The wave of protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has reached Poland. Activists say it is an attempt by governments to take control of cyberspace, and a threat to their freedom. The Polish government insists it is necessary to protect intellectual property. While the EU and eight other countries have signed the document, it is in Eastern Europe that the text has raised the most heckles.
Syria’s cyber war against the regime’s opponents. Ramy Essam, the singer of the Egyptian revolution, back in Tahrir Square. An anti-PowerPoint party is formed in Switzerland.
The Syrian opposition is fighting online as well as in the streets, via cyber activism. Next, arms dealers in Lebanon witness a boom in business thanks to ongoing protests in neighbouring Syria. Finally, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is caught in a power struggle with the religious establishment.
The rogue "hacktivist" group Lulz Security, which hacked the websites of Sony, the CIA and other targets, announced Saturday it would disband with one final data dump that would include internal documents from AOL and AT&T.
The Pentagon says it will consider a major hack attack on the United States' population or its infrastructure as an act of war. However, the US military's new policy on cyber war is prompting a sceptical response given how difficult it would be to identify the country of origin of any online assault.
Days after he was released from a Syrian jail where he was detained for 23 days, journalist Khaled Sid Mohand (pictured) told FRANCE 24 he was beaten up only for the first few days. His fellow detainees however were not as fortunate, he said.
A 28-year-old cyber activist who has spent much of the last three years concealing his identity from Syrian security has suddenly become one of the unofficial spokesmen of the revolution against President Bashar Al-Assad.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, albeit in a British jail, continues to rock the world of diplomacy. One commentator wonders whether he isn’t a neo-con tool, while a source in the Kremlin is reported as saying Assange should get the Nobel Peace Prize. That’s the focus in today’s international press review: THURSDAY 9TH DECEMBER 2010
Spotlight on cyberwar: what is it, who is behind it, and how is it different from netwar? And pick of the week: private browsing, as well as two sites which allow you to surf the web without being spotted by government censors.
The US Defence Ministry has announced the creation of its first command dedicated to thwarting cyber attacks amid growing concern over the threat posed by digital espionage.
