White House emergency control over the Internet?

by Heidi on September 9th, 2009 in Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

This spring a U.S. Senate bill proposed a right for the White House to disconnect “critical” private computer systems and networks from the Internet in case of emergencies. The bill shifts the responsibility for cyber security from the Homeland Security Department to the White House and the overall purpose with the bill is to ensure the protection of vital infrastructure such as water, electricity, banking and electronic health records from cyber attacks.

Cyber Crime in the Courts

by Erin on July 6th, 2009 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

If you follow this blog, you know all about rogues and scareware on the Web, how these scam products are proliferating at a rapid rate, fooling users into buying software that offers little or no security against the real threats that abound online.

FTC Takes On Rogue ISP

by Erin on June 5th, 2009 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) broke the news yesterday that it shut down a notorious rogue Internet service provider which, it claims, actively participated in hosting spam-spreading botnets, phishing sites, child pornography, and other illegal and malicious content.

From the FTC news release –

Legal Use of Spyware?

by Heidi on June 2nd, 2009 in Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

The French Government is currently discussing a new law proposal referred to as “Loppsi 2” (Loi d’orientation et de programmation pour la performance de la securité intérieure) which is intended to be implemented in France between 2010 and 2015. The French Government refers to “Loppsi 2” as an efficient tool in the war against illegal activities on the internet such as pedophilia, however, even if that remains unsaid the law is of course also intended to be used in order to prevent other types of illegal online activities. 

Two year guarantee for software products within the EU?

by Heidi on May 19th, 2009 in Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

As a response to the EU Action Agenda to strengthen consumer protection for software products, two EU Commissioners, Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva, have proposed consumer protection rules for software products which are in line with the current consumer protection rules for physical products.

Pirates to prison with full sail!

by Pekka on April 17th, 2009 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

The men behind The Pirate Bay were today found guilty of aiding and abetting illegal downloads of copyrighted materials via their BitTorrent Tracker site. The accused were all sentenced to one year's imprisonment by the Stockholm District Court.

New Law Requires Encryption

by Erin on October 29th, 2008 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

Most consumers know all too well about the loss that can occur when private data falls into the wrong hands - a risk that has progressively increased in our digital world, where vast amounts of information is stored on our computers and passed back and forth electronically. For businesses, the repercussions of compromised data can be even more devastating.

Right now, when consumer data breaches are at a record high, accountability is a key issue.

Peeking into packets may darken the Internet!

by Pekka on September 1st, 2008 in Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

As people move an increasing part of their lives into global and local networks, the development of privacy intrusion techniques and technologies faces exponential growth. The will to eavesdrop on other's private communication is reaching new heights. As this occurs, the concept of privacy is being obliterated. Privacy is under attack, giving birth to the current situation where consumer's private information is commonly considered to be an approved target. The constantly increasing demand to acquire personal and confidential information has boosted the supply of eavesdropping techniques and technology.

Google Forced to Bend User Privacy!

by Pekka on July 4th, 2008 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

A U.S. district judge has ordered Google, the Search Engine, to release information about users that use their YouTube service. The major entertainment corporation Viacom won the legal battle against Google, resulting in access for Viacom to information about YouTube users and their "tubing" behavior, i.e. which videos they watch on the YouTube site. The verdict will also give Viacom access to the login-names and IP-addresses of the YouTube users, even though Viacom says that they will not use the information to frame individuals.

Religion No Longer Sacred!

by Pekka on July 3rd, 2008 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

The FRA, Swedish National Defense Radio Establishment, that recently was approved to start their extended surveillance activity targeting wire-based Internet traffic and traffic in the mobile networks, may intercept personal e-mails between local Danish vicars and Danish people in their search for a cure of the souls. How is this possible, you ask? The e-mail of the Danish church is handled via servers placed in Sweden, and FRA is allowed to intercept communications as they pass the Swedish border, according to the newly adopted FRA law.

Done Deed! Sweden Votes to Spy

by Pekka on June 19th, 2008 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action, Researcher Comments.

We are disappointed to announce that the FRA-law that we discussed in yesterday's blog was actually accepted as law by the Swedish Riksdag (national government) yesterday. The number of delegates voting for the new law was 143 and the number of delegates voting against the law was 138. The number of delegates that were absent, and therefore did not vote, was 67.  Only one delegate refused to vote on the matter. Apparently, there was "no time" to wait for a proper investigation of the entire proposal and the addendum, and the decision was to accept the law quickly and then wait for an extra addendum proposal this autumn. The fast process was highly criticized but the directive was to come to a resolution before the summer holidays.

Legislating Spyware

by Erin on June 18th, 2008 in Industry and Security News, Law Enforcement and Legal Action.

Many in the security industry have called for consensus anti-spyware legislation in the U.S. to fully hold spyware distributors accountable for their actions, and to deter spyware vendors from violating consumers privacy.

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