Serbian Prime Minister Assassinated; Slim Pickings for Cybersecurity in DHS Budget; Military to Clamp Down on E-Mail

Serbian Prime Minister Assassinated

The pro-reform, pro-Western leader Zoran Djindjic, was shot in the stomach and in the back outside government offices in Belgrade earlier today and died of his wounds in hospital, according to the BBC News. Police carrying machine-guns have sealed off the area where the incident occurred, searching cars and checking passengers, while all bus, rail and plane traffic in and out of Belgrade has also been halted in the search for suspects. Unconfirmed reports say two people have been arrested. Djindjic was pivotal in arresting and handing Slobodan Milosevic over to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague in June 2001. Slim Pickings for Cybersecurity in DHS BudgetThe Register today. The new directorate is the single largest computer security organization the U.S. government has ever had, absorbing the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), formerly part of the Department of Commerce, the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center, the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, formerly part of the General Services Administration, and even the Department of Defense’s National Communications System, which handles emergency preparedness for telecom. But despite the number of agencies involved, cybersecurity generally seems to have slipped in importance for the Bush Administration, writes the Register. The fading from prominence of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the abolition of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, and Bushs announcement of a new Terrorist Threat Integration Center that seems to duplicate at least part of what the DHS is supposed to do, all make for confusion. The cybersecurity effort hasn’t gotten a lot of support and enthusiasm from anywhere,” Will Rodger, director of public policy at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, tells the Register. Adding to the lack of clarity is what seems to be a mass exodus by many long-time cyber policy influencers.

Analysts are already concerned that the two-week-old cybersecurity unit of the Department of Homeland Security may not grow up to be the powerhouse of efficiency and expertise it was billed as, according to

Military to Clamp Down on E-Mail New York Times, some units of the United States military are starting to clamp down on e-mail communication from their soldiers and sailors, who have been using it from ships, bases and even desert outposts to stay in touch with family and friends. Computer security experts are not particularly concerned that Iraqi forces would devote much attention to trying to hack into e-mail from the troops. The military’s sensitive operational information is kept on a proprietary network called the Secret Internet Protocol Network that is not connected to the Internet, making it extremely hard for hackers to penetrate, the Times says. But still there are worries that personal e-mail could inadvertently reveal sensitive or compromising information, especially with by its real-time nature and its ability to relay images. At the same time, military officials say the easy and speedy connections with home and family improve morale on both fronts.

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