On July 1, 2009, new laws will take effect in Alaska and South Carolina that will require entities that have experienced data security breaches involving personal information to notify affected individuals of the breaches. With these additions, a total of 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will…
IBM crypto snoops data without looking
An IBM researcher has solved a tricky mathematical problem that makes it possible to analyse encrypted data without compromising privacy. Craig Gentry used a mathematical object called an ideal lattice to develop a system called fully homomorphic encryption (apparently you might also know it as ‘privacy homomorphism’). […] With the breakthrough, companies storing confidential, electronic…
Airport cop sued for invasion of privacy
Christopher Sorey worked as a police officer for the Smyrna-Rutherford County Airport in Tennessee from August 2005 to November 2008. And according to a federal complaint, during that time he allegedly accessed the Integrative Criminal Justice Web Portal to obtain personal information on nine people, including their photographs, Social Security numbers, and addresses. In one…
Kaspersky gets “good samaritan” immunity
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filed its opinion in Zango v. Kaspersky yesterday. Zango had sued Kaspersky Labs because Kaspersky’s software blocks Zango’s software. Kaspersky claimed that it was immune to lawsuit under the safe harbor provision of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 § 230. The district court had granted summary judgment in…