New australia.gov.au provides single entry point to the Australian Government:
Top 10 Digital County Governments Showcased: Information technology (IT) is being deployed on a grand scale by county governments across the U.S. to better serve citizens, according to the 2005 Digital Counties Survey, an annual study by the Center for Digital Government (Center) and National Association of Counties (NACo)...First-place winners in each respective category are Fairfax County, Va.; Prince William County, Va. (three-time first-place winner); Roanoke County, Va. (repeat winner from last year); and Charles County, Md. (three-time first-place winner)."
"In remarks to the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) on June 30, 2005, Assistant Secretary Michael Gallagher announced U.S. principles on the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System." [Link]
Fact Sheet: Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations, June 29, 2005.
Deloitte & Touche published their annual Global Security Study, 2005 (44 pages, PDF) which surveys the state of IT security in the finanical services industry.
Related references:
Identity Theft: Some Outreach Efforts to Promote Awareness of New Consumer Rights Are Under Way, GAO-05-710, June 30, 2005. Highlights.
"CDT Executive Director Jim Dempsey today warned a House subcommittee [Testimony: 12 pages, PDF]that government efforts to create a new air traveler screening system -- called Secure Flight -- have yet to adequately address critical issues concerning the system's effectiveness and ability to protect the privacy and due process rights of Americans. CDT said that the government must develop consistent criteria for adding suspected terrorists to watch lists and should collect from airlines only the minimum amount of data necessary to make effective matches against those lists."
Now available from GPO Access:
Press release: "...the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2005, legislation...would help consumers better protect the privacy of their personal information in the face of recurrent data security breaches across the country..." Note that the press release includes: key features and a summary of the Specter-Leahy legislation, Senator Leahy's statements on the introduction of the bill, and a detailed section-by-section summary of the bill.
Text of the bill, 91 pages, PDF
The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, The National Academies, issued a new report on June 20, Building an Electronic Records Archive at the National Archives and Records Administration: Recommendations for a Long-term Strategy, that "examines several important long-term issues in archiving electronic records."
Prepared Remarks to the FEC June 28, 2005, by kos:"...It isn't my position that the government should never regulate any Internet communications. It is my position that the Internet is so different than television, radio, and print media, that the current campaign finance regime doesn't fit and different techniques must be employed.."
NewsForge has a detailed and very interesting posting on how a group of Italian attorneys have formed a consortium to facilitate the distribution of, and training programs about how to efficiently use open source applications for a range of document management applications as well as e-filing of court documents.
The Fading Memory of the State, by David Talbot, July 2005:
Press release: LexisNexis, University of Maryland Team Up to Preserve Images of U.S. Serial Set Maps: "The University of Maryland is providing the original maps so LexisNexis can rescan the collection into high-resolution digital images in color and black and white. Current scans taken from microfiche cannot provide the color or the same clarity as a scan from the original maps...The information in the Serial Set is arguably the most important historical information source in GPO's long history, said Dr. Charles Lowry, University of Maryland Dean of Libraries and Professor of the College of Information Studies."
Summary of Findings, released June 26, 2005: Public More Critical of Press, But Goodwill Persists - Online Newspaper Readership Countering Print Losses.
The cover story of the July 4, 2005 issue of Newsweek is on ID theft. Following are links to several articles from the issue, as well as a link to a relevant article from the New York Times Sunday Week in Review:
"American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, LTD., Argued March 29, 2005, Decided June 27, 200. Opinion author: Souter
CDT reports that today Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced HR. 3041, the "Privacy Officer With Enhanced Rights Act of 2005" (the POWER Act). "The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to clarify investigative authorities and provide independence to the Privacy Officer of the DHS. It would help the Privacy Officer take steps to ensure that DHS agencies are protecting privacy and following current law and policy."
Press release from NJPIRG: "Today the New Jersey Legislature passed the potent, comprehensive "Identity Theft Prevention Act" (6 pages, PDF) with overwhelming, bipartisan majorities in each house. The law limits the use and display of social security numbers, requires business to thoroughly destroy discarded documents, requires businesses to notify consumers if an unauthorized person accesses enough information to steal their identity, and empowers consumers to prevent new account fraud with a user-friendly "security freeze."
