Monthly Archives: February 2005

The Department of Homeland Security has finally announced the membership of its expert advisory committee for privacy issues. The good news for USACM is that Professor Lance Hoffman from George Washington University is one of the 20 appointees and is also a USACM member. Dr. Hoffman helped bring the Computers, Privacy, and Freedom conference under [...]

“The recently disclosed privacy breach at the data collection giant ChoicePoint, in which con artists gained access to the Social Security numbers, addresses and other personal data of nearly 145,000 people, has exposed the shortcomings of the laws governing the data-mining industry and consumer privacy. [...] But whatever the specific legal fallout of the ChoicePoint [...]

“A major break-in at one of the nation’s largest information brokers could usher in regulation for companies that have trafficked in data unfettered for years, computer-security experts and privacy advocates say. New York, Texas and Georgia are among states pressing for laws that mirror California’s breach law, which requires companies to notify residents if their [...]

“A California woman has sued ChoicePoint Inc. for fraud and negligence after criminals gained access to a database of personal records compiled by the company. The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Friday and claims that for at least five months the company failed to adequately protect people’s [...]

“[...] At America’s insistence, passports are about to get their biggest overhaul since they were introduced. They are to be fitted with computer chips that have been loaded with digital photographs of the bearer (so that the process of comparing the face on the passport with the face on the person can be automated), digitised [...]

“One of the nation’s largest commercial information services said yesterday that thousands of Washington area residents were among those whose personal and financial details were sold to fraud artists apparently behind a nationwide identity theft scheme. As many as 4,500 residents in the District, Maryland and Virginia were among up to 145,000 people whose names, [...]

“One of the nation’s biggest information services has begun warning more than 100,000 people across the country they may be targets of fraud, following disclosures the company inadvertently sold personal and financial records to fraud artists apparently involved in a massive identity theft scheme. ChoicePoint Inc. electronically delivered thousands of reports containing names, addresses, Social [...]

Declan McCullagh has a new article about the Real ID Act, which (as we reported here) easily passed the House of Representatives last week. Among other things, Declan reports on the opposition to the bill by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), one of “eight Republicans to object to the measure.” Declan also addresses the legislation’s chances [...]

“Criminals posing as legitimate businesses have accessed critical personal data stored by ChoicePoint Inc., a firm that maintains databases of background information on virtually every U.S. citizen, MSNBC.com has learned. The incident involves a wide swath of consumer data, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit reports and other information. ChoicePoint aggregates and sells such [...]

Yesterday House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) immigration bill, the Real ID Act (H.R. 418), was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is intended to disrupt terrorist travel and bolster U.S. border security and includes much of the immigration reform language that was dropped from last year’s intelligence overhaul legislation (discussed [...]

“SUTTER, Calif. (AP) — The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children’s privacy. The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency [...]

“Former federal prosecutor Michael Chertoff is expected to be confirmed this week as homeland security secretary, and one of the first items in his in-tray will be how to deal with the question of cyber-security. Mr. Chertoff was questioned about the issue at his confirmation hearing last week, and undertook to appoint a special adviser [...]

“Homeland Security Department officials today released DHS’ first annual privacy report [full report here] to Congress, outlining work done in numerous areas, including technology. A primary goal of the department’s privacy office, which is the first Congressionally mandated one for a federal agency, is ensuring that technologies sustain “privacy protections relating to the use, collection, [...]

“Two powerful House committee chairmen are locked in a standoff over how to handle a federal driver-licensing standard, the first in what could be a number of intraparty Republican squabbles about immigration reform. Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced a bill Wednesday to create a federal standard for state driver’s licenses. That same afternoon, [...]

“The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released specifications that will firm up biometric plans for governmentwide personal-identity-verification cards. [...] Among other things, the draft discusses data flows, card architecture, the client application programming interface and command interface, construction of the card edge, use for physical and logical access, embedding X.509 certificates and using [...]