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Anti-Spyware Law Snags Anti-Spyware Vendor. Country Lawyer writes “Washington state’s anti-spyware law has just resulted in a $1 million victory for the state, the first successful prosecution under the new law. The weird thing? They sued an anti-spyware vendor.” From the article: “Washington State went after the company after 1,145 state residents purchased the software and the complaints began rolling in. Secure Computer president Paul Burke will now pay $200,000 in penalties, make $75,000 worth of restitution to Washington residents, and pay another $725,000 to cover the state’s attorneys’ fees. The irony of an anti-spyware law being used against an anti-spyware vendor was not commented upon.” [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]

The Washington State Attorney General’s office has announced a $1
million settlement in the state’s first anti-spyware case. Using a new
spyware law, Attorney General Rob McKenna went after Secure Computer
earlier this year, charging that their “Spyware Cleaner” product had,
well, a couple of flaws: it didn’t work well, it deleted a user’s Hosts
file after installation, and it tried to convince users to “upgrade” to
another program that did essentially the same thing.

But it was the way that Spyware Cleaner was marketed that attracted
the Attorney General’s attention in the first place. The company
allegedly spammed users to advertise its product, included deceptive
subject lines, failed to include an opt-out mechanism, and suggested
that the product was “discounted” for a “limited time,” when in reality
it was always available for the same price.

Clinton Prosecutor Now Targeting Free Speech. Virchull tells us about a case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear, in which former special prosecutor Kenneth Starr will take the side of an Alaska school board against a student who displayed a rude banner off school property. The banner read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” and it got the student suspended. He and his parents sued the school board for violating his First Amendment rights. The case is nuanced: while the student did not display the banner on school property, he did do so during a school function. Starr is said to be arguing the case for free. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]

The Supreme Court entered into a free-speech dispute Friday
involving a high school student suspended over a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”
banner.

The justices accepted an appeal from a school board in
Juneau, Alaska, after a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit by the
family of Joseph Frederick to proceed.

Frederick was suspended in
2002 after he unfurled the 14-foot-long banner — a reference to
marijuana use — just outside school grounds as the Olympic torch relay
moved through the Alaskan capital headed for the Winter Games in Salt
Lake City, Utah.

“Bong,” as noted in the appeal filed with the justices, “is a slang term for drug paraphernalia.”

Even
though Frederick was standing on a public sidewalk, school officials
argue that he and other students were participating in a
school-sponsored event. They had been let out of classes and were
accompanied by their teachers.

Principal Deborah Morse ordered
the 18-year-old senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led
to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy by promoting
illegal drug use.

Ten Best, Worst, and Craziest Uses of RFID. An anonymous reader writes “This top 10 rounds up what it calls ‘the best, worst and craziest’ uses of RFID out there [~] including chipped kids at Legoland, smart pub tables that let you order drinks, smartcards for sports fans, and chipped airline passengers. The craziest use of the tech surely has to be RFID chips for Marks & Spencer suits [~] you couldn’t pay most people to wear one of them.” [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]

ModSecurity v2.0 Webcast.

In response to many of the common questions and issues posted to the mail-list, we at Breach Security decided to host a webcast to help provide answers and shed some light on the new v2.0 features  - http://www.modsecurity.org/training/. This is the first of many training programs to support and enhance your use of ModSecurity and its dynamic web application security protection.

If you are interested in free training on:

• The latest news on ModSecurity
• Overview of he new features and rule sets in ModSecurity 2.0
• How to install/deploy ModSecurity v2.0
• How to migrate ModSecurity configuration and rules to the ModSecurity 2.0 format
• Tips and tricks on using ModSecurity v2.0

The webcast is scheduled for Thursday, December 14th 2006 at 1:00pm EST. To register please click here.

[Web Security Blog]

TracFone Sues to Block Cellphone Unlocking Exemption.

As we reported just before Thanksgiving, the Copyright Office and Library of Congress recently announced a set of new DMCA exemptions, including one that entitles a person to unlock a cellphone without worrying about DMCA liability.

Now prepaid wireless vendor TracFone has sued the Library of Congress to block the new exemption. According to the complaint, filed in federal court in Florida, the grant of the unlocking exemption

• (1) violates the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) because the Copyright Office refused to accept TracFone’s late submissions;
• (2) violates due process; and
• (3) violates separation of powers because “the DMCA’s delegation of rulemaking authority to the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office is an unconstitutional intra-branch delegation of Congress’ legislative responsibilities.”

I’ll admit I’m intrigued by the third argument, but I imagine people at the Copyright Office are muttering “no good deed goes unpunished” over all this.

[EFF: Deep Links]

CDT, StopBadware.org File Joint Spyware Complaint. CDT this week joined with StopBadware.org in urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shut down a dangerous spyware scam site. In a joint complaint, CDT and StopBadware.org describe how FastMP3Search.com.ar self-executes the installation of adware and Trojan horse applications, disables security software, sabotages valid web addresses for legitimate security companies, changes homepage settings, and severely impairs computer speed and performance, all without user consent. The complaint is the first filed jointly by the two organizations. [Center for Democracy and Technology]

Our paper at
USENIX Lisa 2006 just won theBest Paper Award!
The RFID Guardian Project is a collaborative
project focused upon providing security and privacy in Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) systems. The goals of our project are to:

• Investigate the security and privacy threats faced by RFID systems
• Design and implement real solutions against these threats
• Investigate the associated technological and legal issues

The namesake of our project is the RFID Guardian:
a mobile battery-powered device that offers personal RFID security and
privacy management. One the focuses of our project is to build an RFID Guardian prototype.

The DOJ’s New Spin on Blocking Software. Bennett Haselton has writes “In recent arguments over the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, both sides have argued over the efficiency of Internet blocking software. While COPA would prohibit commercial U.S. websites from publishing freely available material that is “harmful to minors”, the ACLU has argued that blocking software is a far more effective alternative, since among other things it can block porn sites located overseas, non-commercial websites, and p2p programs, all of which are beyond the reach of COPA. On the other hand, we had the surreal experience of watching the Department of Justice lawyer arguing in favor of a censorship law by saying that the blocking software alternative was unfair to children — because it blocked too much legitimate material.” The rest of Bennett’s essay follows. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]