Europe May Start Digital Fingerprinting
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Interior Ministers Giuseppe Pisanu of Italy, left, and Otto Schily of Germany talk after wrapping up informal talks with counterparts from France, Spain and Britain on European coordination in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, in
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With plans to enter Europe by the end of the year, Apple could be ready to announce who gets to carry the iPhone.
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(InfoWorld) - A law allowing security officials in Germany to create the largest and most comprehensive pool of personal data ever amassed in the country goes into effect Thursday as the European Union's largest member state moves to protect itself against possible terrorist attacks. The databases of nearly 40 different agencies, including the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), will be linked to allow authorities to run searches on suspected individuals and retrieve information within minutes. Support for the security measure has grown in Germany and many other E.U. member states that worry about their national security being increasingly threatened by international terrorism, organized crime, and illegal immigration. To what extent the numerous databases are already linked -- BKA alone has more than 100 -- and how access to data will be controlled are details the German government isn't prepared to disclose. What is know is that an expanded index file will be created for suspected terrorists. The file will contain the person's name, bank account number, telephone number, e-mail address, driver's license information and other data, including the names of companies, organizations and other parties associated with the person and linked to terrorist groups. Germany is at the forefrontÂ of European efforts to fight terrorism. In a December meeting of E.U. justice ministers in Dresden, the German government sought support for a package of measures that could give police and other security forces in the region unprecedented access to a range of individuals' personal data. The measures, known as the Treaty of Plum after the German town where the accord was signed by several E.U. member states in 2005, would allow police and other security agencies in different countries to search each other's databases for DNA records, fingerprints, vehicle registrations and other personal information. During its E.U. presidency, Germany hopes to muster enough support to turn the private Treaty of Plum into E.U. law. Â
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The European Union investigates whether saving search data violates privacy laws.
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The European Union tackles the prospect of data-privacy breaches years ago; what's America bringing to the table now that Congress is taking the matter seriously? Patrick Lamphere analyzes where things are headed.
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European security experts working on plans for a system to notify small and midsize businesses of IT security threats.
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Internet user profiling could help repressive regimes identify dissidents, group warns.
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Germany will store digital fingerprints in addition to digital photos in passports as one of several biometric security measures.
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In a bid to improve security, ministers from five EU countries said today they hoped to start digital fingerprinting for passports in 2006, but they split over a German proposal to put illegal migrants in transit camps in North Africa.
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Facial and fingerprint data will be stored on an embedded chip.
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Europeans enjoy greater privacy rights than U.S. citizens under Homeland Security's Automated Targeting System. In 27B Stroke 6.
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European Union governments are pushing through contentious new plans to retain data from telephone calls and e-mails for a minimum period of 12 months as part of new anti-terrorist and cybercrime proposals.
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The U.K. government is proposing legislation that would create a system of ID cards with embedded biometric identifiers that everyone living in the U.K. would be required to have by 2011 or 2012.
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Jolted by the carnage of the Madrid train bombings and the cross-border rape and killing spree of a French pedophile, EU states are coming together on an ambitious new vision for policing Europe. It involves joint investigation teams and the sharing of hitherto jealously guarded criminal records and crime-fighting technology.
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(InfoWorld) - In the five years since terrorists attacked the U.S., Europe has been the target of extremist attacks, as has India. Bombings in London and Madrid and a recent failed attempt to blow up passenger trains in Germany have prompted a security clampdown never seen on the Continent. Throughout the European Union, governments are grappling with how to guard against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Indian IT services companies have beefed up efforts to protect data. The discovery of bombs in two German trains in July pushed up several security measures on the political agenda there. In September, the German government agreed to a new antiterror database, which will be available to authorities across the country and contain information such as a person's religion, travel history, telephone number and Internet data and bank details. It also approved increased use of video surveillance in public areas. These measures reflect a gigantic shift in thinking about privacy in Germany, which has been highly sensitive about data protection and surveillance because of its Nazi history and, more recently, the Stasi secret police in the former communist-run East Germany. The need to tighten security has created demand for new technologies to help authorities combat terrorism. The German subsidiary of IBM Corp., for instance, is working on new technology that will enable computers -- not human beings -- to filter information from the cameras monitoring public areas and other locations. Two German companies have developed a new biometric system for identifying airline passengers. Lufthansa Systems Group GmbH, the IT services arm of German airline Lufthansa AG, and high-security document producer Bundesdruckerei GmbH have developed the SecBoard system. The companies hope that the system, designed to conduct biometric checks on passengers prior to boarding an aircraft, will play a significant role in "trusted passenger" programs planned by the airline industry to increase security. In the U.K., the government is close to activating part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) of 2000 that deals with encrypted data, one in a set of powers covering electronic surveillance and wiretapping. Authorities say the increased use of encryption is hampering their access to information on suspectsâ computers. RIPA would allow police to demand that a suspect decrypt data or face up to two years in jail. The encryption measure in RIPA has remained dormant since the techniques werenât widely used when the law was passed, according to the U.K. Home Office. Terrorist suspects already face up to five years for failing to decrypt data or provide an encryption key. But critics contend the law, which would apply in more than terrorism-related investigations, gives too much power to law enforcement and has the potential for abuse. High-ranking officials could demand the decryption of data without a court order, and the law binds to secrecy those served with a request. Experts say the law could increase the chance that, if seized, a companyâs mission-critical data could be mishandled. Elsewhere in Europe, heads of state met to discuss 57 antiterrorism measures two weeks after the March 11, 2004 bombings of four crowded commuter trains in Madrid. Among the measures discussed were the surveillance of telecommunications, Internet communications and air transportation. Civil liberties groups accused them of using the fight against terrorism as an excuse to increase police powers. E.U. legislation was slow to follow but, from September 2007, telecom carriers and ISPs (Internet service providers) must keep data on all mobile and fixed-line calls for between six months and two years. From March 2009, they must keep data on VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls, Internet connections and e-mail messages. Law enforcement officials will be able to demand the date and time of calls and messages, but not their content, and identifying information of the calling or sending and receiving parties. In India, the Sept. 11 attacks were not a watershed event because the country experienced frequent attacks by Kashmiri separatist groups demanding independence. Even before Sept. 11, some of the large Indian IT services companies had hardened data centers supporting their offshore businesses, said T. R. Madan Mohan, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Inc. After Web sites of a ministry of the Indian government and an Indian atomic energy agency were hacked, and anti-India messages posted on these sites, Indian businesses showed increased concern about the need for intrusion detection and related security measures, he added. Infosys Technologies Ltd., Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, already had disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place before Sept. 11, said a spokeswoman for the company in Bangalore. However, those attacks brought the threat of terrorism into sharp focus for Indiaâs export-oriented industries, such as software outsourcing, because U.S. and European customers began worrying about the preparedness of their Indian suppliers for terrorist attacks. (Reported and written by John Blau in Dusseldorf, Germany; Peter Sayer in Paris; Jeremy Kirk in London; and John Ribeiro in Bangalore, India, and assembled by Grant Gross in Washington, D.C.)
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European Commission to propose foreign travelers into and out of Europe, including U.S. citizens, should be fingerprinted.
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A NEW level of cyber-crime potential looms ahead as increasingly sophisticated attackers aim to steal intellectual property, personal identities and the contents of bank accounts across international borders, and within organisations and social networks.