Category: Topics (All Other)

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Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries

01 Poverty, 04 Education, 12 Water, International Aid, Technologies
Event link

A two-part exhibition of water technologies and artwork from developing countries where Denver-based IDE works to cultivate prosperity.

Part I (August 6 – 31) of the exhibition features photographs of the people IDE works with every day, along with displays of the innovative water technologies IDE has developed as part of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded “Rural Prosperity Initiative” – extremely affordable water pumps, drip irrigation and water storage systems. Special events scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition offer opportunities to meet IDE staff from around the world and learn about their work.

Part II (September 1 – 25) features the addition to the exhibition of paintings from local artists in IDE countries, brought to Denver especially for this show. The artwork will be offered for sale through a silent auction with proceeds benefiting IDE.
Low-cost water technologies, access to better seeds and growing techniques, and better connections to markets are the foundation of the IDE approach to cultivating prosperity in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Continue reading “Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries”

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The 19 most influential cybersecurity organizations in the world (GAO)

02 China, 06 Russia, Computer/online security, General Accountability Office
see the report

The Government Accountability Office identified 19 global organizations “whose international activities significantly influence the security and governance of cyberspace.”

The organizations range from information-sharing forums that are non-decision-making gatherings of experts to private organizations to treaty-based, decision-making bodies founded by countries. The groups address a variety of topics from incident response,  the development of technical standards, the facilitation of criminal investigations to the creation of international policies related to information technology and critical infrastructure, the GAO stated.

From the GAO report:

  • Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a cooperative economic and trade forum designed to promote economic growth and cooperation among 21 countries from the Asia-Pacific region. APEC's Telecommunication and Information Working Group supports security efforts associated with the information infrastructure of member countries through activities designed to strengthen effective incident response capabilities, develop information security guidelines, combat cybercrime, monitor security implications of emerging technologies, and foster international cybersecurity cooperation.
  • Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an economic and security cooperative comprised of 10 member nations from Southeast Asia. According to the 2009-2015 Roadmap for an ASEAN Community, it looks to combat transnational cybercrime by fostering cooperation among member-nations' law enforcement agencies and promoting the adoption of cybercrime legislation. In addition, the road map calls for activities to develop information infrastructure and expand computer emergency response teams (CERT) and associated drills to all ASEAN partners.

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The $12 Computer

01 Poverty, Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries


Playpower.org aims to introduce the world’s cheapest computer programs to the poor by utilizing the technology of old 8 bit computers. The Apple II computer, which had its heyday in the 1970s in the West, has lived on in the developing world, where its technology is now open source and easy to manufacture. As a result, computers can be sold for as little as $10-12. Many of these systems are currently on sale as “TV computers” in Bombay, Bangalore, and Nicaragua, offering pirated, low-tech versions of games like Mario and Donkey Kong. Like the early home computers sold in the United States, they plug into a TV screen for display, making them an easy access technology. Continue reading “The $12 Computer”

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Secrecy News: Afghanistan Deaths, CRS Reports, Weaknesses in Industrial Cyber Sec, Too Many Secrets, Math Discovery

04 Inter-State Conflict, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Computer/online security

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 62
August 2, 2010

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

**      AFGHANISTAN CASUALTIES, AND MORE FROM CRS
**      WEAKNESSES IN INDUSTRIAL CYBER SECURITY DESCRIBED
**      TOO MANY SECRETS, THE GREATEST MATH DISCOVERY, AND MORE

AFGHANISTAN CASUALTIES, AND MORE FROM CRS

Sixty-six American troops died in Afghanistan in July, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the Afghanistan War thus far, the Washington Post and others reported.

Casualties of the Afghanistan War have recently been tabulated by the Congressional Research Service, including statistics on American forces, of whom around 1100 have been killed, as well as allied forces, and Afghan civilians.  Although the three week old CRS report does not include the very latest figures, it provides links to official and unofficial sources of casualty information that are regularly updated.  See “Afghanistan Casualties: Military Forces and Civilians,” July 12, 2010.

A number of other noteworthy new CRS reports that have not been made readily available to the public were obtained by Secrecy News, including these (all pdf):

Continue reading “Secrecy News: Afghanistan Deaths, CRS Reports, Weaknesses in Industrial Cyber Sec, Too Many Secrets, Math Discovery”

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CrisisGroup’s CrisisWatch Monthly Report N°84, 1 Aug 2010

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, CrisisWatch reports

CrisisWatch N°84

Two actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and one improved in July 2010, according to the new issue of the International Crisis Group’s monthly bulletin CrisisWatch released today.

July 2010 TRENDS

Deteriorated Situations
Rwanda, Somalia

Improved Situations
Somaliland

Continue reading “CrisisGroup’s CrisisWatch Monthly Report N°84, 1 Aug 2010”

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Journal: Just How Important is the WikiLeaks AF Dump?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Chuck Spinney Recommends

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Kiss This War Goodbye

By FRANK RICH, New York Times,  July 31, 2010

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 1, 2010, on page WK8 of the New York edition.

IT was on a Sunday morning, June 13, 1971, that The Times published its first installment of the Pentagon Papers. Few readers may have been more excited than a circle of aspiring undergraduate journalists who’d worked at The Harvard Crimson. Though the identity of The Times’s source wouldn’t eke out for several days, we knew the whistle-blower had to be Daniel Ellsberg, an intense research fellow at M.I.T. and former Robert McNamara acolyte who’d become an antiwar activist around Boston. We recognized the papers’ contents, as reported in The Times, because we’d heard the war stories from the loquacious Ellsberg himself.
. . . . . . .

What was often forgotten last week is that the Pentagon Papers had no game-changing news about that war either and also described events predating the then-current president.

. . . . . . .

The papers’ punch was in the many inside details they added to the war’s chronicle over four previous administrations and, especially, in their shocking and irrefutable evidence that Nixon’s immediate predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had systematically lied to the country about his intentions and the war’s progress.

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Google = King of Malware

Computer/online security, Corporations, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Technologies

See the report

New Report Findings from Barracuda Labs: The ‘King Of Malware’ at Midyear 2010, Google

Matt McGee writes on Search Engine Land:

Google has twice as much malware in its search results as Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter combined. That’s one of the findings in the Barracuda Labs 2010 Midyear Security Report, which will be presented tomorrow at the DEFCON 18 hacking conference tomorrow in Las Vegas.

Barracuda Labs says it studied the four search engines for about two months and reviewed more than 25,000 trending topics and almost 5.5 million search results.

The article also includes a pie chart (on page 60 showing malware percentages from Google 69%, Bing 12%, Yahoo 18%, and Twitter 1%) as well as a table showing the percentage of accounts Twitter suspends each month.

[It] was 1.67% for the first half of 2010, with a high of 2.38% in June.

Access the Complete Article, Charts, and Graphs at Search Engine Land

Also see:
+ Barracuda Labs 2010 Midyear Security Report (Free; 83 pages; PDF)
+ Researcher ‘Fingerprints' The Bad Guys Behind The Malware (June 22, 2010)
+ Vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat/Reader & MS Word being used to install malware

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