David Guttenfelder/Associated Press

A soldier in Mumbai during the siege of the Taj Mahal hotel last month. The attackers studied satellite images of the city online.

MUMBAI, India — The terrorists who struck this city last month stunned authorities not only with their use of sophisticated weaponry but also with their comfort with modern technology.

The terrorists navigated across the Arabian Sea to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan, with the help of a global positioning system handset. While under way, they communicated using a satellite phone with those in Pakistan believed to have coordinated the attacks. They recognized their targets and knew the most direct routes to reach them in part because they had studied satellite photos from Google Earth.

And, perhaps most significantly, throughout the three-day siege at two luxury hotels and a Jewish center, the Pakistani-based handlers communicated with the attackers using Internet phones that complicate efforts to trace and intercept calls.

Those handlers, who were apparently watching the attacks unfold live on television, were able to inform the attackers of the movement of security forces from news accounts and provide the gunmen with instructions and encouragement, authorities said.

Hasan Gafoor, Mumbai’s police commissioner, said Monday that as once complicated technologies — including global positioning systems and satellite phones — have become simpler to operate, terrorists, like everyone else, have become adept at using them. “Well, whether terrorists or common criminals, they do try to be a step ahead in terms of technology,” he said.

Indian security forces surrounding the buildings were able to monitor the terrorists’ outgoing calls by intercepting their cellphone signals. But Indian police officials said those directing the attacks, who are believed to be from Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group based in Pakistan, were using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service, which has complicated efforts to determine their whereabouts and identities.

VoIP services, in which conversations are carried over the Internet as opposed to conventional phone lines or cellphone towers, are increasingly popular with people looking to save money on long distance and international calls. Many such services, like Skype and Vonage, allow a user to call another VoIP-enabled device anywhere in the world free of charge, or to call a standard telephone or cellphone at a deeply discounted rate.

But the same services are also increasingly popular with criminals and terrorists, a trend that worries some law enforcement and intelligence agencies. “It’s a concern,” said one Indian security official, who spoke anonymously because the investigation was continuing. “It’s not something we have seen before.”

In mid-October, a draft United States Army intelligence report highlighted the growing interest of Islamic militants in using VoIP, noting recent news reports of Taliban insurgents using Skype to communicate. The unclassified report, which examined discussions of emerging technologies on jihadi Web sites, was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based nonprofit group that monitors the impact of science on national security.

VoIP calls pose an array of difficulties for intelligence and law enforcement services, according to communications experts. “It means the phone-tapping techniques that work for old traditional interception don’t work,” said Matt Blaze, a professor and computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

An agency using conventional tracing techniques to track a call from a land line or cellphone to a VoIP subscriber would be able to get only as far as the switching station that converts the voice call into Internet data, communications experts said. The switch, usually owned and operated by the company providing the VoIP service, could be located thousands of miles from the subscriber.

The subscriber’s phone number would also likely reveal no information about his location. For instance, someone in New York could dial a local phone number but actually be connected via the Internet to a person in Thailand.

In Mumbai, authorities have declined to disclose the names of the VoIP companies whose services the Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers used, but reports in Indian news media have said the calls have been traced to companies in New Jersey and Austria. Yet investigators have said they are convinced that the handlers who directed the attacks were actually sitting somewhere in Pakistan during the calls.

One senior Lashkar-e-Taiba leader who American officials believe may have played a key role in planning the Mumbai attacks is Zarrar Shah. Mr. Shah, known to be a specialist in communications technology, may have been aware of the difficulties in tracing VoIP.

To determine the location of a VoIP caller, an investigating agency has to access a database kept by the service provider. The database logs the unique numerical identifier, known as an Internet Protocol (I.P.) address, of whatever device the subscriber was using to connect to the Internet. This could be a computer equipped with a microphone, a special VoIP phone, or even a cellphone with software that routes calls over the Internet using wireless connections as opposed to cellular signals.

It would then take additional electronic sleuthing to determine where the device was located. The customer’s identity could be obtained from the service provider as well, but might prove fraudulent, experts said.

Getting the I.P. address and then determining its location can take days longer than a standard phone trace, particularly if service providers involved are in a foreign country.

“Ultimately, we can trace them,” said Mr. Gafoor, referring to VoIP calls. “It takes a little longer, but we will trace them.”

