Stories about: European Commission

The European Commission is seeking to strengthen cooperation between law enforcement and private industry worldwide as well as increase penalties for those engaged in cybercrime, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The European Parliament signed up to a plan Wednesday to introduce computerized biometric passports including people's fingerprints as well as their photographs, despite criticism from civil liberties groups and security experts who argue that the move is flawed on technical grounds.

In the immortal words of the Young Ones "[A] social conscience is like a garden shed. If you try to eat it, it will stick in your throat!". At least that is the lesson that the EU seems to be learning [1] in its efforts to promote greater competition in the technology industry as it tries to implement the use of alternate (to Microsoft) office software and operating systems that adhere to open standards.

Privacy experts from afar afield as the United Kingdom met with the federal government this week to examine weaknesses in the Privacy Act which is currently under review.

A US mandate that airline passenger information be sent to the American government prior to their arrival has come into question following a decision last week in the European Court of Justice that brands the process as illegal.

Security will be a major focus this week at the giant Cebit show in Hanover, Germany. This year, the annual IT trade show will hone in on the multiple layers of security threats facing enterprise networks. Now it's not just data networks that are under attack; VoIP and even paper documents are at risk.

Sweden and Norway began deploying biometric passports in October but privacy and security issues may limit the potential of the new systems.

Microsoft's moves into the security software market could be an agitator for more antitrust concerns over how it uses its market strength for other software offerings.

The European Commission intends to accelerate plans to put forward new rules requiring telephone and Internet operators to store data for law enforcement agencies in the wake of the terrorist bombings in London on Thursday, a senior official said Friday. But the new plan would cut the time data had to be stored to a maximum of nine months compared to one year in an earlier proposal.

IT departments will shoulder the costly burden of updating marketing databases and cleansing client lists to comply with Australia's Spam Bill, Baker & McKenzie e-commerce expert Adrian Lawrence warns.