Groups Slam Data Breach Notification Bill
What started as an effort to address the rising problem of identity theft & corporate carelessness has resulted in a law that does very little to correct the problem. The primary focus, to require corporations to report security breaches, is now little more than lip service as it allows the breached corporation to determine whether or not it’s necessary to report the incident to the public.
President Bush signed the PATRIOT act renewal into law ensuring that it wouldn’t expire today. The reauthorization does make a couple of minor changes, but mostly postpones the expiration of certain provisions for another 4 months. Russ Feingold made a statement expressing his concerns and pledged to work towards adding additional safeguards. I’m mostly happy with what’s happened. Libraries are mostly exempted from producing their lending records, and the law still isn’t permanent. It’s a long way from being fixed, but there’s still a chance and that’s a good thing.
CNN.com – NASA satellites feel budget crunch – Mar 6, 2006
The Bush administration’s agenda of returning manned missions to the moon is draining critical funding from NASA’s earth science programs. According to the article above, this could cause the loss of data critical to weather forecasting and early warning systems. Many of the satellites being used currently are old and in need of replacement, and some are quite literally on the brink of failure. I wish I could see the logic behind another manned mission to the moon. While there is certainly more to be learned, I can’t help but feel this program is a knee-jerk reaction to the Chinese Space program. I’m also reminded of the Katrina disaster when I see politicians changing NASA’s mission with little to no regard for the consequences.