Administration Defends Arrests Abroad; Dem Convention Forces Closure of Major Highway; Human Error Blamed for Most Security Breaches; Experts Say U.S. Unprepared for Cyberterror

Administration Defends Arrests Abroad

The Washington Post reports that a Bush administration lawyer urged the Supreme Court to uphold the authority of federal agents to make arrests abroad and to curtail the rights of foreigners to sue the U.S. government or corporations for human rights violations abroad, in a pair of cases the administration has called crucial to its ability to fight terrorism and drug trafficking. According to the report, Deputy Solicitor General Paul D. Clement told the court that U.S. law enforcement would be crippled by a federal appeals court’s rulings in favor of a Mexican doctor who alleges he was kidnapped in Mexico by the U.S. government and one of its Mexican agents.Dem Convention Forces Closure of Major HighwayThe Boston Globe reports that the Secret Service insists that for security reasons Interstate 93 and a major commuter rail station must be closed during all four nights of the Democratic Convention in Boston. According to the report, state and city officials had hoped for more limited disruption to commuters and had argued that shutting down both the highway and the rail and subway service would create a transportation nightmare the last week of July.Human Error Blamed for Most Security BreachesThe San Francisco Chronicle reports that more companies are experiencing serious computer security breaches, mostly due to human error rather than technical failures, according to a study to be released today. The story reports that of 896 security professionals surveyed by the Computing Technology Industry Association, a trade group, 58 percent said their company had suffered at least one major security breach in the past six months and that in 84 percent of the cases, the breach was caused by human error alone or a combination of an error and a technical malfunction. Experts Say U.S. Unprepared for CyberterrorNetwork World reports that the U.S. is unprepared to recover quickly from a major cyberterrorism attack and might require government intervention to organize IT professionals, according to military emergency management officials at a security conference. According to the report, informal information-sharing systems exist for business, government and military agencies to deal with cyberattacks, but they lack official powers to make responses more efficient and focused.