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Police set up lab to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other social media

Posted March 28, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Internet law1

MUMBAI: Mumbai police have set up India’s first “social media lab” to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites, sparking concerns about freedom of speech online.

A specially-trained team of 20 police officers will staff the lab, which was launched over the weekend and will work around the clock to keep an eye on issues being publicly discussed and track matters relating to public order.

“They will work under Special Branch. They will monitor and find out which topics are trending among the youth so we can plan law and order in a good way,” police spokesman Satyanarayan Choudhary told AFP on Monday.

In November police sparked outrage and fierce debate about India’s Internet laws by arresting two young women over a Facebook post criticising the shutdown of Mumbai after the death of a local hardline politician.

The pair were arrested under laws including section 66a of the Information Technology Act, which forbids “sending false and offensive messages through communication services” and can lead to three years in jail.

The case followed several arrests across the country for political cartoons or comments made online.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society research group, said the “natural reaction” was to worry about the new police lab given the way the law has been used.

“Police in the last four years have acted in an arbitrary and random fashion, often using the IT Act to settle political scores,” he told AFP.

“When there’s no crisis for the police, proactively keeping an eye on what people are saying or doing is overkill,” he said.

Choudhary said the lab was not set to censor comments, echoing a statement made by police commissioner Satyapal Singh at the launch.

“By reading the mindset of what people are writing on various modes of communication, we will try to provide better and improved safety and security to the Mumbai citizens,” Singh said.

Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-03-18/news/37814708_1_mumbai-police-new-police-lab-social-media

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Lawmakers: Tougher computer hacking laws may be needed

Posted March 24, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Computer Lawmaker

The U.S. Congress may need to create stiffer penalties for criminal computer hacking to deter the growing number of attacks on U.S. government agencies and businesses, some lawmakers said Wednesday.

Congress may revisit the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the oft-amended law first passed in 1984, in an effort to counter widespread cyberattacks on U.S. computers, said Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s crime subcommittee.

Congress needs to respond to the recent reports of attacks from China and other countries, Sensenbrenner said during a subcommittee hearing.
hackers

“The United States has been the subject of the most coordinated and sustained computer attacks the world has ever seen,” he said. “The systematic and strategic theft of intellectual property by foreign governments threatens one of America’s most valuable commodities: our innovation and hard work.”

Lawmakers didn’t provide concrete ideas at the hearing on how they would update the CFAA. Several indicated they will work on cybersecurity legislation in the coming months.

A real need?

While some lawmakers called for stronger computer hacking laws, others questioned whether there’s a need. Hearing participants didn’t mention the controversial Massachusetts prosecution of activist hacker Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide earlier this year, but some lawmakers’ questions and witness statements seemed to refer indirectly to the case.

The CFAA is “remarkably vague,” said Orin Kerr, a professor at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. Some courts have ruled that an employee who violates his employer’s computer-use policy violates the law, and the U.S. Department of Justice has suggested that an Internet user who violates a website’s terms of use is also acting illegally, he said.

“The lower courts are deeply divided on the statute’s scope, with some courts concluding that the law is remarkably broad,” he said. “As a result of this confusion, the meaning of the law presently varies depending on which part of the country you happen to be in. This situation is intolerable.”

Kerr called on Congress to step in and clarify the CFAA. “The law should both punish what should be punished and ensure that innocent conduct is not criminalized,” he added.

Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of BSA, a software trade group, called for updates to the law and for appropriate prosecutions. “It is important for laws and law enforcement to be strengthened in appropriate proportions, so that innocent and minor infractions are not over-penalized, but serious crimes are effectively deterred,” he said.

Holleyman also called for more congressional focuson cybersecurity research and development, for legislation to make cyberthreat information-sharing easier and for a national data breach notification law.

Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, introduced a national data breach notification law on Wednesday.

Lawmakers also debated whether there should be mandatory minimum sentences under the CFAA. President Barack Obama’s administration is not calling for mandatory minimums as it has in the past. Jenny Durkan, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, didn’t explain the reasoning behind the change in policy, other than saying judges need

Representative Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said mandatory minimum rules are unnecessary and sometimes “violative of common sense.”

Sensenbrenner disagreed. “Does the administration oppose mandatory minimums as a matter of principle, or don’t they think that the crimes that we’re talking about here deserve a mandatory minimum?” he said.

Source: http://www.techhive.com/article/2030771/lawmakers-tougher-computer-hacking-laws-may-be-needed.html

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Computer and Internet Law Updates for 2013-03-13

Posted March 22, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Computer and Internet Law12

•    Google launches ‘help for hacked sites’ instruction series in wake of recent attacks http://t.co/q9Gxa50yOm ->
•    Link to FTC Guidelines on .com disclosures http://t.co/30maP4RbAh ->
•    New FTC guidelines remind advertisers to include full disclosure even in tweets http://t.co/7sHeat9zQE ->
•    Google Admits Street View Project Violated Privacy http://t.co/OngDDgaEl1 ->
•    EU votes to reject ‘porn ban’ proposals http://t.co/aFfQ3x0Cze ->
•    China claims it’s willing to talk to U.S. about cybersecurity http://t.co/DraE5TGCzP ->
•    Texas Considers Adopting the Uniform Trade Secrets Act http://t.co/vhPOIAjnVM ->
•    B.C. government extends outsourced health information management despite issues raised by AG http://t.co/IlbwQrKP9V ->
•    Spotify negotiates expanding radio-streaming service to outside the U.S. http://t.co/fQtJiDZQKw->
•    France says Skype could face prosecution for failure to register as a telecom http://t.co/88aSYSVLcI ->
•    Memorandum of Fact and Law (National Post)min Warman case, Mar 7 13 HT hknopf http://t.co/z7KBzxpzOU ->
•    The Legislation of Privacy: New Laws That Will Change Your Life http://t.co/Pbdx9I7LUA ->
•    CSA Group Announces Support For Canada’s Proposed Combating Counterfeit Products Act http://t.co/xBtZqG8HJY ->
•    Battling Bit Torrent http://t.co/33SzK2yG5t ->
•    Scratching my Head Over the SHIELD Act http://t.co/IDwDYkUYSM ->
•    Huawei and ZTE mention Microsoft 42 times in joint 15-page FRAND motion in InterDigital case http://t.co/O2XE2x8GX5 ->
•    Are Mobileye and iOnRoad confusingly similar? http://t.co/8P5M6bfbd6 ->
•    Protect Your Business With Cyber Liability Coverage http://t.co/ompAkOvE1w ->
•    Viral video star ‘Sweet Brown’ suing Apple over copyright infringement http://t.co/7l7RPLQ100 ->
•    copyright claim presents extraterritoriality, Dastar problems http://t.co/fZWdxYhJKw ->
•    ’Harlem Shake’ Facing Copyright Claims http://t.co/t0dsucHKSZ ->
•    Retailer Sues Visa Over $13 Million ‘Fine’ for Being Hacked http://t.co/4rwRrv7iHw ->
•    Privacy bill would ban police from getting email and location data without a warrant http://t.co/N3d3z9iVD7 ->
•    U.S. Demands China Crack Down on Cyberattacks http://t.co/x0sa1MqFNx ->
•    New Apple v. Samsung lawsuit rolls on, won’t wait for appeal http://t.co/BFMmmkhboS ->
•    HP claims Autonomy is under investigation by Serious Fraud Office http://t.co/HnqwhGYkky ->
•    Online retailers turn back to bricks and mortar to boost sales http://t.co/B7Pr8L0Ol2 ->
•    Iran may sue Hollywood over movie Argo – joke? http://t.co/iqTkXCs4Or ->

Source: http://www.barrysookman.com/2013/03/13/computer-and-internet-law-updates-for-2013-03-13/

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The Failure of Privacy Law

Posted March 19, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Failure of Privacy Law

Recently, the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Jones v. Tsige was celebrated by privacy advocates for recognizing a new privacy tort in Ontario. The plaintiff/appellant Jones received an award of $10,000 in damages for harm suffered as a result of the defendant’s unauthorized access to her bank records over a period of time.

An even more recent dispute between Jones and her lawyer has highlighted a chronic problem with privacy law in Canada: the lack of meaningful recourse. Last week, a judge ordered Jones to pay her lawyer the balance of the legal fees she incurred in her ground-breaking lawsuit. These fees were in excess of $125,000 – more than 12 times Jones’ damage award. The judge made it clear that the lawyer had provided first rate representation for his client. The lesson here is that legal services are expensive, and frankly, the majority of Canadians cannot afford to go to court.

The new tort that resulted from Jones v. Tsige is similar to statutory torts in provinces such as British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. They are fairly narrowly framed; these torts require a wilful violation of privacy. They are meant to apply in cases of stalking, voyeurism, and other deliberate privacy intrusions. The high cost of litigation combined with the fact that courts give relatively small damage awards for the difficult-to-quantify harms that flow from privacy invasion mean that these torts are of little practical use to most Canadians.

Arguably, the most pervasive threats to personal privacy come from routine over- collection of personal information, and poor information handling practices. The tort of invasion of privacy does not apply in such cases. Instead, private sector data protection legislation is meant to provide recourse to individuals when their personal information is inappropriately collected, used or disclosed by private sector organizations. Yet the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has its own substantial defects. This law applies to activities in the federally regulated private sector, and to the private sector more broadly in those provinces without their own legislation (all provinces and territories except B.C., Alberta, and Quebec fall under PIPEDA),. Individuals may make complaints under PIPEDA; the outcome of any such complaint is a report by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC). This report may contain recommendations as to how an organization should correct deficiencies in its practices, but these recommendations are not binding. Once a report has been issued, an individual may choose to take the matter to Federal Court to get an order requiring the organization to change its practices. The individual may also seek compensation for any harm they have suffered. Once again, it costs money to go to court, and those few individuals who have exercised this option have had little success. Nammo v. Transunion of Canada Inc. has become the benchmark for awards of damages in such cases; Mr. Nammo was awarded a whopping $5000 after a credit reporting agency failed to collect accurate information about him, and shared the incorrect (and negative) credit information with a bank. It is no surprise that the majority (if not all) of those who have pursued their PIPEDA claims before the Federal Court have represented themselves. The cost of legal representation would far outstrip any likely award of damages.

The OPC does excellent work within the limits of its mandate, and it has no doubt had some success in improving how (receptive) businesses handle personal information. There is, however, little in the legislation to seriously motivate compliance. PIPEDA is a relatively toothless statute: the Privacy Commissioner has no order-making power, there is no mandatory breach disclosure provision, and there is little in the way of economic consequences for those who flout privacy principles. Yet PIPEDA has passed its first five-year review without much-needed legislative amendment (the Conservative government’s Bill C-12 died on the order paper and has yet to be revived), and it is now well overdue for its second five-year review. It is into this context that Charmaine Borg of the NDP has introduced a private member’s Bill C-475, which would impose a mandatory data breach disclosure requirement on organizations, would provide the Privacy Commissioner with order-making powers, and would create the potential for significant financial penalties for those who refuse to comply with orders.

Measures of this kind could provide a real incentive for organizations to take data protection more seriously. And let’s face it, for the vast majority of Canadians, it is not the right to go to court to sue for invasion of privacy or to seek damages for violations of PIPEDA that will make any kind of difference. These rights are rendered meaningless by both the cost of litigation and by the resultant lack of deterrent effect on bad behaviour. The best protection for individuals is a regime that gives organizations clear reasons to improve their practices and systems.

Source: http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=tag&tag=internet+law

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Computer and Internet Law Updates for 2013-03-14

Posted March 19, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Internet Law

 

 

 

 

  • The Second Opinion: Can Inaction Equal Acceptance? The Ontario Court of Appeal Clarifies the Principles of Contractua http://t.co/kUJpwrPW0z ->

 

 

 

 

 

  • Ex-Employer’s Hijacking of a LinkedIn Account Is a Publicity Rights Violation–Eagle v. Morgan http://t.co/nnZMxjuvu0 ->

 

 

 

 

 

  • New post: Criminal copyright convictions of The Pirate Bay operators “necessity in democratic society” say http://t.co/uNG6NDcURO ->

 

  • Criminal copyright convictions of The Pirate Bay operators “necessity in democratic society” says human rights court http://t.co/trLpL0R6r0 ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed in General, Internet Cyber Law, Law Internet / Cyber

Computer and Internet Law Updates for 2013-03-16

Posted March 19, 2013 By National Cyber Security
Computer and Internet Law

 

  • Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Software Company Liable for Surveillance Conducted by Its Customer – Luis v. Zang http://t.co/owx8xmWS8r ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • News of the Beautiful: The beautiful people show the need for reform in the “manifestly illfounded” Pirate Bay appeal http://t.co/7opQtsDjfA ->

 

 

 

 

 

  • Can a Non-Party Sue for Breach of Contract? The Ontario Court of Appeal Addresses the Doctrine of privity http://t.co/m52gUqBr2M ->

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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What’s HOT in Application Security Vol #36

Posted November 28, 2012 By NewsRoom

What’s HOT in Application Security Vol #36

 

EU Official hacked at an Internet Security Conference

A European Union Official has come out in a statement which declared that her staff was hacked when they attended an internet Security conference last month in Azerbaijan. EC Vice President Neelie Kroes, released a statement about the ironic hack in her blog last week, where she went into further detail to explain the scope of what happened and how her and her employees computers were compromised at a meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Baku.

Her spokesman released this statement on the matter:

“I’m presuming it was some kind of surveillance,” he said in a telephone interview. “What we’re going to do is to get the computers forensically analyzed to see what if anything was taken out of them.”

He declined to say who he thought might be responsible.

For more information please go to:

http://bdtonline.com/latest/x2082769554/EU-officials-We-were-hacked-at-Internet-Security-Web-conference

Iran arrests infamous hacker

Iran’s information security police recently reprehended a man on suspicion of hacking into many foreign and domestic websites and web applications, according to Iranian news site Tabnak.

The suspect admitted that he had hacked into websites belonging to both the US and Israel, in order to ascertain the true level of security. His findings were that both the United States and Israel were lacking in the information security department, and that both were extremely weak and exposed.
The attack comes at a time of extreme tension between the three countries, who’s inflation is spiraling out of control, although it is unclear whether or not the attacker actually had any serious political motive. The Cyber Police Chief made a statement which said that the suspect admitted to hacking the websites of Iran’s State TV Network, IRIB, in solidarity for the Azerbajan earthquake.

This is the latest in a string of politically motivated cyber-attacks, the most recent being in September, where a gang of Hackers dubbed the ‘data coders security team’, succeeded in hacking 370 Israeli sites.

For more information please go to:

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=291524

Hacking attempts to reach 1 Billion in 2012!

Hacking attempts from around the World are about to reach the one billion mark in the final weeks of 2012, according to a recent report. The Origin of Hacks report, released a few weeks ago, found that there were 981 million hacks, or attempted hacks, in the Autumn of 2012 ( a significant increase on the last quarter).

It seems that these trends show no sign of stopping, with a new record being broken each quarter, with no sign of slowing down or regressing. The origins of these attacks are mainly within the domestic country which they take place, although Russia and China are the highest perpetrators of ‘outsourced foreign hacking’

Despite these dismal findings, it can, however be noted that the United Kingdom has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of hacking attempts and successful hacks, and this has been put down to a greater emphasis on the need and importance of security, coupled with a greater amount of money being spent to finance decent security measures.

Source: http://www.checkmarx.com/2012/11/13/whats-hot-in-application-security-vol-37/
http://www.GregoryDEvans.com, http://www.Locatepc.net, http://stolencomputeralert.com, http://computersecurityexpert.net, http://www.hackerforhireusa.com, http://www.GregoryDEvans.net, AmIHackerProof.com, http://ParentSecurityOnline.com, http://TheCyberWars.com, http://hiphopsecurity.com, http://HackerForHireinternational.com, http://www.computersecurityguru.com, http://computer-security-expert.com

Filed in Featured Stories, Hackers In The News, Law Internet / Cyber | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

“My Hugo” — Haley compares response to hacking case to storm response

Posted November 22, 2012 By NewsRoom

WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has signed an executive order to allow 24/7 monitoring of all computer systems within state government in order to avoid another hack that could compromise the identities of millions of South Carolinians.

The first is the executive order requiring all of her cabinet agencies to collaborate computer monitoring through the Department of State Information Technology.

The other action taken was to purchase a device called “The Hand”. The Hand will cover all Cabinet agencies and can stop a potential hacker from getting files from the state’s computers.

The Hand is already in place at the Department of Revenue and was moved in shortly after the breach. It works in real time to detect viruses or downloads.

In October, Haley announced that the Social Security numbers of more than 3.6 million South Carolinians were exposed and stolen by an international hacker.

Haley says her hopes in the coming months are to create enough layers of computer defense in order to stop any potential hackers in their tracks.

The governor also compared the response to the hacker attack to the response given by the state in the days following 1989′s Hurricane Hugo.

“If you think back to Hugo, it wasn’t until Hugo that we brought in an EMD and emergency situations on how to deal with it. This is my way of dealing with my Hugo. Once it happens, it’s an eye-opener that this could happen, but our job is what are you going to do to make sure that my successor has more involved than I did,” said Haley.

Gov. Haley was also quick to point out there’s no silver bullet, to fighting hackers, but feels her actions certainly make sensitive state data more secure.
Source: http://www.wbtv.com/story/20097136/haley-to-update-on-sc-hacking-case

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Filed in Featured Stories, Hacking, IT News and Information, Law Internet / Cyber | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

New gTLDs Revealed

Posted June 15, 2012 By

Yesterday, ICANN finally released the list of the gTLDs that have been applied for. We knew there would be a lot, but the final number is 1,930!

Now begins the 60-day comment and 7 month opposition processes. They will be processed in batches. If no objections are filed, the first set of domains could go live in early 2013.

Of those 1,930, there are 751 applications for the same 230 gTLDs, many of which have more than two applicants. The most popular are the following:
.APP (13 applications)
.ART (10 applications)
.BLOG (9 applications)
.BOOK (9 applications)
.DESIGN (8 applications)
.HOME (11 applications)
.HOTEL (7 applications)
.INC (11 applications)
.LLC (9 applications)
.MOVIE (8 applications)
.MUSIC (8 applications)
.WEB (7 applications)

Oppositions can have four possible bases:
1 – that there is “string” confusion with another gTLD;
2 – that the proposed gTLD impinges on the legal rights of another;
3 – that the proposed gTLD is of limited public interest;
4 – that the community represented by the gTLD has objections to its inclusion as a gTLD.

A good number of the domains appear to be generic terms, which means that a large number of legal rights objections are unlikely. Some of the proposed gTLDs may be objected to as of limited public interest, such as .WTF which is shorthand for a potentially offensive phrase. I also foresee a small number of community objections.

Stay tuned for more analysis in weeks to come. I’ll be talking about this during next month’s free webinar on July 11th; for more information and to register visit http://blog.davismcgrath.com/webinars.

Related Posts:

New gTLDs Revealed is a post from: Cyberlaw Central

©2012 Cyberlaw Central.

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New FBI Surveillance Backdoors? 6 Key Points

Posted May 18, 2012 By

Will Congress require social networks, VoIP, and Webmail providers build in backdoors that FBI could tap for
electronic surveillance purposes? Explore the main issues at stake.

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