* Forwarded (from: netmail) by Roy J. Tellason using timEd 1.10.y2k.

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 22:25:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon 
Subject: A Virginia law aids identity theft victims

By Michael D. Shear, *The Washington Post*, 13 Jul 2003

Federal and state police put the handcuffs on 32-year-old Angel Gonzales in
front of his wife and two young children just as the neighborhood school
bus
pulled up. ''We're taking your father to jail,'' they told his 6-year-old
daughter, walking Gonzales to the cruiser as his neighbors gawked.  The
police had nabbed Gonzales, who lives in the Tidewater area of Virginia, on
a Las Vegas fugitive warrant on cocaine charges. The warrant said he was
armed and dangerous.

Ambur Daley, 27, was arrested in a North Carolina airport as she returned
from visiting her grandmother in Canada. The Staunton, Va., resident was
booked, fingerprinted, and kept overnight in jail, accused of writing bad
checks.

In fact, neither Daley nor Gonzales had done anything wrong. The crimes
they were accused of were committed by phantoms -- identity thieves who
have stolen their names, Social Security numbers, addresses, and telephone
numbers. Dependent on electronic records in databanks, police across the
nation were chasing the wrong people.

Both now have a Virginia Identity Theft Passport, the first two victims to
participate in a program aimed at giving people such as Daley and Gonzales
a
fighting chance in convincing police of their innocence. A state law
creating the program took effect July 1.  Issued by a judge and bearing the
seal of Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, the passport is intended to aid
Virginia residents who are the victims of identity theft.  ...

  http://www.boston.com:80/dailyglobe2/194/nation/
  A_Virginia_law_aids_identity_theft_victims+.shtml

(RJT:  It seems to me that the _problem_ here is "authorities"
(and lots of other folks) overly relying on means to ID somebody that have
already proven flawed,  in a great many instances,  and that's what oughta
get "fixed".)

--

Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 12:18:20 -0800
From: Rob Slade 
Subject: David Nelson and CAPPS II?

According to a story in the "This is True" mailing list, based on another
from the *Los Angeles Daily News*, 6 people in the Los Angeles area, 18 in
Oregon, and 4 in Alaska, all with the name David Nelson, have been pulled
from commercial flights even after passing security checks.  The
Transportation Security Administration is quoted as saying that the name is
not on any list, but that pattern matching technology is flagging the name.
Does anyone have any further information on this phenomenon?

rslade{at}vcn.bc.ca      slade{at}victoria.tc.ca      rslade{at}sun.soci.niu.edu
http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev    or    http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade

(RJT:  Sounds like another flawed "tool" to me...)

--

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 02:39:05 -0400
From: Monty Solomon 
Subject: Man charged in e-mail stalking of anchor

Tonny Horne, an Indiana man who thought Chicago WFLD (Channel 32) news
anchor Tamron Hall was talking to him through his television set, and who
showered her with affectionate and obscene e-mails for two years, will be
among the first people charged under Illinois' 2001 cyberstalking law.
(RJT:  Cyberstalking?  I wonder if this could be used against spammers...?)
 A grand jury indicted him on charges of cyberstalking and criminal
trespassing.  He had been arrested on 16 Jun 2003 outside the Chicago Fox
studios.  If convicted, he could face 2 to 5 years in prison.  [Source:
article by Rick Jervis, *Chicago Tribute*, 13 Jul 2003; PGN-ed]
  http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0307130506jul13,1,2009477.story



Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 16:04:59 +0200
From: BROWN Nick 
Subject: Remotely disabling PCs as an anti-theft measure

ZDNet reports yet another attempt to "discourage PC theft":

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1009807.html

A short extract:

"Every time a computer outfitted with TheftGuard connects to the Internet,
it pings the TheftGuard site. A computer-theft victim can register the
machine at the site. If the stolen machine is brought online, the original
owner can arrange to have the machine crippled or crippled with all data
erased, and can determine the Internet Protocol address used--which can help
in hunting down the thief."

Naturally:
- The TheftGuard site can and will never, ever be hacked - or even a
  tempting target for hackers;
- Extensive checks will be put in place to ensure that only the registered
  owner of a PC can call in to say it's been stolen (perhaps they'll ask for
  your SSN ?);
- The world's law enforcement agencies have thousands of officers just
  standing by reports saying "the person who used IP address A.B.C.D at
   is a thief; go get them !".

Nick Brown, Strasbourg, France

  [Now, that is nice sarcasm.  PGN]



Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 19:54:58 -0400
From: "Tony Harminc" 
Subject: Canada and the FTC Do Not Call list

Curious, I went to the FTC site and tried to register my Canadian home phone
number. It was rejected with an uninformative error message. However the
site was quite happy to accept my (also Canadian) 800 number. This raises a
blend of techno-legal issues, because it is not possible to distinguish
syntactically or in any simple way between a US and Canadian 800 number,
and indeed one number can terminate in multiple locations based on the
caller's location, the time of day, load, etc. So what's the legal
situation if I get a junk call at this number from a US telemarketer? From
a non-US one? US legislators have not been shy in the past about extending
the reach of their laws outside their borders. Is this legislation written
clearly enough to provide a definitive answer?

The Canadian telecom regulator (the CRTC) has been mumbling about Do Not
Call for some years. Perhaps they should get together with their southern
counterparts and arrange a common site and database. On second thought,
maybe they should just go for a friendlier message.



Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 09:43:19 -0600
From: Thomas Wicklund 
Subject: Re: "Soft walls" = dangerous avionics? (DeForest, RISKS-22.79)

The "soft walls" idea of steering planes away from restricted
airspace leaves the question of what constitutes "restricted"
airspace? After adding all possible terrorist targets, I can imagine a
flight into a large east coast city weaving through the narrow
"safe" course to the airport but leaving the airlines bankrupt
paying for air sickness bags.
 
Of course, the airport itself is a terrorist target and should be restricted, right?

--

Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 19:23:05 -0400
From: Robert Woodhead 
Subject: Re: "Soft walls" = dangerous avionics? (DeForest, RISKS-22.79)

> ... and it only takes one airplane with the soft-wall avionics missing or
> disabled, to defeat the purpose of the whole system.

Not to mention subverting the code so that at a particular date and time,
the logic inverted and the exclusion zones became the only place where the
airplanes would fly...

--

Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2003 22:53:41 -0700
From: Crispin Cowan 
Subject: Re: RFID Site Security Gaffe ... (Solomon, RISKS-22.79)

Hmmm ... How well do RFID embedded chips survive exposure to stun guns, 
cattle prods or other colorful toys? 
http://www.violetwands.com/entrance.html

I'm not above wanding my groceries with some high voltage to preserve some
privacy. Chips can be hardened, but radio chips would seem to be more
difficult to harden against high voltage.

Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.  http://immunix.com/~crispin/
Chief Scientist, Immunix  http://immunix.com  http://www.immunix.com/shop/

--

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 15:26:31 +0200
From: "Josef Janko" 
Subject: Re: The risks of assuming things: German payrolls (DWW, RISKS-22.79)

It must be a wonderful picture imagining how thousands of software
developers delay their vacations to provide a poor public servant like DWW
with her paycheck in time... However, recalling my experience with the
Berlin local government, the reality is not so dramatic. The payment system
now is not more "wacky" than it was 28 years ago, when I first
came into contact with it. Every year the government and the unions have
"concocted" changes like these, and without a word the additional
money has been paid one, two, or even three months later. So where is the
problem, the reason for this outburst? The problem is, that for the first
time after WW II in Germany public servants have to work more and get less
for that - from my point of view only a fair deal under the circumstance
that their jobs guaranteed. It is not a problem of IT: it is a problem of
perception - being forced to face the reality outside the ivory tower.



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