• Anonymous targets oil companies in email hack
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 17 Jul 2012
    Hacktivist group Anonymous has published thousands of email credentials from employees of various oil companies. Companies include Shell, Exxon Mobil, and BP. Anonymous is targeting these companies in particular because of their current Arctic drilling enterprises. In a statement about the hacking project, Anonymous cites its "shared concern for the planet" and asks for people to sign a Greenpeace petition against the Arctic drilling.
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  • Sri Lanka: News Websites Targeted and Journalists Threatened
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 17 Jul 2012
    The Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raided offices of two news websites on June 29. They arrested nine journalists and seized some equipment. All the journalists were released shortly afterward, yet the government is now advocating for news websites to pay an annual fee to be considered 'registered' news sources.
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  • Mahdi, the Messiah, Found Infecting Systems in Iran, Israel
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 17 Jul 2012
    Russian-based Kaspersky Lab and Israeli security firm Seculert have discovered a new malware infecting over 800 computers in Iran, as well as many other places. Mahdi, named after the the Muslim messiah, infects computers and then systematically vacuums up data files. While the labs are unsure whether Mahdi is the product of a nation-state, they do note that some strings of the malware are written in Farsi, as well as some dates written in Persian calendar format.
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  • Canadian encryption software beats Syrian regime’s censors
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 16 Jul 2012
    Researchers from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab have developed a piece of Internet software to allow access to censored websites. The software, dubbed Psiphon, encrypts all Internet traffic and funnels it through a server outside the country. The software has been introduced in Syria, and is now helping from 25,000 to 45,000 Syrians bypass government Internet censorship.
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  • Censors catch up with China's 'micro film' movement
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 16 Jul 2012
    China's growing "micro film" industry is finally coming under the scrutiny of the Chinese government. Beijing announced that they are going to being cracking down on "unhealthy content" being propagated via these online films. Considered up until now as one of the few uncensored media online, this development is causing many to wonder how the burgeoning industry will adapt.
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  • Ethiopia jails blogger, reporters, opposition figures
    By: Cale Guthrie Weissman
    Date: 16 Jul 2012
    An Ethiopian court has sentenced twenty Ethiopians, including Blogger and journalist Eskinder Nega, to prison for "conspiring with rebels to topple the government." After being arrested nearly a year ago, the final ruling was handed down Friday. Following this verdict, many critics are saying Ethiopia is soon to be the country with the most jailed reporters.
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  • Tajikistan launches crackdown on Internet activity
    By: Melody Zhang
    Date: 13 Jul 2012
    Tajikistan plans to create a volunteer-run body to monitor Internet use as well as “insulting” and “slanderous” content, the head of the state-run communications service said on Friday. In addition to the article on Global Voices, more information can also be found at Reuters.
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  • CETA totally different from ACTA, the European Commission says
    By: Melody Zhang
    Date: 12 Jul 2012
    The European Commission on Wednesday evening said that the "language being negotiated on CETA regarding Internet is now totally different from ACTA". On Tuesday a leaked draft of the Canada-E.U. Trade Agreement (CETA) dating from February caused controversy when it was noted by digital rights activists to contain the same text as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) which was rejected by the European Parliament over online civil liberty concerns.
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  • Half a million Yahoo user accounts exposed
    By: Melody Zhang
    Date: 12 Jul 2012
    Hackers have published more than 453,000 login credentials for what appear to be Yahoo Voices user accounts that were stolen from a server.
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  • Russian Duma passes internet censorship bill
    By: Melody Zhang
    Date: 11 Jul 2012
    Russia's parliament Wednesday passed a controversial bill allowing the government to block blacklisted websites. The Duma, or lower house of parliament, approved the bill unanimously on the second and third readings after four amendments were inserted that substantially narrowed the criteria under which the government could shut down a site deemed harmful to the public good.
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