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by CSO Contributor

New Border ID System Drawing Frowns; Briton Pleads Guilty to Hacking U.S. Nuclear Lab; Canadian Court Upholds Taking DNA from Suspects

News
Oct 31, 20033 mins
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

New Border ID System Drawing Frowns

According to a story from the San Antonio Express-News, border business advocates are worried about the Homeland Security Department’s plans to electronically identify foreign visitors who’ve overstayed their visas. Within two years, a digital photograph and a set of inkless fingerprints will be required of visitors at most ports of entry, and confirmation prints and a photo will be taken again when a visitor leaves. Those who overstay their official welcome might find it more difficult, and maybe impossible, to legally enter the country again, officials said. Because those requirements will apply to millions of Mexicans who use border crossing cards, the so-called “laser visas” typically good for 72-hour visits to the border area, it will have a significant effect on traffic, commerce, tourism and the underground economy there, the Express-News notes.Briton Pleads Guilty to Hacking U.S. Nuclear LabComputerWeekly.com. The lab, near Chicago, noticed something amiss when scheduled backups took longer than normal. McElroy was apparently using the labs servers to store hundreds of gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files, to which he also gave password access to friends. The teenager was arrested at his parents home in London following a joint investigation by the Department of Energy and Scotland Yards Computer Crime Unit. McElroy thought that the Fermilab computers were owned by a university, and claimed that he targeted universities because he thought that they did not have to pay Internet access charges, and made a point of not hacking into corporate systems.

Joseph James McElroy, 18, a first-year undergraduate student in the U.K., admitted at a court hearing in London today to hacking into 17 computer systems at the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory, according to a story on

Canadian Court Upholds Taking DNA from SuspectsThe Toronto Star today. The legislation requires that police obtain a warrant from a provincial judge, who must be satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe the targeted person committed the offense. The three main methods involve plucking hair, pricking skin, or swabbing saliva from inside the mouth. The law was challenged by a rape case which produced a child; DNA suggested overwhelming probability the suspect was the father. He contested his DNA was taken without consent. The case was closely watched because DNA analysis is widely accepted as a reliable scientific tool in establishing the guilt or innocence of crime suspects.

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the right of police to seize DNA from people suspected of serious violent crimes, according to