E-Mail
April 23, 2008
* New GAO Reports: Abstinence Education, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties, E-Mail Management by Federal Agencies, NTSB
  • Abstinence Education: Assessing the Accuracy and Effectiveness of Federally Funded Programs, GAO-08-664T, April 23, 2008
  • Antidumping and Countervailing Duties: Congress and Agencies Should Take Additional Steps to Reduce Substantial Shortfalls in Duty Collection, GAO-08-391, March 26, 2008
  • Federal Records: Agencies Face Challenges in Managing E-Mail, GAO-08-699T, April 23, 2008: "Federal agencies are increasingly using electronic mail (e-mail) for essential communication. In doing so, they are potentially creating messages that have the status of federal records, which must be managed and preserved in accordance with the Federal Records Act. To carry out the records management responsibilities established in the act, agencies are to follow implementing regulations that include specific requirements for e-mail records. In view of the importance that e-mail plays in documenting government activities, GAO was asked to testify on issues relating to the preservation of electronic records, including e-mail."
  • Homeland Security: Enhanced National Guard Readiness for Civil Support Missions May Depend on DOD's Implementation of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, GAO-08-311, April 16, 2008
  • Human Capital: Workforce Diversity Governmentwide and at the Small Business Administration, GAO-08-725T, April 23, 2008
  • Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance: DOD Can Better Assess and Integrate ISR Capabilities and Oversee Development of Future ISR Requirements, GAO-08-374, March 24, 2008
  • National Transportation Safety Board: Progress Made in Management Practices, Investigation Priorities, Training Center Use, and Information Security, But These Areas Continue to Need Improvement, GAO-08-652T, April 23, 2008
April 17, 2008
* Ruling on Preservation of White House E-Mails Awaited

News release: "Today, the White House sought clarification from the court concerning its ability to restore missing records from backup tapes that are currently being preserved. The White House inquiry comes as the National Security Archive continues to await a ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on its pending motion to extend an e-mail preservation order against the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and to depose relevant witnesses about the state of the White House's e-mail archiving system.

A new bill to establish procedures to assure the preservation of electronic federal and presidential records was introduced this week by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-NH) (H.R. 5811), but that bill would have no effect on the e-mails that are the subject of the pending lawsuit. A new chronology of events in the White House e-mail lawsuits was also published on the Web today by the Archive.

  • Related postings on missing White House emails
  • April 12, 2008
    * University of Chicago Law Removes Classroom Web Access

    Jerry Crimmins, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, April 10, 2008: " The University of Chicago Law School has removed Internet access in most of its classrooms because of a growing problem of students surfing the Web on laptops during lectures...Law students' use of laptops to surf the Web, read and write e-mail and play computer games during class has brought changes at a number of schools, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford."

    March 21, 2008
    * White House Discloses Destruction of Computer Hard Drives

    Follow up to previous postings on litigation and hearings on missing White House email and violations of the Presidential Records Act, news today from AP: "Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005. The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed."

    March 18, 2008
    * Judge Orders White House to Show Cause Why Missing Email Should Not be Recovered

    Follow up to previous postings on litigation and hearings on missing White House email and violations of the Presidential Records Act, today's news release: "Today, in response to a request by the National Security Archive, which along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has sued the White House challenging its failure to preserve millions of missing email, Magistrate Judge Facciola issued a show cause order in CREW, et al. v. EOP. Judge Facciola's order requires the White House to show cause by close of business Friday, March 21, why it should not be ordered to create and preserve a forensic copy of any media that has been used or is being used by any former or current employee between March 2003 and October 2005, the period of time for which email is missing. He entered the Order based at least in part on the White House's own admission that it did not preserve back-up tapes prior to October 2003."

  • National Security Archive: Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Emergency Motion to Extend TRO/Preservation Order and for Depositions, March 11, 2008
  • March 14, 2008
    * VoIP: Who Might Be Spying on Your Communications?

    VOIP-News: "Email, IM (instant messaging) and even VoIP solutions like Skype and Vonage have taken over communications in both the business and social worlds. These systems work well because they're a much-needed solution for high phone bills, static-filled communications and dropped cell-phone calls. Internet-based communication methods also give users optimum remote access, since all one needs to use VoIP or send an IM is an Internet connection. But with this increase in popularity comes serious security issues. VoIP technology is still relatively new, and hackers are finding new ways to rip off service providers and their customers. Just who might be spying on your online communications? You might be surprised."

    March 06, 2008
    * Trio of Commerce Chairmen Call for Further Investigation Based on Latest Domestic Surveillance Allegations

    Electronic Frontier Foundation: "Three powerful House Commerce Committee Chairmen strongly urged their colleagues Thursday to defer acting on requests for retroactive immunity and to demand more information from the White House and the telecommunications companies in the wake of disclosures by another whistleblower that the government apparently has been granted an open gateway to customer information and calls by a major telecommunications company."

    • March 6, 2008 Dear Colleague letter, written by John Dingell, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Ed Markey, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet; and Bart Stupak, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: "..Yesterday another whistleblower stepped forward with troubling charges that at least one major wireless telecommunications giant may have given a Congressional entity access to every communications coming through that company's infrastructure, including every e-mail, Internet use, document transmission, video and text message, as well as the ability to listen in on any phone call."

    • Related postings on domestic surveillance program

    March 02, 2008
    * Pelosi: Response to Administration Decision Not to Enforce Contempt Citations of Miers and Bolten

    News release: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement February 29, 2008 in response to a letter she received late this afternoon from U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey stating that the Administration is refusing to enforce contempt of Congress citations against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten:

    “By ordering the U.S. Attorney to take no action in response to congressional subpoenas, the Bush Administration is continuing to politicize law enforcement, which undermines public confidence in our criminal justice system. Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly. The American people demand that we uphold the law. As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that.”

  • AP: Mukasey Refuses Probe of Bush Aides Mukasey Refuses to Order Grand Jury Probe of Bush Chief of Staff, Ex-White House Counsel
  • * 2007 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey

    2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey - Over Half of All Employers Combined Fire Workers for E-Mail & Internet Abuse, February 28, 2008

  • "From e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute."
  • February 26, 2008
    * Committee Holds Hearing on Electronic Records Preservation at the White House

    Committee Holds Hearing on Electronic Records Preservation at the White House, Chairman Waxman's Opening Statement, February 26, 2008:
    "...When President Clinton left office and President Bush came into office, the White House had in place a system for archiving White House e-mails that complied with the Presidential Records Act...In its place, the White House adopted a system that one of its own experts described as “primitive” and carried a high risk that "data would be lost." The system also had serious security flaws. Until the problem was corrected in 2005, all officials in the White House had access to the archive system and the ability to delete or alter existing information. The White House’s own analysis of its system identified over 700 days in which e-mail records seem either impossibly low or completely nonexistent. This 2005 analysis was prepared by a team of 15 White House officials and contractors."

