Combating Enemies Online: State-Sponsored and Terrorist Use of the Internet
"Danish newspapers have reprinted one of several caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad which sparked violent protests across the Muslim world two years ago.They say they wanted to show their commitment to freedom of speech after an alleged plot to kill one of the cartoonists behind the drawings."
Danish Muhammad cartoon reprinted
"We have very clearly seen that al-Qaida increasingly uses the Internet for three components — a massive radicalization, recruiting and the spreading of technical information on how to carry out a terror attack, including construction of explosive devices." [Stefan] Paris [spokesman for Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble] said.Germany sees online al-Qaida activity"He added that officials were also seeing a "clear focus on Germany," citing an increase in the number of German-language postings from al-Qaida over the past year."
"Its staggering growth-rate - it gathered some 3,000 supporters in the first 24 hours, and at the time of writing has 261,236 virtual members - sufficed to encourage Morales to back up this cyber-protest with physical ones on 4 February. This is taking place simultaneously in 45 Colombian cities and towns, and rallies in solidarity are also scheduled in 115 cities worldwide (60 in the Americas, 40 in Europe, and 15 in Asia and Oceania)."The article, by Swiss based the International Security and Relations Network, also provides a good analysis of issues related to this type of online protest such as how easy the "protest message" can become over simplified and the impact of mainstream politicians becoming involved.
"Official blocks on controversial or political Web sites pose no obstacle to any experienced user who wants to get past them, said Mr. Li [Shenwen]."Mr. Li demonstrated his ability to access several blocked sites in under three minutes. Mr. Li stated the (undisclosed) techniques were well known in local Internet cafes, but said few people use them to gain access to blocked news or dissident websites:
"...they are more interested in using skills to access restricted pornography sites than to read about politics."
