While the Federal government might throw a hundred million dollars at cyber-attacks, the real solution to the problem is much easier and cheaper -- at least that's what National Security Agency information assurance director Richard Schaeffer told the U.S. Senate Tuesday. According to Wired, Schaeffer says about 80-percent of the attacks could be prevented if network administrators were to simply adhere to conventional configuration policies and closely monitor the networks. If this occurred, Schaeffer believes, it would deter hackers from making attacks because their chances of being caught would be much higher.

Using animals as sentinels is nothing new, such as when miners used canaries to detect carbon monoxide and methane in coal mines. As the New Scientist reports, the Pentagon plans to use cyborg crickets for very much the same purpose, only for detecting chemical and biological agents on the battlefield. By equipping the crickets with small electronics to control their muscle movements, and hence the sounds created by their wing movements, a living communications network (OrthopterNets) can be created to relay specific warning signals when the cricket is in proximity of certain chemicals. Similarly, the equipment can be modified to detect human scents, possibly helping to locate survivors in earthquake rubble or other disasters.

Because they communicate using wing-beats, crickets, cicadas, and katydids are all possible subjects. The idea first came about when Ben Epstein of high-tech company OpCoast was visiting China and noticed how the cicada were changing their calls to each other. OpCoast was later awarded a six-month contract to develop a mobile communications network for insects by the Pentagon. If you find all of this hard to believe, check out the video above from New Scientist showcasing human-controlled moths and beetles. [From: New Scientist]

We've heard it said that a terrorist's most powerful weapon is the Internet. For our part, we've seen no shortage of stories about extremist recruiters using Facebook, or Twitter, or even 'World of Warcraft' to further their dastardly deeds. We've always been a bit incredulous, and now a report from the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence backs that up, indicating most terrorist networks are offline affairs.

The report, called "Countering Online Radicalization: A Strategy for Action," indicates that attempting to block access to online content is ineffective, that "[radicalization] is largely a real-world phenomenon that cannot be eradicated by simply 'pulling the plug.'" The report goes on to explain that the growth of terrorist networks is primarily done through real-life social activities, not online ones, concluding:

While the Internet provides a convenient platform for activists to renew their commitment and reach out to like-minded individuals elsewhere, it is largely ineffective when it comes to drawing in new recruits. Many experts who have studied the problem have concluded that the Internet can support and facilitate but never completely replace direct human contact and the ties of friendship and kinship through which intense personal loyalties form.

So, that's one less thing to worry so much about online. Now if only we could do something about all these worms. [From: Fox News]

Related Links:

• Jihadists Looking for Friends on Facebook.
• Twitter a Potential Terrorist Tool?
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One of the first things you should do if you think you have a virus is to quarantine your PC and disconnect from your home network to prevent the infection from spreading to other computers in your home. You don't want to disconnect from the Internet entirely however or you won't be able to download updates for your anti-virus software. Doing this on a Mac (in Preferences: Sharing) or in Vista (go to the Network and Sharing Center) is (relatively) straightforward, but under XP it takes a little maneuvering. Here's how to do it:

Disable File and Print Sharing:

• Right click on the network icon in the system tray and choose "Open Network Connections"
• Right click on "Local Area Connection" and select "Properties"
• Under the "General" tab uncheck "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks"

Disable Network Discovery and Simple Sharing:

• Open "MyComputer"
• Click on the "Tools" menu and open "Folder Options"
• Under the "View" tab uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers" as well as "Use simple file sharing"

This isn't a perfect solution, but it will put up an additional road block between your computers and the nasty virus you've picked up.

We can't see how this is shocking to anyone who has tried to make or receive a phone call on New Year's Eve (right around midnight, in particular), but cellular networks in the Metro DC area were pretty much bombarded yesterday. The inauguration of America's 44th president brought most networks to their knees, though most carriers reported that interruptions were relatively minimal. AT&T made sure to bump its 3G capacity by 80 percent and its 2G capacity by 69-percent along the parade route, and while a spokesperson did admit that it experienced "some congestion" during the events, customers were generally able to get through. In all honesty, we expected reports to be much more negative than this given the incredible amount of people shoved into one place, so we suppose a round of golf claps is in order for the carriers responsible for anticipating the surge.

[Image courtesy of Zimbio]

A new application available from the iTunes App Store promises to turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a powerful tool. DataCase transforms your Apple mobile device into a wireless networked hard drive that can be accessed from any Wi-Fi equipped computer, whether it runs OS X, Windows, or Linux.

DataCase is $6.99 and, once activated, allows other PCs on your wireless network to access two default folders on your iPod or iPhone. One is 'Drop Box,' a write-only folder to dump files for viewing, and the other a 'Shared Files' folder that allows you to read and write to files stored in the folder for sending and receiving data. DataCase also claims to be able to stream video from your iPhone/iPod to your PC.

