-Caveat Lector-
THE STANDARD'S
M E D I A G R O K
A Commentary on What the Press Is Reporting and Why
=====================================================================
| http://www.thestandard.com |
Wednesday, February 7, 2001
We Hear Criminals Use Cell Phones, Too
Terrorists use Internet to plan attacks! Hidden messages in porn
sites! Loch Ness monster captured! Oops, sorry. That last one was from
the current Weekly World News, but the first two were roughly
translated from some USA Today articles. The paper broke the story of
"Muslim extremists," including boogeyman Osama bin Laden, using the
Net to plan terrorist attacks. It didn't take long for the New York
Daily News Express to follow up with the sensationalistic lede,
"Noticed any plots to bomb the Statue of Liberty on your Web browser
lately?"
The Feds blame encryption. A terrorist can encrypt a map in a naughty
picture, for instance, and upload it to a porn site. The bad guy on
the other end finds the image, downloads it, and decrypts it. That's
the new "dead drop," defined by USA Today's Jack Kelley as "a Cold
War-era term for where spies left information." Reuters added that the
dead drop of choice used to be newspaper classified ads. Yet, "Spies
place ads in newspaper" doesn't have quite the hysterical ring of the
USA Today headline, "Terror groups hide behind Web encryption."
"Once the exclusive domain of the National Security Agency, the
super-secret U.S. agency responsible for developing and cracking
electronic codes, encryption has become the everyday tool of Muslim
extremists," said USA Today. The implication that the NSA should have
kept encryption under wraps is enough to get Slashdotters angry - then
again, what isn't? - but here's the line that must have really blown
PGP users' minds: "It's no wonder the FBI wants all encryption
programs to file what amounts to a 'master key' with a federal
authority that would allow them, with a judge's permission, to decrypt
a code in a case of national security." Privacy was mentioned
tangentially in both articles, but mainly to credit (blame?) privacy
groups with making the encryption technology freely available.
TheRegister.co.uk, doing a bit of Media Grok's job for us, claimed
that USA Today "extends the argument that in the fight against
terrorism, the right to privacy on the Internet is secondary to the
needs of law enforcement." Good point, but giving writer John Leyden
the not-funny byline of "John bin Leyden" doesn't make privacy
advocates look any saner. - Jen Muehlbauer
Terrorist Instructions Hidden Online
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen-side.htm
Terror Groups Hide Behind Web Encryption
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm
Web Sites Act As Host for Extremist Plots (Reuters)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010206/ts/crime_encryption_dc_4.html
Bin Laden's Using the Web
http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-02-06/News_and_Views/Express_Edition/a-98883.asp
Militants Plan Terror in Chat Rooms Shocker
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/16684.html
Nasty Bad Men Are Using Encryption
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/02/06/2046202.shtml
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