Google New Site for Data Request

Do you wanna find out which governments are hassling Google for user information, well Google recently has established a new site;named Government requests, for this purpose. This new site displays a map of the entire world and it shows the different countries that have given Google and YouTube government requests to either provide user data and information or removal of content.

Google says thats all of the information is not perfect to give complete detail of all the requests. This is due to the fact that one government can ask for many different users or removal of one or more URL's, but this information still gives a pretty clear view of how many requests the company gets and from where the request comes from.

The country that asks for the most requests is Brazil with 3,683 data requests and 291 content removal requests. Coming up in second is the United States with 3,580 data requests and 123 removal requests. But then the requests from countries drops in data requests with the United Kingdom and India coming up with 1,166 and 1,061.

Government Request Site

Google does not ignore these requests and they stated that they have partially or fully complied with approximately 82.5% of these requests. And Google is quoted in their blog post as stating that"it hopes the new Government requests site "will shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe. We also hope that this is just the first step toward increased transparency about those actions across the technology and communications industries."

US Cyber Attack Test

This week the United States performed a test cyber attack against our nations infrastructure in order to become more familiar with vulnerabilities of the current system. While I had assumed that this is something that is done often in order to ensure stability in the systems, it was clear after reading the article that this is not something that is done on a routine basis.

The Article which appeared on CNN.com, clearly illustrates holes in a system that could leave certain services unavailable for hours to weeks depending on the impact to the system. As stated by National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair "successful cyberattack against a major financial service provider could severely impact the national economy, while cyberattacks against physical infrastructure computer systems, such as those that control power grids or oil refineries, have the potential to disrupt services for hours to weeks."

What is so surprising (well not really) about all of this is that in todays day and age when nearly all information or infrastructure is nearly completely relient on a computer system and has been for the last decade, we are only now beginning to run through realistic as opposed to apocalyptic type tests against these systems. Once again it is clear that the Government, while always trying to become more in the loop, has proven that most of the time it is rarely looking at the big picture of protecting this nation. That is too bad, because in my opinion, some of our largest threats are more than likely going to use some sort of attack to these systems long before they will invade our shores.