Europe in Two Internet Related Battlefields

[Editors note:  Please welcome Farzaneh Badii, from Hamburg University’s Graduate School in Law and Economics, who joins Syracuse University’s iSchool and the IGP as a Visiting Doctoral Student for the next six months.] “Lord, deliver us from all evil and from French state justice.”[1] This was the French farmers’ prayer once their parliament and state got …

Brazil leads creation of Internet governance initiative

Summary: The country’s steering committee teams up with ICANN and WEF to create “essential mechanism” that will influence the way the global Internet is run Six months after hosting governance conference NETMundial, Brazil is leading the creation of a permanent platform to discuss improvements in the way the Internet is managed.The country’s Internet steering committee …

Warning: MI5 to large corporations, Foreign Spy Agencies may be secretly recruiting your IT staff

Foreign intelligence agencies are targeting IT workers at big businesses to gain access to sensitive information, MI5 warns British corporations Security service warns of the threat posed to firms by members of staff Fears junior IT workers could infiltrate systems and sell vital information Could also upload malicious software to cause a business serious harm …

EU parliament votes to invite Snowden to testify over NSA Surveilance

The European Parliament has voted to formally invite former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden to provide official court testimony on NSA spying, in the face of overwhelming concern from conservative MEPs. European conservatives seemed reluctant to pay full attention to the possibility of the hearing on Wednesday. The European People’s Party (EPP), which is …

Tech Giants Issue Call for Limits on Government Surveillance of Users

Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers’ data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama and Congress to set new limits on government surveillance. On Monday the companies, led by Google and Microsoft, presented a plan to regulate …

The NSA and the End of the U.S. Empire

In this column, Johan Galtung, director of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of 50 Years – 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives (www.transcend.org/tup), writes about the U.S. empire’s spying, and other debacles. WASHINGTON, Nov 14 2013 (Columnist Service) – The linchpin of an empire is the link between two elites, one in the imperial centre, …