Government

Ever wonder what kind of punishment a government employee might receive for leaking the personal information of John Q. Public? Here's your answer in a nutshell: a week's vacation. The man who'll have less time this year to lounge on tropical ... beaches is one Jerry Miller, payroll team leader for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services. Miller is behind the agency's Administrative Knowledge System, or OAKS, and last month was found responsible for losing a tape containing data on nearly 65,000 state employees, 20,000 former state employees, and worst of all almost 50,000 Ohio taxpayers. ... (view more)

Ah, the modern wonders of 21st century technology. We live in a world where illegal wiretapping is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violations of civil rights violations against U.S. citizens. Now, Germany reportedly wants to get ... involved in spying on citizens using tech, too. German officials want to use Trojan horse software to secretly monitor potential terror suspects' computing habits. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is trying to include using Trojan horses as part of a broader security law being considered by the German government, alleging that judicial approval ... (view more)

In a couple recent articles by myself and my colleague Brandon Dimmel , we've mentioned the Big Brother concept a couple of times. Now we can talk about the worst Big Brother case scenario known to modern man (and woman). When used correctly, the ... concept of Big Brother can be beneficial to everyone's safety and security. When used as a tool to maintain complete control over an entire country, there is always the possibility of mind-numbing civil rights violations, too. At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are reportedly being installed along streets in southern China. These will soon ... (view more)

Is there more to Windows Vista being big brother than was originally thought? There appear to be features and services bundled into Windows Vista that stay in touch with the government and their associates, too. If this is true, Microsoft has gone ... too far. This post was in an abandonia.com forum, and appeared to get overloaded from all the attention it was getting. Whitedust.net had a copy of it on their site. A forum user switched to Windows Vista a month ago and actually had some good luck with it. He began noticing latency on his home network connection. He used port sniffing software and ... (view more)

The BlackBerry has been praised by some, rejected by others, and now banned by the Government of France, with the country's Minister of Defense calling the handheld device a "threat to French state secrets". What is most bizarre about the situation ... is that France has lashed out against the United States, claiming that American intelligence agencies are manipulating French BlackBerry devices to spy on government secrets. Emails that are sent from a French BlackBerry device must pass through servers in the United States and Britain. France fears that this process will make their systems prone ... (view more)

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British Homeland Security has put a new spin on video surveillance. By introducing CCTV cameras equipped with loudspeakers, security staff may now verbally berate those seen committing crimes. The cameras will have a two-way speaker system that ... allows staff to talk and respond directly to the perpetrator. The British government has high expectations for the talking cameras, because many believe that their presence will deter those considering breaking the law at the risk of public embarrassment. British Homeland Security forces have already reported a significant decline in crime rates in the ... (view more)

Last week we reported how the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a moratorium on users migrating to Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007 citing no compelling reasons to upgrade at this time. ... Federal Computer Week is reporting that more Federal Agencies are delaying the migration to Windows Vista. The Interior Department, including the Army and the Transportation Department are developing implementation policies and say they need to complete their testing of Vista before switching over from older working systems already in place. A draft ... (view more)

Recently, Information week obtained a memo citing concerns over cost and compatibility issues by the federal U.S. Department Of Transportation (DOT) in January 2007, prohibiting thousands of federal workers from upgrading to Windows Vista, Internet ... Explorer 7 (IE7) and Office 2007. The DOT's Chief Information Officer (CIO) placed an "indefinite moratorium" on the upgrades since "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade." "Microsoft Vista, Office 2007, and ... (view more)

Attention, Canadian Residents: Those Loonies and Toonies ($1 and $2 coins) jingling around in your pocket may include more than just bronze and metal. Tiny radio frequency transmitters have been found inside Canadian coins, according to a recent ... U.S. intelligence report. This all sounds like something out of a spy movie -- and like any good espionage thriller, the facts of this case are a mystery wrapped in a riddle. This is what the report *didn't* say: The coins are from Canada, but the U.S. government isn't saying (or doesn't know) who's doing the tracking -- or why. How the Pentagon ... (view more)