News Roundup Archive

Thursday, November 8, 2012

USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, November 1 - 7, 2012

Table of Contents

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.**


Drones: Here to Stay
Drones not only allow for the swift incineration of terrorist operatives, but they also make it more difficult for terror groups to meet and plan attacks. The program may have its faults, but it has also kept Pakistan safer by neutralizing the groups that seek nothing more than to break the government in Islamabad and harm activists for speaking out for a woman's right to education. For better or for worse, blemishes and all, drones are here to stay.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Thomas E. Ricks, 11/7/12)
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"Cyberdraft" Would Press-Gang Geeks Into Government Service
Could your company's IT department or dev team soon be drafted as digital soldiers in an ongoing cyberwar? There is talk of establishing an American "cyberdraft" in which entire companies could be drafted to defend government and private computer networks in time of war. Talk is theoretical right now, but it could be inching closer to reality. Cyberdrafts of various sorts already operate in Estonia, China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Israel, and elsewhere.
See the full article (Fast Company, Neal Ungerleider, 11/7/12)
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After Stuxnet: The New Rules of Cyberwar
Critical infrastructure providers face off against a rising tide of increasingly sophisticated and potentially destructive attacks emanating from hacktivists, spies and militarized malware. The government not only needs to pass legislation that provides the incentives and protections that critical infrastructure businesses need to share information on cyberthreats, but it also needs to push the law enforcement, military and intelligence communities to open up.
See the full article (Computerworld, Robert L. Mitchell, 11/5/12)
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'Internet in a Suitcase' Ready for Field Testing
When will rebels, dissidents, and activists be able to safely voice dissent and coordinate their activities online in the face of a government equipped with Western technology designed to snoop on all types of electronic communications? Maybe in as little as a year, according to Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the man leading the effort to field the so-called Internet in a Suitcase.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, John Reed, 11/5/12)
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Russian Underground Offers Cybercrime Services at Dirt-Cheap Prices
Wanna buy a botnet? It will cost you somewhere in the region of $700. If you just want to hire someone else's botnet for an hour, though, it can cost as little as $2. These are the going rates in Russia's underground cybercrime market - a vibrant community of ne'er-do-wells offering every conceivable service at dirt-cheap prices - as profiled in security firm Trend Micro's report, Russian Underground 101, which provides insight into the workings of the hidden economy.
See the full article (Wired, Ian Steadman, 11/5/12)
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Could New Technology Cut Risk of Giving Syrian Rebels Anti-Aircraft Missiles?
Could sophisticated weapons, such as anti-aircraft missile systems, be outfitted with mechanisms that would disable them if they fell into the wrong hands? Military analyst Anthony Cordesman says it should be possible for the United States to reduce the risk posed by any such weapons if they were obtained by people hostile to the U.S. and friends. Installing GPS-disabling devices so that Stinger missiles only worked in a designated geographic area is another control mechanism that should be developed.
See the full article (PBS, Daniel Sagalyn, 11/4/12)
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Mexican Cartels Enslave Engineers to Build Radio Network
At least 36 engineers and technicians have been kidnapped in the past four years. Worse, none of the engineers have been held for ransom - they've just disappeared. Among them include at least one IBM employee and several communications technicians from a firm owned by Mexico's largest construction company. For at least six years, Mexico's cartels have relied in part on a sophisticated radio network to handle their communications.
See the full article (Wired, Robert Beckhusen, 11/1/12)
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USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, November 1 - 7, 2012

