Welcome to 1984: CYBERCOM is online

The U.S. Cyber Command is now in operation. What is it and what is its purpose?

CYBERCOM comprises personnel from the National Security Agency, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and policymakers (politicians). It was formed to protect the vital interests of the United States in relation to the Internet.

CYBERCOM is both defense and offense in that it can engage in preemptive "strikes" intended to disrupt threats. Because this was an internal reorganization within the Department of Defense, the creation of CYBERCOM did not require congressional approval. But not everyone is reassured.

A website called "Tech 1984 - Where Technology and Big Brother Collide" reports: "Even though the primary purpose of CYBERCOM is to protect government and military networks, there is incredible pressure to extend that 'protection' to civilian and business networks as well. In fact, the second-highest official at the Pentagon, William Lynn III, deputy secretary of defense, recently announced that the Department of Defense might start a protective program for civilian networks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated the same thing in June 2009."

Now, don't you feel better? Read it all.

The international man of mystery

American officials are on the lookout for the founder of WikiLeaks to convince him to not publish thousands of confidential and potentially hugely embarrassing diplomatic cables that offer unfiltered assessments of Middle East governments and leaders.

According to opinion website The Daily Beast, Pentagon investigators are trying to track down Julian Assange – an Australian citizen – after the arrest of a U.S. soldier last week alleged to have passed on to WikiLeaks 260,000 pages of confidential diplomatic cables, intelligence assessments and a classified video of American troops killing civilians in Baghdad. Assange is said to travel light and has no permanent residence. He could be anywhere.

Add Connecticut to the list

Connecticut's top prosecutor has called on Google to say whether it had collected data from personal and business wireless networks without the owners' permission. In a letter to a lawyer for California-based Google, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal demanded detailed records on any information taken from networks in the state and how it was used.

Google representatives have said the search-engine company has not broken any laws with the collection of data for its mapping service, after Blumenthal pressed the company to "come clean with the American public."

Authorities fear the information gathered for Google's Street View service, which provides pictures of neighborhoods, may violate privacy laws. Last month, Google acknowledged it had mistakenly collected data over public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries. Police in Germany and Australia already have launched their own investigations into the matter.

We swear we didn't know!

Google says it stopped grabbing Wi-Fi data from its Street View vehicles following an inquiry by German regulators.

In a letter to three key members of the U.S. House Commerce Committee, the company apologized for collecting fragments of e-mails, search requests and other online activities over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks and said it never dissected or used any of the rogue code it acquired while collecting data about public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries.

As reported in last week's Surfin' Safari column, Google said it was trying to gather information about the location, strength and configuration of Wi-Fi networks so it could improve the accuracy of location-based services such as Google Maps and driving directions. Going further and collecting snippets of information traveling over those networks "was a mistake," Pablo Chavez, Google's director of public policy, wrote in the letter.

Google is "almost certain" to face prosecution for collecting data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, according to Privacy International. "This is equivalent to placing a hard tap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorization."

The art of Google

Last week, Google announced a new feature that adds a photo or image to the background of your Google.com homepage. The gallery includes images from artists, sculptors and photographers. And, thoughtful people that they are, Google is giving you the option of choosing your own image or photo for a more personal touch. The Bing! search engine has been using rotating images since its inception.

Should the Feds save dinosaur media?

Three out of four of us say no and oppose the "Drudge Tax" on consumer electronics to prop up a legacy media that's going the way of the dinosaur.

A poll released last week by Rasmussen Reports found, "The American people have absolutely no interest in taxing new media or consumer electronics to prop up an industry that's clearly on its way out."

The Federal Trade Commission is doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk, backing away from the FTC's controversial proposals that were included in a working paper on "reinventing" the media. The report presented a host of options in which the government steps in and "rescues" journalism, mostly by imposing taxes on websites such as the Drudge Report that link to the best news of the day, or on consumer electronics such as iPads, laptops and Kindles. These taxes would then be redistributed to traditional media outlets.

Fortunately, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz torpedoed the device tax in testimony last week before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, saying, "I think that's a terrible idea."

