Amendments could block YouTube

Liberal Democrats have proposed an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, which could see UK ISPs forced to block Web sites with a high proportion of copyright-infringing content, says Computing.co.uk.

This could mean users are prevented from viewing popular sites such as YouTube.

The key passage in the amendment says: "The High Court shall have power to grant an injunction against an [Internet] service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in the order of the court.”

A suspected cyber crook, who swallowed a USB drive in an apparent bid to destroy evidence, has been charged with obstruction, reports The Register.

Florin Necula, from New York, ate a Kingston flash drive, thought to contain mag-strip dumps from credit cards, shortly after his arrest outside a bank in Queens, in January. He gobbled the USB drive, while awaiting processing and questioning at a Secret Service office, in Brooklyn.

Necula's attempts to digest the evidence resulted in a trip to a New York hospital and, four days later, a presumably delicate operation to remove the USB stick.

The White House has declassified parts of a top secret plan outlining how government will protect the nation's computer networks from cyber warfare, reveals the BBC.

The announcement, by cyber security tsar Howard Schmidt, was made at the world's biggest security event, hosted by security company RSA in San Francisco.

The move is aimed at encouraging greater co-operation between academia, government and the private sector."We have to fully recognise the importance cyber security has in our lives," Schmidt said.

The Obama administration is weighing the merits of taking China's censorship of Google to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as an unfair barrier to trade, a move that could further raise diplomatic tensions, writes Business Week.

The US Trade Representative's office is consulting with industry groups about China's Internet policies, spokesperson Carol Guthrie said.

“There is a little bit of a Cold War going on here,” said Michael DeGolyer, a professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. “This is a way of putting pressure on China in a way that is going to be popular with many countries.”