Caron Carlson

Warning: Using unlicensed wireless networks could be so damaging to the safety of your data that industry experts are suggesting the need for a Surgeon General-like warning label. Regulators, private industry and law enforcement widely agree that data networks—wireless and wire-line alike—will forever be vulnerable to attack. The difference with wireless technology, some in industry […]

If your local telephone company sells you long distance service in addition to local service, should it be allowed to mix the figures from the two businesses in one set of books? And if so, should it have to file those figures with the communications regulators? Today, local exchange carriers, namely the Bell Operating Companies, […]

After months of escalating criticism from the IT industry that the Bush administration is devoting insufficient resources and attention to cyber-security, the fledgling Department of Homeland Security is already restructuring to give network safety a higher profile. At a congressional hearing on cyber-security research and development Wednesday, Charles McQueary, undersecretary for science and technology at […]

Warning: Using unlicensed wireless networks could be so damaging to the safety of your data that industry experts are suggesting the need for a Surgeon General-like warning label. Regulators, private industry and law enforcement widely agree that data networks—wireless and wireline alike—will forever be vulnerable to attack. The difference with wireless technology, some in industry […]

The government now calls it “factual data analysis,” but data mining by any other name smells as potentially rotten to civil liberties advocates. The U.S. House subcommittee on technology and information policy last week heard from three federal proponents of the technology to consider whether it enhances national security. Civil liberties activists are urging Congress […]

Six months after a federal settlement was ordered to remedy Microsoft Corp.s anti-competitive conduct, two states, several business rivals and some users still say the software company wields too much power in the marketplace. Attorneys General Thomas Reilly of Massachusetts and Darrell McGraw of West Virginia are continuing the battle for tough antitrust remedies after […]

The government now calls it “factual data analysis,” but data mining by any other name smells as potentially rotten to civil liberties advocates. Three federal agencies—the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and the FBI—are developing new data analysis systems. The systems are slated to move beyond the tactics of traditional […]

It took the U.S. military less than one month to occupy Baghdad, but the states battling Microsoft Corp. because of its antitrust violations are gearing up for a sixth year of fighting. Massachusetts and West Virginia this week attacked the court-approved antitrust remedies that the government agreed to in November 2001. Nine states and the […]

With new federal health-care information rules going into effect this year, Safeway Corp. was recently tasked with bringing up to date nearly 7,000 pharmacy employees scattered across the 50 states. Travel for so many employees at once was out of the question, so the company turned to an upgraded satellite video system and completed the […]

The prospect of federal anti-spam regulation is no longer a question of “if” but rather “how much?” U.S. lawmakers who were once resistant to wading into Internet regulation are now expressing the need to act quickly before the problem of unwanted messages outweighs the benefit of e-mail. Last week, two new federal bills joined the […]