‘A Two-Edged Sword’ - Anti-Terror Laws Could Hurt the Net

Technology experts are looking for ways to keep the Web safe from terrorists. But setting political limits on information could have a high social cost.

Just how secure is the Internet? Robert Latham, director of the Program on Information Technology and International Cooperation at the Social Science Research Council—an independent, non-government group thatresearches social issues—began looking more closely at this question after the terror attacks of September 11. The result of his investigation is “Bombs and Bandwidth” (New Press, 2003,) a book that studies the emerging relationship between information technology and security.

The book, edited by Latham and published last month, includes contributions from a wide range of scholars exploring the expanding nature of IT-related threats. Latham’s focus is not just how technology could be used to perpetrate terror, but also how security crackdowns on the free flow of data could undermine social development around the world—without really combating the battle against terror. He spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Eric Pape about risk assessment, the costs of a war on information and the future of information flows.

http://msnbc.com/news/986097.asp?0cl=c1

The GOP are the terrorist threat.

Although the Chinese have had some success in restricting access to the outside for their citizens, employing that tactic would be very, very difficult for Bushco simply because of all the infrastructure that is already in place connecting the US to the world. There are just too many ways out.