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• News Archive: December 2008

News Archive: December 2008

The views represented in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the Privacy Act Program, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

THE SCOOP for December 31, 2008

• Bush E-Mails May Be Secret a Bit Longer
  Washington Post - December 21, 2008
  "The required transfer in four weeks of all of the Bush White House's electronic mail messages and documents to the National Archives has been imperiled by a combination of technical glitches, lawsuits and lagging computer forensic work, according to government officials, historians and lawyers."

• Climate czar left no electronic trail
  Washington Times - December 24, 2008
  "Don't bother looking for any electronic records of Carol Browner's first stint as a federal government executive. The soon-to-be Obama administration climate czar intentionally didn't keep many."

• FEMA investigates breach of Katrina victims' private information
  Federal Computer Week - December 24, 2008
  "Personal information on people who applied for disaster aid after Hurricane Katrina was recently published on the Web without authorization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said."

• 'Fusion center' privacy fears persist
  NextGov - December 29, 2008
  "Privacy concerns continue to plague state-run intelligence "fusion centers" that the Homeland Security Department has set up around the country despite security provisions contained in a law enacted last year to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, according to an agency analysis released this week."

• Gov. Blunt: E-mail investigation 'ridiculous'
  KMOV - December 10, 2008
  "Blunt subsequently said he and his staff routinely delete e-mails. In a September 2007 interview, Blunt said "we don't dictate to each employee how long they're going to keep their e-mails," adding that he didn't believe the office needed a written policy on e-mail retention."

• Making sense of the 'semantic Web'
  CNN - December 18, 2008
  "The idea behind the semantic Web, very broadly, is that things on the Internet will be described with descriptor languages so that computers can "understand" what they are."

• OpenDocument Format Gaining in Government
  Government Technology - December 23, 2008
  "'Governments can be assured that they will have access to important documents and records many years and decades from now with no worries that their software provider will discontinue support for the format.'"

• Protecting e-patient privacy: new government guidelines
  Ars Technica - December 18, 2008
  "[C]oncerns about the security of medical records remain paramount—as anyone who's had any experience with HIPAA can confirm. To that end, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has announced a number of key principles and a tool kit related to health IT privacy."

• Researchers create graphite memory only 10 atoms thick
  ComputerWorld - December 18, 2008
  "The technology could potentially provide many times the capacity of current flash memory and withstand temperatures of 200 degrees Celsius and radiation that would make solid-state disk memory disintegrate."

THE SCOOP for December 23, 2008

• CDT to Obama: advent of "the cloud" makes privacy laws dated
  Ars Technica - December 11, 2008
  "The Center for Democracy and Technology issued a transition agenda for the incoming Obama administration Tuesday, outlining measures president-elect Barack Obama should take...to restore privacy safeguards that have been eroded over the past eight years and to promote open discourse and innovation online."

• Cheney claims power to decide his public records
  WTOP - December 18, 2008
  "Dick Cheney's lawyers are asserting that the vice president alone has the authority to determine which records, if any, from his tenure will be handed over to the National Archives when he leaves office in January."

• E-Government Ball Already Rolling At Commerce
  National Journal - December 16, 2008
  "If Barack Obama wants to prioritize e-government, he might look to the Commerce Department, which has quietly gained a reputation for being one of the most Web-savvy departments in the federal government."

• Feds' lack of preserving digital records reaching urgent stage
  NextGov - December 17, 2008
  "'The problem is urgent,' said Fran Berman, director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and professor of high-performance computing at the University of California-San Diego. 'If you want to have access to data tomorrow, you have to think about preserving it today.'"

• Lack of policy adds to e-discovery cost and complexity
  Network World - December 16, 2008
  "IT and legal teams must work together to establish e-discovery policies. In fact, one-third of companies lack formal policies and procedures for legal holds, according to a recent poll of attorneys and executives conducted by Deloitte."

• New privacy guidelines for e-health records announced
  CNET News - December 17, 2008
  "The Department of Health and Human Services this week released new privacy guidelines...for electronic health records, the use of which President-elect Barack Obama has promised to support as part of his plan to jump-start the economy."

• Prepare Now for New 'Red Flag' Credit Rules
  TechNewsWorld - December 13, 2008
  "In order to prevent and properly report identity theft, safeguard data and ensure regulatory compliance, creditors should familiarize themselves with the FTC's new identity theft red flag regulations as soon as possible."

• Taking electronic records retention management to the next level
  SearchCIO - December 9, 2008
  "Despite all the hoopla over the need for electronic records retention policies -- particularly given the need to produce records for litigation for compliance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure -- many midmarket companies fail to have or enforce standard practices to retain electronic records."

• Zeroed out: five steps toward restoring inbox sanity
  Ars Technica - December 14, 2008
  "If you've been battling a bulging inbox, here are five tips that may help you win the war."

THE SCOOP for December 17, 2008

• An ad hoc story of America emerges from online posts to Change.gov
  ComputerWorld - December 12, 2008
  "More than 3,500 comments posted at President-elect Barack Obama's Change.gov Web site have been merged into a single document, creating a downloadable portrait of a nation in crisis that runs for more than 700 pages and nearly 500,000 words."

• Are your medical records secure?
  Columbus Dispatch - December 7, 2008
  "You might expect health-care providers and insurance companies to use the best security measures to keep your medical information private. But a national expert on patient privacy said it's naive to think that your health record is secure. And with the federal government pushing for more electronic records, security will only get worse."

• Backup vs. Archive
  Processor - December 12, 2008
  "In its "E-mail Archiving & Management Report 2008," analyst firm CMS Watch found that 80% of mail data is duplicated because enterprises lack a basic understanding between email backup and advanced archiving."

