The government of Ireland joined a growing list of Microsoft supporters as the software giant battles the U.S. government’s efforts to obtain data on overseas servers. Last summer, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered Microsoft to turn over Outlook.com emails stored on servers in Ireland to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Microsoft refused, arguing that emails stored in a computer in Dublin are protected by Irish and European privacy laws. Now, Ireland’s government is stating it “does not accept any implication that it is required to intervene into foreign court proceedings to protect its sovereign rights in respect of its jurisdiction.” Further, Ireland argued that there is already a mechanism, the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, for requesting the information the DOJ seeks.
Dell has introduced the SonicPoint AC Series of wireless access points, which supports the high-performance IEEE 802.11ac wireless standard. The company explained that SonicPoint combines with deep packet inspection security from Dell SonicWall next-generation firewalls to provide small and midsize businesses with a comprehensive wireless network security solution.
A German steel factory suffered a major cyber-attack, causing physical damage to the plant’s systems. The attack resulted in “massive damage” to the physical systems. The attackers used social engineering to gain access to the office networks at the steel firm by sending crafted email messages to administrators. They then used their beachhead in the IT network to compromise the operational network.
According to a new survey, conducted by Harris and sponsored by Xerox, many Americans are open to getting medical records online if given instructions on how to obtain access by their medical providers. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they do not currently use online patient portals, but more than half of those who don’t use portals said they would be much more interested and proactive in their personal health care if they had online access to their medical records.