[Infowarrior] - Asian nations seeks protection from Web threats

Fri Jun 16 07:37:56 EDT 2006

Jun 15, 11:19 AM EDT

Group seeks protection from Web threats

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SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A Russian and Chinese-led bloc of Asian states said
Thursday it plans to set up an expert group to boost computer security and
help guard against threats to their regimes from the Internet.

Suggesting the new group might tackle censorship, the six-nation Shanghai
Cooperation Organization said information communication technology could
infringe on the "internal affairs of sovereign states," bringing "serious
harm to individual, social and national security."

The group's statement, issued following its annual summit in this Chinese
city, identified no specific threats and didn't specify what kinds of
information communications technology it considered vulnerable.

However, SCO members - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan - are mostly authoritarian states that maintain tight controls on
communications technology, including the Internet

China, which hosts the groupings permanent secretariat, has some of the
world's tightest Internet restrictions, blocking thousands of sites
containing information considered sensitive or threatening by the communist
regime, along with those hosting gambling and pornography.

Russia is also the alleged home of many computer hackers and gangs that
commit fraud over the Internet.

Criminals, terrorists, and even nation states could use the technology to
attack individual countries or even undermine global stability, the
statement said.

It said the expert group, to include representatives from its Regional
Anti-Terrorist Structure, would formulate plans for action against such
threats and develop solutions to information security problems.