This is a blog that seeks to explore ideas relating to the security implications of virtual communities. The blog will post articles and commentary relating to security events in this rapidly growing sector. Specific topics include:
I know, this blog is not about food, it is about Internet Security, but honestly I could not help myself. Those that know me, know that I really have two passions, computers and food. The latter is the main reason why I weigh nearly 120 Kilograms. I know it is bad for me, but honestly I love food. And so when my taste buds tried the RubyTuesday's Hamburger ( beefburger really ) in the Citystars mall in Cairo, I could not contain myself and had to write about it.
Terrorists rely on state-of-the-art techniques from the advertising industry to attract suicide bombers. Rather than broadcast, or use one big message to attract a huge audience, the extremists “narrowcast,” targeting small groups with specific messages that exploit their vulnerabilities. The internet – anonymous and decentralized, reaching the alienated who desperately seek some inspiration or goals – is the ideal communication tool for terrorists, explains Gabriel Weimann, communication professor at Haifa University.
COUNTER-TERRORISM agents have launched an investigation into a multi-national terror threat made against an Australian using internet social networking website Facebook.
The first investigation of its kind was prompted by a death threat emanating from the Middle East against a Jewish woman and her family from an alleged member of the Iranian-backed terror outfit Hezbollah.
The woman received the death threat from the self-proclaimed terrorist through the website after she declined the man’s online “friendship request”.
The Australian Institute of Criminology last year published a rather large risk assessment document looking at very near-future directions of technology enabled crimes which is available on the Australian Government Website. Though the entire document itself makes for a fascinating read, of interest to myself in particular was this section discussing virtual worlds:
Spies’ Battleground Turns Virtual Intelligence Officials See 3-D Online Worlds as Havens for Criminals
By Robert O’Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 6, 2008; D01
U.S. intelligence officials are cautioning that popular Internet services that enable computer users to adopt cartoon-like personas in three-dimensional online spaces also are creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage.
Article on fraud in Second Life from the MIT Technology Review: The Fleecing of the Avatars Recent fraud allegations are ominous for those who see virtual worlds as future centers of e-commerce. By David Talbot Stephanie Roberts is a 33-year-old parks service employee in a Chicago suburb where she lives with her brother and mother; in the winter, she drives the Zamboni at a public skating rink.
