Day: February 11, 2007

Pretexting: Your Personal Information Revealed

Pretexting: Your Personal Information RevealedWhen you think of your own personal assets, chances are your home, car, and savings and investments come to mind. But what about your Social Security number (SSN), telephone records and your bank and credit card account numbers? To people known as “pretexters,” that information is a personal asset, too. Pretexting is the practice of getting your personal information under false pretenses. Pretexters sell your information to people who may use it to get credit in your name, steal your assets, or to investigate or sue you. Pretexting is against the law. How

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GOP revives ISP-tracking legislation

For more info click here  All Internet service providers would need to track their customers’ online activities to aid police in future investigations under legislation introduced Tuesday as part of a Republican “law and order agenda.” Employees of any Internet provider who fail to store that information face fines and prison terms of up to one year, the bill says. The U.S. Justice Department could order the companies to store those records forever.

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Data breach bills resurface in Congress

For more info click here Concealing security breaches in which personal consumer information may have been swiped could carry prison time under a pair of sweeping proposals that resurfaced Tuesday in Congress. In the U.S. Senate, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy and Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter revived a version of their Personal Data Privacy Act that was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year but died before a floor vote. The senators first proposed an even broader version of the sweeping measure in 2005 after word of high-profile breaches at ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, two major collectors of

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U.K. data thieves face two years in prison

For more info click here  Individuals who sell or deliberately misuse others’ personal data in the U.K. could now face a penalty of up to two years in prison. The previous penalty stipulated for the charge in the Data Protection Act 1998 was a fine. Now data thieves risk up to six months in prison for a summary conviction, while for a conviction on indictment, they could get up to two years, the U.K. Department for Constitutional Affairs said Wednesday.

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HP appoints Holston as general counsel

For more info click here Hewlett-Packard announced Wednesday that it has appointed Michael J. Holston to the position of executive vice president and general counsel. Holston, currently a partner at the Philadelphia law firm Morgan Lewis, has worked with HP as an external counsel for over a decade. Previously, he served as a prosecutor in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. At HP, where he plans to assume his new role on February 22, he will be responsible for legal affairs, compliance, ethics, privacy issues and government affairs.

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Telcos may face new antipretexting regulations

For more info click here Under a new bill proposed in Congress, telephone companies would be required to alert customers if their private records are improperly accessed. The Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act, introduced on Tuesday by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), would also reiterate that it’s unlawful for anyone to obtain confidential information about others through fraudulent means, popularly known as “pretexting.”

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State officials oppose repealing Real ID Act

For more info click here  SAN FRANCISCO–Two state officials said Thursday that a forthcoming national identification card should be kept intact or expanded, not scaled back in the face of a growing grassroots revolt. The 2005 Real ID Act currently says that driver’s licenses and other identification documents issued by state governments must comply with a stringent set of rules devised by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But some state legislatures are weighing whether to stand up to the federal government and oppose federalized identifications, which Maine’s legislature did two weeks ago.

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Spyware, data privacy bills reappear in House

For more info click here  In October 2004, all but one member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a bill that was supposed to curtail the threat of malicious PC-disrupting spyware. But the Senate ignored it. So the House once again approved spyware regulations in May 2005, which yielded precisely the same lack of a result. Hoping that the third time proves the charm, House leaders on Thursday introduced a bill that would once again try to impose 31 pages of regulations on the software industry in an effort to define what types of activities

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U.S. moves to lower tailpipe pollution

For more info click here U.S. environmental regulators issued new standards on Friday to reduce the amount of cancer-causing emissions from gasoline, vehicles operating in cold weather and portable gas cans. The regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency lower benzene in gasoline, reduce exhaust emissions from cars in cold temperatures and tighten fuel containers to prevent the escape of harmful fumes. The new standards take effect in 2011 for gasoline, 2010 for cars and 2009 for fuel cans. Benzene, which has been found to cause cancer, is put in gasoline to reduce knocking.

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HSUS MAKES TOKEN PAYMENT TO HELP STARVING HORSES

“Real animal lovers give everything they can to help animals in need. I am disappointed in HSUS, PeTA and other such businesses for not doing more to help the starving animals we counted on them to take care of when so many of us donated money to them over the years. They could really show the world what they’re made of, if they did.” Ron Hevener   …   Author, “High Stakes”   …  www.RonHevener.com —————————————————————————————————- In a press release from its public relations office, the Humane Society of the United States (known as HSUS) announced that it has made

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2007 AQHA Convention Agendas Available Online

America’s Horse, February 9, 2007 – AQHA members interested in viewing any AQHA standing committee agenda for the 2007 convention can visit aqha.com/association/convention to download the agendas. The 2007 convention is slated for March 2-6 at the Hyatt Regency Houston. Any AQHA member is welcome, in fact encouraged, to attend the annual convention. Members also are welcome to participate in meetings and make comments on any agenda item during the appropriate time. In addition to the various business meetings, the convention also includes the annual awards and Hall of Fame induction banquets. Saturday afternoon’s schedule includes the

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