Category: News
Privacy Commissioner Demands Bell Explain Its Traffic Management Process
Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has decided that Bell Canada must clearly tell its customers that it is collecting information for the purposes of traffic shaping. Bell states that they only collects the IP information of its subscribers’ routers or computers and, although these dynamic IP addresses can’t identify individuals, they can, however, be traced to a user’s ID. Stoddard concluded IP addresses are personal information, and therefore the telco could do a better job of explaining what it does.
From the article:
The final decision came this week from commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who in April found that the telco’s public explanations of its use of deep packet inspection technology (DPI) to slow traffic of some Internet subscribers doesn’t comply with its obligations under the federal privacy law, PIPEDA.
In April Stoddart ruled Bell has to clarify its written agreements with subscribers, that it integrate its privacy and traffic management practices better on its written and Web pages, findings she upheld. This week’s ruling says the commission is giving Bell 30 days to comply with changes to three specific documents.
The use of DPI has spawned much controversy, as evidenced by the ongoing CRTC hearing. Included in her findings, Stoddart also wrote this: “It is relatively easy to paint a picture of a network where DPI, unchecked, could be used to monitor the activities of its users. It is rarer to dispassionately examine a specific implementation of DPI on a network.
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) is a Canadian law relating to data privacy. It governs how private-sector organizations collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of commercial business. In addition, the Act contains various provisions to facilitate the use of electronic documents. PIPEDA was passed in the late 1990s to promote consumer trust in electronic commerce. The act was also intended to reassure the European Union that the Canadian privacy law was adequate to protect the personal information of European citizens.
The full itWorldCanada article can be found here: http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Security/f8c8388d-1425-4e20-b1d9-c025c9318a4e.html
More information about PIPEDA can be found here: http://www.priv.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_e.cfm
Upgrade to Snow Leopard Installs Vulnerable Flash Player
As reported by numerous sources Apple’s latest operating system upgrade, code named Snow Leopard, forces Adobe Flash Player to be downgraded to 10.0.23.1. Adobe had this to say:
The initial release of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) includes an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player than what is available from Adobe.com. We recommend all users update to the latest, most secure version of Flash Player (10.0.32.18) — which supports Snow Leopard and is available for download from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer.
If I were you I’d update my Flash Player immediately…
Presenting at SANS Network Security 2009 – “So You Want to Write a Security Book, Eh?”
So You Want to Write a Security Book, Eh?
– Andrew Hay
– Friday, September 18 * 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Have you ever thought about writing a security book, but were not sure where to start? What kind of book should you write? How do you get a publisher? What can you expect to make off your book?
Join Andrew Hay, author of the OSSEC Host-based Intrusion Detection Guide, Nagios 3 Enterprise Network Monitoring, and the Nokia Firewall, VPN, and IPSO Configuration Guide, to learn the pros and cons of being a security author and to learn if you’ve got what it takes to write the next great security book.
Full details here: http://www.sans.org/ns2009/night.php