Appellate court judge, Hon. Richard Leon, ruled today that the mass collection of American’s telephone data is “Orewellian” and most likely unconstitutional. What exactly is a “National Security Letter” (or “NSL” for short)? Actually, NSL’s have been around for quite some time, but the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expanded its functionality in the wake of […]
To better understand issues that are not always easily answerable, sometimes we should be forced to examine the alternative opposing viewpoint no matter how benign or absurd. While it would seem hard to defend the NSA’s practice of mass collecting call detail records of non-suspect Americans as not violating the 4th Amendment rights under the […]
A bipartisan group of House and Senate members introduced the USA FREEDOM Act last month in an attempt to restore Americans’ privacy rights by ending the bulk collection of phone records and requiring greater oversight, transparency, and accountability with respect to domestic surveillance programs. The Sensenbrenner-Rokita NSA Reform Bill (another name for the USA FREEDOM Act) […]
This past Summer the Ponemon Institute and Experian Data Breach Resolution organization released a report stating that most businesses now rank cyber-security risks higher than natural disasters and other major business risks. Despite the paradigm shift of this reality in the boardroom, few companies are still willing to purchase cyber-insurance as part of their overall […]
A bill passed earlier this Summer by the State of California Senate could potentially subject individuals, within that State, to criminal prosecution for the unauthorized online posting of “explicit” user-generated photos and videos (the practice otherwise known as “revenge porn”). If passed and signed into law, the bill could potentially pit the rights of victims against people favoring free […]
Thank god for the world of make-believe. We know pigs cannot talk or drive cars, but in a poorly imagined metaphor, GEICO, Inc., released a commercial a few weeks back whereby a pig (meant to be us “insureds,” as they are called in the industry) was pulled over for an apparent traffic violation. The pig […]
For years, cyber-security experts, the FBI, and U.S. Secret Service have lamented that technology alone will not prevent the unauthorized release of mission-critical data. Public awareness and training is a critical component of this process, and yet, we keep losing the cyber-security battle. PriceWaterhouseCoopers and CSO Magazine recently released a collaborative report entitled – 2013 […]
The unauthorized release of mission-critical data presents a multitude of problems for victimized companies, but there are several steps a business can take to mitigate the risk of data loss and subsequent collateral damage. Speaking at Georgetown University, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, James Cole, itemized some best practices for businesses to follow (it bears repeating, even if […]
Ever since Mr. Edward Snowden released classified information about the U.S. spying program “Prism,” a dirty little secret within the tech service industry has emerged – namely, that when it comes to securing mission-critical data, companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc., must, in accordance with the law, hand over such data, thereby throwing a wrench into […]
Last Week, State of Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed SB 5211 into law, which prohibits employers from requiring or requesting that prospective or current employees disclose their username and password to their personal social media accounts. Washington State now joins a growing list of states (Maryland, California, Illinois, Michigan, Utah, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Colorado) who […]