Not content with simply banning online encryption, Pakistan is now issuing an ultimatum of sorts that could end with Google and YouTube being banned in the country. The threat came from Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who called on the website to work more closely with terrorism investigations lest they be blocked inside the country.

Malik is quoted as saying that terrorist groups are using online resources to share information, though he did not elaborate on what kind of information and how it was used. Nor did he explain how YouTube and Google were being used by terrorist groups, or what role they would play in any investigations. Interestingly, Malik also indicated that legal action may be taken against the administrator of Google Pakistan.

While Google has been enormously successful, it has struggled with operating in other countries. While this may turn out to simply be the threats of one man and not the intent of the Pakistani government, Google might could have a growing fiasco on their hands.

(Times of India via Hacker News)

First: The TSA has a very, very difficult job, balancing public security with the need for convenience and relative speed in nationwide travel. (The degree to which they are doing that job well is of course a matter of furious public debate right now.) And no authority figure likes to see their authority mocked or questioned.

Be that as it may: According to a CNN special report, one of the TSA’s behavioral indicators for “high-risk” passengers is complaining about or questioning airport security procedures. Being marked as “high-risk” generally leads to additional screening and delays. First Amendment advocacy groups have a problem with all of this.

“Expressing your contempt about airport procedures — that’s a First Amendment-protected right,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We all have the right to express our views, and particularly in a situation where the government is demanding the ability to search you.”

“It’s circular reasoning where, you know, I’m going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that’s evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it’s simply inappropriate,” he said.

Moreover, there’s evidence that actual terrorists would steer clear of complaining about the TSA: According to a captured al Qaeda training manual, recruits are instructed to “blend in” and go out of their ways not to make a scene.

(CNN via Boing Boing)

Thank your lucky stars for those dumb text messages sent out by wireless companies, because one of them accidentally detonated a suicide bomber in Russia. With the country still reeling after the deadly attacks on the Domodedovo airport, a female suicide bomber was preparing to enter Red Square with explosives strapped to her body, but before she even made it out the door, her phone received a text message from her service provider wishing her a happy new year. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for Moscovites, the phone had been wired up as the detonator for her bomb.

Using cellphones as detonators is a fairly widespread practice. Many IEDs in Afghanistan are detonated in this manner, but it affords the handlers of suicide bombers added insurance against “cold feet.” The Leader-Post also suggests that in addition to preventing the bomber from backing out, detonating remotely gives terrorists the added advantage of having a handler at a distance judge when the most amount of damage could be inflicted by a blast.

As viciously ironic, sad, and scary as this story is, one wonders if Russia may have stumbled upon a new deterrent against these insidious remote bombs.

(via Geek.com; image via blond avenger)

Well now: Here is an insane rumor which — spoiler alert — is not at all true. People’s Daily Online, the website of the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, claims that the Taliban is training “monkey terrorists” to “use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars … [to] identify and attack soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms.”

Here’s the fiendish part of the Taliban’s scheme which is not real: Not only would armed and dangerous monkeys be fighting on the wrong side of the War Against Terror, but animal lovers would pressure the U.S. government to withdraw troops from the country, because the prospect of injuring Kalashnikov-toting monkeys is far more upsetting to them than any other concern one could possibly raise about the war in Afghanistan. According to People’s Daily, which is not the Chinese edition of Weekly World News, “A senior U.S. military source confirmed the existence of the Taliban monkey soldiers, military experts call armed monkeys ‘monkey terrorists.’”

But there’s only one hitch to this untrue rumor which cites as its primary evidence unnamed sources and “media outlets” and the above badly Photoshopped picture of a terrorist monkey: It isn’t true.

Looks like the iPhone may be the way to go in India. The country’s Department of Telecommunications has demanded that Research in Motion (RIM) and Skype format their communication data so they can be read by intelligence and security agencies. A similar notice has been served to Google India, asking that their Gmail content also be made readable. The companies have under two weeks to comply, or else face the possibility of a ban in India.

This essay covers the entire life of the series 24. There are plot spoilers, especially from season eight and yesterday’s series finale.

Does the end justify the means? This question has found its way into the plot of every season of 24, and made itself perhaps most prominent in the eighth and final season, which came to a close last night. CTU agent Jack Bauer, our gruff, remarkably well-aging hero, seems to have some controversial views on the subject.

There are a few things you can be fairly sure will crop up in a season of 24: a mole within the U.S. government, a nuclear device or biological weapon, an unexpected character from the series’ past, and torture. Lots of torture.

Cyberterrorism is one of the bigger threats facing America’s national security today — or it isn’t, if Robert Schneier is to be believed — but either way, our future just got a little brighter: Spencer Pratt is leaving MTV’s reality show The Hills to team up with the president of a LA firearms training shop to start a cybersecurity firm, according to FoxNews.com.