[ ... ]

It didn't take long for data-management companies to realize that if their software could find links in customer buying patterns and improve retailers' inventory decisions, perhaps it could find links among the government's vast terrorism-related intelligence warehouses and enhance the government's ability to prevent the next attack. After 9/11, many tech companies saw opportunities for both patriotism and profit. Oracle offered to donate the software to create a federal identity database. Siebel Systems CEO Thomas Siebel boasted to a House subcommittee that had his company's software been used by law-enforcement and intelligence organizations before 9/11, "there may have been a different outcome."

Promises of quick fixes have faded as the scale of the government's challenge has become clear. But the early setbacks have not deterred companies from setting up shop in or near Washington to get closer to the action. In the past year, Raytheon and EMC launched a joint government IT unit, and SAP relocated its global public-sector headquarters to the Washington area. And PeopleSoft launched two new products designed for the Homeland Security market.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Data Mining Briefly Explained.

handy_vandal writes "Time.com has published an interesting article on data mining." --- Note the prominent sticker ;)

New York Times - free registration required Former H&R Block Manager Accused in Identity-Theft Ring.

A former manager of an H&R Block office in White Plains and three of her friends have been charged with running an identity-theft ring that used the names of Block customers to obtain credit cards illegally and steal thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise, the authorities said yesterday.

At least 27 customers were victims of the scheme between July 2001 and the spring of 2002, according to a complaint by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, James B. Comey. A spokesman for the office, Marvin Smilon, said the investigation was continuing and the exact amount stolen had not been determined. The arrests were first reported yesterday in The Journal News.

William Kezer, the chief postal inspector in the New York region, said the scheme involved identity theft, a growing problem that he said victimizes about 750,000 people a year.

In many cases, Mr. Kezer said, people fall prey because they fail to safeguard information about themselves and their finances. "That is not the case with the victims of this fraud," he said in a statement. "A former H&R Block employee, entrusted with personal and financial information, victimized unsuspecting clients."

New York Times - free registration required Police Dragnets for DNA Tests Draw Criticism.

It was his choice, Mr. Kohler said the officers told him, but if he refused, they would get a court order and that would get in the newspapers and then everyone would know he was not cooperating. The approach was heavy-handed and foolish, he said, especially since he has feet much bigger than the prints left by the killer and had phone bills that show he was at home when the murders took place.

The questions Mr. Kohler is raising about DNA testing are also being asked by lawyers and other experts around the country who say the growing use of DNA dragnets like the one here, already one of the largest in American history, is troubling.

The tests, supposedly voluntary, can still be coercive, critics say, not only harassing innocent people but also potentially violating suspects' constitutional protections against compelled self-incrimination and unreasonable search and seizure. Future prosecutions could be undermined, some legal scholars, defense lawyers and even some prosecutors say. Some question whether the dragnets' limited success justifies the effort and expense. And even those who endorse the idea of DNA sweeps argue over whether -- and why -- the government should keep on file the genetic profiles of those who are proved to be innocent.

[ ... ]

Professor Fox, an expert on serial killers who wrote a book on the murders of five University of Florida students in Gainesville in 1990, said investigators in that case, with whom he worked as a consultant, checked the DNA of hundreds of people identified as possible suspects, often surreptitiously.

"We'd follow people as they went through Burger King, and pick up a straw they used, for saliva," he said. "We'd go through their trash on the sidewalk. Not everybody we got DNA on even knew it."

[ ... ]

Some legal experts are now calling for an even more controversial use of genetic forensics: a national databank of DNA taken from every American at birth, solely for the purpose of criminal identifications.

Michael E. Smith, a University of Wisconsin law professor who led a working group for the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence, said such a databank would remove the danger of racial discrimination in DNA testing, as well as the risk that law enforcement agents seeking genetic information would turn to hospitals and medical laboratories, eroding medical privacy rights.

[ ... ]

The federal government's existing DNA database, by law, includes only material taken from convicted criminals and crime scenes. Increasingly, states including Louisiana and Virginia have authorized the collection of DNA from people arrested for rape, murder and other violent crimes, and in some states even for burglary and lesser charges. The law in most states is much less clear when it comes to the DNA of people merely suspected of a crime but not charged. Yet it is being tested.

In New York City, for example, the medical examiner's office maintains a citywide database of DNA obtained from crime scenes and from suspects in major crimes, either with their consent or with a warrant, said Dr. Howard J. Baum, deputy director of forensic biology.

[ ... ]

In the end, Mr. Kohler, alone among 15 people who refused the DNA test, was indeed identified in public court documents, and hours later a local television reporter appeared at his front door. The police called the court filing a good-faith clerical mistake. The DNA test later cleared Mr. Kohler. And the killer is still at large.

ZDNet - News: Is privacy the cost for security?

The United States may have declared war on terrorism, but could electronic privacy be a little-noticed casualty in this conflict?

With Washington on a wartime footing, the tension between security and freedom, surveillance and privacy has rarely been as acute.