Washington is assisting the Indian authorities in obtaining this information, according to another Indian police official who also spoke anonymously because of the continuing investigation.

Further complicating this task is the fact that I.P. addresses change frequently and are less tied to a specific location than phone numbers.

Computer experts said that while these challenges were formidable, none were insurmountable. And they cautioned that security services and police forces might be disingenuous when they complain about terrorists’ use of new technologies, including VoIP.

The experts said that VoIP calls left a far richer data trail for investigators to mine than someone calling from an old-fashioned pay phone. Mr. Blaze, the computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania, also noted that 15 years ago the Mumbai attackers would probably not have had the capacity to make calls to their handlers during the course of their attacks, depriving investigators of vital clues to their identities. “As one door closes — traditional wire line tapping — all these other doors have opened,” Mr. Blaze said.

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: November 17, 2008 – 11:53AM CT

No matter how into gadgets and hardware we are, we’re all forced to face a cold truth every once in a while: our PCs and gadgets sometimes break. What’s important, however, is how often it happens and how easy (or difficult, as the case may be) it is for us to remedy the problem. According to survey results from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Americans tend to have the most frequent problems when it comes to their Internet connections, home PCs, and cell phones, and often find themselves confused about how to fix them.

According to Pew, almost half of adults said they needed someone to help them set up or learn how to use their gadgets. Once they finally get them going, however, things aren’t all smooth sailing—44 percent of adults with home Internet connections reported service failure sometime in the last 12 months. Similarly, 39 percent of those with home PCs or laptops, 29 percent of cell phone users, and 26 percent of those with BlackBerrys, Palm Pilots, or other PDAs said their devices stopped working sometime in the last year. Apparently, the most resilient gadget included in Pew’s survey was the iPod/MP3 player—only 15 percent of those surveyed reported problems over the last year.

Interestingly, age seemed to be a factor in at least one of these technological failures. Although almost all age groups experienced problems with their Internet connections (roughly) equally, younger people appeared to experience cell phone failure of some kind much more frequently than their senior counterparts. According to the numbers, 30 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds and 33 percent of 30 to 49 year-olds had cell phone issues, while only 18 percent of those 65 and older had problems. Pew doesn’t say why, but we’re going to take a guess and say that younger folk are more likely to play around with their cell phone configurations and ultimately run into issues than seniors, who are more likely to just use what they have and not mess around with it too much.

Unsurprisingly, people aren’t very thrilled when this happens either. 40 percent of those surveyed reported feeling confused by the information they got when trying to fix their tech woes, while 48 percent felt discouraged by the amount of effort needed to fix the problem. Even more—59 percent—were impatient about the problem because they needed to use it for important things. Still, despite all these negative emotions, almost three-quarters of the group said that they felt confident that they were on the right track to solving the problem with the help of tech support, friends or family, online support, or just their own know-how.

The category that got the highest number of tech support calls was failed Internet connections, bringing to light the importance of competent and friendly customer service. According to a report from CFI Group in September, however, customer service from cable companies tends to leave customers fuming and “highly vulnerable to new competition.” Looks like it’s time to step it up, lest these companies lose business to someone who can do a better job at keeping those 44 percent of users with Internet connection problems happy.

Tech Now by Paul Brent

The Pew Internet and American Life Project turns out a steady stream of studies on how North Americans are using technology. The latest report is based on a survey of more than 2,000 adults and it found that the traditional nuclear family is by far the biggest cell phone- and Internet-user group.

In fact, they are using these devices more than single adults or couples without children. The stats indicate that 89 per cent of married-with-children households own multiple cell phones, and nearly half own three or more mobile devices. Of this same group, 66 per cent have a high-speed broadband Internet connection at home, while 58 per cent have at least two home computers.

On all counts, these numbers put them above other groups of users.

So what are we doing with the technology? Well, it seems the family that techs together, stays together.

“Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the Internet,” noted Tracy Kennedy of the Pew Institute, who put together the survey.

For example, 70 per cent of couples talk on their cells at least once a day to say hello or keep up to date on family affairs. And 43 per cent of parents talk to their children at least once a day on the cell to keep in touch.

