Instead of required reading, I shall make the BBC Digital Planet radio broadcast required listening.

Each week is it around 22 mins long and looks at a selection of related discussions. These will be very helpful and they discuss issues from different points of view which you can use in discussing these ideas.

Start this week with 16/2/2010 broadcast, you only need to listen to the first 13 mins as the last story isn’t so relevant to our topics.

You can listen on the BBC iPlayer or subscribe/download as a Podcast:

Last week, internet activists calling themselves “Anonymous” temporarily brought down the Australian governments’ networks and they’re threatening to do it again. Anonymous, a “hacktivist” group, formed through the subculture website 4Chan. Jon Stewart speaks to 4Chan’s founder Chris “Moot” Poole. As the cyber threat increases, can cyber-security keep up? The BBC’s New York reporter, Laura Sheeter, looks at the various degree programmes emerging to fight the internet hackers.