http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090202181512299
Privacy professional facing criminal charges
Monday, February 02 2009 @ 06:15 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Google's global privacy counsel will appear in Italian court this week on criminal charges of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data. The charges follow a two-year investigation by Italian authorities into footage uploaded onto Google Video that showed a disabled teen being disparaged by peers. Google's Paris-based Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer and three other executives charged in the case will appear before the Criminal Court of Milan on February 3. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 36 months.
It is believed to be the first criminal sanction ever pursued against a privacy professional for his company's actions.
Source - IAPP Privacy Advisor hat-tip, Slashdot
If my software analyzes this court decision and concludes it is wrong or stupid or illogical, can I protect my source code?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10155418-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Police Blotter: Court won't release breathalyzer source code
Posted by Declan McCullagh February 3, 2009 4:00 AM PST
What: A Minnesota man accused of drunk driving says he should be able to review the source code of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN breathalyzer used by police.
When: Minnesota Court of Appeals rules on January 13.
Outcome: Request for source code rejected.
What happened, according to court documents and other sources:
If police think you're driving while intoxicated, they'll probably demand that you blow into a tube connected to a simple handheld computer. Your breath flows into a chamber with an infrared light and a sensor that's designed to detect alcohol vapor through a process called infrared spectrometry.
The problem is that the calculations depend on what assumptions the programmer made, [Would those assumptions be obtainable? Bob] including the relationship between your person's blood alcohol content and alcohol in your breath, which can vary with the individual. In addition, the programmer could have made intentional or accidental coding errors along the way.
Which brings us to a question that has bedeviled dozens of judges for the last few years: Should a defendant have the right to review the source code -- the step-by-step programming instructions -- to a breathalyzer that police and prosecutors are using against him?
To computer scientists, there's little reason not to disclose the source code to a defense expert [but what do we know... Bob] who can review the logic that the device employs; otherwise, it's a little like being convicted based on the word of an inscrutable black box. Defense attorneys have been zealously pressing that point in court. But prosecutors say it would be too disruptive and burdensome.
Nicholas Swendra is one of those DUI defendants asking prosecutors to hand over the source code to the Minnesota version of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN, made by a private company called CMI of Owensboro, Ky. The Intoxilyzer relies on technology that would have been state of the art in the early 1980s: a dot matrix fluorescent display, an RS-232 port, a Z80 microprocessor programmed in assembly language, and less than 100KB of RAM. CMI insists the source code is a trade secret.
The Minnesota government submitted an affidavit from a forensic scientist saying the source code was accurate, [But what does it do? If it calculates “2 plus 2” and reports you as drunk if it comes up “4” wouldn't that be an accurate calculation? Bob] while Swendra's attorney countered by pointing out congressional testimony and a flurry of other court opinions authorizing a peek at the Intoxilyzer's instructions. (Defense counsel's goal is to get the Intoxilyzer evidence tossed out of court, or to persuade prosecutors to drop charges.)
A district judge denied Swendra's request for additional information about the Intoxilyzer, saying that turning over the source code would be unreasonably burdensome and that the defendant could offer only speculation to support his argument that the source code is relevant. On January 13, a Minnesota appeals court agreed.
This will not be the end of the matter, of course. Swendra could appeal, and other cases have reached different conclusions.
The complications of a global society.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2009020207331173
Data export leaves firms vulnerable, says research
Monday, February 02 2009 @ 07:33 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The tendency of firms to distribute sensitive data to offices around the globe could be creating a new form of information vulnerability, a report has suggested. [New risk vectors, at least. Bob]
Researched for sponsor McAfee, the 'Unsecured Economies: Protecting Vital Information' survey points to a range of security issues - some of them tied to the worsening economy - but the issue of how and where data such as customer information is distributed in enterprises is connected to longer-running themes such as worker outsourcing and globalisation.
[...]
Amidst a welter of statistics, however, three countries are clearly cited as being at the top of the watch list for posing the biggest threats to data protection - China, Pakistan and Russia, in roughly that order. These countries reputations for data security are so poor that many firms have purposely avoided allowing data to be stored in them.
....Unsecured Economies: Protecting Vital Information, researched by Purdue University's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security on behalf of McAfee can be downloaded by registered users here.
Source - TechWorld
[From the article:
A major reason companies have taken to moving information away from their home area is, predictably, cost. Whatever it costs to manage data at home, there is almost certainly a partner who will do the same function in another part of the world for considerably less.
The deeper motivation for moving data abroad depended on country. Western companies appear to be motivated not just by labour costs, but by the desire to avoid burdensome data regulations, while less developed nations such as China can actually move data abroad to make it more secure.
I hope more comes out of the workshop...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090202110047281
Privacy protection must be part of Vancouver Olympic Games planning, say federal and B.C. Privacy Commissioners
Monday, February 02 2009 @ 11:00 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia say that security and law enforcement agencies have to find the right balance between security requirements and privacy for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
"Ensuring the security of Olympic venues, and the safety of athletes and the public, is of the utmost importance," says Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart. "We recognize that special events like this demand special security," adds her colleague, B.C. Commissioner David Loukidelis, "but privacy remains important."
.... The two Commissioners are speaking today at an Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada workshop - Privacy, Security and the 2010 Olympics. The workshop is gathering together experts from academia, civil society, the private sector and government to discuss the privacy and security implications associated with hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Source - CNW (Press Release from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner )
As much as I support Space exploration, this concerns me. In particular because they trade technology with North Korea. (Of course, they have been known to fudge the facts a bit, too.)
