Time for a calm discussion

A frenzy arose from a recent supreme court ruling, whereby the Press and Publications Law would apply to Internet news sites and digital content in general.

This has stirred up a national discussion regarding regulation and censorship. It seems authorities want to exercise some measure of control and seek to introduce legal liability with regard to content published on the Internet, while activists don’t want any control whatsoever. Clearly, this is an unattainable position.

To begin with, this matter is not new. Back in 2007, the Legislation Bureau at the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Internet content would fall under the oversight of the Publications and Publishing Department. However, it appears that the department did not exercise its powers of supervision. And now, the issue has been re-activated.

Jordan, till now, has been a rather open Internet country. The OpenNet Initiative report (see drawing) classifies Jordan as “Selective” in Internet filtering and positively summarizes the state of Internet censorship in the country saying “Jordanians appear to enjoy essentially unfiltered access to Internet content. However, the Press and Publications Law’s broad provisions have been extended to online publications and may lead some writers to engage in self-censorship as individual writers and commentators seek to avoid heavy fines or criminal prosecution.”

A thorough discussion of electronic laws in general needs to be conducted, with the participation of all stakeholders, whereby the requirements of all parties are to be considered. A balanced solution that is acceptable and conducive to strengthening Jordan’s economic and social growth is the answer.

Otherwise, Jordan’s image as an Internet media hub in the region and a hotbed for Internet entrepreneurs will be affected.

This matter is one that faces other nations as the digital age evolves. Jordan is a country that typically adopts a moderate stance.

Through a calm and open exchange of views, authorities could enact laws that allow digital content to flourish. That could be an agreeable starting point of a discussion. But, will there be such a discussion?

zanasser@gmail.com

Google at center of attack on 33 US websites in China

The biggest news this week was the ‘conflict’ that arose between Google Inc. and the Chinese government.

The story seemed simple enough, to begin with, when it was revealed that Chinese hackers stole valuable corporate secrets from its computer systems, but it then seemed to evolve in a disturbing direction when it emerged that it was part of a broad, sophisticated attack on at least 33 other firms too, including Juniper Networks, Adobe, Yahoo, Symantec, Dow and Northrop Grumman.

Immediately, the issue started to look like an international relations crisis, with Google at the center of it and the US government being forced to to tackle this matter with the Chinese government.

A fall-out began and Google threatened to pull out of China, where it has a large office, and said it would stop filtering Internet searches on its site in China.

Such a serious response comes with considerable business ramifications for Google and touches on very sensitive political issues such as human rights and cyber-espionage. The White House says it supports such moves, but it could undermine US-China relations.

The US government has responded by saying that it addresses cyberattacks separately from diplomatic relations with China and any other country, but also said that such separation is becoming more difficult in light of these recent events.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Chinese law "proscribes any form of hacking activity" and that "China's Internet is open and the Chinese government encourages development of the Internet."

But in a separate statement, the government said it should continue its policy of keeping certain types of information off the Web in China. Simply, Goolge response has whipped up a storm.

Surely now, it is clear to everyone that information flow on the Internet and related-cyberattacks are issues that need to be dealt with, and part of the world’s ‘growing pains’ in the Internet age. It’s a wonder this did not happen sooner. I believe that the way this crisis evolves and how it’s handled will create a whole new area of “Internet politics’ this century.

zanasser@gmail.com

Y2K bug makes a return ten years later!

Those of you who followed the news at the turn of the century will recall the “Year 2000 Problem”, referred to as the Y2K bug.

Basically, the millennium bug was a problem which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits. There were fears that computer systems would breakdown without correcting the problem, and there were huge efforts worldwide to prepare. In the end, Y2K passed with little trouble.
Last week, the date change over from 2009 to 2010, wreaked havoc on some systems across the world.

The biggest problem happened in Germany, where an error left around one third of all cards issued by German banks unable to access ATMs or to make payments from New Year's day till the end of the first week in January!

Banks said this week that like the year-2000 problem, in which old software was not designed to recognize any date after 1999, the new glitch was caused by a software error that treats the year 2010 as if it does not exist. The total number of debit and credit cards knocked out was over 30 million, and it seems the banking system will have to incur the costs of replacing them. Australian bank reported similar problems, though less damaging.

Also, surprisingly, two of the world’s top software security companies, Symantec and Kaspersky, reported problems too. Symantec's network-access control (NAC) software that is supposed to check whether spam and virus definitions have been updated recently enough fails because of this 2010 problem.

Open source projects like SpamAssasin also faced date-related problems, increasing the spam score it gives to e-mails that come with 2010 date headers, making it more likely that those e-mails will be classified as spam, resulting in more false positives.

Even users of certain Windows OS mobile phones reported getting SMS messages time stamped from the future, the year 2016! Microsoft is now fixing that issue.
So, can IT specialists be excused for being a bit distracted by the tough economic situation in 2009?

There are no excuses, and it’s dissapointing that the Y2K hype that grabbed our attention for 2 years was forgotten ten years later. It’s human nature to forget and assume all is well. In this digitally-run society, it’s clearly a mistake.

zanasser@gmail.com

2010: The Year of Cyber-Threats

Over the past 12 months, the way people use the Internet has evolved significantly and cyber criminals have changed their tactics accordingly, which has resulted in a majority of experts to claim that 2010 will be the year of elevated cyber-threats.

According to the 2010 Threat Predictions report by McAfee Labs, not only has the volume of threats escalated dramatically, but the delivery methods have become more sophisticated”.

Cyber criminals increasingly leverage the news of the day to attack unsuspecting consumers. Celebrity deaths, natural disasters, you name it .

The hubs for communication- Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites- will become major targets for cyber criminals. Although consumers know to be wary of Web links sent by strangers, they tend to trust Web links and e-mail messages sent by friends and family. Online attackers are learning how to exploit that trust, by delivering malware that appears to come from Facebook friends and Twitter followers e-mails. With 350 million users on Facebook, it’s a very rich target-rich environment.

McAfee also warns that URL shorteners, like those used to accommodate Twitter's 140-character limit, make the cyber criminal's task even easier.

Unlike many typical Web addresses that show Internet users the name of the site they're about visit, shorter URLs tend to display a string of letters and numbers that seem to have no rhyme or reason.

Another Internet security firm Symantec said in its recent report on 2010 threats, URL shortening services will become ‘the phisher's best friend’. The Symantec report says "Because users often have no idea where a shortened URL is actually sending them, phishers are able to disguise links that the average security conscious user might think twice about clicking on.”

However, the number one target for cyber criminals in 2010? McAfee expects it to be Adobe products, especially Flash and Acrobat reader.

Symantec also warned that malware for Mac and mobile devices will increase. As Macs and smart phones (such as iPhones, BlackBerrys and Android phones) increase in popularity, attackers will spend more time figuring out how to exploit them.

So, shape up and protect every electronic device and gadget you’ve got, and brace for a cyber-crime onslaught. Threats have always existed, but more digitization means more attention and immunization.

zanasser@gmail.com