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Pentagon bans Google map-makers

The US defence department has banned the giant internet search engine Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of US military bases.

Close-up, ground-level imagery of US military sites posed a “potential threat” to security, it said.

The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps.

A Google spokesman said that where the US military had expressed concerns, images had been removed.

Google has now been barred from filming and conducting detailed studies of bases, following the discovery of detailed, three-dimensional panoramas online – and in particular, views of the Texan base.

“Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas,” said the defence department in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.

It said such detailed mapping could pose a threat.

Google spokesman Larry Yu said the decision by a Google team to enter the Texas base, which is in San Antonio, and undertake a detailed survey, had been “a mistake”.

He told the BBC that it was “not our policy to request access to military installations, but in this instance the operator of the vehicle with the camera on top – which is how we go about capturing imagery for Street-View – requested permission to access a military installation, was given access, and after learning of the incident we quickly removed the imagery”.

Individuals and governments
Military officials are currently looking into exactly what imagery is available – though it may not be able to order its removal if images are taken from public streets.

Among the popular mapping services offered by Google are Street View, which allows web users to “drive” along virtual US landscapes with ground-level views, and Google Earth, which offers detailed satellite and 3D images of locations around the world.

In this case, it was imagery offered on Street View that caused the concern.

But both have provoked complaints – from individuals depicted in the images and from governments concerned that satellite images could compromise security.

Gary Ross, a spokesman for the US Northern Command, told AFP that although such services could be useful, “there has to be a balance”.

But Mr Yu said Google would listen to concerns about privacy and security.

“We try to have a compliant image removal policy – not only relative to the military but to consumers also,” said Mr Yu.

“If people have concerns, they should contact us.”

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Feds prepare for Cyberwar

The White House is preparing a new initiative to protect against what it fears could be a crippling attack against the U.S. by computer, from overseas, and in particular, from China.

After a series of cabinet-level meetings this month at the White House, computer security analysts say the Bush administration is considering creating a new agency or cyberwar center to better protect the federal government’s computers and find ways to help private companies and public utilities fend off computer attacks.

Those attacks, which could be just a few key strokes away, could shut down U.S. power grids and communication and banking systems, security analysts warn.

“Basically we would find the lights go out, the dial tone stop and we have no ability to access our money,” Sami Saydjari, founder and president of the Cyber Defense Agency, told ABC News.

Internet security companies, such as Akamai in Boston, are currently tracking thousands of attacks against the U.S. government and corporate computer systems every day.

“We would not be in a good situation if we were to enter a cyberwar today,” Akamai co-founder and chief scientist Tom Leighton said.

On most days, the single biggest source of those attacks is China.

“A Chinese general has talked about how they would reach out through cyberspace and turn off the American electric power grid before any conflict with the United States,” said Dick Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official and now ABC News consultant.

White House advisors say alarm bells sounded when this past June Chinese hackers got into the unclassified computers of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

“The intelligence community has come to the recognition that China and other foreign governments have free run of American computer networks,” Clarke said.

In addition to long-distance hacking, U.S. experts are concerned Chinese-made computer equipment could be sabotaged in ways that are undetectable, the so-called Trojan horse attack.

“My fear is that there are many, many Trojan horses, many, many malicious codes in a large number of our critical systems,” Saydjari said. “And that there are just waiting to be activated through some trigger at some time.”

The White House says it is asking for $6 billion in the latest budget to increase cybersecurity.

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