Congress voted to create the "Department of Homeland Security", and in doing so gave police more power to eavesdrop on the Internet and ISPs more latitude in turning information about their customers over to the government

A yearend collection of articles at this publication

PCWorld.com - Privacy Watch: Privacy in a Very Small Package. A USB drive can help you protect your data. These days, almost every store that sells PCs has a section dedicated to the newest must-have gadget: those ubiquitous keychain-size USB storage devices that can hold from 16MB to 2GB of data. But USB drives are more than a storage phenomenon. The tiny devices can enhance your privacy as well. For example, if you want to keep your e-mail messages on a shared computer away from prying eyes, you can install and run your e-mail application on a USB drive and store all its mail folders there, making it a cinch to secure all your correspondence when you go. Or you can use privacy-enhancing software installed on a USB drive to make the applications you use on your desktop more private. Imagine LAN came out with one of the first of these programs, the $19 P.I. Protector (no, Magnum isn't involved--the P.I. in this case stands for Personal Information). The application routes Internet Explorer's cookies, its history and favorites files, and even the browser's cache onto your USB drive, ensuring that no one can look at your Web-browsing history without having access to your USB drive. You simply pop in your drive and run the P.I. Protector program.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - BSA To Join Battle Against DRM.

Dunark writes "It appears that two of our favorite enemies are now at loggerheads with each other: According to The Inquirer, the Business Software Alliance has joined the fight against the Hollywood-backed attempt to legislate required DRM (the Hollings bill). Read about it in The Inquirer and also at Mercury News"

www.roanoke.com Editorial Op-Ed - Without protest, Americans are giving up freedom.

Today, people of the United States have given up their rights through the "Patriot Act," the Homeland Security Act and the Pentagon's new system of "Total Information Awareness." The astonishing thing about this "land of the free" is that most Americans now have no effective rights and do not care.

NewsFactor - PC Spies at the Gate.

Without a doubt, use of software that monitors Internet activity without a user's knowledge is on the rise, according to Yankee Group security analyst Eric Ogren. Besides spyware embedded in downloadable apps, the number of active Web pages, which can transmit information about users to companies running ads on a page, also has increased, Ogren told NewsFactor.

Spyware monitoring groups, such as SpywareInfo, Counterexploitation and Spy Check, condemn the practice. Specifically, they name Adware, Alexa, Aureate, Cydoor, DSSAgent, EverAd, OnFlow, Gator and Webhancer as the guilty parties.

The most pervasive use of spyware appears to be in P2P file-sharing apps, particularly -- and now unsurprisingly -- Kazaa.

New York Times - free registration required U.S. to Make Airlines Give Data on Americans Going Overseas.

Americans traveling abroad would have to give the government detailed personal information before leaving or returning under a proposed antiterrorism rule.

Political News from Wired News - New U.S. Rules for Travelers.

Millions of travelers arriving and departing the United States will have to submit detailed personal information this year under rules proposed by the federal government Friday as part of the war on terrorism.

The rules proposed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, once they are finalized, seek more information from travelers than under current law and for the first time extend the requirements to U.S. citizens and others previously exempted.

[ ... ]

The proposed INS rule would require all passengers arriving or departing, as well as crew members, to provide this information: name; date of birth; citizenship; sex; passport number and country of issuance; country of residence; U.S. visa number and other details of its issuance; address while in the United States; and, where it applies, alien registration number.

The law also gives Attorney General John Ashcroft leeway in proposing further requirements. In the INS rule, Ashcroft has added a proposed "passenger name record" for airlines that will enable the government to better match a departure record with one for an arrival.

Once the information is collected, it will be transmitted to the U.S. government and matched against "the appropriate security databases" prior to the travelers' arrival. Anyone who raises a red flag regarding terrorism or other law enforcement concern could be met by officials when the ship or plane arrives in this country.

Technology News from Wired News - Spying on Snookums With GPS.

Why hire a private investigator when you can monitor your husband's travels with an inexpensive satellite tracking system? Some suspicious spouses are doing just that.

[ ... ]

"It does happen," admits John Phillips, president and CEO of Satellite Security Systems, a location-tracking company. "We don't promote it. We hope it's used more for safety for wives and husbands than spying on them."

But the company doesn't ask questions. And its tracking systems are so inexpensive and easily hidden that they may even tempt a suspicious spouse who pinches pennies. It costs just $600 to $700 to outfit a car or truck with a master control device, which is about the size of a compact disc case and an inch thick. It's connected by a wire to a matchbook-size GPS sensor.

While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it's legal for cops to use technology to track a suspect on the road, it's not so clear whether you can monitor your spouse's movements. "As is so often the case, law develops behind new technology," said Mark Grossman, a Miami attorney who specializes in technology law.

BW Online | January 3, 2003 | Will Your TV Become a Spy?

Hollywood wants every new digital set to include technology that would stop people from putting its shows on the Net. Bad idea

[ ... ]

Simply put, the digital flag is a bad idea and a serious threat to consumer privacy. Only Hollywood's interests would be protected. The consortium's report doesn't mandate protection of consumer information, only that the technology chosen should be flexible and robust. History has shown that the most powerful and adaptable copy-protection technology is also privacy-invasive.

Take Thomson Multimedia's SmartRight technology, a copy-protection scheme that's gaining momentum in Europe and Asia. Every time you watch a movie or transfer a video from a digital TV to a PC, it reports back to the copyright owner.

Spying on customers wouldn't only infringe on individuals' privacy but it could also lead to new revenue streams for Hollywood. Today, studios get paid only once when you buy the DVD of When Harry Met Sally -- no matter how many times you watch it or how many friends borrow it from you. New technology would conceivably allow the studios to charge you every time you view the film, since a record is created from a technology monitoring your viewing habits from inside your home.

CNET NEWS.COM - Net's New Year resolution: Outlaw spam.

Rising angst over junk e-mail has the majority of the Internet population in favor of outlawing it, a new study shows.

Web users are more annoyed than ever by the continuous flood of unsolicited bulk e-mail sent to in-boxes every day; 80 percent of Internet users surveyed said they are "very annoyed" by spam, compared with only 49 percent who responded similarly two-and-a-half years ago, according to the latest Harris Poll. As a result of their irritation, an estimated 74 percent are proponents of making bulk e-mail illegal, while only 12 percent are opposed to banning it.

Spam has grown by gigantic proportions in the last year. According to e-mail filtering company Brightmail, the number of spam attacks grew from nearly 2 million in November 2001 to about 5.5 million in the same period of 2002. Each spam attack represents a unique mass mailing of commercial messages.

CNET NEWS.COM - Outage disrupts Microsoft services.

Microsoft said late Thursday that problems with its .Net Passport servers briefly locked some subscribers out of their online accounts.

"Some users have been experiencing some intermittent problems with sign-in," said Adam Sohn, a Microsoft spokesman. "It was a networking issue with a small subset of accounts."

Sohn said the company detected problems with the .Net Passport servers around 3:30 p.m. PST and the company's technical team had it under control about three hours later. "We think we've fixed it, and we're continuing to monitor the situation," he said.

MS-NBC - Could fear of terror muzzle science? Research institutions balk at U.S. government restrictions

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology walked away from a $404,000 study because the government wanted to restrict participation by foreign students. Other universities are balking at demands that the government check research in the name of national security before scientists can publish or even talk about it.

[ ... ]

For example, Caltech has agreed to allow the Army Research Laboratory to review a professor's work on computer simulation before publication, Seligman said. The university made an exception to its rules "in the national interest," he said.

Sometimes, restrictions crop up in studies that seem to be of no interest to terrorists. The Justice Department demanded the right to approve before publication a study on physical abuse of college women, said Robert Richardson, Cornell University's vice provost for research.

Cornell turned down the government money.

[ ... ]

The White House and Defense Department are each studying whether new controls should be placed on sensitive information, but for now, there are no government-wide guidelines for deciding what research should be kept under wraps.

Slashdot | Science - Scientific Research Encountering More Restrictions.

vab writes "MSNBC is running an article that details how the MIT AI Lab, the birth place of the free software movement, walked away from a $404K study because the government wanted to restrict participation by foreign students. The article talks about further restrictions the US Government is trying to impose in the name of homeland security and how other research institutions are reacting."

TechNews.com part of the Washington Post - FCC Preparing to Overhaul Telecom, Media Rules. If All Proposals Are Enacted, Major Firms in Field Will Be Less Regulated and More Free to Expand

[ ... ]

If all of the changes being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission are enacted as proposed, major telecommunications and media corporations will be less regulated, and more free to grow, than at any time in decades.

The rules in question govern how much telephone companies need to open their lines to competitors for local phone and high-speed Internet service, set restrictions on how many TV and radio stations can be owned by one company, and determine whether a company can own both newspapers and TV stations that serve the same community.

FCC officials say they expect to begin making decisions as early as February, after more than a year of intense debate and lobbying over sharply different visions of the best way to spur growth and competition in the country's information economy.

Opponents of the proposed rules fear that, taken together, they ultimately could lead to a few powerful conglomerates controlling the flow of electronic information, from programming of television and radio news and entertainment to owning the pipes that connect people to the Internet.

[ ... ]

At one hearing last summer, Hollings all but called Powell a shill for big business in general and the large regional telephone companies in particular. Although the FCC is an independent agency, Congress controls its purse strings. Taking over the Commerce Committee is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who championed Powell's nomination to the commission in 1997 and who shares his deregulatory instinct. McCain has promised hearings on several of the issues the FCC is grappling with.

"The political environment has shifted significantly," said Nancy Kaplan, a Bethesda-based telecommunications consultant. "We'll see just how strong Powell really is."

Slashdot | FCC to Permit Complete Media/Telecom Consolidation.

rhwalker22 writes "Today's Washington Post has a piece reviewing some of the major decisions the Federal Communications Commission will be making in the next few months, moves that could fundamentally rewrite the rules for the broadcast media and Internet service providers. Excerpt: 'Opponents of the proposed rules fear that, taken together, they ultimately could lead to a few powerful conglomerates controlling the flow of electronic information, from programming of television and radio news and entertainment to owning the pipes that connect people to the Internet.'"