Egypt has apparently done what many technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent. Experts say it's unlikely that what's happened in Egypt could happen in the United States because the U.S. has numerous Internet providers and ways of connecting to the Internet. Coordinating a simultaneous shutdown would be a massive undertaking.

Europe has proposed a global Internet Treaty to protect the net from political interference and place into international law its founding principles of open standards, net neutrality, freedom of expression and pluralistic governance.

Vigilante groups are tracking down terrorist groups on the web and taking down their websites. Some law enforcement and intelligence experts are concerned that such actions are counterproductive by removing a potentially valuable source of intelligence.

Driven underground, the al Qaeda terrorist network has learned to exploit the Internet as it recasts itself into a more elusive, self-perpetuating form.

A new device that quarantines different portions of a computer network could stop worms and viruses infecting an entire company once they have breached its perimeter defences.

Researchers have developed a smaller version of the Internet that will serve as a virtual laboratory to develop new business tools, computer programs and weapons against worms and viruses.

A global internet laboratory that simulates tens of thousands of virtual users has been launched by more than 60 companies and universities. PlanetLab will be used to test new weapons for fighting internet worms and to develop better distributed computer programs, i.e. those that operate on many machines at once.

A new web programming language may make it possible for any Web user to remotely discover, access, and use real-time data obtained directly from Web-resident sensors, instruments, and imaging devices, such as flood gauges, stress gauges on bridges, mobile heart monitors, Web cams, and satellite-borne earth imaging devices.

Researchers are exploring the idea of using ordinary electric power lines to provide high-speed Internet access. Proponents argue that it can be a competitive alternative to digital cable, telephone digital subscriber line and wireless efforts to connect the "last mile" between homes and Internet service providers.

Timothy Thomas lists 18 ways in which terrorists can use internet technologies to further their goals and grow their organization. He concludes that this 'cyberplanning' is "as important a concept as cyberterrorism, and perhaps even more so."