Category: Security

Can cyber borders really be closed?

Photo by Peter Austin. http://www.peteraustin.co.uk/

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Iranian government is laying the foundation for a national intranet that would replace Iranian citizens’ access to the world wide web.  Iranians already have limited access to high speeds and certain social media sites, but this infrastructure would give the government even greater control to filter out western influence, to squelch and monitor internal dissent, and presumably to guard against western cyber attacks like Stuxnet on its nuclear program.  One very interesting note in the article also predicts that a byproduct of building this intranet would be knowledge that would improve Iran’s capability to launch cyber attacks as well as defend against them.

Once again, a move by an oppressive regime should give those of us in free societies who too often cry censorship a moment to reflect on what censorship really looks like.  But it will be interesting to watch whether or not the Iranian government pursues this program and what its effects will ultimately be.  By most accounts, the citizens of Iran are among the most pro-Western, pro-democratic, and highly educated people in the Middle East.  So, will closing off access work for the government, or will it intensify the seething desire for regime change?  It is my bias that free speech is like weeds, that it tends to find a way through the cracks, but as always, I want to hear from you.

Journalism in the Digital Age with Christopher Dickey (Podcast)

Christopher Dickey has been a writer and reporter for nearly 40 years. He is the Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine and The Daily Beast. He has worked for The Washington Post and written for several other publications including Vanity Fair,  The New Yorker, and Foreign Affairs.  He is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR as well as other radio and television networks worldwide. Dickey is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is arguably one of the world’s non-military experts on terrorism and counter-terrorism.

The author of six books, Dickey’s most recent non-fiction work, Securing the City, details the transformation of the NYPD into the world’s “gold standard” of counter-terrorism operations in the wake of 9/11.  His other books include  The Sleeper and Innocent Blood, both novels; Summer of Deliverance, a memoir of his father, the poet James Dickey; Expats, an account of foreigners living in the Arab world; and his first non-fiction work, With the Contras:  A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua, published in 1986.

With a career that begins well before public use of the Web, Dickey is an old-school journalist who fully embraces the flexibility and editorial potential of new and social media.  His Shadowland Journal blog provides supplementary content corresponding to his columns on terrorism, security, and fanaticism that appear in Newsweek and The Daily Beast; he is an avid user of Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. Dickey is among an elite group of journalists I recommend following for anyone who wants to dig below the headlines.  Visit Christopher Dickey’s website.