Wiretap Act - The Loco Motion Law?

"Everybody's doin' a brand-new dance, now"
A federal appeals court in California is reviewing a lower court's definition of "interception" in the digital age... The case, Bunnell v. Motion Picture Association of America, involves a hacker who broke into TorrentSpy's company server and obtained copies of company e-mails as they were being transmitted. He then e-mailed 34 pages of the documents to an MPAA executive, who paid the hacker $15,000 for the job, according to court docuWiretapments.

"I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now"
The issue boils down to the judicial definition of an intercept in the electronic age, in which packets of data move from server to server, alighting for milliseconds before speeding onward. The ruling applies only to the 9th District, which includes California and other Western states, but could influence other courts around the country.

"Jump up. Jump back. Well, now, I think you've got the knack."
In August 2007, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, in the Central District of California, ruled that the alleged hacker, Rob Anderson, had not intercepted the e-mails in violation of the 1968 Wiretap Act because they were technically in storage, if only for a few instants, instead of in transmission.

"Now that you can do it, let's make a chain, now."
"The case is alarming because its implications will reach far beyond a single civil case," wrote Kevin Bankston, a senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday. If upheld, the foundation argued, "law enforcement officers could engage in the contemporaneous acquisition of e-mails just as Anderson did, without having to comply with the Wiretap Act's requirements."

"Do it nice and easy, now, don't lose control"
Cooper's ruling also has implications for non-government access to e-mail, wrote Bankston and University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm in EFF's brief. "Without the threat of liability under the Wiretap Act," they wrote, "Internet service providers could intercept and use the private communications of their customers, with no concern about liability" under the Stored Communications Act, which grants blanket immunity to communications service providers where they authorize the access.

"Move around the floor in a Loco-motion"
Individuals could monitor others' e-mail for criminal or corporate espionage "without running afoul of the Wiretap Act," they wrote.

"There's never been a dance that's so easy to do."
"It could really gut the wiretapping laws," said Orin S. Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and expert on surveillance law. "The government could go to your Internet service provider and say, 'Copy all of your e-mail, but make the copy a millisecond after the email arrives,' and it would not be a wiretap." (more)

...It even makes you legal when they're feeling screwed,
So come on, come on, do the Loco Motion with me.

"Next stop!
Voicemails, ISPs, and bucket brigading of phone calls.
All aboard!"

Larry, The IT Guy (No... make that, Spy)

Security Directors, CEOs, Chief Legal Counsels:
Immediately after you read this, make sure you have a clear, concise written policy in place detailing allowable IT behavior.

One in three IT administrators say they or one of their colleagues have used top-level admin passwords to pry into confidential or sensitive information at their workplace, according to a survey by a password-management vendor.

Nearly half also confessed that they have poked around systems for information not relevant to their jobs.

"We asked these questions last year, too," said Adam Bosnian, vice president of product strategy and sales for Cyber-Ark, a Newton, Mass.-based maker of password file security management software. "And we got similar results. So on one hand, the results weren't surprising. What was surprising initially -- and this time around, too -- is that people admit to it." (more)

Make Caller ID Lie For You

Keep your phone number private whenever you make or receive calls. A new service called Vumber does it for you.

In addition to privacy you can get anonymity, too. Vumber is like Kleenex, disposable. Change numbers whenever you want. Be in any Area Code you like.

"It’s your anyphone, anytime, anywhere phone number that keeps your identity private – until you decide it not to be.

A Vumber is a number from any area code you want, linked to your home, cell, or work phone. When someone calls your Vumber, Vumber lets you control how you handle the call: you can a) answer it; b) send them to VumberMail; c) give them a busy signal; d) tell them the number is out of service; or e) play them a custom message you create.

It provides unequaled privacy protection when anyone calls your Vumber, and when you call anyone. And it’s not limited to a pre-defined one-to-one calling relationship like you sometimes see out there – it is as simple as having another phone number. Even simpler.

You can call “from” your Vumber, too..." (more)

The flip side... Your Caller ID display is no longer trustworthy. But hey, it never was anyway.

2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey:

Over Half of All Employers Combined Fire Workers for E-Mail & Internet Abuse

From e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute. (more)

Man accused of eavesdropping to steal business

Iowa - A warrant was issued Friday for the arrest of a man accused of eavesdropping on a cell phone in an attempt to steal business from a competitor.

Cory Bailey, 19, of Cedar Rapids, failed to appear twice for his arraignment in state court on charges that he entered the voice mail of a cell phone belonging to DeNeve Construction in Iowa City.

According to court documents, once inside DeNeve’s voice mail, Bailey listened to the messages and wrote down prospective client information in an attempt to take business from DeNeve. After collecting the information, Bailey deleted the messages.

DeNeve Construction, a 12year-old Iowa City business, is involved in roofing, drywalling, insulation and carpentry, according to its Web site. (more)