Odyssey Online

Siva Vaidhyanathan is one of the most articulate and most provocative commentators on Google.  Recently on his blog, the Googlization of Everything, he has published a number of commentaries on the China hack of Google…long but well worth the time to read them, they make an interesting case that the situation is not a simply question of resistance to censorship, but rather the culmination of numerous complex legal, business, and security issues.

…reported by CNN, China responds to the allegations about hacking Google…

…couple of things on the situation between Google and China (what does it mean that I’m writing about Google like it was a country)…the Washington Post is reporting that Google’s decision comes on cyber-attacks launched against Gmail, and that these attacks “on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States.”

Also of note, Peter Fallows, who writes on a variety of topics for Atlantic Magazine and is a frequent commenter on China, writes of the implications of the Google v. China stand off here and here and here.  National Review lauds Google’s decision here, useful reading on what is really an interesting, and in some ways frightening situation.

…two good posts on Google’s decision to at least consider cutting off business with China.  Both are from Atlantic Online, one by Marc Ambinder on the immediate implications, and one by Derek Thompson on future implications.

…more soon, both men do point out that Google itself is not a transparent company and there is a lot to read into their decision/announcement…

Happy new year! Couple of quick thing, with the new year spinning out stories from the past…just before Christmas the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Federal Government is having a tough time finding specialists who can fight ongoing cyberwars.  With the ongoing situation in Iran making news and furious blogging, I’d point to a list of new titles in our collection on Iran that was posted here to Odyssey Online last summer.

…also the Boston Globe reported on the most popular searches in Google...

…more commentary from the Washington Post on the hack of Twitter, which there is, apparently, much suspicion that the Iranian regime is itself behind….

…CNN reported that Twitter was hacked and shut down by a group called the Iranian Cyber Army.  It’s not clear, and probably never will be, whether the this group is connected to the Iranian Government, but one should remember the role Twitter played in getting information out of Iran after the last very dubious election.  Commentary on Twitter and the Iranian civil disobedience from Andrew Sullivan is here.

…a little more disturbing, reporting that U.S. Drones operating in Iraq have been hacked, and the hacking that did it wasn’t all that hard.  The story here from the Christian Science Monitor…

Updates on items of interest to Odyssey Online…as reported in the Washington Post the House of Representatives is taking steps to ensure more cybersecurity for legislative action and business. Also, commentary continues on Google’s quiet shift over to a personalized search as the basic Google web search:

• Google’s Personalized Results Could be Bad for a Search PC Week
• Google Extends Personalized Search to All CNET News
• Google Chrystal Ball Equal Parts Fun, Frightening Google Watch
• 3 New Forms of Search Google is Working on Now ReadWriteWeb
• Google Unveils a Host of New Features Vactor News

…one of the great things about blogging is it gives you a venue to pass along news articles that give one the willies (and we do think about computer security here at Odyssey Online)…this from the Washingtonpost, organized crime taking an active interest in hacking. Quote that really gives one pause, ” responded to roughly 100 confirmed data breaches last year involving roughly 285 million consumer records. That staggering number — nearly one breached record for every American — exceeds the combined total breached from break-ins the company investigated from 2004 to 2007.”

…a beautiful bright March day here in Canton so lets ruin it by checking in with the Washington Post on new web 2.0 identity theft web sites where you can buy the information you need for a couple of bucks…don’t even have to do your own hacking…it’s insulting…