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by CSO Contributor

Snoopware Worries Privacy Advocates; Copy Protection Company to Sue, Not to Sue; Microsoft Outlines Security Plan

News
Oct 10, 20032 mins
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

Snoopware Worries Privacy Advocates

Privacy advocates and law enforcement agencies agree that software that allows one person to monitor what another person does on his computer without their knowledge violates the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to a story in today’s New York Times. The story reports that there are more than a dozen snooping programs on the market, and their makers say they are used legally by employers to monitor workers’ Internet use, by parents to follow their children’s online wanderings, and by husbands and wives to catch cheating mates.Copy Protection Company to Sue, Not to SueDaily Princetonian. The story reports that the company, whose stock value has allegedly dropped $10 million since the disclosure, backed off the lawsuit because it feared that the litigation would have a chilling effect on research.

SunnComm Technologies, Inc. announced yesterday morning it would sue Princeton student John Halderman over his recent revelation of a simple way to beat the company’s new CD copy-protection method, but by the end of the day SunnComm president and CEO Peter Jacobs said he changed his mind, according to an article in the

Microsoft Outlines Security PlanWashington Post, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described several changes to Microsoft’s security strategy in a speech at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans yesterday. He said Microsoft will issue security updates on a monthly schedule, except in “emergency” situations, to make it easier for users to keep their personal computers up to date. It will ship Windows with security precautions activated that are now left off, and will release security-focused updates to Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in the first half of next year. The Post reports Ballmer also said Microsoft is working with computer-security firms to make sure that they do not announce vulnerabilities before Microsoft has designed a fix.

According to a story in todays