The Microsoft Development Center has extensive and detailed documentation on RSS implementation in Longhorn: "This paper describes RSS in the context of a vision for how web content is and will be consumed, explores opportunities enabled by incorporating RSS functionality into applications and outlines the Windows platform services that make this easy."
Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy: "Legislation passed by the U.S. Senate on Friday will bring increased sunshine to the federal legislative process, and was another step toward strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), its sponsors say. The reform, authored by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) creates additional legislative transparency by requiring that any future legislation containing exemptions to requirements be "stated explicitly within the text of the bill." The bill (S. 1181) was the latest in a series of FOIA reform bills filed by Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, and Cornyn, a member of the panel."
"The GPO takes very seriously any Federal agency's request to
restrict access to Government information that has been made
public. However, the GPO cooperates with Federal agencies in
the appropriate distribution of the official information they
publish..." [Secrecy News]
Tobe Liebert, Assistant Director for Collection Development & Special Projects at the Tarlton Law Library, has launched a new Current copyright literature website, which he indicates will be updated several times each week. Tobe is a recognized expert in this area, so be sure to add this website to your regular reading list, intranets and blogs.
In what appears to be a parallel data mining program to that of the Dept. of Education, about which I posted on November 30, 2004 (Federal Gov't Wants To Mine College and University Student Data), and again on April 6, 2005 (Gov't Proceeds With Plans to Mine Personal Data on Students), new reports today on an extensive military recruitment database created by the Pentagon. Comprised of personal data on tens of millions of high school and college-aged students, the management of the database is in the hands of a commercial company in Massachusetts. A coalition of privacy groups filed comments yesterday strongly opposing the database, stating that "the collection of this information is not consistent with the Privacy Act..." and that the collection of social security numbers "heightens the risk of identity theft."
Today's Washington Times reported on the establishment of the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, at the University of Maryland, funded by the Dept. of Homeland Security. The center will benefit from the participation of several teams of social scientists from throughout the U.S. and the world. One focus of the center is mining an extensive database of terror incidents representing events that have occured over the past two decades.
From the American Library Assocation (ALA) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: U.S. Public Libraries Providing Unprecedented Access to Computers, the Internet, and Technology Training:
WSJ Free Content today, Marketers Scan Blogs For Brand Insights
FTC press release: "Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technology offers significant benefits but also poses risks to consumers who use it, according to a Federal Trade Commission staff report issued today. The staff report, Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Technology: Consumer Protection and Competition Issues (51 pages, PDF), analyzes the consumer protection, competition, and intellectual property issues that were discussed at the FTC's December 2004 workshop on P2P file sharing. The report recommends that industry and government take steps so that consumers receive the many benefits from this technology while avoiding the risks that it creates."
David Pogue provides details on how a pricey, private and very fast WiFi access option is now available to business travelers who need to work wherever they may be...on the road, or at the beach, or in the airport.
June 21, 2005 -- Hearing Chronology of the USA Patriot Act - Hearings held by the House Committee on the Judiiciary (3 pages, PDF).
As part of FY2006 Appropriations, specified in House Report 109-119 - Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), created five years ago, and comprised of a nine member advisory panel, by next week may actually obtain approval for operational funds, which it has not had since its establishment in 2000. The House Committee on Appropriations "directs that from amounts available in Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide, $1,000,000 shall be available for the Public Interest Declassification Board." [FAS]
As a follow-up to my June 17 posting, Details Revealed on Google Library Project at U. Michigan, from BusinessWeek.com today, A New Page in Google's Books Fight: "The newly revealed contract with the University of Michigan is stoking publishers' fears about plans to digitize library collections."
As announced this afternoon by Judith C. Russell, Managing Director, Information Dissemination (Superintendent of Documents), links to documents (all in PDF, unless otherwise indicated), are as follows:
Plenary Session on Strategic Vision
Social Security Opened Its Files for 9/11 Inquiry: "The Social Security Administration has relaxed its privacy restrictions and searched thousands of its files at the request of the F.B.I. as part of terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, newly disclosed records and interviews show."
From EPIC:
Information Security: Key Considerations Related to Federal Implementation of Radio Frequency Identification Technology GAO-05-849T, June 22, 2005. Highlights.