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F03%2F1348258&from=rss
Iran Has Put a Satellite Into Orbit
Posted by timothy on Tuesday February 03, @09:01AM from the up-in-the-air-junior-birdman dept. Space
Dekortage writes
""Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit," announced Iran's President Ahmadinejad yesterday. The satellite, named Omid ("hope"), was launched to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Video shown on Iranian television shows a Safir-2 rocket rising into the sky, as a follow-up to a test firing last August."
Attention President Obama! How about this as part of those Economic Stimulus Billions?
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F02%2F152258&from=rss
All Korea To Have 1Gbps Broadband By 2012?
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 02, @12:22PM from the gotta-have-good-net-for-starcraft-binges dept.
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that while 60 Mbps may be enough to get us excited in the US, Korea is making plans to set the bar much higher. The entire country is gearing up to have 1 Gbps service by 2012, or at least that is what the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is claiming. 'Currently, Koreans can get speeds up to 100 Mbps, which is still nearly double the speed of Charter's new 60 Mbps service. The new plan by the KCC will cost 34.1 trillion ($24.6 billion USD) over the next five years. The central government will put up 1.3 trillion won, with the remainder coming from private telecom operators. The project is also expected to create more than 120,000 jobs — a win for the Korean economy.'"
No doubt my Computer Security students will find this inspiring...
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F02%2F2224255&from=rss
WarCloning, the New WarDriving?
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 02, @05:27PM from the now-everyone-with-a-laptop-in-their-car-is-gonna-get-searched dept. Security Technology
ChrisPaget writes
"After my legal skirmishes with HID a while back, The Register has coverage of my latest RFID work — cloning Passport Cards and Electronic Drivers Licenses from a moving vehicle. Full details will be released at Shmoocon this weekend, but in the meantime there's video of the equipment and articles all over the place."
[From the article:
"Just like a social security number, the unique identifier number on this document must be properly safeguarded," said Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties policy director of the ACLU of Northern California. "If it falls into the wrong hands, it can be used for tracking, stalking, identity theft, and counterfeiting. If the government continues to stick its head in the sand and ignore the very real privacy and security threats that researchers, civil liberties organizations, and even industry groups have repeatedly brought to its attention, the American people will pay a very high price."
Government gone geeky?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/020471.html
February 02, 2009
New Web 2.0 Tools on USA.gov
"Visit Government 2.0 for the latest tools available on USA.gov and other federal websites. With these tools, USA.gov hopes to engage the public and improve access to government information and resources. Here are just a few of the Web 2.0 tools you can find on USA.gov:
Blogs – Check out our library of active federal blogs.
Word Cloud – See a visual representation of the 75 most popular search terms on USA.gov.
Videos – Find government videos on health topics, space travel, food preparation, and more.
News – Get the latest RSS feeds from across the federal government!
Gadget 2.0 – Find government gadgets or widgets developed and maintained by one agency and shared across the web.
For the pure Linux geeks
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F03%2F0112249&from=rss
Apps That Officially Support Wine
Posted by kdawson on Monday February 02, @11:12PM from the insert-alcohol-related-line-here dept. Wine Software
David Gerard writes
"Wine (the Windows not-an-emulator for Unix) runs Windows applications more often than not. (Certainly more often than Vista does.) Dan Kegel on the wine-users mailing list/forum has started gathering apps that declare Wine a supported platform. And there's now a Wine Support Honor Roll page on the Wine wiki. We need more apps that work with Wine stating that they consider it a supported platform. If you write Win32 open source or shareware, please open yourself to the wider market!"
Very interesting. Perhaps the next SkiDoo? Or maybe the Navy would be interested? Worth watching the video!
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/fluid-motion--.html
Fluid Motion: JetLev-Flyer H2O-Propelled Jet Pack
By Chuck Squatriglia February 02, 2009 5:02:03 PM
One of those frustrating Global Warming articles. It mentions that 90 million years ago the arctic was ice free year round. Perhaps I can finally figure out what “normal” is...
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/tropical-turtle.html
Tropical Turtle Fossil Discovered in the High Arctic
By Michael Wall February 01, 2009 2:00:39 AM
… The freshwater turtle, dubbed Aurorachelys, was an Asian species that researchers believe migrated across the North Pole 90 million years ago as temperatures were peaking. The find suggests that animals moved into North America via a polar route rather than around Alaska, as was previously believed.
… Ninety million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was warm and ice-free year-round. Runoff from rivers could have created a lake of freshwater that stayed on top of the dense, salty Arctic Ocean, providing a route for freshwater species like the turtle.
… Models suggest there may have been between eight times and 16 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere as there was just before the Industrial Revolution. While we're nowhere near those numbers now — current levels are 40 percent higher than pre-industrial — the hothouse Earth of Aurorachelys yields a glimpse of what runaway warming would look like.
… For a long stretch — from about 100 million years ago to 40 million years ago — it was a hothouse, with diverse reptile communities living above the Arctic Circle and ferns, cycads and palms thriving near the South Pole. The waters around the North Pole were warm enough for a comfortable swim 55 million years ago, and year-round average land temperatures in the tropics may have reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit (today they rarely top the mid-80s).
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