This first part of this article series seemed to raise some strong feelings from you all, and I must ask that you please continue to respect other people’s cultures and beliefs when commenting. In part two I want to examine the west’s current approach to the Internet.

There have been several major Internet events in the last year that have raised all sorts of questions about the Internet freedoms we all enjoy, and what the future of the Internet should look like. The first of these was the WikiLeaks scandal where hundreds of thousands of secure military documents were ‘stolen’ by a soldier and later exposed.

Now one thing I’m not going to do here is get into a discussion about the leaks themselves, or how the Pentagon’s internal security allowed the documents to be appropriated in the first instance. It is interesting to note the US government’s initial response to the leaks however.

People were reported inside the Pentagon saying that it should not be possible to publish these types of documents on the Internet, and that governments should have greater control over what can and can’t be published online.

It’s very interesting this as, while this was probably a reaction resulting more from initial anger than reasoned judgement, we know that major western powers are thinking about this and that there are diametrically opposing viewpoints.

The French for instance recently passed a file sharing law that many countries in the European Union strongly disagree with, and the UK government has publicly stated that the Internet should not be constrained.

The UK is another interesting case. Here recently a premier league footballer had obtained what’s known as a “super-injunction” against a former reality television personality that he’d had an affair with. The reasons for the injunction are still not clear though blackmail has been suggested. Despite the British press doing their bit to maintain the injunction and not naming the footballer, hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter publicly outed him.

This has started a debate in the UK about our own laws but not in the context of constraining the Internet, quite the opposite in fact. The debate here has been about bringing UK law up to date so that it can accommodate the Internet.

This doesn’t mean that any new laws, if and when passed, won’t give greater powers to the authorities over finding the identities of people who break the law online so that they can be prosecuted. Indeed every Internet service provider in the UK, after 9/11 was required to fit a “black box” so that email traffic in the country can be monitored for crime and terrorism detection purposes. Many people opposed this at the time but the Labour government in power in the early 00′s got it through parliament.

Now I’m not going to speculate what freedoms we should all have online, you will decide that for yourself, but it’s becoming clear that there is a very strong debate going on in the west about the Internet and if it should be constrained. It’s still possible that some constraints will be put in place, all in the name of terrorism, crime and national security, and this will be a major battle-ground for people’s who have so far enjoyed unfettered access to what they want to see and do online.

In part 3 of this article series I’ll look at how the Internet is being used by criminals and terrorists, and also how major world powers are already using it in warfare.

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There’s no confirmation on whether this was intentional or not, but it comes at a time of increased sensitivity over cyber-terrorism.

Among websites who had traffic diverted were the US Senate, The Office of the Secretary of Defence, NASA and the US Commerce Department.

A draft report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission says “Evidence related to this incident does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends.  However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities.”

The Internet, such as it is, is at some risk of attacks that could threaten national infrastructure and so countries around the world have been working on methods of defending their Internet servers from such threats.  A recent attack was, allegedly, made on Iran and saw plants in the country experiencing significant disruption.  There is no evidence of who was responsible for the attack though it is widely considered that only a major power would have the resources to instigate such a project.

Mike will be talking about his new book “Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out” from Microsoft Press, Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Phone and general technology and troubleshooting issues.  He will also be taking calls on a live phone-in and make sure you tune in live for a special prize give-away!  The show normally has two guests for one hour each but Mike will be Craig’s guest for the entire two-hour show.

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The article is divided into three threat levels and an introduction with some interesting background information and links. The first threat level mentions data encryption and certain aspects that have to be taken care of. It mentions for instance the fact that it is possible to read the contents of the RAM if the laptop is or has been powered on shortly before entering customs. It also advices to delete all temporary data on the system like browser cache, cookies and so forth.

Lastly it mentions the possibility that spyware could be installed on the computer while it is kept by the federal agents. The next step would be a full encryption of the system which has the advantage that everything is encrypted meaning no one can access it by simply plugging in the laptop’s hard drive into another computer. This could, on the other hand, make border agents suspicious because they might think you are hiding information that they are after.

