Strengthening Digital 3 Identity Act of 2020
(Congressman Bill Foster, Sep 18, 2020)
To direct the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to direct the Institute to establish a robust program focusing on driving improvements in America’s cybersecurity posture by creating more robust digital identity management standards and guidelines. (PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT)
Maryland’s New Employment Laws And How To Implement Them In Your Workplace
(JD Supra, Sep 18, 2020)
For those who may have missed it during a pandemic summer, on May 7, 2020 Governor Hogan allowed hundreds of Maryland bills to become law, some of which will have direct implications on employers. A summary of the employment related laws, along with recommendations on how employers can implement them in the workplace, is provided in Miles & Stockbridge’s June 8, 2020 publication titled “Maryland Enacts Host of New Laws”. Each of the laws discussed therein will become effective on October 1, 2020. Updates on two of the new laws are provided herein.
Justice Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Marshals’ Smartphones
(Oodaloop, Sep 18, 2020)
The Department of Justice is seeking to install facial recognition tools into US Marshals Agents’ smartphones to assist with the safe transfer of prisoners around the nation. The facial recognition could potentially help the agency identify prisoners during transfer with speed and accuracy, making the process both more efficient and stable. A software development kit is currently being developed to begin building a tool to be integrated into existing in house applications created by the Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons.
Moscow Metro Eyes Pay-by-Face Tech In Spring 2021
(The Moscow Times, Sep 18, 2020)
The Moscow Metro is expected to roll out what City Hall says will be the world’s first fare payment system based on facial recognition starting next spring. Moscow's Deputy Mayor in charge of transportation Maxim Liksutov said in a weekly column Friday that Muscovites are “no longer impressed” by the ever-expanding contactless options for paying one's fare, including bank cards and smartphones.
Lawsuit Accuses Facebook Of Using Mobile Phone Cameras To Spy On Instagram Users
(The Hill, Sep 18, 2020)
Lawsuit accuses Facebook of using mobile phone cameras to spy on Instagram users © Getty Images Instagram and its parent company Facebook are being sued for allegedly spying on users with their mobile phone cameras. The lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Thursday by a New Jersey Instagram user Brittany Conditi who claimed Facebook accesses mobile cameras while users are on the app “to collect lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to.”
How Constant Surveillance Puts Protesters At Risk
(Market Place, Sep 18, 2020)
As Black Lives Matter protests continue around the country, police are using facial recognition and all kinds of other technology to arrest protesters and organizers. While, in some cases, the people arrested did commit crimes, after-the-fact arrests can have a chilling effect on free speech and lead to cases of mistaken identity. They also show us just how much surveillance is part of our lives. Simone Browne is a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. She’s also author of the book “Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness.”
Fujitsu Overcomes Facial Authentication Fraud
(It-Online, Sep 18, 2020)
Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a facial recognition technology that uses conventional cameras to successfully identify efforts to spoof authentication systems. This includes impersonation attempts in which a person presents a printed photograph or an image from the internet to a camera. Conventional technologies rely on expensive, dedicated devices like near-infrared cameras to identify telltale signs of forgery, or the user is required to move their face from side to side, which remains difficult to duplicate with a forgery. This leads to increased costs, however, and the need for additional user interaction slows the authentication process.
In A Facial Recognition Bill Backed By Microsoft, Three Words Stand Between Citizens And Their Civil Rights
(Quartz, Sep 18, 2020)
In Washington, the first US state to pass a law regulating facial recognition, it’s legal for government agencies to use facial recognition to deny citizens access to basic rights and services—under one condition. The AI-powered systems must be subject to “meaningful human review.” Under the law’s definitions, so long as a trained human being has power to overturn the machines’ decisions, governments can use facial recognition systems to deny people access to loans, housing, insurance, education, jobs, healthcare, food, water, or their civil rights. The law leaves private companies’ use of facial recognition unregulated.
Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps — For Your Entire Life
(OneZero, Sep 18, 2020)
Google Street View emerged from a seemingly insane vision: Put cameras on cars, and drive them around the entire world to capture every street on the planet. Over time, that data became more and more valuable. The footage from those cars automatically updates Google Maps with new business signs and changes street names. Data from the car’s trip can be used to correct satellite imagery.
