Senate Passes Bill to Criminalize Pretexting
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The Senate passed legislation that would make it a federal crime to obtain a personÂs telephone records without permission.
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The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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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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A bill that would toughen border   security while giving millions of illegal immigrants a chance   to earn U.S. citizenship cleared key test votes in the U.S.   Senate on Wednesday, setting the stage for passage this week   and a big battle with the House of Representatives.
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Bloomberg - Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A group of 21 U.S. House Democrats said they would support a Senate measure that shields phone companies from privacy lawsuits for helping the government eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee today endorsed a bill backed by the White House to have a secret court review the constitutionality of the eavesdropping program.
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Both houses of the California legislature have passed a bill that would require government agencies to take security precautions before using RFID chips in public documents and identification cards.
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Wide-ranging bill approved by a Senate panel would also impose up to five years behind bars for merely threatening to steal information from a computer with extortion in mind.
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Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have...
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Under the guise of reining in the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program, the Senate Judiciary Committee approves a bill that would dramatically expand the government's domestic surveillance capabilities, and usher in a new age of rampant monitoring. By Ryan Singel.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed a bill that would require sex offenders to submit e-mail addresses and other online identifiers for inclusion in the Justice Department's National Sex Offender Public Registry.
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The Senate reopens debate on a bill that would protect from prosecution anyone who helped with President Bush's warrantless spying on Americans. Immunity would extend to telecom companies and the president himself.  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) reasserts his threat to block the measure.
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Legislation that would expand the definition of criminal file-trading over the Internet was approved Wednesday by the US House Judiciary Committee.
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The US Senate overwhelmingly approved historic legislation to overhaul America's outmoded espionage apparatus, in the most sweeping reform of US intelligence since the start of the Cold War.
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The U.S. government has been increasing its use of the state secrets privilege to avoid disclosure of classified information in civil lawsuits, prompting legislation in the Senate that would provide more congressional oversight of the practice.
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(InfoWorld) - Legislation that would allow the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to seek civil penalties against businesses that obtain personal data under false pretenses may soon get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The full House could vote on Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act as soon as late Friday or Saturday, Representative Joe Barton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Friday. Barton, a Texas Republican, asked the House leadership to move forward with the bill afterÂ lawmakers ripped into Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) officials ThursdayÂ for allowing the practice during an investigation into board leaks. HP President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and former HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn both testified Thursday that they did not know the details of how the leak investigation was conducted. The pretexting legislation has been stalled since the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved it in March. The bill would allow the FTC to seek civil penalties against so-called pretexters, those who masquerade as a customer to gain access to phone records or other personal information. Representatives of five mobile phone service carriers raised no objections to the bill during Friday's hearing. Lawmakers questioned if more businesses than HP have used pretexting or other questionable investigatory methods. "How do we, and how does corporate America, break this ethos that, if someone thinks that illegal or unethical activity ... is acceptable, everybody else in a corporation goes along with it?" said Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. DeGette will explore ways to add new requirements to the Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting law, she said. Christopher Bryon, a columnist for the New York Post, told lawmakers Friday that he was a victim of pretexting four years ago, long before the HP investigation came to light. A facial recognition software company hired a pretexter to gain access to his sources after he wrote a column about the company, Bryon said. Pretexting appears to be a widespread practice among U.S. businesses, Bryon said. "This is not something I wanted my family to grow up with ... wondering if your mail is being read, if your phone is tapped, if there's a bug in your bedroom," he said. The FTC has filed five lawsuits against alleged pretexters, but the agency lacks the legal authority to seek civil damages, said Joel Winston, associate director of privacy and identity protection at the FTC. The FTC sought to recover pretexting-related profits in those cases, but additional civil penalties would give the agency an additional tool to use against identity thieves, he said. A second pretexting bill, the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act, has passed the House, but the measure is hung up in the Senate over disagreements over the best approach. The House bill would make pretexting a crime, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Congress is scheduled to adjourn by early next week until after the Nov. 7 general election. Congress may come back into session late in the year to address unfinished business.
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A U.S. Senate committee approved a  bipartisan bill to tighten rules on government eavesdropping on  terrorism suspects, but a Democratic presidential candidate  said on Thursday he would try to block it.