Keeping your story straight? Blogger/reporters could sit in the court for a while then step out to blog – how much is too much?

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11337664?source=rss

DA, defense want to prevent blogging at trial

The Associated Press Posted: 12/30/2008 03:17:11 PM MST Updated: 12/30/2008 04:05:29 PM MST

DENVER—Prosecutors and defense attorneys want to prevent blogging out of fear witnesses could learn what's happening inside the courtroom before they testify in the Jan. 12 trial of a man accused of causing the death of his 11-week-old son

... The joint motion filed Monday seeks to ban cell phones and computers.

A common argument and cogent rebuttal...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231055917855

Are state and federal breach notification mandates unreasonable?

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:59 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Chris Wolf, an attorney and head of the Proskauer Rose (Washington, D.C.) law firm’s privacy and security group, stated in a recent interview that breach notifications should be delayed until all the facts are in about what was lost and who was affected. While this might be a good legal position, I’m not sure this view is shared by victims of a breach, privacy advocates, or me if the delay reaches across weeks or months.

[...]

Organizations unable or unwilling to provide the controls necessary to react immediately to protect customer, employee, or patient information should reconsider keeping it in the first place.

Source - Tech Republic

[From the article:

Wolf also asserts that organizations need time to understand the breach–who was affected and what was taken–before they release a notification. I don’t disagree with this. However, making these decisions quickly, within regulatory constraints focused on risk mitigation, is the role of a well-designed and practiced incident response process.

... Each organization must know where PII and ePHI is stored, use reasonable and appropriate controls to prevent unauthorized access, use intrusion or extrusion monitoring to detect a breach, and document a quick breach response. I define “quick” as hours, not weeks or months.

George Orwell was an optimist.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081230181401423

UK's database plan condemned by Europe

Tuesday, December 30 2008 @ 06:14 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Britain must rethink plans for a database holding details of every email, mobile phone and internet visit, Europe's human rights commissioner has said in an outspoken attack on the growth of surveillance societies. Thomas Hammarberg said that UK proposals for sweeping powers to collect and store data will increase the risk of the "violation of an individual's privacy".

Source - The Independent

[From the article:

These proposals have already been described by the Government's own terrorism-law watchdog as "awful" and attacked by civil liberty groups for laying the basis of a Big Brother state.

Related. The US is moving toward the UK's position, but not in one swell foop.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231051711813

Ga. sex offenders must hand over online passwords

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:17 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

Source -

Better is still a long way from adequate.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231051917788

Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s Safari Fail a Privacy Test

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:19 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

In the new browser war, privacy is a crucial battleground.

Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari all compete to give users the most control over their online identities and the best protection from Web sites that use “cookies,” those unique identifiers that can track users online.

So how effective are the newest batch of browser privacy tools? Kate McKinley, a researcher at iSec Partners, a San Francisco security firm, sought to find out.

Source - New York Times

[From the article:

In a paper published Tuesday, Ms. McKinley found particular problems with Safari and concluded that none of the four major browsers extends its privacy protections to Adobe’s immensely popular Flash plug-in, which is used to display Web animations and video.

When the government starts being rational, it probably means they will cancel the whole plan.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10129818-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

FCC chairman revises wireless broadband plan

Posted by Marguerite Reardon December 30, 2008 10:23 AM PST

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has backed off his plan that would require free wireless broadband license holders to filter for smut.

“All that is not mandatory is forbidden, all that is not forbidden is mandatory.” E. B. White

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10129841-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Business groups sue over Homeland Security E-Verify program

Posted by Stephanie Condon December 30, 2008 12:11 PM PST

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations filed suit against U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week, complaining that the Homeland Security Department cannot legally require federal contractors to use its online worker verification database.

... Use of the system is voluntary, but President George Bush signed an executive order earlier this year requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their workers' employment eligibility.

The lawsuit, filed on December 23 in the U.S. District Court for Maryland's southern division, asks the court to declare the executive order and subsequent rule changes to be illegal and void, since the president's order is in direct contradiction to the law, which says that no person or entity shall be compelled to participate in the E-Verify program. The only exemptions are federal agencies, the legislative branch, and certain immigration law violators.

Cyber war: The electronic equivalent of a Fireside Chat?

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/israels-info-wa.html

YouTube, Twitter: Weapons in Israel's Info War

By Nathan Hodge December 30, 2008 1:47:01 PM

Days after sending aircraft to strike Hamas militants in Gaza, the Israeli government is launching a campaign to dominate the blogosphere.

Among other things, the Israeli military has started its own YouTube channel to distribute footage of precision airstrikes. And as I type, the Israeli consulate in New York is hosting a press conference on microblogging site Twitter.