    February 25, 2008
    * Committee to Hold Hearing on Electronic Records Preservation at the White House

    "On Tuesday, February 26, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the full Committee on Government Oversight and Reform will hold a hearing entitled Electronic Records Preservation at the White House."

  • Related postings on missing White House email
  • February 20, 2008
    * A Portrait of Early Internet Adopters: Why People First Went Online --and Why They Stayed

    A Portrait of Early Internet Adopters: Why People First Went Online --and Why They Stayed, by Amy Tracy Wells, Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, February 20, 2008

  • "In our survey, we asked these long time internet users why they first went online. The majority of respondents noted "to communicate with colleagues." When asked what their favorite application was at the time they first went online, most said email. This is not much different from what we found in a survey in February-March 2007: 56% of respondents reported sending email yesterday -- the day before they were contacted in the survey."
  • February 17, 2008
    * Registry of USG Recommended Biometric Standards

    "This Registry of USG Recommended Biometric Standards (Registry) supplements the NSTC Policy for Enabling the Development, Adoption and Use of Biometric Standards. This Registry is based upon interagency consensus on biometric standards required to enable the interoperability of various Federal biometric applications, and to guide Federal agencies as they develop and implement related biometric programs. Version 1.0 of this Registry document is being presented to the public for review, with comments due by March 10, 2008. The Subcommittee will review all comments received, make necessary adjustments, and finalize the Registry through normal NSTC approval processes. The Subcommittee will continuously review the content of this document, and release updated versions as required to assist agencies in the implementation and reinforcement process of biometric standards to meet agency-specific mission needs."

    February 06, 2008
    * Cisco Study on Remote Workers Reveals Need for Greater Diligence Toward Security

    "Cisco® today announced key findings from its annual global study on remote workers' security awareness and online behavior, indicating how they can inadvertently heighten risks for themselves and the companies they work for. The study's findings are prompting Cisco security executives to offer recommendations to information technology (IT) professionals on how to protect their companies against threats and maximize the business benefits of distributed and mobile workforces."

    February 04, 2008
    * Call for Special Counsel to Investigate Missing White House Emails

    Follow up to previous postings on the controversy surrounding missing White House email, this press release: "Today, in light of the emerging details of the disappearance of millions of White House emails, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey asking that he appoint a special counsel to investigate the matter. Specifically, CREW asked for an investigation into whether the White House violated federal record-keeping laws by knowingly failing to preserve and restore millions of emails and by deliberately failing to use an effective and appropriate record-keeping system for the preservation of federal and presidential electronic records. The White House is subject to two sets of federal laws governing how it must maintain and preserve its records, the Federal Records Act (FRA) and the Presidential Records Act (PRA)."

    * FBI Identifies Recurring Fraudulent E-mail Scam

    Press release: "The FBI has recently developed information indicating cyber criminals are attempting to once again send fraudulent e-mails to unsuspecting recipients stating that someone has filed a complaint against them or their company with the Department of Justice or another organization such as the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, or the Better Business Bureau."
    Related resources:

  • FBI's New E-Scams & Warnings website

  • The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).
  • January 31, 2008
    * Minimizing the Effect of Malware on Your Computer: FTC Offers Information on Protecting, Reclaiming Your Computer

    "Criminals are hard at work thinking up creative ways to get malware on your computer, warns the Federal Trade Commission. With appealing Web sites, desirable downloads, and compelling stories, these criminals try to lure consumers to links that will download malware, especially on computers that don’t use adequate security software. Then, they use the malware – malicious software – to steal personal information, send spam, and commit fraud. A new publication from the FTC has information that could help consumers protect their computers against malware and reclaim their computer and electronic information if malware is already on their computer. The publication, Minimizing the Effects of Malware, provides tips on spotting malware, and urges consumers to act immediately if they suspect their computer is affected by malware."

    * IRS Warns of New E-Mail and Telephone Scams Using the IRS Name; Advance Payment Scams Starting

    Press release: "The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers to beware of several current e-mail and telephone scams that use the IRS name as a lure. The IRS expects such scams to continue through the end of tax return filing season and beyond. The IRS cautioned taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams involving proposed advance payment checks. Although the government has not yet enacted an economic stimulus package in which the IRS would provide advance payments, known informally as rebates to many Americans, a scam which uses the proposed rebates as bait has already cropped up."

    January 27, 2008
    * Tech Writers Speculates on World Without Internet

    What if the Internet went down...and didn't come back up? By Lynn Greiner, CIO.com, 01/22/08

  • "Imagine, if you will, a world with no Internet. No e-mail. No e-commerce. And no BlackBerrys. E-mail would be supplanted by snail mail; cell phones by land lines. Now imagine what the future would look like. Futurists say virtual business services of all sorts, accounting, payroll and even sales would come to a halt, as would many companies.
  • January 24, 2008
    * Sensitive Data Retrieved From Used Government Tapes

    Press release: "Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04), has sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking that it reopen its investigation of the privacy and national security risks posed by government agencies reselling used magnetic data tapes that may once have contained large amounts of sensitive personal and government information. Researchers working for Imation, an Oakdale, MN-based corporation that produces magnetic data tapes, were able to recover a wide range of sensitive information from used data tapes that were supposedly wiped clean before being re-sold. Using readily available equipment and information, Imation investigators found out where the tapes originated and recovered bank account numbers, expense reports, employee tax and benefit information, and other sensitive data."

    January 21, 2008
    January 18, 2008
    * Chairman Waxman Schedules Hearing to Examine Preservation of White House E-mails

    Follow up to previous postings on missing White House emails, from the House Oversight Committee: "On February 15, the Committee will hold a hearing to investigate White House compliance with the Presidential Records Act. Statements made at the January 17 White House press briefing contradict information provided to the Committee, which revealed that a 2005 White House analysis found no archived mail for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005. The following officials have been invited to testify: Fred Fielding, Counsel to the President; Alan Swendiman, Director, Office of Administration; Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States."

  • Letter to Fred Fielding

  • Letter to Allen Weinstein

  • White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto for January 17, 2008: "...I'm saying we have no evidence that shows that anything at all is missing. And you're saying, well, have you found the missing emails -- and we say we have no evidence that anything is missing..."
  • January 16, 2008
    * White House Filing in CREW Lawsuit Verfies Deficiences in Email Archiving System

    Follow up to previous postings on missing White House emails, today's Press release from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): "Yesterday’s midnight filing by the White House in CREW v. Executive Office of the President, a lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve and restore millions of missing emails, raises some very troubling questions...The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails. This is no mere technicality; it is this failure that led to the likely destruction of over 10 million email. What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration -- a system that properly preserved White House email -- but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system."

  • National Security Archive: White House Admits No Back-Up Tapes for E-mail Before October 2003
  • January 12, 2008
    * British Educational Communications and Technology Agency Report on Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007

    Press release: "Becta [British Educational Communications and Technology Agency], the education technology agency, has published a key report on Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 and on document interoperability which analyses the suitability of both software packages for adoption by schools and colleges."

