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Missing Journalist James Foley now thought held by Syrian government, report says
Foley in June, 2011
U.S. Journalist James Foley, missing in Syria since Thansgiving 2012, is now thought to be being held by the Syrian government.
"With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said on May 3 during a speech marking World Press Freedom Day. (Full story) This is the second time in 18 months that the 2008 Medill School of Journalism graduate has been taken captive in a war zone.
“The family appeals for the release of Jim unharmed,” his relatives said on a web site focused on getting him freed. He was kidnapped in northwest Syria on Thanksgiving Day, the family said.
Watch video archive of May 3 World Press Freedom Day event in Boston: “Silenced Voices: When Conflict Journalists Go Missing.”
Posts by Nida Tahir
Businesses ill-prepared to combat cyber attacks
(Jun. 12, 2011)Reports of data breaches at big companies such as Sony and Epsilon are regularly in the headlines these days; it makes one wonder how just safe are businesses against the threat of cyber attacks? An alarmingly large number, about 71 percent, of security professionals think their companies are “not equipped to protect itself against cyber attacks,” according to a study by Narus Inc., a firm which provides security and traffic management software solutions. “Decision makers … (Continue reading . . .)
War on “cyber terror”: The next battlefield
(Jun. 12, 2011)The Pentagon is drafting a formal strategy that will categorize certain cyber attacks as acts of war – -allowing the U.S. to use military force in retaliation to such attacks, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Security experts, however, argue that clear origins of a cyber attack are next to impossible to find. The WSJ article quoted an unnamed military official saying, “If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a … (Continue reading . . .)
How safe are the clouds?
(Jun. 12, 2011)Cloud computing is all the rage these days. It’s being hailed as a breakthrough technology that will revolutionize the IT landscape and the way we use the Internet: we won’t be restricted to one device or machine – all our data will be in off-site data centers and we can access it from just about anywhere. Sounds great but also risky! Concerns have been raised about data security in cloud computing. However, experts defend cloud … (Continue reading . . .)
Data Mining and Cyber Security
(Jun. 12, 2011)Data mining can be a useful tool in tracking down cyber gangs, but its usefulness in proactively guarding against cyber threats is doubtful. “Where there is lots and lots of data, which you have to analyze and sift through, then you can use data mining to uncover patterns,” said Bhavani Thuraisingham, director of the Cyber Security Research Center at the University of Texas, Dallas. A new research shows that data mining could be used to … (Continue reading . . .)
The State of Cybersecurity in the U.S.
(May. 30, 2011)Joseph Giordano, director of the cybersecurity program at Utica College, discusses the state of cybersecurity in the U.S. Prior to joining the faculty, Giordano served as a program manager for the Information Directorate of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. He is known nationally in the area of information and computer security. Q- What do you see as the most pressing national security issues in the field of cybersecurity today? Protecting the systems that are … (Continue reading . . .)
Cybercrime goes social
(May. 28, 2011)We upload our pictures, our videos and post intimate details about our lives here. We reach out to friends and family here. And this very place is becoming a hotbed for cybercrime. Social networking sites will be the focus of cybercriminals in 2011, according to the annual threat predictions report by McAfee, a computer security company. “We are seeing a pretty big increase in the number of malicious type attacks using social networking as a … (Continue reading . . .)
Internet Kill Switch:”A control in search of a risk”
(May. 09, 2011)Proposed legislation giving the President power to shut down parts of the Internet in a national emergency is often described as an Internet “Kill Switch”. Proponents of this bill believe it would secure critical infrastructure systems against catastrophic cyber attacks, but some information security experts argue the measure is short-sighted and unlikely to work. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduced the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of … (Continue reading . . .)
White House Proposes DHS Control Civilian Cyber Networks
(May. 03, 2011)The White House is circulating a proposal that will give the Department of Homeland Security broad oversight over cyber security at civilian agency networks, according to a Federal News Radio report. This piece of draft legislation will also give DHS authority over networks with the .gov designation, which is similar to the authority exercised by the Defense Department over military networks, according to the report. The bill would bring together legislative proposals by Sens. Joseph … (Continue reading . . .)
