U.S. Unprepared for Bioattack; Iran Jails Journalists, Blocks Websites; Firefox Continues to Needle Microsoft

U.S. Unprepared for Bioattack

The United States is considered to be unprepared for a major bio-terrorist attack, say experts, in spite of the progress made on biodefenses. According to a story in the Washington Post, biological and nuclear attacks rank as the top priorities for government officials. Said Richard A. Falkenrath, former deputy homeland security adviser to President Bush, “There’s no area of homeland security in which the administration has made more progress than bioterrorism, and none where we have further to go.” Since Sept. 11, 2001, spending on biodefenses has increased 18-fold, from $414 million in fiscal 2001 to a proposed $7.6 billion this year.

For more details, read the full article in the Washington Post.

Iran Jails Journalists, Blocks Websites

Iran is cracking down on journalists and bloggers for advocating principles of dmeocracy. According to a report in The New York Times, the government has made two arrests and blocked hundreds of websites in the past week. The number of Internet users in Iran has grown from 225,000 four years ago to more than 4.8 million today. The Web has become a major outlet for political expression sice the government shut down more than 100 pro-domocracy newspapers and journals in recent years.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Firefox Continues to Needle Microsoft

The browser war may be heating up again as Mozilla launches its Firefox 1.0 browser Tuesday. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, during it’s beta release, Firefox slightly cut into Microsoft’s dominance in the brower market. Microsoft claimed 95 percent of the U.S. browser market before Firefox. Now it’s down to 93 percent. People are converting to Firefox because it has proven to be a less tempting target for hackers, plus its additional features such as tabbed browsing. Experts say it’s unlikely that Firefox would gain more than 20 percent of the market.

For more details, read the full article in the Los Angeles Times.