Privacy

The Department of Homeland Security has pushed hard for the past few years to make sure it retains the right to search your laptop at the border with no real limitations. It is, indeed, (as defenders of this policy always like to point out) established law that the border is not in the country, so Constitutional 4th Amendment rights do not apply. That still doesn't make it right. I, like many others, would not have a problem with searches due to probable cause. Nor do we have any real problem with searches of physical luggage at the border.

Recently declassified documents obtained by Wired magazine reveal a massive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data mining operation. It already possesses over 1.5 billion records from government and private-sector sources. That figure is expected by the FBI to balloon to over 6 billion within a few years. And it is not just terrorists they are after.

It seems that one of the most paranoid suppositions regarding government control of regular citizens is partly true. Wired reports that they managed to procure declassified documents that show that FBI uses a data-mining system to track down terrorists, but to do this they also gather information about regular citizens going about their lives.

Web surfing is no longer a solo affair. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have quickly become an integral part of the online culture, and with them comes a whole new array of potential security threats. In this article, I'll identify some of the key dangers of social networking and offer a few easy steps that you can take to stay safe online.

Want to put your doctor's stethoscope in a twist? Ask them to hand over a complete copy of your medical records. Then watch as they nervously demur, citing state laws, cost, and fuzzy hospital policies.

Jamie Heywood wants those obstacles legislated out of existence so we can access our own health data almost as easily as ordering a pizza. And he hopes consumers will in turn share that data with one another via online communities such as PatientsLikeMe, which he cofounded in 2004.

Security researchers at SophosLabs have asked web camera users to be careful while online as hackers are exploiting them (webcams) to keep an eye on Internet users' activities.

A database claiming to contain all of the UK's 1.8m postcodes - and their precise geographical location - has been leaked online.

The infamous Wikileaks site has published the database, which it claims was updated as recently as 8 July. The information is stored as a plain text file that includes comma separated data such as grid references, wards and NHS region.

Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China.

Mark Bregman, chief technology officer at security firm Symantec said he left his MacBook Pro behind in the US and took his MacBook Air whenever he flew to China. Bregman said he only ever used the Air in China and re-imaged the machine every time he returned home.

South Dakota Corrections Secretary Tim Reisch says he may ask the Legislature to pass a law that would let the prison system put information about inmates on the Internet.

In 2001, the Legislature rejected a similar proposal amid concerns that hackers could change the information and embarrass innocent people. But Reisch said Internet security measures have improved so much in the last eight years that such sites can be protected from hackers.

An audit of state government’s accounting office found lax computer security that left thousands of state employees’ personal information vulnerable to theft by hackers.

No evidence was found that personal and financial information was stolen, according to the audit, released last week. But the report noted that weaknesses in the system allowed investigators to “gain full access to servers, databases and information.”