Month: February 2007

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CALEA and US based foreign e-mail accounts. A deadly lock

If an US law enforcement officer wants to tap an American citizen internet account, the officer must play by the books. But If the US officer wants to wiretap an Italian citizen whose account is hosted in the US by an US company, does the USofficer need to respect the US regulations, or, since the target is a foreigner, he’d be free to play as he wishes? As far as I know, the answer is a sound “no”: the law enforcement officer must always comply to the US regulation (at least because the company that hosts the account is american and it is established on the US soil.)

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Buy online. Welcome into the Italian Nightmare

Find a great gimmick through e-bay.com. Close the bid with a seriours seller. Pay the auction ASAP. Get the gimmick delivered straight to your home.

Look for the latest Michael Chricton book. Order on Amazon.com. Have it shipped through the standard shipping. Wait a few weeks and get the book.

What’s wrong with this scenario?

Nothing, unless you live in Italy.

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ccTLD .it. New rules, Old mess

On Jan. 1, 07 the Italian Domain Name Registry set up new rules for Maintainers (ISP’s allowed to sell .it domains). The new “standard agreement” was supposed to bring some order into the former legal mess that ruled the matter (just to name one among the many: in the past TEN YEARS neither the Registry, nor the Data Protection Authority ever handled the WHOIS personal data access problem.); but it seems that a chance has been missed again.

The agreement is, basically, a way to shift any legal liability over the Maintainer’s shoulder, while letting the Registry free of substantive burdens. Further more, the agreement perpetuates the misunderstanding about the “domain ownership” meaning. The Registry – so the agreement says – is the OWNER of the domain that is just USED by the registrant… I really wonder whether Microsoft, IBM, Coca-Cola etc. are actually aware that they don’t own their business name… in Italy, at least.

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The Telecom Italia scandal. A gun aimed at the wrong target

Current Italian media hype is pumped by the “Telecom Italia scandal”. The criminal investigation is handled by the Public Prosecutor of Milan that invetigates the alleged theft of confidential information and hack of major Italian and foreign companies. Recently, the Public Prosecutor findings led to preemptive jail custody Telecom Italia high-level security officers, employees and out firm security experts hired as consultants. The defendants are charged of running “covert black-ops” on their own, unbeknownst to their employer.

Apart from the merit of the investigation (that belongs to the Court and will likely be ruled not before several years), this criminal investigation itruly demonstrates how the ICT security business in Italy actually works. Companies (big ones, first) don’t really care about IT security. Top management leaves all the relevant decisions to the “IT guys”, while not caring about their own compliance to the security policies.

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