A rocket was fired near a building housing U.S. forces in Pakistan`s lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, but the rocket landed in wasteland and no one was hurt, a Pakistani official said on Wednesday. Full Story

The senior al-Qaida recruiter known as “The Bear,” in Moroccan custody since early last week, is believed to have a wealth of knowledge about al-Qaida operations and cell members, U.S. officials said. Full Story

One of Brazil`s most notorious drug lords sought to purchase a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile from an arms dealer by telephone while serving time in a Rio maximum-security prison, Brazilian officials told United Press International Tuesday. Full Story

In announcing the president’s proposal for a new Department of Homeland Security last week, Bush administration officials said protecting information networks from electronic attacks and conducting more thorough analyses of intelligence were among its top priorities. Under the new department, both of these functions would be housed in the same division, covering “information analysis and…

The success of the proposed Department of Homeland Security—the biggest reorganization of the federal government in six decades—hinges on IT systems integration, security experts said last week. Full Story

Presidential initiatives on homeland security are forecast to increase spending in that area from $32 billion to $50 billion, or about 12 percent a year, over the next five years, a private-sector analysis of budget figures show, and the spending represents “significant” opportunities for the information technology industry. Full Story

The Federal Computer Incident Response Center is putting together a pilot to stop hacker attacks on agency Web sites. FedCIRC, a General Services Administration unit that is to be part of the proposed Homeland Security Department, is joining with Carnegie Mellon University’s CERT Coordination Center to collect and analyze data from sensors in agency firewalls…

The FBI is stepping up efforts to catch foreign spies in the United States as agents from China, Russia and other countries are increasing intelligence activities here, according to the FBI`s top counterspy. Full Story

The Transportation Department is giving $92.3 million in grants to 51 ports nationwide to boost their security. About $78 million of the grants will go to secure facilities and $5 million to evaluate vulnerabilities, department officials said. Full Story

While instant messaging can result in greater productivity and cost savings for corporations that are increasingly embracing real-time communication, the technology is also synonymous with getting hacked or receiving a virus. Analysts say companies` fears are justified — and as the number of employees and consumers using IM increases, so will IM platforms` appeal to…

Paul Glenerson B. Amurao, a 21 year old Filipino, has claimed in a media interview to be the author of the first virus to attempt to infect .JPG graphic files. Amurao, who says he lives in a province north of Metro Manila, Philippines, said he was the author of W32/Perrun-A in an interview he gave…

Blended security threats are increasing, meaning that chief information officers have more to worry about than just hackers As the term hacking has broadened to encompass a wider group of people, chief information officers will see more and more blended security threats within the next couple of years, according to one security researcher. Full Story

There is mounting evidence that individual hacker groups are coalescing and becoming interconnected through a common pro-Islamic agenda, according mi2G. Each aggregate group is carrying out digital attacks under a common banner and has pooled expertise to pronounce judgement and forcibly broadcast political views, which are anti-Israel, anti-US/UK and anti-India. Full Story

A special agent with the Secret Service`s electronic-crimes branch said hackers are unpatriotic. In a keynote here Tuesday at the Computer Security Institute`s NetSec conference, John Frazzini said the lines between criminal acts and acts of war are increasingly blurring since the September terrorist attacks. Full Story

Frethem.E is the latest variant on a worm designed to take advantage of a security vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.`s Internet Explorer. The worm, which only attacks Windows systems, is roaming around the Internet but few companies have been hit, say security experts, who have given the worm various grades of potential threat. The worm hasn`t…

Headlines about the arrest of a man suspected of plotting to attack the United States with a “dirty” radioactive bomb reinforces the point that terrorist attacks can take many forms. Attacks on computer networks are one such form. But businesses, while aware of the risk, are slow to pay money or attention to cybersecurity, a…

An early draft of the White House`s National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace envisions the same kind of mandatory customer data collection and retention by U.S. Internet service providers as was recently enacted in Europe, according to sources who have reviewed portions of the plan. Full Story

Radical Palestinian terrorist group once closely involved in the Syrian- dominated Palestinian National Salvation Front. Led by Dr. Samir Ghosheh. Rejoined the PLO in September 1991. Group is internally divided over the Declaration of Principles signed in 1993. Terrorist attacks against Israeli, moderate Arab, and PLO targets. Full Story and More Profiles

