Court Upholds Decision Against Broad E-Mail Subpoena; New Security Certification Gaining Ground; A Software Program Aimed at Taming File-Sharing

Court Upholds Decision Against Broad E-Mail Subpoena

A federal appeals court will not reverse last year’s decision that the issuance of an egregiously overbroad subpoena for e-mail can qualify as a computer intrusion in violation of anti-hacking laws, according to a story in The Register today. The Justice Department had argued to no avail that a side-effect of the ruling has already made it harder for law enforcement officials to obtain Americans’ private e-mail. The Register outlines the case in question, but in short, overbroad subpoenas could constitute a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which outlaw unauthorized access to computers and stored email, respectively. Both those laws include criminal penalties, which means civil attorneys issuing overbroad subpoenasnot an uncommon eventnow risk lawsuits, and even potential criminal prosecution as computer intruders, under the decision. New Security Certification Gaining GroundFederal Computer Week today, new certification for information security professionals is beginning to gain traction less than a year after it was introduced, with about 100 people having earned the Information Systems Security Engineering Professional (ISSEP) credential, an extension of the popular Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification. The Systems Security Certification Consortium developed the certification with the National Security Agency, to address the specialized knowledge and expertise that the national security community requires of its employees and contractors. All of the consortium’s credentials require professionals to learn certain skills and practices in the relevant field and then pass tests. Results show that the person has attained a certain level of expertise in the given discipline.

According to a story in

A Software Program Aimed at Taming File-SharingNew York Times, The company has developed a technology that it says can spot copyrighted materials while they are being passed from computer to computer and block the transfer. File-sharing companies have argued that they cannot control copyright infringement on their networks. Record industry executives, who have said that they are against government-ordered technology fixes for copyright problems, said that they are not asking Congress to act, at least at this time. But the Times quotes Josh Bernoff, a principal analyst with Forrester Research, who says, “I think it does change the game. Now if you’re a legislator, you’re going to have to make a decision about whether you’re going to protect the rights of downloaders, or of the people who own the copyrights to the music.”

The Recording Industry Association of America has been talking up a company named Audible Magic to lawmakers and regulators in Washington in recent weeks in an attempt to show that file-sharing networks can be tamed. According to todays