• China, U.S. National Libraries Sign World Digital Library Agreement
  ARMA Washington Policy Brief - December 2008
  "The Library of Congress and the National Library of China have concluded an agreement to cooperate in developing the World Digital Library."

• Identity Theft: Organizations Putting Private Information at Risk
  MarketWatch - December 3, 2008
  "While lawmakers and businesses seek to implement safeguards and to better inform the public, one significant threat remains largely unaddressed: the data stored on hard drives inside of digital copiers."

• NASA successfully tests deep space Internet
  ComputerWorld - November 19, 2008
  "Looking for a more efficient and cheaper way to communicate with spacecraft traveling throughout the solar system, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) created a new communications protocol that uses space probes and orbiters as deep space routers."

• Op-ed: NARA framework distorts records management
  Federal Computer Week - December 12, 2008
  "As always, NARA presents itself as being generally responsible for federal records management. That assertion is untrue, as NARA well knows."

• Reinstate e-health privacy
  Government Health IT - December 3, 2008
  "Most people believe the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act protects the privacy of health information. Unfortunately, that is a myth."

• Waffles and Taxonomies
  AIIM - December 2008
  "Taxonomy means the practice or science of classification. Not too long ago in our business we called it "indexing." However, that isn't descriptive enough and taxonomy is a more accurate description for what we want to get done."

THE SCOOP for December 10, 2008

• Best practices for the electronic workplace
  BizTimes - November 28, 2008
  "In these economic times, few companies have flex in the budget to cover legal claims arising from an employee's misuse of company technology. Here are a few tips to manage the risk."

• Better privacy for better security
  Government Computer News - December 4, 2008
  "The failure of the government in general and the Homeland Security Department (DHS) in particular to adequately ensure the privacy of personal data undermines the nation's cybersecurity, a panel of privacy experts and advocates said Wednesday at a congressional forum."

• Electronic medical records reduce malpractice claims
  ComputerWorld - December 1, 2008
  "In a study done by Harvard researchers, 6.1% of physicians with electronic records had malpractice settlements, compared to 10.8% without electronic records."

• Experts spell out privacy platform for next Congress
  NextGov - December 3, 2008
  "The Homeland Security Department's first chief privacy officer recommended today that the new Congress consider strengthening the nation's 34-year-old Privacy Act and a 2002 statute on electronic government services to uphold privacy and civil liberties safeguards for national security."

• Privacy advocates seek limits on government use of personal data
  Federal Times - December 5, 2008
  "Privacy advocates this week spoke out against the government's warehousing of citizens' personal data under the guise of homeland security. New legislation is needed to protect privacy and restrict how long the government can keep data, they recommended during congressional roundtables.

• Requirements identical for Defense, VA health record system
  NextGov - December 3, 2008
  "Development of a joint inpatient electronic health records system will satisfy almost all the requirements of the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, according to a long sequestered report obtained by Nextgov."

• Security, Civil Liberties Experts Question Data-Mining
  PC World - December 3, 2008
  "No credible study has found predictive data-mining, which involves combing data for trends to help identify possible terrorists or criminals, to work, said Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)."

• Twitter is a Continuity of Operations Tool, State Agency Discovers
  Government Technology - October 22, 2008
  "Government is slowly finding real-world purposes for Twitter, a free short messaging service that allows users to post updates (or "tweets") to twitter.com subscribers via Web browsers, mobile phones and instant messaging clients."

• White House documents found to be altered
  University of Illinois Daily Ilini - December 5, 2008
  "Scott Althaus, professor of political science and communication, and Kalev Leetaru, coordinator of research in the Cline Center for Democracy, recently found that the U.S. White House Web site has modified, and in some cases, deleted key documents in the public record."

THE SCOOP for December 4, 2008

• Canada backpedals on sharing personal database with U.S.
  The Telegram (CA) - December 1, 2008
  "Ottawa has quietly dropped plans to let the United States house a database of personal information about Canadians who hold special driver's licences aimed at better securing the border."

• Congress Warned of Google Privacy & Security Risks
  MarketWatch - November 18, 2008
  "Consumer Watchdog released a new on-line video exposing privacy problems with Google's Gmail service and other Google applications in the wake of Google's recent marketing efforts on Capitol Hill."

• Library Notes: Lose yourself in Internet Archive site
  The Evening Sun (Hanover, PA) - November 28, 2008
  "The Internet Archive, www.archive.org, is a non-profit organization established to build an Internet library with the purpose of preserving all manner of information including text, audio, moving images, software and archived Web pages."

• MSU to create digital archive of sacred Israelite texts
  Michigan State University News - November 25, 2008
  "Using a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, MSU's Writing in Digital Environments research center will digitize 20 pages from two of MSU Libraries' three Israelite Samaritan Pentateuchs, written more than 500 years ago in Egypt and Syria."

• NHPRC Recommends Documentary Editing, Archival Projects Grants
  ARMA Washington Policy Brief - December 1, 2008
  "Grant recommendations include $1.266 million to the projects annotating and publishing the papers of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and the documentary histories of the First Federal Congress and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution."

• Social Security's Security Problem
  Forbes - November 24, 2008
  "Even when companies have good intentions, keeping customers' private information safe is a difficult business."

• Who's Been Reading My Cell-phone Records?
  PC World - November 25, 2008
  "Verizon Wireless employees could snoop into then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama's cell-phone records, as the carrier acknowledged last week, then mobile subscribers may worry how well protected they are."

• Why Your Web Site Needs a Content Management System
  Allbusiness - December 1, 2008
  "A Content Management System (CMS) allows you to easily update text, images, and other media on your Web site without having to write code. Whether you're updating quarterly reports, product details, or your daily online journal, a CMS makes changing your site's content quick and relatively easy."

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