Press release: "During the next ten years the world faces a 29 percent chance of a nuclear attack and the prospect of four new nations being added to the nuclear weapons club, according to a new survey of non-proliferation and national security experts compile by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar. Over the same period, the experts rated the risks of a major chemical or biological attack as both greater than 30 percent, while the prospects of a dirty bomb attack were pegged at 40 percent."
Thanks to all the readers whose support resulted in a Finalist award for beSpacific in the category of Favorite Practice Area Blog.
From CNN Money, ID data breaches: as rampant as it seems documents the circumstances of the most recently reported incident of hacking, called skimming, that involved the illegal acquisition and storage of credit card data, the exact impact of which still has been not fully disclosed apparently due to the ongoing investigation.
Related references:
OCLC Data Mining Projects: "...Internet giants such as Amazon and Google provide valuable lessons on the importance of squeezing the full value from available data. Whether in the form of book recommendations, search result rankings, targeted advertising, or collection views (e.g., Google Scholar), the "Amazoogle" companies make a concerted effort to release as much value as possible from the data at hand. Libraries possess rich reservoirs of data. However, this data needs to be made to work harder in order to create value for librarians and users. To this end, the OCLC Research Data-Mining Research Area will focus on projects aimed at creating value from the bibliographic information in WorldCat and other library data sources."
AP reports that the TSA continued to purchase and aggregate air passenger data despite specific direction from Congress not to do so.
See also:
Press release, Tuesday, June 21, 2005 -- "At the first congressional hearing on the Development Fund for Iraq, Rep. Waxman releases a report on the U.S. mismangement of Iraqi funds. The report details the billions in cash transferred from the Federal Reserve Bank to U.S. officials in Iraq, the lack of financial controls in Iraq, and the evidence of substantial waste, fraud, and abuse in the spending of these funds."
Press release: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - "Rep. Waxman, Democratic Leader Pelosi, and other senior Democrats announced they will introduce legislation to establish an independent Comission to investigate abuses of detainees in connection with Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, or any operation within the Global War on Terrorism."
Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union released a report today examining government policies and practices that have hampered academic freedom and scientific inquiry since September 11, 2001."
Press release today: "Mamma.com Inc....today announced the beta release of its innovative Health Search... [the] technology does more than aggregate results from various content providers [WebMD, MedLine Plus, HealthAtoZ, MayClinic.com, MedicineNet.com, NHSDirect Online] for medical information; we crawl deep into the websites of certain handpicked, trusted, medical websites to extract and format results in a easy to understand, and comprehensive manner."
Mart, Susan Nevelow, Let the People Know the Facts: Can Government Information Removed from the Internet be Reclaimed? (June 1, 2005).
Reports Encompassing More Than One DOJ Component - The Department of Justice's Terrorism Task Forces, Evaluation & Inspections Division, Report I-2005-007, June 2005 (353 pages, PDF)
From today's New York Times, Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users reports on a study, not yet released by the American Library Association (ALA), that documents law enforcement inquiries for information on library patrons' reading materials. The article indicates that there have been "at least 200 formal and informal inquiries to libraries... since October 2001."
S.1266, Title: An original bill to permanently authorize certain provisions of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, to reauthorize a provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, to clarify certain definitions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to provide additional investigative tools necessary to protect the national security, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Roberts, Pat [KS] (introduced 6/16/2005). Senate Reports: 109-85.
Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Personal Digital Libraries and Collections
FTC press release: "In a report to Congress required by the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 ("CAN-SPAM Act"), the Federal Trade Commission says it does not recommend requiring unsolicited commercial e-mail to include a label in the subject line as a means to reduce spam...The report says that although subject line labeling may appear to offer a simple legislative fix for the problem of spam, the Commission doubts that it would materially help consumers or ISPs to block unwanted commercial e-mail or to segregate commercial e-mail from other e-mail messages. The Report states that subject line labeling requirements enacted by numerous states and foreign countries have not been effective to reduce spam."
From the LA Times, June 17, 2005: "The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study."
Information Management: Freedom of Information Act Fee and Fee Waiver Processing at the Department of Energy GAO-05-405, May 27, 2005. Highlights.