GDPR: Positive Outcomes After Two Years Of Application
(BBVA, Sep 18, 2020)
First of all, the Commission expresses its satisfaction about the increased protection that the Regulation has proven to offer citizens. In an economy that is becoming increasingly based on data processing, the regulation has established itself as an essential tool to ensure that personal data are treated in a legitimate, fair and transparent manner. Transparency enables people to play a more active role in controlling their data in the digital world.
CBP Launches New Biometric Entry/Exit Information Website
(MeriTalk, Sep 18, 2020)
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Office of Field Operations has launched its new biometrics entry/exit website to provide a communications channel for promoting facial recognition comparison technology and biometric information. The website details how CBP will use biometric information to confirm traveler identity and where it is being deployed. CBP will use Facial Recognition for Entry at 18 airports in a total of 20 terminals, including four Preclearance locations. Biometric Exit will be deployed at 20 airports and in 21 terminals. Additionally, biometric technology will be used at seven seaports, in use by cruise lines, and along the southern border of the U.S. at pedestrian points-of-entry in Texas and Arizona, as well as one vehicle point-of-entry in Texas. It will also be used at one vehicle point-of-entry in Buffalo, N.Y.
Airline CEOs Plead With White House To Avert Looming U.S. Job Cuts
(Reuters, Sep 18, 2020)
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows met with major airline chief executives on Thursday as the industry braces for thousands of job cuts in two weeks, and urged lawmakers to embrace a $1.5 trillion coronavirus aid package proposed by a bipartisan congressional group and endorsed by President Donald Trump.
ACI-NA Govt Affairs Updates
(ACI-NA, Sep 18, 2020)
The Congressional Oversight Commission held a hearing today to examine of the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) established by the Federal Reserve pursuant to the CARES Act. The MLF offers up to $500 billion in lending to states and municipalities to help facilitate stresses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. You can view the hearing here. The Congressional Oversight Commission (COC) is a bipartisan Commission tasked with overseeing how the Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve are using $500 billion of taxpayer funds to provide economic stability as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COC was established by the CARES Act and is mandated to submit regular reports addressing loans, loan guarantees, investments, and transparency. Members of the bipartisan, five member panel include: Congresswoman Donna Shalala (D-FL), Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), Congressman French Hill (R-AR), and Commissioner Rharat Ramamurti (D); a chairperson has yet to be named.
nternet-Connected Systems May Prompt Converged Security Models
(Wall Street Journal, Sep 18, 2020)
As the lines between the physical and digital worlds increasingly blur, companies are eager to remove the boundaries between how these realms are managed, experts say. The growing use of cyber-physical systems, in which a mechanical function is controlled by software, and the advent of the Internet of Things, a catchall term to describe everyday items connected to the internet, will spur more companies to examine a security model that blends traditional corporate security and cybersecurity, said Katell Thielemann, an analyst at technology research company Gartner Inc.
Are You Aware Of The New COVID-19 Regulations?
(IATA, Sep 18, 2020)
Every year, we update the IATA Manuals in order to stay up-to-date with the latest regulations and best practices. In order to comply with the new regulations and sustain the safe and efficient transport of air cargo, your editions need to be updated annually. This year was an exceptional year with the pandemic, and it impacted the way air cargo and ground operations operate. For this reason, the new editions of the IATA Manuals now include COVID-19 specific content. The complete list of significant changes for each manual are detailed below.
Congressman Rogers Op-Ed: DHS Needs A New Authorization, But House Democrats Are Dropping The Ball
(Washington Examiner, Sep 18, 2020)
It’s been over 1,100 days since the last Department of Homeland Security authorization bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. And as we approach the end of the 116th Congress, the chances grow thin of the majority introducing legislation to provide the Department of Homeland Security with the resources and authorities it needs to stop the growing threats to our homeland. I wish I could say I’m surprised Democrats have yet to offer a reauthorization package. However, this is the party that started out this Congress with calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is the party that last year called the unprecedented migrant surge at the Southwest border a “Fake Emergency,” and took half a year to vote on critical humanitarian funding to address the crisis. This is the party that turned a blind eye as violent mobs took over cities across our country. It’s reached the point that now some on the Left are calling for the abolition of DHS and the defunding of our police.
