...and you wonder why we have a second amendment.

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/28/1934208&from=rss

Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law

Posted by kdawson on Saturday October 28, @04:42PM from the maybe-sweden dept.

An anonymous reader writes to point us to an article on the meaning of a new law that President Bush signed on Oct. 17. It seems to allow the President to impose martial law on any state or territory, using federal troops and/or the state's own, or other states', National Guard troops.

From the article: "In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions." Here is a link to the bill in question. The relevant part is Sec. 1076 about 3/4 of the way down the page.

Note: the site hosting the article is already sluggish; I was unable to prime the CoralCDN cache with it. Please consider mirroring this article if you are able.

This is what happens when you show that the people responsible for “Security” have no idea what they are doing. Expect this to keep getting more interesting. (If you print two copies of you boarding pass, have you committed a criminal act?)

http://digg.com/security/FBI_Visits_PhD_student_A_2nd_Time_About_NWA_Ticket_Ordeal

FBI Visits PhD student A 2nd Time About NWA Ticket Ordeal

Recuso submitted by Recuso 14 hours 14 minutes ago (via http://slightparanoia.blogspot.com/ )

Chris, the PhD Student that created the NWA Ticket Generator has been visited by the FBI a second time. This time he found his home ransacked and all of his equipment completely absent on the eve of an upcoming conference. They carried out a search warrant at 2:00AM Indianapolis time, taking all of his electronic posessions. Copy of warrant posted.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/28/166245&from=rss

UK Banks Dump Credentials in Bin Bags

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday October 28, @12:55PM from the airing-the-trash dept. Privacy Security

Plutonite writes "BBC news is reporting that several UK banks face 'unlimited fines' [How much is that in Dollars? Bob] for careless handling of sensitive client information. This apparently came after investigators found account details while rummaging through the trash outside the banks involved. In this age of online banking and related security problems, and in light of this scandal, where can we expect to find the greatest threat of ID theft?"

Some interesting quotes...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/discriminatory_borders/

EU moots 'deep background' checks for racist-free border controls

The biometric meritocracy

By Mark Ballard Published Friday 27th October 2006 17:39 GMT

Europe plans to avoid the routine discrimination against foreigners at border controls by using deep background checks of individual people to manage immigration.

... The Europeans are aware of the negative connotations, which is why their solution to the problem, the Trusted Traveller Programme, was recently renamed the Registered Traveller Programme. The implication of the old name was that European border controls intend to become more suspicious of people who are not fully paid up members of the omniscient state, which it does.

... The idea is what some people call "positive discrimination" in immigration: taking people who do not suffer discrimination and making their lives even easier at immigration. It's what John Reid, the British Home Secretary, is calling "a revolution in border control", necessary to discriminate between those people likely to commit another 7/7 terrorist attack and those likely to do lots of shopping in Harrods.

If you have a strategy, stick to it. Here's what happens when you don't. (Remember, these are SciFi fans – they probably run your IT department.)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/28/1253206&from=rss

Firefly Fans Fight Back Against Universal

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday October 28, @09:11AM from the back-lashes dept. Sci-Fi Television Movies The Almighty Buck

Gossi writes "What happens when a film studio and a fanbase get into bed? Fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly, and the movie by Universal Studios — Serenity — are not amused. After being encouraged to viral market Serenity, the studio has started legal action against fans (demanding $9000 in retroactive licensing fees in one case and demanding fan promotion stop), and going after Cafepress. The fans response? Retroactively invoice Universal for their services."

Shouldn't we be concentrating on Courts that are still not accepting electronic filings? How will we ever replace all those judges with computers?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012857.html

October 27, 2006

Links to Courts Accepting Electronic Filings as of October 2006

Courts Accepting Electronic Filings as of October 2006

A tool to help you identify this year's Florida!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012851.html

October 27, 2006

Voting Systems 2006

From electionline.org, this chart, current as of 9/26/06, includes each state and D.C., with a description of the voting system used, the name manufacturer (the majority use Diebold), and a link (s) to documentation about each respective system (often includes a photo of the unit) or a press release describing same.

Always good for a laugh?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012855.html

October 27, 2006

Symantec Releases New Internet Security Threat Report

"The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report offers analysis and discussion of threat activity over a six-month period. It covers Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code, phishing, spam, security risks, and future trends. The tenth version of the report, released September 25, is now available."

• Symantec Internet Security Threat Report Volume X: September 2006 (120 pages, PDF)