Dodd seeks boost on surveillance bill
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While his Democratic rivals campaigned in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. Christopher Dodd took to the Senate floor on Monday in hopes of pumping new energy into his presidential bid.
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Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd will have a new pitch to Iowans: Vote for a neighbor.
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Officials from cybersecurity company tells the U.S. Congress that a data breach notification bill with reasonable security practice requirements would protect Americans.
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The U.S. Congress should proceed cautiously while considering bills to authorize a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program because of the potential impact on the technology industry, a tech trade group said Friday.
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Efforts are intensifying in Congress to pass legislation that would require electronic touch-screen voting machines used in federal elections to provide paper trails that could be checked in the case of a recount.
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Commissioner Mark W. Everson asked Congress Thursday to boost the agency's funding by the full $500 million requested by President Bush, calling it a way to help shave the record deficit.
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U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman  of the Senate Banking Committee, said on Tuesday he plans to  look at the potential impact of legislation that would sharply  raise taxes on private equity firms going public, such as  Blackstone Group LP .
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A House Republican is pushing a measure that echoes a long-sought Bush administration goal: to require all Internet service providers to keep records on their subscribers.
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Congress was pushing on Friday to finish legislation that would boost security at U.S. ports, but the bill was attracting a flurry of last-minute amendments with both parties viewing it as a must-pass measure ahead of November elections.
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Whoever wrote a legislative provision to give more members of Congress access to income tax records should be tracked down and held to account, a Democratic senator said Monday.
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Sen. Christopher Dodd said Monday that he is gearing up for a possible run for president, announcing plans to travel the country, raise money and hire staff in an effort to garner support.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of civil liberties and other advocacy groups are urging supporters to contact the U.S. Congress as it moves ahead to approve an electronic surveillance program run through the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, the First Amendment Foundation, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers are among the groups encouraging voters to voice opposition to two bills that would authorize the NSA program. Both bills are scheduled to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning. Opponents say the program, reportedly used to spy on U.S. residents as well as foreigners, is illegal because the NSA has conducted surveillance without court-approved warrants. Officials in U.S. President George Bush's administration and some congressional Republicans contend that the program is legal and limited in scope. "This is an unprecedented expansion of government surveillance," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the EFF, which is spearheading a lawsuit against AT&T Inc. for allegedly participating in the NSA program. "We've encountered the ultimate nightmare scenario as far as electronic privacy is concerned -- an unchecked executive branch." U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the program in August, calling it effective and legal. "It is a very narrow program ... focused on communications with al Qaeda where one end of the phone call [or] communication is foreign, outside of the United States," he said in a press conference. "It has been reviewed by a number of lawyers within the administration, including lawyers out at the NSA, including lawyers at the Department of Justice." Numerous U.S. intelligence officials have said the program is effective in tracking terrorist activity, Gonzales added. The legislation in Congress to authorize the program isn't necessary, but the Bush administration is working with bill sponsors, he said. Both Judiciary Committee bills would establish congressional oversight for terrorist surveillance programs conducted by the NSA or other government agencies. One bill, sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and Judiciary Committee chairman, would largely give the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court jurisdiction for any terrorist surveillance programs. The court would have to approve new surveillance programs, as it has for past U.S. government surveillance operations. The second bill, sponsored by Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine, would allow the U.S. president to authorize surveillance programs for up to 45 days without a court order. The U.S. attorney general can then review the program and continue it for another 45 days without a court order. The DeWine bill requires that the president report the programs to congressional subcommittees, but it also allows a 15-year prison sentence and a US $1 million fine to anyone who leaks the details of secret surveillance programs. DeWine, in an August statement, called the NSA program a "critical tool to prevent America from being attacked." The DeWine bill would retroactively approve the NSA program, while the Specter bill would not, Bankston said. Lawsuits targeting the program, now moving forward in Michigan and California, could be stalled if Congress passes a retroactive bill, he said. "Let's let the courts finish the job," he added.
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Sen. Christopher J. Dodd asserted yesterday that he was not "allergic to business," but the Connecticut Democrat vowed that preserving investor confidence would guide his actions and agenda as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee next year.
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(InfoWorld) - Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a flurry of new technology-related bills this week, including two bills that would require companies with data breaches to notify affected customers. Senators Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, introduced the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act. In addition to requiring data breach notification, the bill would also require data brokers to disclose what information they hold on individuals. The bill would allow individuals to correct information held by data brokers, and it would require companies that have databases with personal information on more than 10,000 U.S. residents to implement data privacy and security programs. Representatives Bobby Rush, a Illinois Democrat, and Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, introduced the Data Accountability and Trust Act this week. Their bill, with 24 co-sponsors, authorizes the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to draw up data privacy requirements for businesses, including requirements that they have vulnerability assessments and policies for disposing of obsolete data. After a company reports a data breach, the FTC would conduct an audit of its security practices, and, like the Leahy-Sanders bill, the bill would require data brokers to disclose the information they hold on individuals and allow individuals to correct wrong information. Organizations have lost 100 million personal records belonging to U.S. residents in data breaches since 2005, Leahy said in a speech on the Senate floor. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, singled outÂ data breaches at the U.S. Department of Veterans AffairsÂ last May andÂ retailer The TJX Companies,Â announced in January, in his speech. "These data security breaches are compelling examples of why we need strong federal data privacy and security laws to protect Americansâ personal data and to address the ills of lax data security," he said. "In the information age, any company that wants to be trusted by the public must earn that trust by vigilantly protecting the databases they use and maintain." Members of Congress introduced about a dozen bills requiring data breach notification after a series of breaches in early 2005, but legislation stalled largely over committee jurisdictional wrangling. About 30 states have passed breach notification laws, most of them since 2005. The Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a trade group of IT security vendors, in January called on Congress to pass a comprehensive data protection bill, including breach notification. But some groups, including conservative think tank the Progress and Freedom Foundation, have questioned the need for a breach notification law, saying the cost to businesses may far outweigh the benefits to consumers. Other tech-related bills introduced this week: -- Two bills allowing the FTC toÂ investigate the practice of pretexting, when an investigator assumes a false identity to gain access to a person's telephone records. President George Bush signed a bill creating penalties for pretexting in January, but the two new bills would give the FTC the authority to investigate and prosecute pretexters. Many lawmakers became interested in the issue afterÂ Hewlett-Packard disclosedÂ in September that investigators it had hired used pretexting in an attempt to gain access to board members' and reporters' phone records. -- A bill targeted at spyware by establishing criminal penalties for a number of actions. The bill would prohibit keystroke logging, taking control of a computer without the user's consent, diverting Web browsers, using computers to create botnets and modifying a computer users' browser and security settings without permission. Two spyware bills passed the House of Representatives by overwhelming majorities in March 2005, but the Senate didn't act on them. Â
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U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said on Tuesday he plans to look at the potential impact of legislation that would sharply raise taxes on private equity firms going public, such as Blackstone Group LP .
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Sen. Chris Dodd said Tuesday he plans to have "a conversation with the mirror" over the Christmas holidays to decide whether he'll join a growing field of Democratic presidential contenders.
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Members of the U.S. Congress introduced a flurry of new technology-related bills this week, including two bills that would require companies with data breaches to notify affected customers.