Politics and Law- Page 195

Al Gore bars press from RSA talk next month

Remember, folks, it's Al Gore's Internet. We're just using it.

Gore is scheduled to give a keynote speech on April 11 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. RSA says as many as 17,000 people showed up at last year's conference, and it's reasonable to assume a large chunk of this year's crowd will try to squeeze into Gore's keynote speech. These are security types, engineers, marketers, PR flacks, and so on--many of whom have their own blogs, Flickr accounts, and Twitter feeds where they'll share details about Gore's speech (… Read more

FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects

The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.

Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.

A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems … Read more

Sequoia warns Princeton professors over e-voting analysis

Ed Felten is a Princeton University computer scientist who became well-known in technology circles for a paper he co-authored that showed flaws in digital audio watermarks. More precisely, Felten became well-known for the legal threats he received at the time from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Now Sequoia Voting Systems, which is one of the largest e-voting machine manufacturers in the United States, is threatening Felten too.

On Tuesday, Felten posted e-mail he and fellow Princeton professor Andrew Appel received from Sequoia saying:

As you have likely read in the news media, certain New Jersey election officials have stated … Read more

DEA agent caught twisting facts in wiretap request

When police ask a judge to grant a wiretap order, there's no defense lawyer present to raise objections. The judge has a limited amount of information, all provided by the cops and prosecutors, who in theory will take this solemn responsibility seriously and never lie or twist the facts.

Which brings us to U.S. v. Romero, a relatively routine case in Massachusetts in which Alberto Romero and 17 others were charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute crack cocaine.

To get a wiretap against the alleged crack cocaine ring, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joao Monteiro filed an affidavit … Read more

Porn-friendly .xxx domain backer loses suit against federal agencies

The company behind the proposed .xxx top-level domain, which was rejected after the Bush administration intervened, has been trying to dig up embarrassing government documents through a federal lawsuit.

Make that "was trying." A federal judge on March 12 granted summary judgment to the Bush administration in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ICM Registry.

By way of background, ICM Registry had proposed the porn-friendly .xxx domain in 2004 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, four years after ICANN rejected the idea the first time. In June 2005, ICANN approved .xxx--but … Read more

House votes 213-197 to reject retroactive telecom immunity

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday narrowly approved an electronic surveillance expansion without immunization for any telecommunications companies that illegally opened their networks to intelligence agencies.

The 213-197 split, with most Democrats voting in favor of the bill (PDF) and most Republicans opposing it, hardly means that the political tussle over retroactive immunity is over. It now shifts to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said he was "encouraged" to see the House vote.

But the primary obstacle remains President Bush, who has threatened a veto. The White House circulated a statement after … Read more

Inspector general: FBI not embracing privacy safeguards

The FBI has wielded the Patriot Act's extraordinary surveillance powers to unlawfully collect information about American citizens and has resisted some efforts to impose additional privacy safeguards, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general.

Inspector General Glenn Fine, in a pair of reports released on Thursday reviewing the 2006 calendar year, acknowledged the FBI's top management has been receptive to the points he raised in his first report a year earlier. But he indicated that there was nevertheless resistance to increased oversight and better record-keeping, which would help to prevent further abuses.

The longer … Read more

Security guide to customs-proofing your laptop

If you travel across national borders, it's time to customs-proof your laptop.

Customs officials have been stepping up electronic searches of laptops at the border, where travelers enjoy little privacy and have no legal grounds to object. Laptops and other electronic devices can be seized without reason, their contents copied, and the hardware returned hours or even weeks later.

Executives have been told that they must hand over their laptop to be analyzed by border police--or be barred from boarding their flight. A report from a U.S.-based marijuana activist says U.S. border guards browsed through her … Read more

California takes small step away from Real ID

The State of California has for years been a supporter of Real ID, if not an altogether enthusiastic one. Now that may be about to change.

California State Assembly member Pedro Nava, the influential Democratic chairman of the transportation committee, has introduced an anti-Real ID resolution. It asks the state's congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to "support measures to repeal Real ID."

"I quite frankly think the Legislature will support this measure, my resolution, because there are too many unanswered questions," Nava, who represents part of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, said in an … Read more

NSA shifts to e-mail, Web, data-mining dragnet

The National Security Agency was once known for its skill in eavesdropping on the world's telephone calls through radio dishes in out-of-the-way places like England's Menwith Hill, Australia's Pine Gap, and Washington state's Yakima Training Center.

Today those massive installations, which listened in on phone conversations beamed over microwave links, are becoming something akin to relics of the Cold War. As more communications traffic travels through fiber links, and as e-mail and text messaging supplant phone calls, the spy agency that once intercepted telegrams is adapting yet again.

Recent evidence suggests that the NSA has been … Read more