  • Microsoft Vista and Office 2007: full report, Published: 9 January 2008, Publication ID: BEC1-15529, 40 pages, PDF
  • January 08, 2008
    * Magistrate Judge Rules White House Must Answer Questions About Missing White House E-mails

    Follow up to postings on missing White House E-mail, from the National Security Archive: "In an Order issued today, Magistrate Judge Facciola of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the White House to answer questions about over 5 million missing e-mails generated between 2003-2005. Noting that the need for information the missing e-mails is "time-sensitive" because of the risk that stored copied of the e-mails "are increasingly likely to be deleted or overridden with the passage of time," the Court demanded answers in a sworn declaration by January 13, 2008 about the location of the missing e-mails."

  • Via CREW, document library related to Judge Issues Order Demanding Answers from the White House on Back-Ups of 10 Million Missing Emails
  • December 28, 2007
    * FTC Issues Staff Report on Malicious Spam and Phishing

    Press release: "In a new report, the Federal Trade Commission staff describes findings from its July 2007 workshop, “Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions” and proposes follow-up action steps that stakeholders can adopt to mitigate the harmful effects of malicious spam and phishing. In addition to proposing action steps for stakeholders, the report provides an overview of the agency’s decade-long role in protecting consumers from the threats of fraudulent spam and phishing. The report also announces results from staff’s 2007 Harvesting and Filtering Study, which suggest that Internet service providers’ spam filters continue to serve an integral role in reducing the amount of spam that reaches consumers’ in-boxes."

  • Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions (39 pages, PDF)
  • * Proofpoint Reports Spam Email Trends for November 2007

    Press release: "Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, today reported spam trends for data collected during the month of November 2007, finding that, on average, spam continues to represent nearly 90% of the total email volume received by large enterprises. Attachment-based spam made a comeback with the prevalence of image-based spam, PDF spam and Microsoft Word document spam all increasing over October levels."

    November 29, 2007
    * Annual McAfee Virtual Criminology Report

    McAfee Virtual Criminology Report - Cybercrime: The Next Wave - The annual McAfee global cyber trends study into organized crime and the Internet in collaboration with leading international security experts, November 2007.

  • "For this report we consulted with more than a dozen security specialists at top institutions such as NATO, the FBI, SOCA, the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), the International Institute for Counter -Terrorism in Israel and the London School of Economics. These experts are also on the front lines in the fi ght against cybercrime every day, and we asked for their insights on the state of this dangerous underworld - as well as their predictions on where it’s going next...the experts agree that cybercrime has evolved significantly in complexity and scope. Espionage. Trojans. Spyware. Denial-of-service attacks. Phishing scams. Botnets. Zero-day exploits. The unfortunate reality is that no one is immune from this malicious industry’s reach — individuals, businesses, even governments. As the world has flattened, we’ve seen a signifi =cant amount of emerging threats from increasingly sophisticated groups attacking organizations around the world. And it’s only going to get worse..."

  • November 20, 2007
    * Senate Finance Committee Releases Report on Investigation of Avandia

    Prepared Statement of Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Regarding the Finance Committee Investigation of Avandia, November 15, 2007: "We place a great deal of trust in pharmaceutical companies to make safe and effective products.The health of millions of Americans, from young children to retirees, depends on the careful work of these drug manufacturers. Today, Senator Grassley and I are placing in the Congressional Record a Senate Finance Committee staff report which describes a very disturbing series of events related to the safety of the diabetes drug Avandia. The report presents evidence that a pharmaceutical company allegedly tried to intimidate a doctor who raised concerns about Avandia’s link to heart problems. This occurred after the doctor gave speeches at two scientific meetings where he warned of the cardiovascular risks to those using Avandia, a drug designed to control glucose levels in diabetics. To make matters worse, the company in question denied trying to intimidate the doctor in the
    press. That claim is seriously challenged by emails presented in the staff report."

  • Committee Staff Report: “The Intimidation of Dr. John Buse and the Diabetes Drug Avandia”, November 2007
  • November 12, 2007
    * Judge Issues Restraining Order to Preserve White House E-Mail

    Press release: "Today, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy granted Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's (CREW) request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the White House from destroying back-up copies of millions of deleted emails while the lawsuit is pending. CREW brought this lawsuit against the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives and Records Administration challenging their failure to restore and preserve millions of emails deleted from White House servers and to institute an effective electronic record-keeping system. When the White House refused to give adequate assurances that it would preserve back-up copies of the deleted emails -- the only source of these important historical records [see Federal Records Act] -- CREW sought a temporary restraining order."

  • Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Executive Office of the Presidentet al., November 12, 2007
  • October 28, 2007
    * Archive Seeks to Discover Full Extent of Missing E-Mails at White House

    Follow up to previous postings on litigation and hearings on missing White House email and violations of the Presidential Records Act: "The National Security Archive filed a motion on Friday, October 26, seeking expedited discovery against the Executive Office of the President to find out what e-mails are missing from the White House e-mail system or backup tapes. Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs explained, “The pressing need for the information arises out of troubling representations by the EOP and its components about its document preservation obligations and the location of its backup tapes. We need information so we can take steps to preserve all possible sources of e-mails deleted from the White House servers.” Also on Friday, a similar motion was filed in a virtually identical lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on September 25, 2007.

    The Archive filed this case on September 5, 2007, against the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its components seeking to recover at least 5 million federal e-mail records improperly deleted by the EOP. After the government failed to provide adequate assurances that backups and copies of the missing e-mail would be preserved throughout this litigation, on October 11, 2007, CREW filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the White House defendants in its case. A hearing in CREW’s case was held before Magistrate Judge Facciola on October 17, 2007. Magistrate Judge Facciola issued a Report and Recommendation on October 19, 2007, advising the Court to grant a temporary restraining order. The government has filed objections to Magistrate Judge Facciola’s Report and Recommendation, and CREW has responded to the government’s objections."

    October 19, 2007
    * Judge Recommends White House Cease Destruction of Backup Emails

    Follow up to October 17, 2007 posting, Court Indicates Order on Missing White House Email Forthcoming, from CREW: "Today, in CREW v. EOP, Magistrate Judge John Facciola issued a report and recommendation in which he concluded that a temporary restraining order should be issued by District Court Judge Henry Kennedy preventing the White House from destroying any back-up copies – in whatever medium - created to preserve data. CREW sought this order to ensure that back-up copies of the millions of email deleted from White House servers between March 2003 and October 2005 were preserved pending resolution of CREW's lawsuit challenging as contrary to law those deletions and the failure of the White House to have an effective electronic record-keeping system in place. The court refused to accept the last-minute proffer of the White House to provide a declaration in lieu of a court order, explaining that a declaration is not sufficient because a violation is not punishable by contempt. The White House has 10 days in which to file an objection to this recommendation, after which Judge Kennedy will issue an order."

