Information Society Watch

December 15, 2007, Jerry Markon, Washington Post

The spectre of child pornography, which was deemed to be under control in the early 90s, has once again reared its ugly head via the Internet. In the USA, this has prompted federal action with emphasis on identifying and prosecuting people deemed to be paedophiles or showing the propensity for molesting children.

September 2007, Wired News

This article details the recent attack on Estonian Internet by hackers allegedly at the behest of the Russian government. Estonia is a highly wired country, which means that it is always on the map of potential hackers and cyber terrorists. This article dwells on the intricacies on the two week episode and gives an in-depth analysis of the way the attacks occurred, as well as the measures taken by the administration to stem the tide of the attack.

September 5, 2007, The Economist

This article talks about the ever increasing instances of cyber-attacks on vital cyber installations by different countries. What makes the nature of these attacks so serious is the fact that as more and more countries go online, the Internet is increasingly being used by governments for transacting work and business, and any attack on these vital installations can leave the country vulnerable and cut off from the rest of the world.

October 4, 2006, Eric Lipton, The New York Times

The United States Department of Homeland Security has granted over $2 million to finance a three year research project by a consortium of universities to develop “sentiment analysis” software. This software is intended for government monitoring of negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.

November 3, 2006, BBC News Service

South Korea has made significant progress with many forms of digital technology. After the 1988 Olympics, Koreans suddenly found themselves with a resource providing access to free speech, anonymously. A downside, though, is an increasing cyber violence phenomenon with 'online mobs' demonising those they disagree with and spreading around the victim's personal information.

May 1, 2007, Times of India

The social networking site, Orkut has entered into an informal arrangement with the Mumbai police which will not only block forums and communities which contain inflammatory content, but also provide the IP addresses from which such content has been generated. This agreement termed as 'the priority reporting tool' is apparently aimed at improving communication between Google and the police.

April 7, 2007, Mumbai Mirror

The Mumbai city police is planning to install a software to monitor all cyber cafes in the city and maintain a database of users. This primary aim of this move is to deter offenders who operate in cyber space.

March 27, 2007, Koride Mahesh, Times of India

The Indian government's Information Technology Act, 2000 (Central Act) still needs to pass through the Cabinet and then the Assembly, but it proposes the radical monitoring of children's use of Internet cafes, barring entry for those below 12 years unless accompanied by an adult as well as prohibiting use during school hours and between 10 pm and 6 am. These rules have been developed through the collaboration of the IT department and the Cyber Crime Police.

September 2000, Emma Ogilvie, Australian Institute of Criminology

This paper examines cyberstalking as an example of a crime that is simultaneously both amenable to, and resistant of, traditional forms of legislation, depending upon the way in which the possibilities of the Internet are exploited.

October 2000, David Banisar and Gus Hosein

This paper analyses the proposed European Cybercrime Convention in light of civil liberties and the explosive growth and potential of privacy-enhancing technologies and individual security measures. The convention appears to have been developed solely for the interests of law enforcement, despite early statements that the Council of Europe (CoE) intends to balance respect for human rights with law enforcement interests.