CONTENTS
[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Chair Interviewed About Electronic Voting for Chicago Television
[3] Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference Dates Announced
[4] Rod Beckstrom Appointed Cyber Security Center Director
[5] 08 Tech. Policy Outlook: Electronic Employment Verification Systems
[6] Intellectual Property Bill Moves in Congress
[7] About USACM
[1] NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS
While a relatively light month in terms of activity on Capitol HIll, there
were still things worth noting in Washington during March. There is more
detail on each item below, as well as on our weblog at
http://www.acm.org/usacm/weblog:
* USACM Chair Eugene Spafford was interviewed for a local Chicago station in connection with an Illinois state audit of their statewide voter registration database.
* The 18th Annual Computers, Privacy and Freedom Conference announced its dates (May 20-23) and theme (Technology Policy and the 2008 campaign).
* While immigration legislation may not be a reality this legislative session, associated bills to expand electronic employment verification systems are working their way through Congress.
* Rod Beckstrom, co-founder and chairman of Twiki.net, has been appointed to run the new National Cyber Security Center.
* Intellectual property legislation - a bill that would beef up enforcement of infringement of various types of intellectual property, advanced in Congress.
[2] USACM CHAIR INTERVIEWED ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING FOR CHICAGO TELEVISION
On March 6, USACM Chair Eugene Spafford was interviewed for the Chicago Fox affiliate as part of a story on the State of Illinois’ progress - or lack thereof - in complying with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). You can watch the story online. Dr. Spafford appears near the end of the piece.
The Illinois Auditor General recently completed an investigation of the state’s progress in implementing HAVA requirements. Where developing and implementing a voter registration database is concerned, the state is far behind. The list fails to have a unique state identifier for each voter; a system to verify social security numbers; or a means to match names against incarcerated voters. For more details, watch the story, and read the full report, available at:
[3] COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE DATES ANNOUNCED
The call for panel and speaker proposals has been issued for the 2008 Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference, which is on May 20-23 in New Haven, CT. More information can be found on the conference’s website. From the formal notice:
COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY: TECHNOLOGY POLICY ‘08
http://cfp2008.org/
18th Annual CFP conference
May 20-23, 2008 Omni Hotel New Haven, CT
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
This election year will be the first to address US technology policy in the information age as part of our national debate. Candidates have put forth positions about technology policy and have recognized that it has its own set of economic, political, and social concerns. In the areas of privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and freedom of speech, an increasing number of issues once confined to experts now penetrate public conversation. Our decisions about technology policy are being made at a time when the architectures of our information and communication technologies are still being built. Debate about these issues needs to be better-informed in order for us to make policy choices in the public interest.
This year, the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference will focus on what constitutes technology policy. CFP: Technology Policy ‘08 is an opportunity to help shape public debate on those issues being made into laws and regulations and those technological infrastructures being developed. The direction of our technology policy impacts the choices we make about our national defense, our civil liberties during wartime, the future of American education, our national healthcare systems, and many other realms of policy discussed more prominently on the election trail. Policies ranging from data mining and wiretapping, to file-sharing and open access, and e-voting to electronic medical records will be addressed by expert panels of technologists, policymakers, business leaders, and advocates.
Open participation is invited for proposals on panels, tutorials, speaker suggestions, and birds of a feather sessions through the CFP: Technology Policy ‘08 submission at http://www.cfp2008.org/submissions/.
Please see the conference website at http://www.cfp2008.org for more information.
[4] ROD BECKSTROM APPOINTED CYBER SECURITY CENTER DIRECTOR
The Administration will take its first public step toward implementing the classified Cyber Initiative President Bush issued this January. According to the Washington Post, Rod Beckström, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has been chosen to run the new National Cyber Security Center. Beckström is most recognized for his involvement as co-founder and chairman of Twiki.net and co-author of “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.”
In his new post, Beckström will be charged with coordinating the sharing of cyber attack information between agencies. He does not possess a great deal of cyber security experience but he does offer a fresh organizational perspective in his new position within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). While the new National Cyber Security Center is housed within DHS, Beckström will be reporting directly to Secretary Michael Chertoff rather than Greg Garcia, assistant secretary for cyber security and telecommunications.
