Companies See Opportunity in Stopping Cellphone Hackers – NYTimes.com

Hackers have broken into the cellphones of celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and Prince William. But what about the rest of us, who might not have particularly salacious photos or voice messages stored in our phones, but nonetheless have e-mails, credit card numbers and records of our locations?

A growing number of companies, including start-ups and big names in computer security like McAfee, Symantec, Sophos and AVG, see a business opportunity in mobile security — protecting cellphones from hacks and malware that could read text messages, store location information or add charges directly to mobile phone bills.

On Tuesday, McAfee introduced a service for consumers to protect their smartphones, tablets and computers at once, and last week the company introduced a mobile security system for businesses. Last month, AT&T partnered with Juniper Networks to build mobile security apps for consumers and businesses. The Defense Department has called for companies and universities to come up with ways to protect Android devices from malware.

via Companies See Opportunity in Stopping Cellphone Hackers – NYTimes.com.

Model Order Would Limit E-Discovery in Patent Cases | law.com

Chief Judge Randall Rader of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has unveiled a model order that would limit e-discovery in patent cases. At the 2011 Eastern District of Texas Bench Bar Conference in Irving on Sept. 27, Rader said the Federal Circuit Advisory Council unanimously voted to adopt the proposed “Model Order on E-Discovery in Patent Cases.” Rader’s standing-room only talk was billed as “Thoughts on the Status and Direction of Patent Litigation in the United States.”

The Eastern District of Texas Bar Association and the Federal Circuit Bar Association jointly ran the three-day event.

The model order proposes several limits on the production of electronically stored information. These are laid out in the following provisions:

• Metadata is excluded from e-discovery production requests without “a showing of good cause.”

• E-mail production requests must be for specific issues “not general discovery of a product or business.”

• E-mail production requests should be delayed until after disclosures about the patents, the accused uses of the invention, relevant financial information and the prior art — published information about the subject matter of the claimed invention, including issued patents.

• E-mail requests are limited to five so-called custodians per producing party and five search terms per custodian.

• Courts may consider up to five additional custodians per producing party and five additional search terms per custodian. Litigants who submit e-discovery requests to adversaries that exceed court orders and the parties’ agreement must pay for the extra production.

• Receiving parties are barred from using e-discovery that the producing party asserts is attorney-client privileged or work product protected.

• The production of electronic information in a mass production, or the inadvertent release of privileged or work product protected electronic data, is not a waiver or permission to use it.

via Texas Lawyer – Model Order Would Limit E-Discovery in Patent Cases.

Researchers Hack Voting Machine For $26 | Fox News

Campaigning for the 2012 presidential race has already begun, but what the candidates don’t know is that come election day, hackers could be the ones whose votes have the biggest impact.

Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have developed a hack that, for about $26 and an 8th-grade science education, can remotely manipulate the electronic voting machines used by millions of voters all across the U.S.

The researchers, Salon reported, performed their proof-of-concept hack on a Diebold Accuvote TS electronic voting machine, a type of touchscreen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system that is widely used for government elections.

(Diebold’s voting-machine business is now owned by the Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose e-voting machines are used in about 22 states.)

In a video, Roger Johnston and Jon Warner from Argonne National Laboratory’s Vulnerability Assessment Team demonstrate three different ways an attacker could tamper with, and remotely take full control, of the e-voting machine simply by attaching what they call a piece of “alien electronics” into the machine’s circuit board.

via Researchers Hack Voting Machine For $26 | Fox News.

Researchers Hack Voting Machine For $26 | Fox News

Campaigning for the 2012 presidential race has already begun, but what the candidates don’t know is that come election day, hackers could be the ones whose votes have the biggest impact.

Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have developed a hack that, for about $26 and an 8th-grade science education, can remotely manipulate the electronic voting machines used by millions of voters all across the U.S.

The researchers, Salon reported, performed their proof-of-concept hack on a Diebold Accuvote TS electronic voting machine, a type of touchscreen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system that is widely used for government elections.

(Diebold’s voting-machine business is now owned by the Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose e-voting machines are used in about 22 states.)

In a video, Roger Johnston and Jon Warner from Argonne National Laboratory’s Vulnerability Assessment Team demonstrate three different ways an attacker could tamper with, and remotely take full control, of the e-voting machine simply by attaching what they call a piece of “alien electronics” into the machine’s circuit board.

via Researchers Hack Voting Machine For $26 | Fox News.

