Silicon Valley Security Officer Placed on Leave; FBI Grabs Arab-American And Offers No Explanation; A Report From Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference

Silicon Valley Security Officer Placed on Leave

Santa Clara County’s top information security officer is facing possible criminal charges for unauthorized use of his office computer and cell phone, according to a story in today’s Mercury News. The Merc reports that the security officer’s actions violate the policies that he himself wrote, and that he has been placed on paid administrative leave.FBI Grabs Arab-American And Offers No ExplanationBoston Globe. The Globe reports that the man, Maher Hawash, is being held as a material witness under a federal law that lets the government detain people expected to testify before a grand jury and that the government won’t give any details publicly about the case.

An Arab-American software engineer at Intel was seized by armed FBI agents and has been jailed in solitary confinement for two weeks without charges, according to a story in the

A Report From Computers, Freedom and Privacy ConferenceInfoWorld. The story reports that participants expressed their concerns over the impact of proposals such as an expansion to the USA Patriot Act, and a Total Information Awareness (TIA) program.

The 13th annual conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) got off to a fiery start in New York as speakers debated the possible effects of increased security and surveillance measures put forth since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., according to a story in