Israel army unveils new cyber defense unit - Xinhua

JERUSALEM, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military offered Monday a peek into one of its most secretive bases, which houses a newly established unit tasked with defending its own networks against mounting attacks launched in cyberspace.

Teams of programmers and computer experts, aged 18 to 22, man the "Cyber War Room," situated at an undisclosed site in central Israel, where malicious cybernetic activities occurring worldwide are monitored around the clock.

Long gone are the days when cyber was the exclusive domain of computer "geeks" spending their nights and days hacking into data bases in the privacy of dimly-lit bedrooms. In the Israeli military, it has already received recognition as another dimension of warfare, alongside the bombers, ships and tank battalions.

"Cyber isn't just another means, but a dimension that exists all the time between and during wars," Brig. Gen. Ayala Hakim, commander of the Israeli Defense Forces's (IDF) Lotam Unit, which oversees cyberdefense operations, told Israel's Channel 10 during an interview Monday.

Israel is investing vast human and financial resources in defending against the immediate threat posed by computer network attacks launched daily on its strategic infrastructure, government ministries, military and intelligence community. The fear is that a major cyberattack could cripple the country's critical infrastructure, including utilities, banking and cellphone networks, among others.

To illustrate the scope of the phenomena, the government revealed it deflected a staggering 44 million attacks on its main online sites during a nine-day war with Islamist group Hamas in Gaza last November.

Last year, the IDF publicly acknowledged for the first time, in a post on its official blog, that it was engaged in both defensive and offensive cyberwarfare. On the defensive end, efforts are mainly focused on repelling attempts by enemy states, global militant networks and lone hackers from overseas to penetrate the military's computers, either for espionage or sabotage.

"The operations room enables us to monitor the great breadth of the Internet at a single focal point," explained the Israeli military official. "We look at what is happening to us via a proactive approach and by gathering open intelligence. We assess our situation."

Like other cyber units operating in Israel's defense institution, including in the intelligence community, the soldiers of the new Cyber War Room constantly seek to increase the nimbleness of their response to identify and prevent an attack, and exploit it to launch a counterattack.

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Thousands rally for south Yemen secession on war anniversary

Source : Al Akhbar English

Thousands of people rallied in south Yemen on Sunday's 19th anniversary of the civil war that was won by the north to demand secession for the south.

"No union and no federation, no to the occupation!" the crowds chanted in the Hadramawt provincial capital of Mukalla, an AFP correspondent said.

They waved the flag of the former South Yemen and portraits of Hassan Baoum, head of the Southern Movement's supreme council.

In a statement, the protest organizers reaffirmed their rejection of a national dialogue under way in the capital Sanaa.

They demanded "negotiations... under Arab or international patronage, to discuss ways of ending the occupation of the south", it said.

In Aden, former capital of the south, shops were shuttered and offices closed on Sunday, witnesses said, as southerners marked the anniversary of the end of the war.

Witnesses said youths blocked some main roads with boulders, an action that was repeated in other towns across the south.

After the former North and South Yemen united in 1990, the south broke away in 1994, triggering a civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops.

Southerners have complained of discrimination and being marginalized ever since.

The UN- backed national dialogue began on March 18 and is due to last six months.

It brings together 565 representatives from Yemen's various political groups, ranging from the southern secessionists to Zaidi rebels in the north, as well as civil society representatives.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Roadside bomb kills three soldiers in Yemen

Source : Al Akhbar English

A roadside bomb in Yemen's capital Sanaa killed three soldiers and injured two others during a security patrol early on Saturday, a security official said.

The bomb was hidden in a plastic bag planted near a police checkpoint in Sanaa's al-Hasaba district, a center of opposition to former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted early last year.

The device detonated as the policemen opened the bag to check its contents, the official added.

The official, who requested anonymity, said it was unknown who carried out the attack.

Yemen is the poorest Arab state with a third of the population living on less than $2 a day. It faces a Shi'a uprising in the north, an Islamist insurgency in the south and east, a southern separatist movement and splits in the military.

Washington and Gulf Arab countries fear the impoverished state could disintegrate, allowing Islamist militants to operate freely.

Yemen, which borders top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and sits along the Red Sea crude shipment route, is already home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The country is navigating an uncertain political transition after Saleh was deposed in early 2012, leading to the creation of a two-year interim government.

Yemen's politicians are currently taking part in a national dialogue aimed at paving the way for a new constitution and planned February 2014 general elections.

(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)