Paid Security is Big Business in Iraq; Spanish Police Find Another Rail Bomb; Delta Tests RFID Tags For Baggage; EC Tells Members To Control

By CSO Contributor

April 02, 2004 — CSO — Paid Security is Big Business in Iraq

The New York Times reports that a rapidly growing and loosely regulated industry of private paramilitary companies are replacing government troops in conflicts from South America to Africa to the Middle East. According to the report, the recent killings in the central Iraqi city of Falluja have shed new light on the growing use of security mercenaries.

Spanish Police Find Another Rail Bomb

CBS reports that Spanish police found a bomb Friday on a high-speed rail line between Madrid and Seville. According to the report, bomb-disposal experts alerted by a railway employee found 22-24 pounds of dynamite under the rail line about 40 miles south of Madrid on the rail line running to Seville.

Delta Tests RFID Tags For Baggage

Computerworld reports that Delta Air Lines starts its second test of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track bags today in hopes of improving accuracy over the 96.7% to 99.9% it achieved in a test last year. According to the report, Delta will write information to the RFID bag tags at the request of the Transportation Security Administration. That information will include the flight number, passenger name and what Rary called a "license plate" a serial number that identifies each bag.

EC Tells Members To Control "Cookies" and Spam

Infoworld reports that the European Commission sent a final warning to eight member states of the European Union (E.U.) Thursday, for failing to transpose into their national laws an E.U.-wide law designed to curb spam and control the use of "cookies". The directive on privacy and electronic communications sets E.U.-wide rules for the protection of privacy and personal data in mobile and fixed communications, including the Internet.

Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.

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