Digital Practice of Law

Laptop Secrets for Sale

(6-9-04) Encryption firm says secrets for sale at auction. "Laptops containing sensitive financial details and all manner of corporate secrets can be snapped up at auctions for a pittance, a security company said Wednesday. Stockholm, Sweden-based Pointsec Mobile Technologies, which sells encryption software and other products designed to protect sensitive information on mobile devices, said it bought 100 laptop computers from a host of Internet and public auctions over the past two months to show how vulnerable data can be."

Computer Security Information

(4-19-04) Excellent site (www.securitydocs.com) containing over 1700 articles on computer security.

Is There Spyware on Your Firm's Computer?

(4-19-04) - What is spyware and why should Internet users be concerned? "Adware is advertising-supported software that displays pop-up advertisements whenever the program is running. Often the software is available online for free, and the advertisements create revenue for the company. Although it's seemingly harmless (aside from the intrusiveness and annoyance of pop-up ads), adware can install components onto your computer that track personal information (including your age, sex, location, buying preferences, or surfing habits) for marketing purposes. . ."

Computer File Security Breached

3-5-04 - Thousands of Democratic Files Improperly Obtained. "Two Republican staffers on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee improperly accessed thousands of computer files of Democratic colleagues, a probe by the Senate's top law enforcement officer showed on Thursday. . . Overall, the report said, 4,670 computer files were improperly accessed from 2001 to 2003, most of them from Democratic staff."

Computer Security

Each other's mail

"Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."
-- HENRY L. STIMSON, Secretary of State, 1929-33; Secretary of War, 1939-1945

"Orrin Hatch didn't need to sneak a peek into anybody's private computer files to tell him that Senate Democrats were pulling out all the stops trying to block some of President Bush's choices for the federal bench.
But even if that had been news to him, there is every reason to believe that the Utah Republican, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would still have been properly "mortified" at reports that members of his party's staff had been perusing memos written by and to the Democrats' staff and leaking the juicy bits to sympathetic journalists. . . That investigation reportedly has already uncovered evidence that the electronic prying was more widespread than first believed, and that some of the activities may result in criminal charges."

Techdirt:Office Creepers Stealing Laptops

Contributed by Mike on Monday, December 1st, 2003 @ 12:10AM

"When I worked at Intel, they had very strict security, such that everyone leaving the building was searched. If you had a laptop, you needed a reason to have it leave the building. It was also not recommended that you bring your own laptop into the building because it was difficult to ever get it back out. Not many companies are so strict. Laptops are valuable and in a world of cubicles where there's no protection, they tend to go missing. Apparently, many laptop thieves are becoming "office creepers". They figure out a way to sneak into an office building, looking just like any other employee. Sometimes they hide away. Sometimes they pretend to work there. At the end of the day, though, they pick up random laptops after everyone has left for the evening and stroll out the door."

Controlling Electronic Information - Windows Rights Management Services

Microsoft Windows® Rights Management Services (RMS) for Windows Server 2003 is information protection technology that helps safeguard digital information from unauthorized use. Windows RMS enables protection of sensitive information, such as Web content, documents, and e-mail, through the creation and enforcement of policies that live with the information—no matter where it goes. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/rightsmgmt/default.mspx

Republican Computer Breakin

"It may not be Watergate, but the Republicans have done it again. This
time, a staffer to Sen. Orrin Hatch is accused of stealing files from
Democratic computers. Unlike the stonewalling Nixon, Hatch has
apologized and is cooperating."
http://go.hotwired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61382,00.html/wn_ascii