Author Archive | Stewart Baker

It appears that Chinese TV inadvertently disclosed custom-built software in the act of attacking Falun Gong websites.  In a story that originally broke on Falun Gong media outlets but has since been corroborated by others,  background footage from a government-run channel’s documentary “showed a piece of custom-built Chinese software actually launching a cyberattack against a […]

My book, Skating on Stilts, has been named a 2010 Book of the Year, winning a bronze in the Political Science category from ForeWord Review, whose awards are made each year by a panel of librarians and booksellers choosing among the offerings of independent publishers.

I’m back from my trek through Mustang, Nepal.  Since I blegged here for toys, books, and laptops to take to rural schools along my route, I thought readers might want to learn what actually happened on the trek.  I’ve begun posting installments from my travel journal on Skating on Stilts.  Since the Volokh Conspiracy isn’t […]

Deputy Secretary Lynn has given a speech unveiling the unclassified parts of the Pentagon’s cyberwar strategy.  All of the “pillars” and practically all the unclassified content of the cyberwar strategy are defensive.  Here’s the theme:  “Our strategy’s overriding emphasis is on denying the benefit of an attack.  Rather than rely on the threat of retaliation […]

It took twenty years before the Somali refugee program began producing “home-grown” terrorists in any numbers, and they were home-grown in a real sense; many were disaffected second-generation immigrants rediscovering their Somali roots and ancient Somali loyalties. The Iraq refugee program seems to have eliminated the twenty-year lag, admitting at least two fully-formed militant Islamic […]

For years, the European Parliament has done everything it could to catch the US Congress’s eye.  Long relegated to second-class status in Europe, the European Parliament craved the respect it hoped would come from a dialogue with its “counterpart” in Washington. Well, congratulations, guys.  You’ve succeeded. What did the trick was the Parliament’s role in […]

Here’s a surprise. The Obama administration has unveiled a program that, if widely implemented, could dramatically improve immigration enforcement – sending millions of illegal immigrants home and reducing greatly the incentives for illegal entry – all without arresting and deporting any more people than we do today.  It could mean immigration enforcement that is effective, tough, […]

James Baker of the Justice Department recently testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about ECPA reform, and in the process he touched on the provision of ECPA that prohibits ISPs from sharing subscriber data with the government in the absence of a court order.  Mr. Baker hinted that this provision should perhaps be expanded to […]

A position on ACTA that DHS staked out while I was there has made the news, thanks to a recent FOIA release. ACTA is the latest in a string of international intellectual property enforcement treaties driven by the United States Trade Representative’s office and industries that depend on IP as part of their business model. […]

Next month, my son Gordon and I are continuing a long tradition of dubious hikes (see, e.g., our heat stroke hike out of Antalya, Turkey).  We’ll be trekking up into the Mustang region of Nepal.  Closed to outsiders for many years, Mustang borders Tibet and partakes heavily of Tibetan culture.  I’m writing about it here […]

That seems to be the theme of this article from the ever-predictable Der Spiegel, which recites a bunch of alleged failures by the German government in implementing the SWIFT data agreement, then raises the prospect of suspending the agreement, thereby cutting off US access to some financial data and making the world safer for funders […]

I testified yesterday at a government oversight hearing on TSA.  It was a through-the-looking-glass experience for anyone whose memory extends back to, well, 2007.  That’s because the Republican members mostly lined up to bash whole body imagers and talk about privacy while the Democrats mostly spoke about the importance of air passenger security.  Government Oversight […]

I finally had time to listen to the oral argument in this year’s Supreme Court challenge to an Arizona immigration law.  I’ve noted before – here and here — my view that the Solicitor General was badly wrong on policy and professional grounds when he used that case to attack the e-Verify program. The e-Verify […]

Last year, computer security researchers succeeded in hacking automotive systems.  Once they had done so, they could kill the engine, lock the doors, and turn off the brakes while the car was moving down the highway.  The attacks worked best, not surprisingly, when the researchers had been able to plug into the car’s onboard computers.  This […]