Is Your Business Toxic-in the FCPA Compliance Context | Thomas Fox – JDSupra

Is your business toxic? I do not mean that it had holds the type of sub-prime Collateral Debt Obligation assets which were so prominently mentioned in the press just a few years ago. I mean is your business so devoid of anything close to a best practices compliance program that you are not able to obtain loans, manage risk through insurance or other equally traditional business practices? Yesterday I wrote about the new types of insurance available for investigation of, and claims based upon, alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This also included Directors and Officers liability coverage if such persons are made parties in a stock holder derivative action based upon violations of the FCPA. I also wrote about banks and other financial institutions which are now reviewing compliance programs to determine if they meet some type of minimum best practices. However, now the failure to have a minimum best practices compliance program in place may have a more drastic effect; it may deny you the ability to access your company’s value in the capital markets.

via Is Your Business Toxic-in the FCPA Compliance Context | Thomas Fox – JDSupra.

FCC sued over new Internet rules – BusinessWeek

A media and Internet advocacy group is suing the federal government over its new rules covering Internet traffic, saying they don’t protect wireless traffic from interference by phone companies.

The group Free Press filed its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “net neutrality” rules in federal court in Boston on Wednesday.

The rules were adopted in December and are set to take effect in two months.

via FCC sued over new Internet rules – BusinessWeek.

FCC sued over new Internet rules – BusinessWeek

A media and Internet advocacy group is suing the federal government over its new rules covering Internet traffic, saying they don’t protect wireless traffic from interference by phone companies.

The group Free Press filed its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “net neutrality” rules in federal court in Boston on Wednesday.

The rules were adopted in December and are set to take effect in two months.

via FCC sued over new Internet rules – BusinessWeek.

LaCie’s LaPlug Takes Hard Drives to the Cloud | The Mac Observer

LaCie announced the immediate availability of its new LaPlug that lets users access their USB hard drives over the Internet. The device also supports networked and remote printer sharing.LaCie’s LaPlugLaPlug includes four USB 2.0 ports, supports file sharing, photo sharing, video and music streaming, data backups, Apple’s Time Machine, and more. Users can share USB-based hard drives and flash drives, and the device connects to networks via Wi-Fi.

via LaCie’s LaPlug Takes Hard Drives to the Cloud | Product News | The Mac Observer.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer Speaks on the Importance of IP Crime Enforcement « USDOJ: Justice Blog

Earlier this month, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division represented the U.S Department of Justice as a keynote speaker at the 5th International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property (IP) Crime Conference in Madrid, hosted by INTERPOL, EUROPOL, and the Cuerpo Nacional de Policia. Breuer joined China, Ghana, Nigeria, Canada, Chile, Sweden and other countries to discuss solution-driven proposals to IP crime enforcement at the conference, which brought together more than 400 law enforcement and customs personnel from more than 50 countries.

Criminals manufacture and distribute counterfeit and pirated goods across the globe. While advances in technology bring our world closer together, those same advances allow those who would commit intellectual property crimes to operate globally without ever needing to leave their homes.

Assistant Attorney General Breuer spoke about the importance of devoting time and effort toward IP crime and raising global awareness about its harmful consequences:

“Counterfeit pharmaceuticals, counterfeit automotive and defense-industry parts, and other counterfeit consumer products can cause serious harm to people and endanger their lives; and . . . companies whose trade secrets are stolen or whose goods are counterfeited may be forced to downsize or go out of business, costing individuals their jobs. Nevertheless, the public perception at times persists that IP crime is victimless. It is therefore one of our important duties here this week to spread the message about the significant, and very real, costs of IP crime.”

via Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer Speaks on the Importance of IP Crime Enforcement « USDOJ: Justice Blog.

Is Cost-Shifting the Next E-Discovery Game-Changer? | Law.com

Recent decisions, such as Race Tires America v. Hoosier Racing Tires, a 2011 case in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania holding that 18 U.S.C. §1920 allows the prevailing party to recover from the losing party the costs of e-discovery processing and production, can be one important factor in influencing requesting parties to agree to limit the scope of e-discovery requests (and so control the costs they made be ordered to pay under Section 1920 should they not prevail). The recent opinion in Couch v. Wan, a 2011 U.S. District Court case for the Eastern District of California, introduces or, better yet, reminds us of another factor that may influence future discovery requestors: cost-shifting.

While cost-shifting has been a factor in e-discovery since courts began looking at e-discovery in earnest, Couch’s application of the doctrine to a rather pedestrian set of facts raises the issue of whether cost-shifting will be more widely applied to situations where, previously, it had not been.

via Is Cost-Shifting the Next E-Discovery Game-Changer?.