Records on Spy Program Turned Over to Lawmakers
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The Justice Department turned over documents about the government's controversial domestic spying program to select members of Congress yesterday, ending a two-week standoff  that included pointed threats of subpoenas from Democrats.
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U.S. lawmakers on Monday reached  deal on overhauling the nation's spy agencies, ending a  month-long wrangle about the Pentagon's power under  intelligence reforms proposed after the Sept. 11 attacks .
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The U.S. Congress has wrapped up its work for the year by passing a bill that would make it illegal to obtain a person's phone records without permission.
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Privacy advocates obtain records showing that people pulled aside for extra screening during international travel may have detailed records, including reason for travel, race and reading material, stored by the government for years.
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Congress to try for SPY ACT law by year's end.
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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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U.S. lawmakers on Monday reached a  deal on overhauling the nation's spy agencies, ending a  month-long wrangle about the Pentagon's power under  intelligence reforms proposed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
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New bills introduced in Congress this week target the privacy fallout from data breaches as well as the problems of pretexting and spyware.
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Officials with the contractor that runs Los Alamos National Laboratory sent top-secret data regarding nuclear weapons through open e-mail networks, the latest potentially dangerous security breach to come to light at the birthplace of the atomic bomb, two congressmen said.
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A Congressional inquiry into online data brokers has raised concerns that federal and local law enforcement may be skirting privacy laws to obtain calling records
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The FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records -- including terrorist watch lists, intelligence cables and financial transactions -- culled from more than 50 FBI and other government agency sources. The system is one of the most powerful data analysis tools available to law...
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Lawmakers on Wednesday adopted a much-delayed law to open the archives of Bulgaria's former communist secret service, but also voted to keep a small portion of the files secret for "national security reasons."
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The US Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to the biggest overhaul of US spy agencies in more than 50 years, sending the bill to President Bush for his signature.
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(InfoWorld) - Two U.S. representatives have introduced a law that would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission the authority to investigate and prosecute imposters who gain access to other people's private telephone records. The bill, introduced Wednesday by Representatives Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, comes in addition to a bill signed into law by President George Bush in January criminalizing the phone records scheme known as pretexting. The new pretexting bill is important because the FTC has more expertise and interest in prosecuting identity theft cases than many local prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Inslee said. Ken Springer, the founder and president of Corporate Resolutions, a private investigations firm, applauded the pretexting legislation. State prosecutors have been targeting similar tactics to get personal bank records for about 10 years, and reputable private investigations firms haven't used pretexting for many years, he said. "You've got to play by the rules," said Springer, a former special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "It's not a grey area. You can't use it." Although corporate customers may demand that private investigators use all means necessary, Springer tells clients they should consider that the details of their investigations could wind up in the media. "The risk-reward [balance] is something they should consider," he said. After a pretexting scandal at Hewlett-Packard in late 2006, "corporate America got the message," he said. Still, the new pretexting bill can give customers faith that their records are protected, he said. Inslee and Blackburn introduced a similar bill in January 2006, but it didn't come up for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. Their Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act would make it illegal for anyone to knowingly obtain confidential phone records by making false or fraudulent statements to a telephone company or to knowingly sell or receive confidential phone records knowing such information was obtained fraudulently. The bill would also require telephone companies to notify customers when their phone records fall into the wrong hands. In January, Bush signed a law making pretexting illegal, punishable with up to 10 years in prison and fines. Fines and prison sentences would increase if the violations involve more than 50 telephone customers. Congress began investigating pretexting in early 2006 after media reports and a complaint from privacy advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center showed that several companies were selling private phone records online for less than $100. Then in September, HP revealed that investigators it hired had used pretexting to try to discover the source of board leaks.Â California prosecutors charged former HP board Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, former HP legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker, and three investigators with feloniesÂ late last year.
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Two U.S. representatives introduce a law to give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission authority over imposters who gain access to private telephone records.
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The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill to allow local courthouse clerks to disclose &#8220;in the ordinary course of business&#8221; Social Security numbers contained in public records maintained by their offices.
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Two weeks after denying he knew anything about it, the campaign manager for a Democratic congressional candidate has admitted having someone obtain public records on the Republican opponent.