176017
submission
meltoast writes:
Got notice today of a pending lawsuit between the Southeast Texas Medical Associates and Verisign, claiming that there is no difference between Verisign's Secure Site SSL Certificate (40-bit) and the Secure Site Pro SSL Certificate (128-bit). A copy of the notice can be found here. Are the courts capable of deciding that there is no ostensible difference between 40-bit and 128-bit encryption?
176015
submission
Aviran writes:
Under a licensing agreement in its final stages, consumers may get the right to make several legal copies of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies they've purchased, a concession by the movie industry that may quell criticism that DRM (digital rights management) technologies are too restrictive.
175255
submission
mrneutron2003 writes:
Some people need to really understand where the legal system stands on open Wi-Fi networks. Routinely when driving around we find oodles of open access points, and this is far from a big city we live in. But, don't assume when you find an open hotspot that you can do whatever you like. A Michigan man got stuck with 40 hours of community service and a $400 fine for Wi-Fi access from a parking lot.
http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/next-time-y ou-wardrive-buy-a-latte.html?Itemid=60
175219
submission
SafteyInNumbers writes:
Can an elderly father give police permission to search a password-protected computer kept in his adult son's bedroom, without probable cause or a warrant? In April, a three judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said yes.
This week, the son's attorney, Melissa Harrison, an assistant federal public defender in Kansas City, will ask the court to reconsider the panel's ruling. At stake is whether law enforcement will have any responsibility to respect passwords and other expressions of user privacy when searching devices which contain the most sensitive kinds of private information.
In United States v. Andrus (.pdf), agents suspected that the defendant was accessing websites containing child pornography, but after eight months of investigation still did not have sufficient probable cause to get a search warrant. Instead, they decided to drop by the defendant's house for an impromptu conversation.
The suspect was not at home. However, his 91-year-old father answered the door in his pajamas, invited the agents in, and eventually gave them permission to enter his son's bedroom and search the hard drive on his son's password-protected computer. The agents used EnCase to perform the search, a common forensic tool programmed to ignore Windows logon passwords. Agents found child pornography on the computer.
Without a judge's permission, the search depended on the father's authority to allow police access to his son's computer. On this point, the fact that the son locked his parents out of the computer with a password is critical.
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/commentary/circu itcourt/2007/05/circuitcourt_0523
Looks like it's time to dust off those encryption programs.