[5] 08 TECH. POLICY OUTLOOK: ELECTRONIC EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION SYSTEMS
Part of the immigration battles last summer was a proposal to expand what was then called the Basic Pilot program into a nationwide system of confirming a person’s employment eligibility online. For such an Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS) to work effectively on a nationwide basis, it would have to confirm employment documents of approximately 60 million people annually, done over the Internet. This confirmation would need to be nearly immediate for all but a small number, otherwise the backlog would slow down employers, and expose potential employees to discrimination for circumstances that may be no fault of their own. For those who were denied, the appeals process must be sufficiently speedy as to inconvenience the smallest number of people possible. As this appeals process would need to go through either the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agencies not known for speedy resolution of appeals (if you get an appeal), the lack of confidence in a nation-wide EEVS is understandable.
Unfortunately, these concerns are unlikely to stop efforts to make such a system happen.
Last June, in front of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, USACM member Peter Neumann testified on the challenges in scaling up databases. You can read his testimony here:
http://usacm.acm.org/usacm/weblog/index.php?p=511
The biggest lesson from Dr. Neumann’s testimony is that problems will appear in the larger version of a database that could not be predicted when it was running in the smaller version. The proposed system for scaling up to a national EEVS is the former Basic Pilot program, now called E-Verify. Currently being used by 17,000 employers (only 9,000 of them use it actively), the system would need to expand to handle 5.9 million employers (an increase of over 340-fold). You can read Jim Harper’s extensive analysis and history of EEVS for additional details on the system. It’s available at:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-612.pdf
While we continue to emphasize the technical challenges of a national EEVS in a subsequent briefing of Congressional staff, there is still an expectation that large national databases can be built quickly, securely and accurately. These expectations are reflected in immigration bills introduced recently, some of which include provisions for nationalizing the E-Verify system. They are also reflected in the continuing pressure from the Department of Homeland Security to expand the use of E-Verify.
As a result, a likely turn of events related to an EEVS is to see the DHS expand its use through other means. Efforts to expand the use of E-Verify could include requiring federal contractors to use the system or convincing states that the system would decrease illegal immigration (something not at all clear, as someone could steal legitimate documents and evade detection). Expect tactics similar to those used to expand the REAL ID program.
You can read more on this topic at: http://usacm.acm.org/usacm/weblog/index.php?p=587
[6] INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BILL MOVES IN CONGRESS
In early March there was movement on one piece of intellectual property legislation, HR 4279. The bill was introduced last December and was approved by a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. The next step will be for the full committee to review the bill. The full text of the bill and other information is available through THOMAS.
The bill, also known as PRO-IP, focuses on enforcement of intellectual property, with enhanced penalties for infringement of copyrights, counterfeiting, and trafficking in counterfeit goods; additional enforcement staff to help coordinate international enforcement efforts (including a new Division at the Justice Department for IP enforcement); and grants to local law enforcement agencies to improve their capacity to handle IP crime.
A major change made by the subcommittee was to remove a provision that would have allowed courts to break up a copyright-infringement lawsuit into parts when considering damages. This would allow for a large increase in potential damages and was considered by some as potentially chilling innovation. The provision may reappear when the full committee considers the bill.
There are many other IP related issues that could see legislative action this session. Most of them are disconnected with concerns over piracy, which makes this legislation different.
[7] ABOUT USACM
USACM is the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ACM is an educational and scientific society uniting the world’s computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional
networking.
For more information about USACM and ACM, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/about.html
BACK ISSUES
For earlier editions of the ACM Washington Update, see:
http://www.acm.org/usacm/update/
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
To subscribe to ACM’s Washington Update newsletter, send an e-mail to
listserv@acm.org with “subscribe WASHINGTON-UPDATE “First Name” “Last Name”
(no quotes) in the body of the message.
To unsubscribe, simply include the “SIGNOFF WASHINGTON-UPDATE” command in an
email to listserv@acm.org.
Trackbacks
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://usacm.acm.org/usacm/weblog/wp-trackback.php/592
None at this time.