    October 17, 2007
    * Court Indicates Order on Missing White House Email Forthcoming

    Follow up to previous posting, Group Issues Report on Missing White House Emails and Violations of the Presidential Records Act, from AP today news that "U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola indicated Wednesday [that he] may order the Bush administration to preserve copies of all White House e-mails, a move that a government lawyer argued strongly against."

    October 11, 2007
    * PhishTank Annual Report: U.S. telecoms hosting phishes; OpenDNS offering a solution

    Press release: "With a full twelve months under our belt, today OpenDNS published the first-ever PhishTank annual report. The report looks at the more than 300,000 phishes you’ve submitted and helped verify over the course of one year. While some of the report’s findings come as no surprise (e.g., PayPal and eBay round out the top of the list of most spoofed brands), some are alarming. Perhaps the most important finding, and the one that drove us to come up with a fix, is that U.S. telecoms are hosting more phishes than telecoms in any other country."

    September 05, 2007
    * Archive Sues to Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails

    Follow up to previous postings on missing White House e-mails and violations of the Presidential Records Act, this press release: "The National Security Archive today sued the White House seeking the recovery and preservation of more than 5 million White House e-mail messages that were apparently deleted from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005. The lawsuit filed this morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia names as defendants the Executive Office of the President and its components that are subject to the Federal Records Act, including the White House Office of Administration (OA), and the National Archives and Records Administration (which is responsible for long-term preservation of federal and presidential records), under the records laws and the Administrative Procedure Act."

    August 31, 2007
    * Bloomberg Reports White House E-Mails Lost Despite Daily Audits

    Follow up to previous postings re the ongoing Congressional investigation into missing White House emails, news from Bloomberg that "an [unidentified] outside contractor...conducted daily audits of the [White House] e-mail system..." and yet "5 million e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005 are missing..."

    August 30, 2007
    * Committee Requests Information on Reports of Lost White House E-mails

    "Today Chairman Waxman wrote [Letter to Fred Fielding] to request information from the White House Office of Administration about reports that millions of e-mails that may have been lost from the White House e-mail system."

  • Related postings on White House e-mail investigation
  • August 13, 2007
    * Team of University of California Researchers Identify "Spamscatter" Technique

    PC World: Study Finds Spam's Achilles Heel - "Researchers say they've discovered a critical weakness in the spam infrastructure."

  • Spamscatter: Characterizing Internet Scam Hosting Infrastructure, David S. Anderson, Chris Fleizach, Stefan Savage, and Geoffrey M. Voelker, Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium, Boston, MA, August 2007.

  • See also The New Yorker, Damn Spam, The losing war on junk e-mail,
    by Michael Specter, August 6, 2007: "Nearly two million e-mails are dispatched every second, a hundred and seventy-one billion messages a day. Most of those messages have something to sell...Spam’s growth has been metastatic, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of all mail. In 2001, spam accounted for about five per cent of the traffic on the Internet; by 2004, that figure had risen to more than seventy per cent. This year, in some regions, it has edged above ninety per cent—more than a hundred billion unsolicited messages clogging the arterial passages of the world’s computer networks every day."
  • July 24, 2007
    * Committee Requests Specific Tillman Documents from the White House

    "Today Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Davis sent a letter to the White House requesting specific documents related to the death of U.S. Army Corporal Patrick Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. The White House has made available for staff review approximately 400-450 pages, which had previously been redacted or withheld. Following this review, the Committee is requesting that the White House provide the Committee several internal e-mail communications as well as drafts of the President's remarks about Corporal Tillman at the White House Correspondents' Dinner."

  • Related postings on the death of Corporal Tillman
  • July 22, 2007
    * UK Inbox-Outbox 2007 Survey

    "Over 50 per cent of UK business users are unable to walk away from their emails when on holiday or off sick, according to new research announced at the Inbox/Outbox 2007 event." Ian Williams, vnunet.com 20 Jul 2007

  • Mesmo Consultancy: Inbox-Outbox 2007 Survey, Summary of Findings
  • July 10, 2007
    * FTC Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions

    Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions: "A two-day conference that will bring together experts from the business, government, and technology sectors, consumer advocates, and academics to explore consumer protection issues surrounding spam, phishing and malware. The agenda and a list of participants can be found here."

    July 09, 2007
    * Google Purchases Online Security Firm Postini

    Press release: "Google Inc. announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Postini, a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions serving more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. Postini's services -- which include message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement -- can be used to protect a company's email, instant messaging, and other web-based communications. Under the terms of the agreement, Google will acquire Postini for $625 million in cash, subject to working capital and other adjustments, and Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter 2007."

    June 25, 2007
    * Reverberations in Case Involving FBI NSLs and Connecticut Librarians

    Follow up to previous postings on Connecticut librarians and FBI NSL gag order, via Wired Blog, Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order: "Two Connecticut librarians on Sunday [at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC] described what it was like to be slapped with an FBI national security letter and accompanying gag order."

  • From the conference program: Lifting the Gag: Patron Privacy and the Patriot Act: "When a federal lifetime gag order prevented our speakers from revealing that the FBI had demanded library records, they refused to comply. Represented by the ACLU, they successfully sued the government. Of the thousands who have received National Security Letters, Mr. Chase, Ms. Bailey and two colleagues are the only ones free to discuss the experience. They will discuss their personal and professional roles in defending patron privacy. Speakers: Peter Chase, Library Director, Plainville Public Library; Barbara Bailey, Director, Wells Turner Public Library"
  • * Report Tracks May 2007 Spam Spikes

    MessageLabs Intelligence Report: Increased Number of Spam Spikes and New Image Spam Techniques Cause Trouble for Businesses: "Analysis of [May 2007] data showed that spammers continue to innovate and employ new methods to elude traditional anti-spam solutions. Rather than embedding images in the body of an email message, spammers are now hosting images on sites that do not require registration and include links to those sites or an HTML image in the email message."

  • The full report can be downloaded here.
  • June 24, 2007
    * Special Report Examines Role of Info Industry Big Three in Web Security

    NEWS.COM Special Report: Wardens of the WebTalkBack: Global security challenge falls to an elite corps, June 25, 2007

  • "The job of policing the Web has been left to the corporate world by default. The burden weighs heavily on a trio of companies in particular: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft--the three firms with the most traffic on the Web. Their work, alone or in concert, will likely define what kind of security can be expected for e-mail, purchases, bill payment, other financial transactions and practically anything else involving personal information of the most sensitive nature."
  • June 22, 2007
    * The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010

    The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010 - "In this detailed white paper, IDC researches and analyzes the impact of ever-increasing amounts of digital information generated worldwide. It defines the digital universe and forecasts its growth to an incredible 988 exabytes (or 988 billion gigabytes) in the year 2010. Get a clear picture of what this expanding universe means to you and your organization. Find out what’s driving growth—from files and e-mail to voice data and images. And learn about strategies for managing the rapidly expanding digital universe."

  • Related review, Backbone Magazine: Data explosion—each of us sent six exabytes of e-mail last year, June 7, 2007 - "In 2006, the amount of digital information created, captured and replicated worldwide was equal to 161 billion gigabytes, or 161 exabytes [...the 161 exabytes generated in 2006 total approximately three million times more information than is contained in all the books ever written.] If you took that information and bound it in books the size of the latest Harry Potter novel, you’d get 12 stacks of books that each stretched from the Earth to the Sun."
  • June 18, 2007
    * Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches

    EFF press release: "The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls -- the first circuit court ever to make that finding."

  • the full ruling in Warshak v. United States. The decision is also available from court, here.

  • EFF's resources on the case, including its amicus brief
  • * Oversight Committee Investigation of Use of RNC E-Mail Accounts by White House Officials

    Administration Oversight, White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts: "The Oversight Committee has been investigating whether White House officials violated the Presidential Records Act by using e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee and the Bush Cheney ‘04 campaign for official White House communications. This interim staff report provides a summary of the evidence the Committee has received to date, along with recommendations for next steps in the investigation."

    The information the Committee has received in the investigation reveals:

  • "The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed..."

  • "White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts."

  • "There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC."

  • "There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records."


  • Documents and Links
  • Investigation of Possible Violations of the Presidential Records Act

  • Deposition of Susan Ralston

  • Errata Sheet for Deposition of Susan Ralston

  • Related postings on U.S. Attorney firings
  • June 17, 2007
    * Office of Special Counsel Directs 18 Agencies to Preserve E-Mail for Investigation

    Daniel Pulliam at Govexec.com reported, "Eighteen agencies have been asked by the Office of Special Counsel to preserve electronic information dating back to January 2001 as part of its governmentwide investigation into alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies. The OSC task force investigating the claims has asked agencies, including the General Services Administration, to preserve all e-mail records, calendar information, phone logs and hard drives going back to the beginning of the Bush administration."

    June 15, 2007
    * Article Identifies Image Spam and Explains Rising Use

    Image Spam: By the Numbers, by Scott Berinato: "Image Spam—an e-mail solicitation that uses graphical images of text to avoid filters—is not new. Recently, though, it reached an unprecedented level of sophistication and took off. A year ago, fewer than five out of 100 e-mails were image spam, according to Doug Bowers of Symantec. Today, up to 40 percent are. Meanwhile, image spam is the reason spam traffic overall doubled in 2006, according to antispam company Borderware. It is expected to keep rising."

    June 13, 2007
    * FTC Offers Information on Botnets, Hackers, and Spam

    Press release: "Tens of thousands of consumers are unwitting accomplices of illegal spammers and at the mercy of identity thieves, warns the Federal Trade Commission. These consumers’ computers have been secretly hijacked by criminals who install spam-sending software and spyware on the computers when consumers open malicious e-mail attachments or visit a malicious Web site. After gaining access to consumers’ computers, the criminals can track consumers’ Internet surfing, steal personal information, and turn the computers into spam “zombies” that are part of a “botnet” made up of thousands of home computers through which spammers route spam. In a new consumer alert, Botnets and Hackers and Spam (Oh, My!), the FTC urges consumers to secure their personal information and stop assisting spammers."

  • See also the government consortium resource, OnGuard Online
  • June 10, 2007
    * Privacy Ranking Report of Internet Service Companies

    Source: "Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, and has an office in Washington, D.C. Together with members in 40 countries, PI has conducted campaigns throughout the world on issues ranging from wiretapping and national security activities, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, police information systems, and medical privacy, and works with a wide range of parliamentary and inter-governmental organisations such as the European Parliament, the House of Lords and UNESCO."

  • Background report from Privacy International - "A Consultation report: This report has been prepared by Privacy International following a six-month investigation into the privacy practices of key Internet based companies. The ranking lists the best and the worst performers both in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 across the full spectrum of search, email, e-commerce and social networking sites.
    The analysis employs a methodology comprising around twenty core parameters. We rank the major Internet players but we also discuss examples of best and worst privacy practice among smaller companies. The report was compiled using data derived from public sources (newspaper articles, blog entries, submissions to government inquiries, privacy policies etc), information provided by present and former company staff, technical analysis and interviews with company representatives. Because the 2007 rankings are a precedent, Privacy International will regard the current report as a consultation report and will establish a broad outreach for two months to ensure that any new and relevant information is taken into account before publishing a full report in September."

  • Interim results are available here in PDF format, 6 pages

  • Related: An Open Letter from Privacy International to Google, 10/06/2007
  • May 25, 2007
    * Leahy, Specter Ask Rove Lawyer To Voluntarily Provide “Lost” E-Mails Related To Panel's Probe

    Follow-up to previous postings on the U.S. attorney firings, this May 25, 2007 ress release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) sent the following letter to Karl Rove’s attorney seeking access to e-mails related to the panel’s ongoing investigation into the firings of U.S. Attorneys and politicization within the Department of Justice."

    May 23, 2007
    * Pew Research Survey on Spam 2007

    Press release: "The volume of spam is growing in Americans' personal and workplace emailaccounts, but email users are less bothered by it.
    Spam continues to plague the internet as more Americans than ever say they are getting more spam than in the past. But while American internet users report increasing volumes of spam, they also indicate that they are less bothered by it than before. Users have become more sophisticated about dealing with spam; fully 71% of email users use filters offered by their email provider or employer to block spam... Spam has not become a significant deterrent to the use of email, as some observers speculated it might when unsolicited email first began flooding users' inboxes several years ago. But it continues to degrade the integrity of email. Some 55% of email users say they have lost trust in email because of spam."

  • Here is a link to the complete report.
  • May 02, 2007
    * Judiciary Chairman Issues Subpoena For 'Lost' Karl Rove E-Mails

    Press release: "Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Wednesday issued a subpoena to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (6 pages, PDF) compelling the Department of Justice to provide all Karl Rove e-mails in its possession related to the panel’s ongoing investigation into the mass firings of federal prosecutors. Rove, a senior political advisor to President Bush, and the White House political operation -- which Rove heads – have been linked to the project that resulted in the unprecedented firings of several well-performing federal prosecutors, according to information gathered by the Committee through documents, interviews and testimony. Several of the dismissed prosecutors have testified under oath and said in public that they were unaware of performance problems and believe political influence was a factor in their firings. Leahy requested the e-mails first at the Committee’s oversight hearing with the Attorney General on April 19, 2007, and then again in a letter to the Attorney General on April 25, 2007. The Attorney General has failed to respond to those earlier requests."

  • Related postings on U.S. Attorney firings
  • April 27, 2007
    * DOJ Releases Additional Emails and Document Related to U.S. Attorney Firings

    Justice Department Lists E-Mails and Memos Being Withheld in Firings of U.S. Attorneys: "The Justice Department released a list of internal documents Thursday focusing on lawmakers' concerns and media questions about the firings of eight federal prosecutors, but the department resisted congressional demands for copies of the memos. The list of 159 e-mails and memos, spanning nearly three months, at the least demonstrates concern about how the dismissals were being publicly received before they erupted into a firestorm that has resulted in calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign."

    April 17, 2007
    * Gadgets Presentation from 2007 Computers in Libraries Conference

    On April 16, 2007 Barbara Fullerton, Manager, Librarian Relations, 10-K Wizard, Sabrina Pacifici, Editor & Publisher, LLRX.com and beSpacific.com and Aaron Schmidt, Director, North Plains Public Library, presented their always popular round-robin Gadgets presentation at Computers in Libraries 2007.

    April 15, 2007
    * Group Issues Report on Missing White House Emails and Violations of the Presidential Records Act

    Follow-up to postings on the escalating interest in the U.S. Attorney firings, this press release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a report [April 12, 2007], WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act, detailing the legal issues behind the story of the White House e-mail scandal. WITHOUT A TRACE covers the following areas:

  • "Presidential Records Act (PRA): Enacted in 1978, requires the president to preserve all presidential records, which are defined as those records relating to the "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of [the president’s] constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties..."

  • Clinton Administration Policy: In 1993, then-Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary John Podesta sent a memo to all presidential staff explaining that the PRA required all staff members to maintain all records, including emails. Podesta stated that the use of external email networks was prohibited because records would not be saved as required. The 1997 White House Manual and a 2000 memo issued by Mark Lindsay, then Assistant to the President for Management and Administration echoed this policy, requiring staff to use only the White House email system for official communications.

  • Bush Administration Policy: The Bush Administration has refused to make public its record-keeping policy. A confidential source provided CREW with a 2002 document indicating the use of “non-EOP messaging-enabled mechanisms should not be used for official business.”

  • Bush Administration Practice: In the wake of the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and the fired U.S. Attorneys, emails were released showing that top White House staffers routinely used Republican National Committee (RNC) email accounts to conduct official business.

  • PRA Violations: 1) The administration failed to implement adequate record-keeping systems to archive presidential email records; 2) two confidential sources independently informed CREW that the administration abandoned a plan to recover more than five million missing emails; 3) White House staff used outside email accounts to conduct presidential business, ensuring that emails were not adequately preserved.

  • Hatch Act...The Hatch Act prohibits White House staff from using official resources for purely “political” purposes. “Political” refers to the president’s role as either a candidate for office or as the leader of his party. Email communications regarding presidential appointments for U.S. Attorney and Interior Department positions clearly fall within the PRA as making appointment is an official presidential function and does not relate to the president’s role as party leader."


  • Related documents and articles on the U.S. Attorney firings and the Presidential Records Act:
  • NARA: "The Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978, 44 U.S.C. ß2201-2207, governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981. The PRA changed the legal ownership of the official records of the President from private to public, and established a new statutory structure under which Presidents must manage their records."

  • The Presidential Records Act of 1978: A Review of Executive Branch Implementation and Compliance, Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and the National Archives, March 1, 2007

  • On Thursday, March 1, 2007 the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives held a hearing to examine issues relating to implementation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, including the history of the act, the role of the National Archives and Records Administration in releasing Presidential records to the public, and the likely impact of Executive Order 13233 on research. See also H.R. 1255: The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007

  • Albuquerque Journal, April 15, 2007: Domenici Sought Iglesias Ouster

  • WSJ free feature: Gonzales Deputy, in Crossfire, Looks for Quiet Exit - McNulty Seeks Job In Private Sector; Scrutiny Intensifies

  • USNews.com Special Report: U.S. Attorney Firings Investigation
  • April 13, 2007
    * Worldwide Email Usage 2007–2011 Forecast

    Press release, Worldwide Email Usage 2007–2011 Forecast: Resurgence of Spam Takes Its Toll, March 2007: "This IDC study examines how email is being used and will be used for business and personal purposes. In its eighth year, this annual study of email usage provides email solution providers and their customers with insights on how email usage is changing based on a 10+ year perspective (2000–2010)..."Spam volumes will continue to grow faster than expected due to the success of image-based spam in bypassing antispam filters and of email sender identity spoofing in getting higher response rates. Instant messaging, joined by free and low-cost VoIP calling, will result in slower email growth, especially among teens and young adults," said Mark Levitt, program VP, Collaborative Computing and the Enterprise Workplace, IDC."

    April 12, 2007
    * Waxman Asks Government Agencies to Preserve E-mails from RNC Accounts

    Following up on this April 10, 2007 posting, House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas AG Gonzales, and related links on the U.S. Attorney firings, today this press release from Rep. Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: "Following briefings from the White House and Republican National Committee that revealed an extensive volume of e-mails regarding official government business may have been destroyed by the RNC, Chairman Waxman directs government agencies to preserve e-mails received from or sent to non-governmental e-mail accounts used by White House staffers. The Committee also requests that government agencies provide an inventory of all e-mails involving these accounts. The briefing received by the Committee raises serious concerns about the White House compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which requires that the President "take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as Presidential records."
    Related documents: This press release includes links to letters from the Chairman to 16 agency heads, which duplicate the text of a letter to Attorney General Gonzales. Each letter is three pages, PDF.

    March 29, 2007
    * White House Use of Non-Government Issued Email Accounts Under Scrutiny

  • "Rep. Waxman Requests Information on White House E-Mail Policies Following new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts, Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies."

  • Computerworld: "For official government business, staff members in the Bush White House use government-issued e-mail accounts where all communications are then stored, archived and preserved for eventual inclusion in the National Archives. But for several years, some high-ranking Bush staff members have also apparently been using outside e-mail accounts for nongovernmental, political communications. Those accounts, through the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, allowed the officials to keep up with both their official and political responsibilities while not violating the Hatch Act. That law forbids many government officials from engaging in political activities from their workplaces."

  • ABA Journal eReport: Alberto Gonzales and E-Mails: Is Silence Golden? The U.S. attorney general doesn’t send e-mails—and he’s not alone.
  • March 26, 2007
    * Identity and Security: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Identity Document Security

    Press release: "Former 9/11 Commission counsel Janice Kephart announces the launch of an online Identity Document Security Library, consisting of legal, technical and policy pieces regarding identity document security. Kephart, a nationally recognized border security expert, created the library to serve as a 'one-stop-shop' information portal for those seeking objective, credible information on the issue of identity document security...The issue of identity, and information about identity, underlies the 9/11 Commission's border work, whose recommendations included the creation of minimum standards for state-issued driver licenses and IDs. Kephart's recently issued white paper, Identity and Security: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Identity Document Security, maintains that securing identities and identity documents is perhaps the single most effective measure the United States can take to lay a foundation for national and economic security and public safety."

    * Oversight Committee Directs RNC to Preserve White House Emails

    "Citing evidence that senior White House officials are using RNC and other political email accounts to avoid leaving a record of official communications, Chairman Waxman directs the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign to preserve the emails of White House officials and to meet with Committee staff to explain how the accounts are managed and what steps are being taken to protect the emails from destruction and tampering."

    Documents and Links:

  • Letter to Mike Duncan [Chairman, Republican National Committee]

  • Letter to Marc Racicot [Former Chairman, Bush/Cheney '04]

  • E-mails Showing Use of Non-Governmental Accounts for Official Business

  • March 13, 2007
    * House Judiciary Committee Releases Documents Regarding Attorney General Firings

    Follow up to related postings on firings of U.S. attorneys:

  • 3/13/2007 - Chairman Conyers Calls on White House, Justice Department to Provide Answers about the Firing of U.S. Attorneys

  • 3/13/2007 - DOJ-Released Documents Regarding Atty. General Firings, Part I

  • 3/13/2007 - DOJ-Released Documents Regarding Atty. General Firings, Part II

  • 3/13/2007 - DOJ-Released Documents Regarding Atty. General Firings, Part III

  • 3/13/2007 - DOJ-Released Documents Regarding Atty. General Firings, Part IV

  • Transcript of Media Availability with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, March 13, 2007: "ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: "...I believe in the independence of our U.S. Attorneys. They are the face of the Department. They are my representative in the community. I acknowledge their sacrifice. I acknowledge their courage to step into the arena on behalf of the American people. Secondly, the Attorney General, all political appointees, such as U.S. Attorneys, serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. Third, I believe fundamentally in the constitutional role of the Senate in advice and consent with respect to U.S. Attorneys and would, in no way, support an effort to circumvent that constitutional role."
  • March 08, 2007
    * SEC Suspends Trading Of 35 Companies Touted In Spam Email Campaigns

    SEC press release: "The Securities and Exchange Commission this morning suspended trading in the securities of 35 companies that have been the subject of recent and repeated spam email campaigns (see examples). The trading suspensions - the most ever aimed at spammed companies - were ordered because of questions regarding the adequacy and accuracy of information about the companies. The trading suspensions are part of a stepped-up SEC effort - code named "Operation Spamalot" - to protect investors from potentially fraudulent spam email hyping small company stocks with phrases like, "Ready to Explode," "Ride the Bull," and "Fast Money." It's estimated that 100 million of these spam messages are sent every week, triggering dramatic spikes in share price and trading volume before the spamming stops and investors lose their money."

    March 02, 2007
    * Upcoming GAO Report Details Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE) Program

  • Washington Post, February 28, 2007: New Profiling Program Raises Privacy Concerns: "The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations."

  • Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2006: US plans massive data sweep - Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?


  • Related government documents:
    House Report 109-699 - Making Appropriations for The Department of Homeland Security for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2007: "The ADVISE program is designed to extract relationships and correlations from large amounts of data to produce actionable intelligence on terrorists. A prototype is currently available to analysts in Intelligence and Analysis using departmental and other data, including some on U.S. citizens. The conferees understand up to $40,000,000 has been obligated for ADVISE. The ADVISE program plan, total costs and privacy impacts are unclear and therefore the conferees direct the Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive program review and report within nine months of enactment of this Act."

    February 26, 2007
    * Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey of Wireless Internet Access

    "The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released a report that 34% of internet users have logged onto the internet using a wireless connection either around the house, at their workplace, or some place else. The report profiles these wireless users and describes their intensive use of the internet, especially in exchanging emails and getting news online."

    February 15, 2007
    * PBS NOW Reports on Alleged Domestic E-Mail Surveillance Program

    Via PBS: Airing on Friday, February 16, 2007 (check for time in your area), "NOW reports on new evidence suggesting the existence of a secret government program that intercepts millions of private e-mails each day in the name of terrorist surveillance. News about the alleged program came to light when a former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, blew the whistle on what he believes to be a large-scale installation of secret Internet monitoring equipment deep inside AT&T's San Francisco office. The equipment, he contends, was created at the request of the U.S. government to spy on e-mail traffic across the entire Internet. Though the government and AT&T refuse to address the issue directly, Klein backs up his charges with internal company documents and personal photos."

  • Related postings on the alleged AT&T domestic surveillance program
  • February 12, 2007
    * New Congress Tries Once Again to Pass PC Privacy and ID Theft Legislation

    Declan McCullagh reported last week on the reintroduction of numerous antispyware and ID theft bills, many of which reflect the same language as previous versions of related legislation. The article has links to major bills as well as respective legislative background.

    February 08, 2007
    * FBI Launches E-Mail Alerts on Public Website

    "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a service that sends out electronic mail (e-mail) alerts when new and vital information is posted on the FBI.gov Web site. Subscribers select which topics that they want updates on, such as new electronic scams (e-scams) and warnings, most wanted terrorists, top ten fugitives, and local and national press releases. The alerts are transmitted as soon as updates are posted to the FBI's Web site or published in their daily, weekly, or monthly digests. The FBI views this service as a means of furthering American citizens' safety by keeping them informed. No personal information is required to sign up for this service, just an e-mail address to where the alerts will be sent. To sign up for the service please visit the www.FBI.gov."

    January 24, 2007
    * Use of Workplace Technology Continues Despite Policies

    LexisNexis press release: "Most office workers use workplace technology for personal reasons; many may be ignoring employer policies, new research shows...Despite the fact that nearly one-half (45%) of office workers have been explicitly informed their at-work technology usage is monitored, a majority still use their employers’ technology resources for personal reasons, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive®..."

    January 10, 2007
    * Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire IronPort

    Press release, January 4, 2007: "Cisco today announced a definitive agreement to acquire the privately held company, IronPort Systems, Inc. of San Bruno, Calif. IronPort is a leading provider of messaging security appliances, focusing on enterprise spam and spyware protection."
    Related news:

  • News.com - "Cisco Systems' purchase of e-mail security specialist IronPort Systems is another sign that big-name vendors are taking over the spam fight, analysts say."

  • Press release: "RSA, The Security Division of EMC, announced today that its 24x7 Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) has uncovered a new phishing kit being sold and used online by fraudsters. This new kit, a Universal Man-in-the-Middle Phishing Kit, is designed to facilitate new and sophisticated attacks against global organizations in which the victims communicate with a legitimate web site via a fraudulent URL set by the fraudster. This allows the fraudster to capture victims' personal information in real-time."
  • December 26, 2006
    * Survey Shows Majority of Online Adults Use E-mail for E-Commerce Transactions

    Press release: A "survey, conducted by Harris Interactive®, found that about three in four online adults (74 percent) view e-mail communications from a company they frequently patronize to be valuable or very valuable. In addition, 30 percent of online adults have purchased a particular good or service as a result of receiving such e-mails, and of these, 85 percent have done so within the past year."

    December 25, 2006
    * DoD Blocks Use of HTML Email and Outlook

    Federal Computer Week reported that the Department of Defense has banned the use of Outlook and receipt of HTML email due to threats posed by spyware and viruses.

    December 21, 2006
    * The Best (and Worst!) of Legal Technology 2006 From FindLaw

    "The world of Legal Technology has...had its share of ups and downs in 2006, with companies spying on their boards, the treasury department spying on money transfers, and the government spying on, well, everyone! With all the spying going on, data security was certainly on everyone's mind in 2006, and several key stories arose out of the inability of companies and government agencies to protect their customer and employee data. The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure also added to the mix with new requirements for companies and other potential litigants to keep in mind as they generate gigabytes and gigabytes of information every day." [Link]

    December 12, 2006
    * U.S. Deputy AG Mcnulty Revises Charging Guidelines for Prosecuting Corporate Fraud

    Press release: "U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty announced today during a speech at a meeting of the Lawyers for Civil Justice in New York that the Department of Justice is revising its corporate charging guidelines for federal prosecutors throughout the country. The new guidance revises the Thompson Memorandum, which was issued in January 2003 by then-Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson and titled the “Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations.” The memo provides useful guidance to prosecutors in the field through nine factors to use when deciding whether to charge a corporation with criminal offenses. The guidance continues to require consideration of the factors from the Thompson memo but adds new restrictions for prosecutors seeking privileged information from companies. Specifically, it creates new approval requirements that federal prosecutors must comply with before they can request waivers of attorney-client privilege and work product protections from corporations in criminal investigations."

  • Prepared Remarks of Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty at the Lawyers for Civil Justice Membership Conference Regarding
    the Department's Charging Guidelines in Corporate Fraud Prosecutions
    , New York, December 12, 2006

  • John Coffee Says McNulty Memo Went a Bridge Too Far in Tying Hands of Prosecutors in Corporate Crime Investigations, 21 Corporate Crime Reporter 1, December 26, 2006
  • November 29, 2006
    * New EU Communication on Spam

    Press release: "The Commission today called on all regulatory authorities and stakeholders in Europe to step up the fight against spam, spyware and malicious software. Despite existing EU legislation to outlaw spam in Europe, Europe continues to suffer from illegal online activities from inside the EU and from third countries, the Commission underlines in a new Communication. The Communication stresses that although internet safety is on the political agenda for some time, national authorities should step up their actions to prosecute illegal online activities."

  • Related press release: "Sophos, a world leader in IT security, has published its latest report on the top twelve spam relaying countries over the third quarter of 2006. Sophos experts believe that a possible reason for America's increasing lead in relayed spam when compared to its closest rival, China, is the emergence of over 300 strains of the mass-spammed Stratio worm."
  • November 28, 2006
    * Coalition Urges Court to Give E-mail Full Constitutional Protection

    November 27, 2006 statement: "Last week, CDT and the ACLU joined a friend-of-the-court brief written by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, urging a federal appeals court to extend to e-mail the same constitutional protection accorded to telephone calls and regular mail. Remarkably, the constitutional status of e-mail has never been decided, and the Justice Department claims that opened e-mail and older stored e-mail can be obtained from service providers without a court order and without notice to the e-mail user. In the case, Warshak v. U.S., a lower federal court ruled that government agents could not force disclosure of email from a service provider unless they provided the relevant subscriber notice and an opportunity to object."

  • Amicus Brief [PDF] November 27, 2006

  • Order [PDF] November 27, 2006

  • Warshak Brief [PDF] November 27, 2006

  • Government Brief [PDF] November 27, 2006
  • November 20, 2006
    * Spamhaus List of World's Top 10 Spammers

    "Up to 80% of spam targetted at Internet users in North America and Europe is generated by a hard-core group of around 200 known professional spam gangs whose names, aliases and operations are documented in Spamhaus' Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database. This TOP 10 chart of ROKSO-listed spammers is based on those Spamhaus views as the highest threat, the worst of the career spammers causing the most damage on the Internet currently. Spamhaus flags these as a priority for Law Enforcement Agencies."

    October 26, 2006
    * Public May Now Request and Obtain New York Records Via Email

    Effective October 25, 2006 the public may request records from state and local agencies ["any New York State or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental or proprietary function is subject to the Law"], via email in New York.

  • See the Freedom of Information Law - FAQ EMAIL REQUESTS
  • October 18, 2006
    * New AmLaw Tech Survey

    AmLaw Tech Survey: Law Firms Play Variations on Old Themes - "The 11th annual survey finds firms expanding IT while adopting new versions of old standards."

    October 10, 2006
    * Guidelines for State Trial Courts Regarding Discovery of Electronically-Stored Information

    Guidelines for State Trial Courts Regarding Discovery of Electronically-Stored Information, Conference of Chief Justices, Approved August 2006.

    October 06, 2006
    October 04, 2006
    * CA AG Files Charges Against Former HP Chair and Others For Corporate Spying

    Press release: California "Attorney General Bill Lockyer today filed felony charges against former Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia C. Dunn and four other defendants, alleging they committed criminal offenses related to the use of false pretenses to access individuals' phone records during the company's probe of boardroom leaks to the media."

  • Felony Complaint (7 pages, PDF)

  • Supporting Declaration and Arrest Warrants (17 pages, PDF)


  • Related documents and links:
  • Hearing - Internet Data Brokers and Pretexting: Who Has Access to Your Private Records?, September 29, 2006

  • From ZDNet, a timeline of articles on the HP Leak Probe

  • October 03, 2006
    * Physicians Use of Email Communication With Patients Remains Low

    Press release: Physician-Patient E-mail Disconnect: "Only about one in four physicians (24%) reported that e-mail was used in their practice to communicate clinical issues with patients in 2004-05, up from one in five physicians in 2000-01, according to a national study released today by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

    September 30, 2006
    * Hastert Issues Preliminary Report on Ex-Rep Foley's Improper Email Exchanges

  • Roll Call, September 29, 2006: "Foley Interviewed About Page Last Year; Democrats Not Told - Ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned Friday after reports of his improper communications with a former male House page were made public, was interviewed about some of those contacts by the chairman of the House Page Board and the then-Clerk of the House last year."

  • "Following is the full text of the release issued Saturday [September 30, 2006] by Speaker Dennis Hastert's (Ill.) office regarding events leading up to Rep. Mark Foley's (R-Fla.) resignation.
    INTERNAL REVIEW OF CONTACTS WITH THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER REGARDING THE CONGRESSMAN MARK FOLEY MATTER

    On Friday, September 29, the Speaker directed his Chief of Staff and Outside Counsel to conduct an internal review to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding contact with the Office of the Speaker regarding the Congressman Mark Foley matter. The following is their preliminary report." [Link to full text]

  • Press release: