James F. Booth

For more than 25 years, James Booth has provided consulting and legal services to telecommunications carriers and to enterprise companies that manage their own telecommunications networks. Since June of 2009 he has also served as General Counsel of Spread Networks, LLC, which is the industry leader in the construction and operation of low latency high speed networks. Before joining Spread he was General Counsel for OnFiber Communications, a competitive telecommunications provider, and was the sole attorney for Qwest Communications International in support of its construction of an 18,800 mile fiber optic network spanning the United States. Earlier he was lead counsel for U S WEST in its wireless and cable television ventures in the United States, Europe and Hong Kong.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Cyberwar in Ukraine Falls Far Short of Russia's Full Powers


The tense on-the-ground standoff in Ukraine has already tipped into open hostilities online, with hackers targeting members of parliament and state agencies.

The government in Kiev has linked Internet and phone service disruptions in recent days to cyberwar attacks. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council reported a “massive denial-of-service attack” that overwhelmed its servers for several hours last week. Even some Ukrainian news outlets say their websites have been hacked, along with similar reports of attacks on news outlets in Russia.
A pro-Russian group calling itself CyberBerkut is claiming on its Facebook (FB) page to have blocked the phones of more than 700 Ukrainian government officials, whom it describes as “political traitors.” The group said it also has attacked websites belonging to government agencies and to protest groups that helped oust former President Viktor Yanukovych. The name Berkut refers to a former special police unit, disbanded by the new government, that Yanukovych used to crack down on protesters.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-10/cyberwar-in-ukraine-falls-far-short-of-russias-full-powers