Lawmakers: Additional pretexting legislation needed
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Despite dismay from telecom firms and the Department of Justice, lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear ready to once again put their weight behind laws designed to crack down on pretexting.
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THE REGION The Massachusetts Senate is expected today to pass legislation aimed at preventing foreclosures and mortgage fraud. The bill encompasses several proposals made earlier by legislators and Governor Deval L. Patrick including: Making mortgage fraud a felony; establishing procedures to avoid deceptive mortgage loan advertising; adding requirements for lenders and borrowers, including in-person counseling; licensing mortgage originators; creating a ...
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US lawmakers have introduced legislation that would implement recommendations of a bipartisan federal commission aimed at preventing another terrorist attack on the United States.
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Vice President asks Congress to extend law beyond Feb. 1, and to give immunity to telecom firms.
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Before Congress adjourned, lawmakers managed to quietly add obscure provisions to a grab bag of legislation.
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Certainly no one likes spyware so since mid-May, a trio of bills have been introduced before Congress.  All three will face the Senate next week, including two competing versions passed by the House, and an entirely new Senate bill whose ink isn't even dry enough for its prototype language to enter the Congressional Record.
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By Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.  Dec. 13--Good ideas occasionally do find their way into the Code of  Virginia. State Senator Ryan McDougle of Hanover and Attorney General Bob  McDonnell have proposed one such example for the upcoming General Assembly  session.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. legislators signalled Thursday that they will hold Hewlett-Packard's feet to the fire during House testimony on the company'sÂ pretexting scandal, while former General Counsel Ann Baskins formally declined to answer any questions by invoking her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. BaskinsÂ resigned her positionÂ Thursday, effective immediately. Subsequent witnesses including outside investigator Ronald DeLia, of the investigation firm Security Outsourcing Solutions, were also refusing to testify at press time based on their Fifth Amendment rights. HP's use of detectives whoÂ obtained people's telephone recordsÂ under false pretenses while investigating press leaks from its board will be in the spotlight. The matter caught the attention of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, some of whose members have been activelyÂ promoting legislationÂ that would explicitly criminalize tactics such as those used in the HP investigation. The actions taken by HP were "not the act of one rogue employee," said Representative Jay Inslee of Washington state, indicating that at least some of the politicians might not accept the characterization of the events at HP that its chief is set to offer before the subcommittee. In a written version of his testimony made available earlier, President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd called the scandal the result of aÂ "rogue investigation." Inslee and Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have co-authored legislation that would prohibit the obtaining of customer information from telecommunications carriers by false pretenses, and the sale or disclosure of such records obtained by false pretenses. In her opening remarks Blackburn, a Republican, called pretexting a purposeful effort to deceive and defraud in order to get information one is not entitled to have. "How prevalent is it in the corporate boardroom?" she asked. Criminalization of pretexting needs to extend to all forms of telecommunications, said Representative Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, adding that legislation must address records ranging from conventional telecom through mobile and Internet telephony. She called for a "comprehensive legislative approach" to cover all sectors where pretexting could occur.
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The U.S. House Energy and Commerce  Committee will ask wireless company executives and the head of  the Federal Communications Commission to testify Friday on the  use of deceptive measures to obtain personal information, known  as pretexting, the panel said on Monday.
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Justice Department officials are revising controversial guidelines for criminal prosecutions of companies in response to pressure from business groups, civil liberties lobbyists and an influential lawmaker who is expected to introduce legislation on the issue early next week.
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(InfoWorld) - Obtaining private records under false pretenses is bad, but some in the technology industry say it happens all the time and wonder whether new federal legislation will curb "pretexting." Pretexting came up in a discussion about tech industry legislation at the Tech Policy Forum Tuesday in San Jose, California. State charges are pending in San Jose against people charged inÂ the pretexting scandal at Hewlett-Packard (HP). Four people, including ousted HP Chairman Patricia Dunn,Â were charged in October 2006 for their part in a scheme to identify leaks to media by HP directors by obtaining their phone records and those of some reporters. Agents working on behalf of HP allegedly tricked phone companies into divulging people's phone records by pretending to be them. In the wake of the HP pretexting scandal, which promptedÂ a House subcommittee to call HP executives and others to testify, Congress passed federal legislation signed by President George Bush in JanuaryÂ outlawing pretexting. But a new bill has been introduced in the current session of Congress to direct the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to enforce the ban on pretexting. The FTC already enforces a ban on pretexting, but it is narrowly defined, said Mozelle Thompson, a consultant who once served as an FTC commissioner. "It only covers pretexting for the purpose of identity theft, and you have to show a direct harm to a consumer" because of it, Thompson said at the summit. Although some speakers at the summit criticized phone companies for not protecting call records well enough, another wondered how pretexting could be stopped. "This has been happening for years," said Shari Steele, president of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The latest bill, co-authored by Representatives Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, is a complement to the earlier pretexting ban. The FTC should enforce the pretexting ban because it has more expertise and interest in prosecuting identity theft cases than local prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Inslee said. The two introduced their bill in 2006, but it never came up for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.
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Two bills take different approaches toward the tricky concept of how to regulate what happens if a company has a data leak.
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U.S. lawmakers on Thursday plan to  shine a spotlight on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s  snooping  into the telephone records of some board members and  journalists, a practice that Congress may soon ban.
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Capitol Briefing | Leaders say they would like to have a bill done before last day of congressional session on Feb. 15.
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For the first time since the Abscam scandal a quarter-century ago, multiple lawmakers face criminal and ethics investigations that are tarnishing Congress, already low on public approval.
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Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into a law a bill that will ban the practice of pretexting in the state beginning on Jan. 1.
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Lawmakers are questioning whether recently revised guidelines protect the confidentiality of legal communications and the right to legal counsel.