Following are links to several related documents worth reviewing on the Google Library Project to digitize the entire collections of participating libraries.
A Fifth of Online Users Who Read Newspapers Now Rely Primarily On Web Editions: "Findings from the latest Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan Summer 2005 research shows that a significant 21 percent of Web users who read newspapers have transferred their readership primarily to the online version, while a majority, or 72 percent, of online users who consume newspapers primarily still access print editions. Seven percent of online users who consume newspapers split their time evenly between the online and offline editions."
"Today, a bipartisan working group of former senior government officials with expertise in homeland security, intelligence, law enforcement, and civil liberties delivered a set of recommendations for reauthorization of the Patriot Act to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The bipartisan group, co-convened by John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress, and Richard Falkenrath, former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, worked for several months to develop recommendations for reauthorizing the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act in a way that preserves civil liberties and safeguards our security. "The combined security, intelligence, law enforcement and civil liberties expertise represented in this group is formidable. While we may hold differing views on particular provisions, we believe that the proposal as a whole represents a reasonable compromise that people on all sides can embrace," said Podesta."
According to an article today by Declan McCullagh, the DOJ is reviewing the implementation of "data retention rules that could permit police to obtain records of e-mail, browsing or chat-room activity months after ISPs ordinarily would have deleted the logs--if they were ever kept in the first place."
"Yahoo! Search Subscriptions beta is a new way to search the subscription content that's important to you. By partnering with publishers, Yahoo! is providing the convenience of a single place to access and find all relevant content, whether it's generally available web content or content from your personal subscriptions."
[FAQ]
FTC press release: "BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its failure to take appropriate security measures to protect the sensitive information of thousands of its customers was an unfair practice that violated federal law. According to the FTC, this information was used by an unauthorized person or persons to make millions of dollars of fraudulent purchases. The settlement will require BJ's to implement a comprehensive information security program and obtain audits by an independent third party security professional every other year for 20 years."
"Welcome to the media blog for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Missouri. Consider this an online press briefing, sort of a virtual courthouse steps, where reporters and editors can find more information they need to make coverage decisions. This site doesn't replace our existing "official" Web site, where we will continue to post news releases and other information."
"What is patientINFORM? patientINFORM is a free online service that provides patients and their caregivers access to some of the most up-to-date, reliable and important research available about the diagnosis and treatment of specific diseases (initially the focus is on cancer, heart disease and diabetes)."
The WSJ free content today includes this article, How Much Is It Really Costing To Comply With Sarbanes-Oxley?, that cites a range of reports, surveys and statistics offering contradictory estimates on actual corporate compliance costs.
From Dave Pollard's blog, how to save the world, this chart documents the "blog process."
Letter to Congressmen Conyers, Oberstar, and Waxman regarding the classification and declassification of a 9/11 Commission report of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) pre-9/11 knowledge of aviation threats, June, 14 2005 (6 pages, PDF)
Press release this evening from Rep. Bernie Sanders: "Congressman Sanders today led a tri-partisan coalition in restoring Americans' constitutionally guaranteed right to read and access information without governmental intrusion or monitoring. With 199 Democrats, 38 Republicans and one Independent (Sanders) voting in support, the House passed Congressman Sanders legislation to amend Section 215 of the Patriot Act in order to keep the federal government from accessing Americans' reading records without a traditional search warrant...Sanders amendment was passed as part of the FY06 Science, State, Justice Appropriations bill and will eliminate Justice Department funding for bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Amendment cosponsors include Rep. Butch Otter (R-ID), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Rep. Tom Udall (D-CO)."
S. Hrg. 109-175 -- Is the Federal Government Doing Enough to Secure Chemical Facilities and is More Authority Needed?, June 15, 2005.
From the Washington Post (reg. req'd), Private Eyes Fear Limits On Information Access
On Thursday, June 16, 2005, the Senate Commerce Committee held a Full Committee hearing to examine federal legislative solutions to data breach and identity theft.
From the Cyber Security Industry Alliance press release on the new survey: "More than 90 percent of voters see identity theft and spyware as serious problems with 71 percent believing new laws from Congress are required to protect consumer security. Today, CSIA released the results of a nationwide survey of voters dedicated to Internet safety issues."