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.**


Media and Journalism

Sudan Seeks to Gag Critical Journalism: Watchdog
Sudan is trying to stifle critical reporting, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday after authorities seized copies of the independent daily newspaper Al-Wan. Hussein Khogli, editor in chief of Al-Wan, confirmed to AFP that a state security agent on Sunday night visited the printer and banned distribution of Monday's edition after it had already come off the presses. Confiscating newspapers after they roll off the presses is a common tactic of Sudan's security service.
See the full article (AFP, 11/7/12)
Click to read "Truth in Reporting: Media and Communications in Conflict," a USIP Olive Branch post by Anand Varghese.
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Somali Journalist on Braving Mogadishu
Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist - nearly 20 people who work in the media have been killed this year. They are usually targeted killings, not people caught in the crossfire between the UN-backed government forces and Islamist militias. Omar Faruk Osman, secretary general of the National Union of Somali Journalists, says life is actually getting worse, not better for journalists in the country.
See the full article (BBC, 11/5/12)
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Mexican Journalists Question Truth of Murder Trial
It is very rare for anyone in Mexico to be arrested for murdering a journalist, let alone appear before a court. So the trial in Veracruz of a man charged with killing Regina Martínez Pérez should be a reason to celebrate. But it looks as if the state "is fabricating a murder case against the wrong people." If true, this would confirm the view of Martínez's former colleagues, the magazine she worked for, other local journalists - and even federal officials - that Hernández is a scapegoat.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 11/5/12)
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Photographers Amid Chaos
"Witness: Juarez," the first in a series of four HBO documentaries about contemporary war photographers, is a bracing, at times mesmerizing introduction to the "Witness" series. The subsequent films are each an hour long, and while all have powerful material, particularly the South Sudan chapter, they're also more diffuse and more prone to sentimentality about the violence and social disorder the photojournalists bear witness to.
See the full article (New York Times, Mike Hale, 11/4/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Family Working for Journalist's Release Plans Visit to Lebanon
The family of an American journalist believed to be held in Syria is planning a trip to Lebanon to help get him home, hopefully by the Thanksgiving holiday. Debra Tice and her family are working for the release of her 31-year-old son, freelance journalist Austin Tice. He was in Syria on his way to Lebanon when the Tice family lost contact with him in August. In September, he showed up in a YouTube video blindfolded and held by gunpoint.
See the full article (CNN, 11/2/12)
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Bolivian Radio Owner Set on Fire
Masked men made an horrific attack on the owner and editor of a Bolivian radio station by pouring petrol on him and setting him ablaze. Fernando Vidal, 78, was conducting an interview with two women on drug smuggling in the border region when the attack occurred. One of the station's journalists said Vidal had been critical of politicians in Gran Chaco province. He believed the attack was politically motivated.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 11/2/12)
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Internet and Social Media

Iranian Facebook Activist Sattar Beheshti Feared Dead in Custody
The family of an Iranian blogger taken into custody accused of opposition activism on Facebook fears that he has died under torture. Iran is recently reported to have arrested a number of Facebook activists. Although Facebook is blocked in the country, millions of Iranians access it through proxy websites or virtual private networks.
See the full article (Guardian, Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 11/7/12)
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Human Rights Activists Taught Online Tactics
An international training institute to teach online tactics for human rights campaigners is being set up in the Italian city of Florence. The first students, starting in the new year, will be drawn from human rights activists around the world - with the aim of arming them with the latest tools for digital dissent. As the Arab spring showed, protests are as likely to be about individuals using social networking as much as public demonstrations.
See the full article (BBC, Sean Coughlan, 11/5/12)
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U.N. Says Execution Video From Syria Shows Apparent War Crime
The United Nations said on Friday that a new video from Syria circulating on the Internet that appears to show antigovernment fighters kicking and summarily executing a group of frightened captive soldiers or militiamen could, if verified, represent evidence of a war crime to prosecute the perpetrators. Videos are among the few ways to obtain information and assess the course of the conflict in a country where outside news media coverage is severely restricted and dangerous.
See the full article (New York Times, Nick Cumming-Bruce and Rick Gladstone, 11/2/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Russia's Internet 'Blacklist' Law Sparks Free-Speech Fears
Russian authorities have been given the green light to shut down websites carrying information deemed harmful to children. The legislation, formally intended to protect children from offensive Internet content, has prompted fears it could be co-opted to stifle the lively political debate taking place on the Russian Internet. Free-speech advocates say the creation of an Internet "blacklist" could lead to widespread censorship.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Claire Bigg, 11/1/12)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"PeaceTXT" - Poptech
PopTech is a unique innovation network - a global community of cutting-edge leaders, thinkers, and doers from many different disciplines, who come together to explore the social impact of new technologies, the forces of change shaping our future, and new approaches to solving the world's most significant challenges. PeaceTXT is a multidisciplinary project that explores the potential of mobile technology to amplify a proven approach to reducing violence.
See the full video
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