Check out the video below to see it in action and head on over the The Unofficial Apple Weblog for a complete review. [From: TUAW]

Jon Penn is a freak of nature, and we mean that in the nicest way possible. At 11-years-old, Penn has become his school's network administrator, taking over the job from the previous admin who left suddenly last year. One could call into question the qualifications of Penn's predecessor, however, considering the major clean-up job the adolescent wonder has on his hands.

The school -- the Victory Baptist School in Sherwood, Arkansas -- has 60 computers that are aging terribly, since they were donated years ago and loaded with Windows 98. When Penn jumped in, he also discovered that the 60 PCs were loaded with spyware and viruses. There was no anti-virus software installed, no firewall, no gateway, all of which are important to protect the network and the PCs. In short, the whole thing was a mess.

Since taking over, Penn has pressed the school into getting the McAfee Secure Internet Gateway Appliance to protect the network and filter out spam and viruses. He has also started planning for an upgrade to Windows 2000 which will allow Penn to manage the network as a whole. Currently, all changes or installs must be done to each PC individually.

Jon hopes to obtain his A+ Certification, a computer-technician certification, this summer.

From Network World

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The Palestinians may be struggling for many things, but one thing they definitely have are cell phone networks. Or at least they will. Currently, Palestinians have one cell phone network, but the Associated Press is reporting that the Israeli government plans to announce its plans to allow the Palestinians to build a second cell phone network to meet increasing demand.

The Palestinian Authority has been requesting permission to build such a network since 2000, but has been repeatedly rebuffed following surges in violence. This is seen as a sign of cooling tensions.

From the Associated Press

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• Al-Qaeda Invites Online Questions, YouTube Style
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This week's horrific bridge collapse in Minnesota demonstrated once again that our country's cellular networks -- relentlessly boasted about in TV ads -- are useless during times of emergency. As family members desperately tried to reach loved ones in the frantic aftermath of the structure's crumble, they found themselves unable to connect. The networks were so overloaded with calls, they simply choked. They did the same thing last month when a steam pipe exploded in New York City, which blanketed one Manhattan neighborhood in dirt and debris, and brought back with it flashbacks of 9/11 (another time the cellular networks failed us). It was the same song and dance during Hurricane Katrina.

These failures might have been OK ten years ago when cell phones were still something of a novelty to the average American. But in today's day and age, as we increasingly abandon traditional landlines in favor of mobile handsets, the dependability of these networks is crucial. Failure is unacceptable. Those ads featuring the nerdy "Can you hear me now?" guy are quite frankly insulting.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any official solution in the works. There's been no plea from FEMA or mandate from the FCC to the cell networks to have a contingency plan in place during emergencies. And if they're not obligated to spend money on improving their networks, do you think the cellular carriers would ever bother? Of course not.

The answer, it turns out, isn't so far-fetched. It would be relatively easy for providers to implement, and might even make them some money. In an article written in response to Hurricane Katrina a full eight months before the Minneapolis tragedy, scientist and author David Brin proposed an emergency system in which cell providers adopt peer-to-peer technology similar to that used by file-sharing programs on the Internet. Instead of phone calls being routed through cell towers, they bounce from phone to phone until they get where they need to go. Brin also suggests limiting this peer-to-peer system to text messaging in times of emergency. Voice calls eat up a lot of bandwidth and can easily overload a system, whereas text messaging uses packet switching, like the Internet, which breaks messages up into smaller, more manageable pieces before sending them. By circumventing overloaded cell towers and limiting communication to low-bandwidth text messaging, it is possible in times of tragedy for the cell networks to deliver on the promises of coverage and reliability that they make in their ad campaigns.

The peer-to-peer component of Brin's proposal would definitely benefit cell providers when there isn't a state of emergency. By routing voice calls from phone to phone to phone instead of through towers, it would be possible for networks to extend into the further reaches of those regions where cell coverage is still spotty or non-existent. That would certainly result in more customers, and it would definitely make it harder to snicker at the TV when AT&T promises more bars or boasts about fewer dropped calls.

For now, however, this is just an idea put out there for debate on the blogosphere. Until the government compels cellular providers to adopt this or a similar emergency backup system, we're stuck with the same infrastructure that has failed us time and time again. Fortunately, there are a couple of things you can do during the next emergency situation to help you better communicate with loved ones. The first is to try text messaging instead of calling. As we said, text messaging requires much less bandwidth than voice, and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, was one of the only ways survivors found they could communicate. The other was push-to-talk. In the days following Katrina and the New Orleans levy breaches, Sprint Nextel users found that, though voice calling was down, they were still able to communicate via the push-to-talk walkie-talkie functions of their phones. This is because push-to-talk is not routed through cell towers, but is direct communication between two phones.

For more on the technical how-to behind Brin's proposed emergency system, read his full blog post.

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• Cell Text Alerts to the Rescue
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