Wednesday, December 1, 2004

New Steganos Pro: Less Anonymity Than Expected. In some instances, this privacy software may tell you that you're protected when you aren't. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 11:58:23 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Home Office defends ID card plans (again) | The Register The government renewed its attack against critics of its controversial ID card proposals today. Home Office minister Des Browne MP claimed that opponents had been campaigning on a false prospectus based on "myths and misinformation" about its scheme to require every Briton to have a biometric ID card within around eight years. Clamping down on benefit fraud, control illegal immigration and helping to prevent terrorism have been cited as the main reason why Britain needs ID cards by the Home Office at one time or another. The emphasis has varied over time. Criticism has focused on areas like the Home Office's failure to clearly define a purpose for ID cards, the amount of information that would be held on any card and who might be able to access this information. Cost and civil liberties implications of a compulsory ID card have also figured large in criticism of government plans. Browne said criticism that the government plans were "authoritarian" or "anti-democratic" were unfair. A DNA register was not part of government plans, he said. Browne conceded that the infrastructure it was putting in place could be used to build a DNA register in future but stressed that the present government had "not the slightest inclination" of doing this. 1:29:22 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Appropriate Technologies - New Yorker Cartoon. (I ran across the cartoon below some time back, and have to heartily recommend The New Yorker as a great source for cleverly humorous presentation art!) I'm pretty skeptical of the value of item-level RFID tagging in the retail environment,... [Surpriv: RFID Surveillance and Privacy] 12:46:53 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Sorting out SOX. Making Sarbanes-Oxley Actionable [Computerworld Security News] 12:41:18 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

iPaqs turn up the security. Hewlett-Packard taps biometrics and other software tricks to protect its new line of handhelds. [CNET News.com] 12:24:24 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Police question man over Slammer worm. Czech police question former member of 29A virus writers club over the Slammer worm. [CNET News.com] 12:22:42 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

HP fine-tunes security management. Hewlett-Packard bolstered its security portfolio Tuesday, announcing availability of an identity management product for enterprises and a security management initiative for small and midsize businesses.[InfoWorld: Top News] 12:21:15 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Microsoft investigates Windows Server flaw. Microsoft is investigating a security flaw in Windows server software that could allow an attacker to gain complete control over systems running the software, the company said. [InfoWorld: Top News] 12:19:20 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Five Webloggers Jailed In Iran. Free Speech Geek writes "Reporters Without Borders recently published an article titled 'Five Webloggers Jailed' on their Web site. In this article, they list the names of 5 Iranians who have recently been jailed for no other reason than the fact that they published Web logs that were critical of the government. This story is timely because the UN has recently convened a 'UN Working Group on Internet Governance' and one of their key agenda items seems to be to take over the Domain Name System from ICAAN. One can't help but noting that the Iranian delegate to the UN is on the UN Working Group and conclude that control of the DNS is going to be the next big battleground for freedom of speech." (These arrests follow those reported in mid-October.) [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:14:44 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Populace asked: Do you like ID cards? | The Register David Blunkett has written to around half a million British voters, canvassing their opinions on the introduction of a national identity card . Well, sort of. He's certainly written to the voters, but we're not sure he's actually trying to find out what people think. It looks more like another attempt to get some nice stats to back up his claims that the majority of the population supports the introduction of an identity document. 12:11:06 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Mass. Gets Electronic Gun Fingerprinting. With a quick electronic scan of a fingerprint, gun shop owners in Massachusetts will know immediately if a customer is eligible to buy a weapon, using a system that officials say is the first of its kind in the nation. By APOnline. [washingtonpost.com - Technology] 12:00:16 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

PCWorld.com - Your Boss Is Watching There was a time when folks could freely surf the Internet at work. Not anymore. Our expert debunks ten myths of workplace privacy in an online world. Daniel Tynan Wednesday, October 06, 2004 In a recent study on Internet deprivation, people forced to live without Net access for two weeks said they missed the "private space" the Internet provided them at work. Advertisement Well, I have news for you. That Internet account you have at work is not your private space. It's also your boss's space, and your boss's boss's space, and so on up the line. In fact, if you think you have any real privacy on the job, you're laboring under a delusion. Here are some of the more common myths about Net privacy at work. 11:49:47 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

China Blocking Access to Google News Site. loconet writes "BBC and Reuters are reporting that China is blocking access to the Web site Google News according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. The organisation also accused Google of being complicit by filtering its Chinese-language site." From Reuters' version of the story: "The Paris-based group said the government had been blocking Google's English-language news Web site for about 10 days, after the company launched a Chinese-language version that removed politically sensitive reports." [Slashdot] 11:42:38 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

New Security Pain: Radioactivity. You can empty your pockets of change, take off your belt and shoes and stick your keys in the little tray. But if you've had radiation therapy recently, you still might set off Homeland Security alarms. [Wired News] 11:38:54 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

PCWorld.com - Spam Law Test A year after Congress enacted the CAN-SPAM legislation, our tests show that unsubscribing from marketing e-mail can still be hard. Tom Spring From the January 2005 issue of PC World magazine Posted Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Illustration by Stuart BradfordCleansing our inboxes of spam was supposed to get easier following passage of the nation's sweeping antispam law, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act. The law, which celebrates its first anniversary in January, requires (among other things) that recipients be allowed to opt out of being included in a marketing mailing list, simply by clicking a link on an e-mail notice from the marketer. In addition, the CAN-SPAM Act establishes harsh penalties for senders whose e-mail messages fail to meet its requirements. Testing the Law Few people seriously expected CAN-SPAM to discourage the prolific no-name offshore spammers. However, in a test in which we signed up for and then attempted to opt out of receiving marketing e-mail from 100 heavily trafficked U.S. Web sites, we were surprised to discover that when we tried to unsubscribe, several of the best-known sites--among them Amazon.com--continued to send us e-mail after the ten-day grace period that the law allows had expired. Advertisement Overall, we were unable to stop e-mail from 15 of the sites (or from their partners) without resorting to calling their media-relations representatives. Our investigation also revealed that the spam law's sometimes vague language makes it difficult for users to stop getting unwanted e-mail. The CAN-SPAM Act stipulates that all marketing e-mail messages must include both an easy-to-locate opt-out link and the sender's postal mail address. The law also requires that commercial e-mailers--as well as their marketing partners--honor opt-out requests within ten days of receiving them. 11:36:37 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

The State News - Government looks into tracking student info Government looks into tracking student info By JACLYN ROESCHKE The State News Some higher education officials are saying the privacy rights of students could soon play second fiddle to the need of government officials to accurately collect enrollment statistics. The U.S. Department of Education is looking into assembling a database to track students' progress in higher education by identifying them by their Social Security numbers. In a story by the Chronicle of Higher Education, government officials say the move would allow them to measure retention and graduation rates, the amount of financial aid given to individual students and calculate a university's net price more accurately. "Basically, we want better information so that better higher education policy can result," said David Wright, senior research analyst with State Higher Education Executive Officers, an association of higher education system heads in Denver. "Right now, (government officials) have questions about the performance of higher education that they have a right to ask based on their substantial investment in the enterprise." 11:26:06 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Quantum Cryptography - Ask the Expert - CIO Bob Gelfond, founder and CEO of New York, NY. based MagiQ Technologies, answers your questions about quantum cryptography. Gelfond answered your questions about quantum cryptography from November 1 until November 30, 2004. 10:50:42 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []