Public Interest Groups Fight Expansion of Government Secrecy

OMB Watch: “Citizens for Sensible Safeguards, a coalition of labor, consumer, and other public interest organizations, filed comments (29 pages, PDF) Jan. 9 on OMB’s Proposed Bulletin on Good Guidance Practices. The bulletin purports to make agency guidance documents “more transparent, consistent, and accountable” by setting new requirements that include high-level review by senior agency …

Subjects: Government Documents, Legal Research

Bush Drops Opposition to Hearings on Domestic Surveillance

Following up on the series of references that were noted in my posting yesterday, news today that President Bush has apparently dropped his opposition to congressional hearings on the controversial domestic surveillance program about which news has appeared almost every day for the past month. Related reference on the upcoming hearings: President Participates in Discussion …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Freedom of Information, Legal Research, Privacy

USPTO Releases Annual List of Top 10 Organizations Receiving Most U.S. Patents

Press release: “The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today the 2005 top 10 global private sector patent recipients. Listed…are the 10 corporations receiving the most U.S. patents for inventions in 2005, along with their 2004 ranking.” IBM, Canon and HP rank 12, 3 respectively.

Subjects: Government Documents, Patent and Trademark

EPA Toxic Release Inventory Database Threatened By Gov’t Opposition

Following up on my November 11, 2005 posting, EPA Proposes To Limit Public Access to Pollution Release Inventory, see this new report from OMB Watch, Dismantling the Public’s Right to Know: EPA’s Systematic Weakening of the Toxics Release Inventory (16 pages, PDF): “The report details how under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research

Calls for Investigation into Pentagon Domestic Surveillance Have Generated Response

After a series of Congressional calls for hearings and investigations into the administration’s controversial post 9/11 domestic surveillance program, news today from several sources confirming that probes have indeed been launched, and hearings scheduled. Questions remain as to when, and if, the conclusions will be made public. Additionally, ABC News reports that former NSA “insider” …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Guide to Malware Reviews and Evaluates Threats and Industry Responses

Malware – Future Trends, by Dancho Danchev,10/01/06 (26 pages, PDF). “Malware has truly evolved during the last couple of years. Its potential for financial and network based abuse was quickly realized, and thus, tactics changed, consolidation between different parties occurred, and the malware scene became overly monetized, with its services available on demand. What are …

Subjects: Blogs, Cybercrime, ID Theft, PC Security, Privacy, RSS