The suburbs of Washington, from Alexandria in the south to Dulles Airport in the west, make up the defense industry’s fertile crescent.

Within a short drive of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the rest of the national security state, one immaculate office park after another rises above the oleander, gleaming facades capped with muscular logos - Raytheon, TRW, Bechtel. It’s the neighborhood of choice for the nation’s military contractors. Full Story

Traffic on the many parts of the Internet slowed dramatically for hours early Saturday, the apparent effects of a fast-spreading, virus-like infection that overwhelmed the world’s digital pipelines and interfered with Web browsing and delivery of e-mail. Sites monitoring the health of the Internet reported significant slowdowns globally. Experts said the electronic attack bore remarkable similarities to the “Code Red” virus during the summer of 2001 which also ground traffic to a halt on much of the Internet. Full Story

“The chance that the U.S. government will become a police state because it is better able to analyze private transactions for signs of terrorism is virtually nil; the chance would be greater, however, if the country were to experience a series of devastating attacks and confidence in the government’s ability to protect the public safety were to evaporate.” Full Story

The latest TRC Training session will take place in Washington, DC. on January 8-10, 2003.

“This class led by nationally recognized terrorism experts including Brian Michael Jenkins, Walter Purdy, Matthew Devost, Tom Walsh, Neal Pollard, Bryan Vossekuil, Dr. Robert Fein, John Sullivan, Andrew Garfield, and special guests, will have numerous opportunities for Q&A. Participants will learn first hand about the current threats from both domestic and international terrorists. Participants will examine threats and the weapons terrorist could use against targets and measures to deter, defeat and mitigate these attacks. Participants will hear about how terrorist train and the “operational acts” they need to conduct to successfully conduct their attacks. Participants will examine the issue of “suicide bombers” and security for special events. Participants will hear from a special security representative regarding aviation security issues for law enforcement officers. Visit www.terrorism.com for details.

I’ve recently received an appointment as Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University to teach COSC511 “Information Warfare and Security”. This class was previously taught by Dorothy Denning and I am honored to take it over. If you are a student looking for the COSC511 page, you can find it by following this link.

Clarke, a counterterrorism official in the Clinton administration, acknowledged that terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda haven’t turned the Internet into a weapon. But he cautioned against complacency. For years, he said, counterterrorism experts never thought terrorists would launch strikes such as the Sept. 11 attacks within the United States, because they wanted to use the country to make plans and raise funds without drawing the attention of law enforcement and intelligence officials. Full Story

This story from Business 2.0 is interesting. When thinking innovation and technology, the drug cartels probably rank just behind Amazon.com.

Colombian cartels have spent billions of dollars to build one of the world’s most sophisticated IT infrastructures. It’s helping them smuggle more dope than ever before. Full Story