Friday, February 10, 2006

Police blotter: Patriot Act e-mail spying approved | CNET News.com What: The Justice Department asks a judge to approve Patriot Act e-mail monitoring without any evidence of criminal behavior. When: Decided Feb. 2, 2006 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington, D.C. Outcome: E-mail surveillance approved. What happened: As part of a grand jury investigation that's still secret, the Justice Department asked a federal magistrate judge to approve monitoring of an unnamed person's e-mail correspondents. The request had a twist: Instead of asking to eavesdrop on the contents of the e-mail messages, which would require some evidence of wrongdoing, prosecutors instead requested the identities of the correspondents. Also included in the request was header information like date and time and Internet address--but not subject lines. 1:01:45 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Limited Email Surveillance Approved. Limited Email Surveillance Approved. MrNougat writes "CNet reports that some surveillance of your email has been permitted by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington, D.C., without first requiring any evidence of wrongdoing. Curiously: 'instead of asking to eavesdrop on the contents of the e-mail messages, which would require some evidence of wrongdoing, prosecutors [of the US Justice Dept.] instead requested the identities of the correspondents. Also included in the request was header information like date and time and Internet address--but not subject lines.'" [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:58:37 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - Senators Should Subpoena Ma Bell. Senators Should Subpoena Ma Bell. Today Senators Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin wrote to the CEOs of AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., asking if the telecommunications giants collaborated with the government's domestic spying program, as has been reported in USA Today and many other news outlets. The letter asserts that "understanding your company[base ']s participation in the NSA[base ']s domestic surveillance program is critical to congressional oversight efforts," and asks a number of detailed and important questions. We certainly agree and have sued AT&T, alleging that it violated the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the NSA in its massive program to wiretap and data-mine millions of ordinary Americans' communications. While the letter is an important step towards uncovering the truth, we urge the entire Senate to add its support and use its subpoena power to bring the telecommunications companies before the Judiciary Committee. [EFF: Deep Links] 12:51:58 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - TSA Grounds Secure Flight Program... For Now TSA Grounds Secure Flight Program... For Now. Citing data security concerns, the TSA on Thursday informed a Senate committee that its controversial Secure Flight program would be delayed indefinitely. In written testimony, the Government Accountability Office also noted that Secure Flight "may not be adequately protected against unauthorized access and use or disruption." The Secure Flight Program, billed as an improvement to the current Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS), has raised enormous privacy and security concerns from the start. Unlike CAPPS, in which airline employees compare passenger information against a government-supplied no-fly list, the Secure Flight program envisions placing that responsibility squarely in the hands of government officials. Since the program was announced, the TSA has been caught repeatedly lying to Congress about its use of information provided by commercial data brokers. In September, EFF launched an effort to uncover the scope of the TSA's use of commercial data, assisting travelers who flew during a "test period" identified by the TSA to request information from the agency under the Freedom of Information Act. EFF continues to review the results of that investigation. [EFF: Deep Links] 12:49:38 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Wi-Fi for dummies | The Register The average user has no idea of the risks associated with public Wi-Fi hotspots. Here are some very simple tips to keep network access secure. My friend Philip is an expert at community activism and is a cracker-jack financial advisor as well. One thing he is not, however - and he would be the first to admit this - is a knowledgeable computer user. Oh sure, he can send emails and cruise the web, and use Word and Excel, but he doesn't really grok his computer. And one thing he especially doesn't know much about is security. He knows there are bad guys out there, and he knows that he should try to practice safe computing, but he just doesn't know how. Recently we were talking during a financial meeting, and he remarked that he always felt nervous using his laptop at one of the many coffee shops here in St Louis that provide free wireless access. After I assured him that he should in fact be very nervous, I reassured him by saying that there were things he could do to protect himself in the local Panera or Kayak's. When he asked me what those things were, I told him I would write a SecurityFocus column that would answer that question. This column, therefore, is written for Philip and all the other average computer users out there who use Wi-Fi without understanding its inherent risks. 12:39:13 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events. The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen. The two heads of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court were the only judges in the country briefed by the administration on Bush's program. The president's secret order, issued sometime after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, allows the National Security Agency to monitor telephone calls and e-mails between people in the United States and contacts overseas. 