Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Byrne sprinkles biometric ID pixie dust over immigration 'issue'. Byrne sprinkles biometric ID pixie dust over immigration 'issue'. Magics 'new' data from old pilots Home Office Minister Liam Byrne was today scheduled to pitch ID cards as a crucial weapon in the fight against illegal immigrants, according to the advance spin in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph. The paper, entirely forgetting about Tony's Fortress Britain, claims the switch to playing the immigration card is a "fresh approach" from John Reid, this week's Home Secretary. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 11:59:16 PM

US and EU stitch-up airline passenger data deal. US and EU stitch-up airline passenger data deal. And data protection law European data protection authorities are choking on their baguettes after seeing the detail of the data-sharing agreement the EU signed with the US on Friday. The passenger name record (PNR) agreement was presented as a formality that had been passed by the respective administrations without so much as a hiccup. But it's proving hard to swallow. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 11:51:43 PM

Slashdot | One Last Spamhaus Warning Before The End kog777 writes to mention that Spamhaus has released a final warning about an increase in junk email, as they prepare to lose their domain to an Illinois court ruling. From the article:  "According to Spamhaus, more than 650 million Internet users - including those at the White House, the U.S. Army and the European Parliament - benefit from Spamhaus' 'blacklist' of spammers that helps identify which messages to block, send to a 'junk' folder or accept. Losing the domain name would make it more difficult for service providers and others to obtain the lists. 'If the domain got suspended, it would be an enormous hit for the Net,' said Steve Linford, Spamhaus' chief executive officer. 'It would create an enormous amount of damage on the Internet.'" 11:04:58 PM

Got Phish? Drop 'Em in the 'Phishtank'. Got Phish? Drop 'Em in the 'Phishtank'. Chances are that you regularly receive "phish" in your inbox -- e-mail messages that try to lure you into giving away your personal and financial data at fake bank or e-commerce Web sites. If you're at all like me, you probably long ago stopped alerting the banks or companies being impersonated in the fake e-mails after time and again receiving the same impersonal and automated reply: "Yeah, thanks, we're on it." This week, however, saw the launch of Phishtank, a free, community-based service that puts the "phun" back into phish reporting. The service was created by OpenDNS, a start-up that hopes to offer consumers and businesses a safer and speedier domain name system (DNS) resolution service (DNS is what translates Web site names into numeric addresses that are easier for machines to process). [Security Fix] 10:27:57 PM

Medical privacy case rejected WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit by privacy advocates who say the Bush administration's rules for disclosing medical records are too lax. Ten groups representing 750,000 consumers, medical practitioners and their patients challenged a federal rule that encourages development of an information system for electronic transfer of health data. An initial proposal would have required health-care providers to obtain patients' consent before disclosing health information. That approach prompted complaints from professionals in the health care sector, who said it would significantly impair the industry's ability to provide timely and efficient medical services. The final rule put in place in 2003 leaves it up to health-care providers whether to seek patients' consent to use or disclose information for routine uses. The rule requires that disclosure must be limited to the "minimum necessary" information to accomplish the intended purpose. It also allows states to have more stringent standards if they wish. In a decision the privacy advocates had sought to reverse, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that any privacy violations could not properly be blamed on the government. The federal rule did not "compel" or "command" any privacy violations, said the Philadelphia-based appeals court. The rule does not displace existing privacy protections, the government argued. The case is Citizens for Health v. Michael O. Leavitt, 05-1311. 10:04:21 PM

Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S. - New York Times WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 -- A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a "sentiment analysis" is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said. Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush's use of the term "axis of evil," the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years. 10:00:00 PM

EFF Sues for Information on Electronic Surveillance Systems EFF Sues for Information on Electronic Surveillance Systems. FBI Withholds Records on Tools to Intercept Personal Communications Washington, D.C. - The FLAG Project at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed its first lawsuit against the Department of Justice Tuesday after the FBI failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning DCS-3000 and Red Hook -- tools the FBI has spent millions of dollars developing for electronic surveillance. DCS-3000 is an interception system that apparently evolved out of "Carnivore," a controversial surveillance system the FBI used several years ago to monitor online traffic through Internet service providers. One Department of Justice report said DCS-3000 was developed to "intercept personal communication services delivered via emerging digital technologies" and that it was used "as carriers continue to introduce new features and services." According to the same report, Red Hook is a system to "collect voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information." The FLAG Project first filed its FOIA request for information about the surveillance systems on August 11, 2006. The FBI acknowledged receipt of the request, but the agency has not responded within the time limit required by law. "Recent allegations of domestic spying by the U.S. government already have both lawmakers and the general public up in arms. Americans have a right to know whether the FBI is using new technology to further violate their privacy," said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "The Department of Justice needs to abide by the law and publicly release information about these surveillance tools." EFF's FLAG Project, launched last month, uses FOIA requests and litigation to expose the government's expanding use of technologies that invade privacy. "Transparency is critical to the functioning of our democracy, especially when the government seeks to hide activities that affect the rights of citizens," EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel, who directs the FLAG Project. "We have recently seen numerous instances where federal agencies have sought to conceal surveillance activities that raise serious legal issues." For the full FOIA suit filed against the Department of Justice: http://www.eff.org/flag/dcs/dcs_complaint.pdf For more on the FLAG Project: http://www.eff.org/flag/ Contacts: Marcia Hofmann Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation marcia@eff.org David Sobel Senior Counsel Electronic Frontier Foundation sobel@eff.org [EFF: Breaking News] 9:39:34 PM

IBM, health group sign deal to mine patient data to improve care. IBM, health group sign deal to mine patient data to improve care. Geisinger Health System and IBM will use data warehousing technology to develop a system for integrating and mining patient data to create customized treatment plans and ensure quality care. [Computerworld Data Mining News] 9:36:20 PM

The Seven Deadly Sins of Records Retention (And how to avoid them). The Seven Deadly Sins of Records Retention (And how to avoid them). Sure, you're thinking, records retention can be deadly. Deadly dull [CSO Online Data Security Briefing] 9:32:02 PM

© Copyright 2006 Paul Hardwick. Last update: 11/10/06; 2:18:00 AM.