As a follow-up to my previous posting, NY AG Sues Net Marketer For Installing Spyware on Millions of PCs, see this press release dated June 14, 2005:
"Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the complete draft standards for voting technology. The standards, which were developed by a technical committee for the Election Assistance Commission, could determine how votes will be tabulated in future elections. Other documents obtained by EPIC reveal vendor attempts to influence the development of the standards."
"EPIC joined eight civil liberties organizations to submit a "friend of the court" brief (38 pages, PDF) in Forensic Advisors v. Matrixx Initiatives, a case before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in which a pharmaceutical company is attempting to force a newsletter publisher to disclose his subscriber list. The company wants to use the list in connection with a law suit it filed against numerous unidentified people who posted derogatory comments about the company on Internet discussion boards. The brief argues in favor of protecting the list under a Maryland law that protects journalists' sources. It also argues that the list is protected under the First Amendment, since disclosure of the list would deter readership and violate constitutionally established privacy rights."
Recent suggested reading on enterprise blogs, and corporate blogs for public consumption:
On June 9, I posted Questions Surround Editing of U.S. Report on Global Warming, linking to reports on, and documents related to, the "editing" of climate change research prior to publication of a government report on the issue. Another relevant document associated with this story is a June 9 letter sent by Rep. Waxman and Sen. Kerry to the Comptroller General of the GAO requesting an investigation. Further, it was announced on June 12 that the author of the edits, Philip Cooney, has resigned, citing no association with the controversy. He has joined ExxonMobil.
Questions about the adequacy of the data and structure of the federal government's terror watch list continue, and today's New York Times reports on the the results of a recently released DOJ OIG study documenting significant weaknesses with the project, including the manner in which critical information was entered into the database.
The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government scores [excel format] reports that consumers continue to rate most favorably the data provided by health related websites, including those run by the National Institutes of Health [MedlinePlus and the National Cancer Institute main website].
Related references:
MIT Weblog Survey: "This is a general social survey of the greater weblog community being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our goal is to help understand the way that weblogs are affecting the way we communicate with each other. Specifically we are interested in issues of demographics, communication behaviors, experience with weblogs and other technology, and the meaning of various types of social links within the blogosphere." [Andy Baio's links]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Project on Digital Broadband Content published a new Report on Digital Music: Opportunities and challenges (132 pages, PDF):
Intellectual Property: U.S. Efforts have Contributed to Strengthened Laws Overseas, but Significant Enforcement Challenges Remain GAO-05-788T, June 14, 2005. Highlights:
ICANN Watch reports: "At the Luxembourg ICANN meeting, the US Government is organizing a 4-hour session of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on how public display of Whois data supports "combating illegal activities on the Internet." Perhaps sensing that time is running out on unrestricted access to Whois data, the US GAC representative and US-based business/IPR interests have organized the meeting to propagandize the idea that compulsory, public display of domain name registration data and intrusive measures to enforce the accuracy of the data should be retained."
From Intranet Journal, Debunking Five Common Intranet Myths, by Paul Chin. The author addresses key issues including purpose, audience, content and design, that are differential factors between intrants and external websites.
As a follow-up to my October 26, 2004 post, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Sidelines Web Document Library, from the NRC's June 9, 2005 press release: "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is restoring public access to more than 70,000 additional documents through its on-line public library, ADAMS, after reviewing them for security sensitivity. The restoration involves administrative, contractual, research and other documents not related to a specific licensee that were deemed non-sensitive as a result of the NRC's review."
Forrester study finds slowing e-gov adoption: "The Presidential e-Government Initiatives of 2000 have lost much of their steam because people still prefer to interact with federal agencies over the telephone, according to a report from Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass."
Press release: EFF Announces its New Legal Guide for Bloggers - "The Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF) is pleased to release a document that informs bloggers of their legal rights. EFF's Legal Guide for
Bloggers is a collection of frequently asked questions (FAQs)designed to educate bloggers about their legal rights in a number of areas, including libel law, copyright law, and political advocacy."
S. 1216, Official Title: A bill to require financial institutions and financial service providers to notify customers of the unauthorized use of personal financial information, and for other purposes. Introduced June 8, 2005.