12:36:12 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Video surveillance outfit chips workers. Video surveillance outfit chips workers. RFID implant scheme A Cincinnati video surveillance company CityWatcher.com now requires employees to use Verichip human implantable microchips to enter a secure data centre. Until now, the employees entered the data centre with a VeriChip housed in a heart-shaped plastic casing that hangs from their keychain. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 12:32:26 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF issues Google Desktop warning. EFF issues Google Desktop warning. Configure it carefully, or forget it Google has released a revamped version of its desktop search tool which introduces the ability to search the contents of one computer from another. Previous versions of the tool indexed files on user's PCs, but using the optional "Search Across Computers" facility in Google Desktop 3 temporarily stores text copies of searchable items on Google's own servers for up to 30 days. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 12:30:34 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation. / Consumers Should Not Use New Google Desktop Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation. Consumers Should Not Use New Google Desktop San Francisco - Google today announced a new "feature" of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new "Search Across Computers" feature will store copies of the user's Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google's own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user's computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who've obtained a user's Google password. "Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google's search ogs, it's shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index. The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it. Other litigants[~]your spouse, your business partners or rivals, whomever[~]could also try to cut out the middleman (you) and subpoena Google for your files." The privacy problem arises because the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986, or ECPA, gives only limited privacy protection to emails and other files that are stored with online service providers[~]much less privacy than the legal protections for the same information when it's on your computer at home. And even that lower level of legal protection could disappear if Google uses your data for marketing purposes. Google says it is not yet scanning the files it copies from your hard drive in order to serve targeted advertising, but it hasn't ruled out the possibility, and Google's current privacy policy appears to allow it. "This Google product highlights a key privacy problem in the digital age," said Cindy Cohn, EFF's Legal Director. "Many Internet innovations involve storing personal files on a service provider's computer, but under outdated laws, consumers who want to use these new technologies have to surrender their privacy rights. If Google wants consumers to trust it to store copies of personal computer files, emails, search histories and chat logs, and still 'not be evil,' it should stand with EFF and demand that Congress update the privacy laws to better reflect life in the wired world." For more on Google's data collection: http://news.com.com/FAQ+When+Google+is+not+your+friend/2100-1025_3-6034666.html?tag=nl http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/21/google_subpoena_roils_the_web http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/20/EDGEPGPHA61.DTL http://news.com.com/%20Bill+would+force+Web+sites+to+delete+personal+info/2100-1028_3-6036951.html Contact: Kevin Bankston Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation bankston@eff.org [EFF: Breaking News] 12:28:24 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Distributed Wireless Security Monitoring Systems | How To Find Rogues and Crush Them | Feb 8, 2006 | Network Computing Distributed Wireless Security Monitoring Systems help categorize and prioritize threats. We examine two offerings from AirDefense and AirTight Networks. It's been more than 6 months since our last comparative review of wireless IDS products (see "Time To Tighten the Wireless Net," ID# 1612f2). In the past few weeks, two of the participating vendors in that review--one an established player and one a relative newcomer to the market--have introduced significant upgrades to their products. AirDefense has pushed forward with its forensic analysis, which adds a great deal of insight into the history of your wireless space, while AirTight Networks has filled out its feature set and enhanced its autoclassification capability. With security concerns escalating, there's no time like the present to take another look at how the wireless IDS market is evolving. 12:23:38 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Critical patches for Windows, Windows Media Player among seven planned. Prepare for Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. Critical patches for Windows, Windows Media Player among seven planned. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 12:20:02 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Federal Trade Commission Plans Hearings on Internet Risks. Federal Trade Commission Plans Hearings on Internet Risks. FTC chair urges the Internet industry to 'self-regulate.' [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 12:17:23 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Data Protection 101. Data Protection 101. Posted by Merrill Baumann Here is a nice primer on the basics that every business should think about regarding the need to adopt data protection measures. Another helpful habit, of course, is to visit www.privsecblog.com regularly.  [Privacy and Security Law Blog] 12:15:30 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []