Supporters of the Spy Act hope that the bill's third time is a charm.
On Thursday, the anti-spyware bill--which has twice passed the U.S. House of Representatives only to be rejected by the Senate--got its third hearing in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.
The unwanted programs, in addition to stealing a victim's data, could also make an innocent PC user appear guilty of a crime. In Connecticut, a substitute teacher has been found guilty of four counts of risk of injury to a minor after her classroom PC started displaying pornographic pop-up ads. A forensic investigator working for the defense found that the computer had been significantly compromised by spyware programs, and security researchers have criticized the prosecution for not adequately investigating the digital evidence. The teacher is scheduled to be sentenced at the end of March.
The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization warned on Monday.
And the United Nations' agency said the latest trends in registering top-level domain names (TLDs) could undermine dispute procedures under which patent holders can pursue "cybersquatters."
As reports of cybersecurity incidents grow, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials plan to improve their ability to work on the problem face to face with private-sector experts.
The DHS plans to collocate private-sector employees from the communications and IT industries with government workers at the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) facility here, said Gregory Garcia, assistant secretary of cybersecurity and telecommunications at the DHS.
The Health and Human Services Department needs to exert stronger leadership in determining how to apply privacy to health IT initiatives. The agency is only in the early stages of privacy efforts and its plans are unclear, the Government Accountability Office said.
HHS needs a comprehensive approach as part of its national strategy for health IT, including detailed plans, milestones and mechanisms to monitor the progress of privacy and other health IT developments, said David Powner, GAO’s director of IT Management Issues, in GAO’s report and before lawmakers.
Corporate America is getting better about telling the U.S. government about serious security incidents, according to an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In 2006, companies, universities and government agencies reported 23,000 incidents to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), up from 5,000 reported in 2005, Jerry Dixon, deputy director of the DHS's National Cyber Security Division (NCSD), said at the RSA Security Conference on Wednesday.