Terrorism and America: A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society (Philip B. Heymann) Heymann, a former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, provides practical advise in the on-going battle to counter terrorism. Protecting human lives and civil liberties, according to the author is not only feasible, but can be done without changes to our…

06/18/1953Egypt – The monarchy was abolished and Egypt was declared a republic following the coup led by Gamel Abd El Nasser. 06/18/1986Peru – Security forces killed more than two hundred jailed members of the Sendero Luminoso (SL) guerrilla organization during a riot at Lima`s Canto Grande prison. The event is marked by the guerrillas as…

06/18/1953Egypt – The monarchy was abolished and Egypt was declared a republic following the coup led by Gamel Abd El Nasser. The annual G8 Summit, in which the U.S. President and leaders of seven other countries meet to discuss and coordinate policy on key global issues, will take place June 26 and 27 in Kananaskis,…

The White House on Tuesday delivered to Congress its detailed proposal for a new Homeland Security Department in hopes of winning quick passage on Capitol Hill. Full Story

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted as a Sept. 11 conspirator, denied in court Thursday that he played any role in the attacks against the World Trade Center. Full Story

A federal appeals court dealt another blow yesterday to the government`s efforts to detain some terrorism suspects in secrecy, ruling that “special interest” immigration hearings must be open to the public while the Justice Department continues to wage its legal battle to have them closed. Full Story

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged as a Sept. 11 conspirator, is asking a judge to release him from jail and then conduct a hearing so he could prove his innocence. Full Story

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge spent an hour in spirited dialogue with the nation`s mayors this morning and left with their support for a proposed Cabinet department, but many questions remain about how cities will fare under the administration`s plans. Full Story

It could be a jittery summer for anyone who takes every single terrorist warning to heart. The beach beckons but there`s always the slender chance of a malevolent scuba diver bobbing in the surf, a shark without fins. Full Story

The rush to reorganize the government`s intelligence community should slow down long enough to get some sound advice from Congress, say several participants in the inquiry into what went wrong before Sept. 11. Full Story

Police are not required to tell bus and train passengers that they can object to being frisked, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that tested police tactics that have been used increasingly since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Full Story

The FBI is investigating the possibility that someone secretly grew the deadly anthrax mailed to politicians and media outlets last fall at an Army laboratory in Maryland and further refined it at home, a government source and a scientist said. Full Story

The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Tuesday the security wall Israel is building around the West Bank will make Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip targets of attacks. Full Story

The Bush administration is seeking to create a broad coalition against Saddam Hussein by courting Kurds, the only opposition group to control territory and major military forces in Iraq. Full Story

The moment was ripe for a diplomatic brouhaha. Syria`s UN ambassador, who is president of the Security Council this month, had to recognize the envoy of his country`s archenemy. Full Story

The Saudi authorities say they have arrested 13 Saudis and foreigners linked to Osama Bin Laden`s al-Qaeda network who were planning “terrorist” attacks in the kingdom. Seven suspects were alleged to have been planning attacks on key installations in Saudi Arabia using explosives and surface-to-air missiles, the official SPA news agency said on Tuesday. Full…

The U.S.-led effort to track money belonging to terrorist groups has been hobbled by bureaucratic infighting and a growing understanding by investigators that most of al Qaeda`s money is not in banks but in untraceable commodities, including gold and diamonds, according to U.S. and international officials. Full Story

Investigators hunting for al Qaeda assets are finding that much of the group`s money is in commodities rather than in banks, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Full Story

The war on terrorism is forcing a scattered al-Qaida network to shift its efforts and devise new kinds of attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday. Full Story

Nineteen Israelis have been killed and over 50 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem. The blast took place at 0800 local time (0500 GMT) during morning rush hour at a crowded intersection in the southern Pat district. Full Story

The Palestinian Authority has presented the Bush administration with the written outline of a peace proposal with concessions over two of the most contentious Arab-Israeli issues, the status of Jerusalem and refugees, while insisting that Israel retreat to its pre-1967 borders for the formation of a Palestinian state. Full Story

IRAQ is smuggling nuclear-related equipment banned by the United Nations on board aircraft that have been flying relief aid to Syria, intelligence agencies believe. Full Story

Gunmen have abducted four Indonesian crew-members of a tugboat in the southern Philippines. It is unclear who the gunmen were, but the incident took place in the area where the Muslim rebel group, the Abu Sayyaf, is active. Full Story

Armed men have hijacked a barge and a tugboat in the southern Philippines and kidnapped the captain and three of his crew, coast guard officials said on Tuesday. Full Story

Three men who took part in a 1999 apartment house bombing that killed 18 people are hiding in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Russia`s main security service said Monday. Full Story

Colombia`s president-elect Alvaro Uribe and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan have said they will explore ways to end the conflict in Colombia in the coming months. Full Story

Five weeks of peace talks aimed at ending Sudan`s 19 year long war have started in neighbouring Kenya. It has been billed as Sudan`s best chance for peace in years. Full Story

Sudanese authorities say they have deported to Saudi Arabia a Sudanese national who claims to have fired a missile at an American plane at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia. Full Story

Heavy fighting has flared up between rival militiamen in the fertile Middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia. Supporters of Dahir Dayah, the interior minister of the Transitional National Government, clashed with forces loyal to warlord Mohamed Dhere, who controls the regional capital of Jowhar, some 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu. Full Story

There have been reports of more heavy fighting on Madagascar`s lush northern peninsula, between the armies of political rivals, Marc Ravalomanana and Didier Ratsiraka. Full Story

U.S. homeland-defense officials are moving increased security for the nation`s information networks to the forefront as they struggle to prevent new terror attacks. With President George W. Bush`s proposal to create a Department of Homeland Defense, cybersecurity has been thrust to the top of the post-9/11 agenda. Planners said a future attack would most likely…

A task force charged with reviewing current and emerging technologies to improve security at the San Jose, Calif., airport has prepared a report that could have national implications. Full Story

New merchant marine policies are needed to bring ships owned by U.S. corporations under the American flag while allowing ships entering U.S. ports to be subject to effective anti-terrorist scrutiny, such as checks on the identities of crews, legislative leaders said Thursday. Full Story

With a congressional license to expand its surveillance capabilities, the FBI is working to keep up with ever-evolving encryption systems used by terrorists and criminals. The bureau`s ability to intercept electronic communication was expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act, a Sept. 11 response to national security concerns passed in October 2001. Full Story

Of all the many agencies involved in the war on terror, perhaps the one least affected by the proposed Department of Homeland Security is that other department tasked with the national defense—the one headquartered at the Pentagon. Full Story

Microsoft accidentally sent the virulent Nimda worm to South Korean developers when it distributed Korean-language versions of Visual Studio .Net that carried the virus, the company acknowledged Friday. Full Story

As a result of a massive Denial of Service attack of biblical proportions, we no longer have a home for irc.2600.net. The attacks came over the weekend, around the same time other such attacks were directed at sites like Fox News. They, however, got their connection back and launched a federal investigation. We would have…

Contrary to popular misconception — perpetuated through mass-market consensus and countless media sources — hackers do not, by definition, break into systems. Setting aside the argument that categorical conflation works just fine for casual conversations — in which you might need to employ verbal shorthand to communicate more quickly — it irks me every time…

A security bug was found in software used by millions of Web sites. Private experts alerted users and the FBI`s computer security division. The problem is, they didn`t tell the maker of the software. Then they issued the wrong prescription for fixing the problem. Full Story

Ehud Tannenbaum, who used the computer hacker nom de guerre “The Analyzer,” will begin to serve his 18-month sentence Tuesday, after the High Court rejected his appeal against the punishment meted out by the Tel Aviv District Court. Full Story

Marxist-Leninist group formed by Abu Salim in 1979 after breaking away from the now defunct PFLP-Special Operations Group. Has claimed responsibility for several notorious international terrorist attacks in Western Europe, including the bombing of a restaurant frequented by US servicemen in Torrejon, Spain, in April 1985. Eighteen Spanish civilians were killed in the attack. Full…

Cyberwar 2.0 : Myths, Mysteries & Reality by Alan D. Campen, Douglas H. Dearth is a compilation of essays by some of the most influential thinkers on information warfare and cyberterrorism. Full Story