Roy Mark

The Senate Banking Committee Thursday approved legislation to ban credit card and other types of electronic payments to offshore casinos. Passed on a vote voice with no debate, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act (S. 627) carries criminal penalties of up to five years in prison for violators. A similar version of the bill […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a new set of proposed guidelines for its controversial Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II). The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), which administers the program, ceased testing CAPPS II in June pending a thorough privacy policy review. In early March, the Bush administration revealed the TSA planned […]

U.S. Representative Joe Pitts (R.-Pa.) has introduced legislation requiring Internet file-swapping services to obtain parental consent before allowing children to use the peer-to-peer (P2P) network software. Pitts said the bill would give parents the tools they need to protect their children from the pornography available on P2P networks. The decentralized nature of P2P networks, which […]

The federal government is promising to provide citizens with responses to all their Web, e-mail and telephone inquiries within two business days or less. USA Services, according to the General Services Administration (GSA), is being offered as the government’s first comprehensive “customer service department” for citizens. USA Services, available through the FirstGov site was created […]

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) called the State Dept.’s L-1B visa for skilled IT workers a type of “stealth immigration” that is taking jobs from the skilled American technology workforce. The visa was created to make it possible for international companies with a presence in the U.S. to bring their employees from overseas. However, Feinstein […]

U.S. Rep. Mary Bono (R.-Calif.) has introduced legislation requiring companies using “spyware” to inform computer users of their intent to install the invasive software and to obtain permission before loading it onto a computer. Spyware allows companies and individuals to monitor Internet activities and sometimes makes it possible to gather personally identifiable information. Bono said […]

Internet activists concerned about the proposed data mining activities of the Pentagon’s controversial Information Awareness Office (IAO) are targeting the privacy of the agency’s director, Dr. John Poindexter. The IAO is an agency of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City […]

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has agreed to stop a new program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to predict terrorist events through the online selling of “futures” in terrorist attacks. Sen. John Warner (R.-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said during a Tuesday morning hearing he had contacted the program’s director […]

With Republicans controlling the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives, The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has turned to Republican lobbyist Mitch Bainwol to replace Hilary Rosen as its chairman and CEO. Rosen, who led the contentious legal battle against file-swapping services for the powerful music trade organization, resigned […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has again delayed the implementation of its master taxpayer database modernization plan and launched an independent review of the program to evaluate its progress and determine whether any changes are needed. The system, the Customer Account Data Engine (CADE), will be a modern database that will house tax information for […]

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee is calling for only $1 million in 2004 funding for the Electronic Government Act (E-Gov), which invests in inter-agency projects with government-wide applications. The Bush Administration had requested $45 million for the program. Amid much fanfare last November, Congress passed the legislation, touting a new era of government services, and […]

The Bush Administration is expected to give federal agencies specific instructions on how to report computer security incidents to the Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCirc) within the next six weeks. FedCirc is the incident response center where federal civilian agencies report computer security incidents. The purpose of FedCirc is to ensure the government has […]