Kennedy also said, “We were surprised to see that lots of families treat the Internet as a place for shared experiences. They don’t just withdraw from the family to their own computer for private screen time. They pretty regularly say, ‘Hey, look at this.’”

Most parents say there’s much upside and little downside to the way new technologies affect them. And a quarter of parents feel their current family is closer than the family they grew up in. The majority, however (60 per cent), say technology has made no difference in the closeness of the family unit.

Prof. Barry Wellman of the University of Toronto, who was a study author, said, “Family members are neither isolated individuals nor traditional actors in Fun With Dick and Jane homes. Rather, their households are active sites of the interplay of individual activity and family togetherness.”

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: October 20, 2008 – 01:14PM CT

It turns out that the typical American family is also the most networked, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In addition to having 1.34 children, a dog, and a white picket fence, the American nuclear family is more likely to have cell phones, computers, and a broadband connection compared to other households.

Pew, which surveyed 2,252 adults in the US between December and January of this year, found that over 90 percent of married-with-children households have at least one cell phone, in addition to one computer. This is compared to only 84 percent of all adults owning one cell phone, and 77 percent owning one computer. 58 percent of these nuclear families have two or more desktop or laptop computers, in fact, and 89 percent own multiple cell phones (47 percent own three or more).

Pew noted that while some fear that technology is ruining families, the survey found that “couples use their phones to connect and coordinate their lives, especially if they have children at home.” Spouses, parents, and kids all manage to stay connected by cell phones and the ‘Net during the day when they are separated, and are more likely to share moments with other family members online. (@daughter: OMG school was so lame today!) At least a quarter of survey respondents said that their families today feel closer than their families when they were growing up, thanks to the Internet and cell phones. 60 percent said that new technology has not affected family closeness.

At the same time, there are some elements of the “traditional” American family that appear to be falling by the wayside—due, in part, to technology. Pew said that households with the most technology are more likely to be dual-income households, which also means that they work longer hours and use the Internet more. “Those with multiple communication devices are somewhat less likely to eat dinner with other household members and somewhat less likely to report high levels of satisfaction with their family and leisure time than are families with lower levels of technology ownership,” wrote Pew.

The firm’s findings come just a few weeks after AT&T released survey results saying that families are using SMS to communicate with each other more than ever before. 76 percent of parents felt that their children were more likely to keep them abreast of their activities through text messaging, while 73 percent of parents said that their kids were more likely to respond to a text compared to other communication methods. Spouses and romantic partners were also found to be texting more, with 68 percent using SMS to send love notes to each other.

One thing is clear from both of these surveys. Technology may be keeping us busier than ever, but you can’t beat picking up the phone or sending a quick e-mail to your loved ones just to say “hi.”

By John Timmer | Published: October 13, 2008 – 01:19PM CT

September 11, 2008 02:49

The kids are back at school and the laptops, cellphones, iPods, MSN, text messaging and every other form of technology are all  getting a real workout from the younger generation.

A feeling for just how important technology is to young people comes via a survey done by a group of high school students in Ottawa. Under the guidance of teacher Robin McAteer at Sir Robert Borden High School, students devised, executed and tallied a survey of their peers.

Here are some survey highlights:

• Seventy-three per cent of teens own their own computer; 63 per cent own a cellphone; 41 per cent a web cam; 86 per cent an MP3 player.

• On the Internet, the top five daily activities — and they are done in almost equal amounts — are: e-mail, instant messaging, music, social networking sites and work.

• On average, kids spend close to three hours a day on the Internet.

• Eighty per cent of them use social networking sites and share a lot of personal information but they still feel safe; 37 per cent of them have 200 or more friends on their social networking site.

• Most teens feel “pretty safe” on the Internet and see it as a social, friendly, entertaining place to go.

You can check out the full report at cyberbully.pbwiki.com.

McAteer says young people live their lives on the Internet and their parents, for the most part, work on the Internet. Yet there is no doubt, she adds, that there is a digital gap between generations: 68 per cent of surveyed teens said they never or seldom talk to parents about the Internet.

Her advice is to get involved and the best way to do that is to admit to your kids that you are not the savviest person online, and that they teach you about what they do.

You might be amazed at how much your kids want to be your guide to the Internet. It may be a time when technology opens up a whole new real-life conversation between you and your children.