He can't be wrong when 75 percent of Americans polled agree.

Are cameras the new weapon of choice?

In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Why? Because of a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse.

If you're in Illinois, Massachusetts or Maryland, you can be arrested under existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Other states are considering it.

Find out if yours is one of them, then tell your legislative representative if he supports it, he should picture himself out of a job come November.

Apple's security breach: Whodunit?

What do CEO Janet Robinson, Diane Sawyer of ABC News, film mogul Harvey Weinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have in common? If you said they lean to the political left, you'd be right. But in this instance, the common denominator is an Apple.

Apple made Drudge Report's front page last week when a security breach exposed iPad owners – including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians – making them vulnerable to spam marketing and malicious hacking.

Just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, this latest "oops" exposed the most exclusive e-mail list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media.

A published report shows it didn't stop there.

"According to the data we were given by the web-security group that exploited vulnerabilities on the AT&T network," writes Ryan Tate at Gawker.com, "we believe 114,000 user accounts have been compromised, although it's possible that confidential information about every iPad 3G owner in the U.S. has been exposed."

AT&T confirmed the breach, and the FBI has opened an investigation. Much more to this story here.

Twitter stops chirping twice, back for soccer

Twitter users got an unwanted pause in the action last week when a system-side issue resulted in Twitter.com experiencing two, 30-minute, back-to-back incidents over roughly one hour. The problem was addressed, and before long the bluebirds were merrily chirping again.

Using live widgets, real-time search and Top Tweets (updates that are currently catching the attention of many Twitter users), Twitter put together a special site to capture the spirit of the World Cup, and according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, it's already pulsing with activity.

"Fans have a unique opportunity to connect with players, teams and brands using Twitter to join the matches in a new way," writes Stone. "We also are providing a list of suggested accounts to follow during the tournament and a World Cup theme for your profile page. We'll leave it up to you to learn how to do the neat little trick we're calling hashflags."

Here's where you can find out how to make the most of the World Cup: apps, websites, podcasts and more!

Time-lapse video captures shuttle launch process

While training for his STS-131 space-shuttle mission, astronaut Alan Poindexter wanted to document space shuttle Discovery's next-to-last flight in a way that had never been done.

The result – a unique four-minute time-lapse video that chronicles the entire process of getting Discovery ready for launch. The video, produced in collaboration with Scott Andrews' son Philip (a photojournalist himself), is a stunning, one-of-a-kind, four-minute chronicle of Discovery's trip from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the pad, beginning with the Vehicle Assembly Building on Feb. 22 and ending with the STS-131 launch on April 5.

Watch the stunning result here.

And further out in space, watch a beehive of activity from a geostationary satellite.

A busy and momentous week in history

1940 – German troops enter Paris

1945 – U.S. troops take Okinawa

1956 – Truman rejects anti-Stalin talk

1963 – Soviets launch first woman into space

1972 – Pilots threaten worldwide strike

1976 – Westerners evacuated from Beirut

1979 – Leaders agree to arms-reduction treaty

1980 – Gunbattle at British embassy in Iraq

1982 – Ceasefire agreed in Falklands

1990 – British Chancellor John Major proposes new Euro currency

1991 – Iraqi Kurds fear U.S. troop withdrawal

Now playing at the Princess Theater, Urbana, Ill.

Congratulations to WorldNetDaily readers Griff Irving of Matoon, Ill.; and Russell B. Dobbyn of Gulfport, Miss., who were among the first to correctly guess actor Dennis Hopper's portrayal of Billy in the 1969 film "Easy Rider," the story of two counterculture bikers who travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America.

Directed by Hopper, the film garnered 10 awards and was nominated for another ten, including two Oscars.

Hopper died May 29 at age 74 of prostate cancer.

The movie quote was: "We did it, man. We did it, we did it. We're rich, man. We're retirin' in Florida now, mister."

This week's quote: "What about those of us who knew better? We who knew the words were lies and worse than lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country! What difference does it make if a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be discarded sooner or later."

Name the movie, the actor and the character. Send your answer to me at the email address below. Good luck!