The last threat level mentions steganophy which means hiding data in other data, for example an important text document in a music track. It also refers to the use of encrypted containers on encrypted partitions. It also mentions electronically sending the data once you reached your destination or storing it on smaller memory cards that are placed in devices that do not look suspicious.

The best solution in my opinion is the secure transfer of data. This ensures that nothing can be found on the laptop that could arouse suspicion It would also mean that the traveler does not have to lie if someone asks questions about the contents of the laptop.

Others suggested sending the data by overnight shipping which still leaves the chance that the package will be intercepted and analysed but has the advantage that the user cannot be questioned for the password of the (hopefully) encrypted drive.

They may also send the data to other agencies and even private entities “for language translation, data decryption or other reasons”. This policies do not only affect foreign visitors of the United States but also United States citiziens.

The data has to be destroyed after the review and private entities have to send the data back to the agencies. Everything that has been documented however does not have to be deleted.

“They’re saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler’s laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies “don’t establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched.”

This in effect means that even if you cause no suspicion you can have your electronic devices and papers seized and will have to wait a long time before you can get them back. Think of business plans, private videos and photos, electronic diaries not only of “how to build an a-bomb in seven days” type of material. Frightening it is.

That would be bad luck and one thing that you should do before traveling to the United States, or any other country that is giving their border agents such rights is to protect your data; Or don’t visit the country which I prefer to do. The easiest way to protect your data is to leave it at home. If that is not possible because you do need your notebook for work you should prepare it so that the important data is protected and hidden.

I’m not accustomed to US laws and do not know if they can force you to reveal a password for an encrypted partition. But even if they cannot they probably can keep the notebook for a certain time to examine it and probably also question you for a while which would make the trip rather unpleasant.

Your best bet is to use encryption and another encrypted container on that encrypted drive. This way you can cooperate and enter the password: Here Office, take a look, I have no problem with it. The important data would still be encrypted and inaccessible and you would definitely not reveal that password. It’s impossible to tell for them anyway if there is another container unless you leave clues on the drive.

You need to make sure that all sensible data, like documents, emails, browser cache, passwords, cookies, pictures, videos, plane flying manuals, Atombombs for Dummies is stored on that second encrypted container.

Important data could be stored on a web server as well and downloaded while in the country. Just make sure it gets erased properly before leaving again. Any other ideas ? Let me know.

This is by far the craziest launch I ever witnessed. How far do people go for a gaming machine ? I decided to collect the most interesting articles in the categories Crimes, Hardware and Games. Please add your links if you want to join the fun.

Crimes:

Man shoot waiting to buy Playstation 3
PS3 Fight shuts down Walmart
PS3 Riot
Texas Gamestop Robbed at Gun-Point

Hardware:

One Man’s HDMI Issues
PS3 dead on arrival
PS3′s disc loaders defective ?
PS3 does not do 1080i ?

Ratings:

Gundam – 2 of 10
NBA 07 – 4.9
Resistance 9.3

This is an overwhelming result and I thought I explain the net(work) neutrality concept for the ones who do not know what it is. Internet providers do one thing, they provide access to the internet and make sure that you receive all the data that you request. It does not matter if you surf to the website of a big company like eBay (amazon, Microsoft) or to my blog (hehe, or even smaller websites). All data get the same treatment, none is preferred over the other.

The providers (Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, Comcast, and others) want to change the way the internet works. They want to decide which sites get a fast data transfer, which sites get a slow one and which get none. What this means is clear, the more you pay the faster you go. This also means that they cold favor their own services over the ones of their competition.

Take a look at this funny video of the daily show.

Take a look at the save the internet website if you are living in the USA and want to help fight this.

The new poll wants to know about your main activity on the internet: Communicating (like icq, chats, forums), Content (creating websites, animations), downloading (Linux distributions, freeware), Gaming (online gaming, casinos, poker), Research (university, work, school) or Shopping.