: the computer World canada view
: think tank
playing the
patriot game
The controversial U.S. Patriot Act was dealt
a blow this month when District Court
judge Victor Marrero of New York raised the
constitutionality of a provision around the
issuance of national security letters.
“AMD, as I would expect it to do, is trying to spread a little FUD about their
competitor’s chip partly because
they beat them to market... These two
vendors are constantly leapfrogging
each other. And it’s always a constant
race to be first to market with the
latest chip.”
James Staten, principal analyst
with Cambridge, mass.-based
Forrester Research Inc., on the
AmD-Intel quad-core rivalry
075131
National security letters
(NSL) compel Internet and
telecom service providers to
provide customer information
to the FBI - in the name of
fighting terrorism. In that same
provision is a gag order that
prohibits service providers from
informing their customers that
their data have been turned
over to authorities.
Marrero’s ruling (pending a
Department of Justice appeal
on the decision) ordered the
FBI and the DOJ to stop
issuing NSLs “in light of the
seriousness of the potential
intrusion into the individual’s
personal affairs.”
This constitutional debate is
seemingly a domestic affair best
kept within the boundaries of
our southern cousins, but it’s
not that simple.
Transparency and
privacy are often
on oppposite sides, but
in debates around cross-
border data transfer,
the latter is threatened
without the former.
While the FBI can only
summon customer data from
U.S. companies, it can essentially direct them to provide
data from other subsidiaries of
a US company, which include
those located in other parts
of the world. Simply put: your
personal data may be crossing
the border and ending up in the
hands of Uncle Sam. And you
may never, ever know about it.
Certain sectors in Canadian
industry have chosen to present
the issue for what it really is: a
threat to Canadian privacy and
sovereignty. Yet, there are those
— perhaps those with U.S.
ties and protecting business
interests — who say, “It’s not
going to happen.”
But it will, and it has.
The FBI (and reportedly
other federal agencies like the
CIA) has been issuing NSLs,
or limited versions of them, as
early as 1978 long before U.S.
lawmakers even imagined any
need for a Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act, however,
expanded the use of NSLs,
and between 2003 and 2005,
more than 140,000 NSLs were
allegedly issued without showing probable cause or judicial
approval. That’s according to
a report by the U.S. Justice
Department’s inspector general.
To dismiss the NSLs’ threat to
personal privacy as something
that will never happen is
irresponsible, especially from
entities that are custodians of
personal information.
The reported abuses associated with the all-too-powerful
provisions of the Patriot Act
have gained too much prominence that it can no longer
be swept under the rug. Nor
should it be.
Transparency and privacy
may often belong in the opposite
sides of the scale, but in the
debate surrounding cross-bor-der data transfer, the latter is
threatened without the former.
It is best to keep customers
in the loop especially on issues
pertaining to their personal
data, as they are likely to be
more forgiving of their service
providers should things go sour
in the end. By making lawful
disclosure, or the possibility
of it, part of discussions with
customers, service providers are
doing their due diligence.
Public Safety Canada has
started discussions on the possibility of giving law enforcement units “timely access” to
service providers’ subscriber
information. The consultation
document makes no mention
of a need for court order when
obtaining customer name and
address information.
The specifics of this initiative
is far from definite, but one
thing is certain: if such legislation is passed, Canadian firms
— with or without American
ties — may get a sneek peek
of what it’s like to operate a
business with the Patriot Act
looming over their heads.
This is also an ideal time to take a look
at all of the technology both companies are using, both HP and Lenovo
waited until late to get rid of a lot of the
out-of-date operational technology
the companies were using and that
hurt both a lot. Particularly in the case
of HP and the PC Company side of
Lenovo, updating the core operations
technology was critical to the success
both firms are experiencing now.”
analyst Rob Enderle on what Acer
should do following its buyout of
Gateway 079378
“You can teach them not to click on attachments,” he says. “But if you have
legitimate attachments, and don’t
have technology in place for filtering,
then that’s kind of pointless advice.”
Johannes B. Ullrich, CTO for the
SAnS Internet Storm Center, on
security training 077117
“We need to take whatever limited
security dollars we have and spend
them in the most expeditious and efficient manner until we run out of that
money...If there are certain types of
attacks and threats that you can stop
at a single or two or three choke points
or entry points Gartner feels that is not
a bad way — in fact, in many cases it’s
a good first step — of deciding where
you make your security investments.”
Jeffrey Wheatman, Gartner
analyst, on the Jericho Forum about
firefalls 076955
: blogosphere
By Briony Smith
staff writer, Computer World Canada
bsmith@itworldcanada.com
can you see the future in your palm?
earlier this summer, Palm announced the upcoming release
of the Foleo, a PDA “mobile
companion” that was like a mini-laptop, but just before it was
supposed to ship, a company blog
post from CeO Ed Colligan
(citing a need to concentrate on
improving Palm’s rickety old OS)
shut it all down (http://blog.
palm.com/palm/2007/09/
a-message-to-pa.html).
om malik of GigaOm weighed
in on the Foleo’s demise (http://
gigaom.com/2007/09/05/foleo-
is-dead): “Seldom in history has
a device gone from being center-stage at a premium technology
conference to the garbage bin
as Palm’s ill-conceived Fo-leo…It is a disk-less device that
needs constant connectivity to
be useful.” The company was
partially bought out by private
equity firm elevation Partners
(who purchased a quarter of
the company for $325-million),
and it also busted out the new
windows mobile 6-powered Treo,
the 500v, in the emeA. Over
at Barron’s’ Tech Trader Daily
( http://blogs.barrons.com/tech-
traderdaily/2007/09/13/palm-
deal-cleared-by-shareholders-but-products-are-still-the-key),
TiErnan ray quoted uBS
analyst maynard Um on the
importance of snazzy products in
going forward: “we still see new
products as key to the future of
the company. Although elevation
Partners brings some design
experience to Palm, visibility to
and ramp of these new products
will take time. In the interim,
products such as the recently
launched and competitively-priced Treo 500v, combined with
cost rationalization, may give
Palm some time.” And Palm’s
been filling it with the upcoming
Palm OS-powered Sprint “
Cen-tro,” it seems. The third member of Palm’s OS family, linux,
was slated for some new Treos,
but these plans have now been
shelved until 2008.
