In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye; CIA Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies; Microsoft Talks Security, Trustworthy Computing

In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye

Some 28,000 students in Spring, Tex. (a suburb north of Houston) are participating in a test of ID badges containing computer chips that are read when students get on and off school buses. According to a report in The New York Times, students are monitored from a police control room and represented on a computer screen with an icon. The mission of the experiment, which will cost the district $180,000, is to help reassure parents of the wherabouts of their children. “I’m sure we’re being overprotective, but you hear about all this violence,” said Elisa Temple-Harvey, 34, the parent of a fourth grader. “I’m not saying this will curtail it, or stop it, but at least I know she made it to campus.” Civil liberties groups argue that the system goes too far.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

CIA Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies

Central Intelligence Agency chief Porter J. Goss told agency employees that they should back the administration and its policies in their work in a memorandum released Monday. According to a report in The New York Times, Goss’s memo sought to assuage White House officials who have complained that some CIA officials have attempted to undermine President Bush and his policies. Goss was also clear to make the point that the intelligence gathered should be unfiltered. “We provide the intelligence as we see it,” he wrote. “And let the facts alone speak to the policymaker.”

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Microsoft Talks Security, Trustworthy Computing

Microsoft takes security seriously, Scott Charney, Microsoft’s chief Trustworthy Computing strategist told an audience in Copenhagen Tuesday. According a report by IDG News Service (a sister company to CXO Media), Charney discussed the company’s security efforts to get partners and customers on board in order to make safer products. “As a leading player in the IT ecosystem, we’re required to go out and talk about what we’re doing,” Charney said.

For more details, read the full IDG News Service report in Computerworld.