The Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act, S. 2168, was originally introduced in 2007.
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200711/111607a.html
The House of Representatives Monday night finally approved provisions of the Act which is on its way to the President to be signed into law after its inclusion in another bill to protect former US Vice Presidents, H.R. 5938.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), sponsor of S. 2168, said in a prepared statement.
The anti-cyber crime Provisions included in the Former Vice President Protection Act would:
- Give victims of identity theft the ability to seek restitution for the loss of time and money spent restoring credit and remedying the harms of identity theft;
- Enable prosecution of those who steal personal information from a computer even when the victim’s computer is located in the same state as the thief’s computer. Under current law, federal courts only have jurisdiction if the thief uses an interstate communication to access the victim’s computer.
- Eliminate the requirement that damage to a victim’s computer exceed $5,000 before charges can be brought for unauthorized access to a computer. The provision protects innocent actors while punishing violations resulting in less than $5,000 in damage as misdemeanors.
- Make it a felony to employ spyware or keyloggers to damage ten or more computers regardless of the aggregate amount of damage caused, ensuring that the most egregious identity thieves will not escape with a minimal, or no, sentence.
- Makes it a crime to threaten to steal or release information from a computer. Current law only permits the prosecution of those who seek to extort companies or government agencies by explicitly threatening to shut down or damage a computer. Violators of this provision are subject to a criminal fine and up to five years in prison.
- Add the remedies of civil and criminal forfeiture to the arsenal of tools available to federal prosecutors to combat cyber crime, and mandate that the U.S. Sentencing Commission review and update its guidelines for identity theft and other cyber crime offenses.
Bill To Fight Identity Theft Headed To President’s Desk For Signature
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5938
New videos on the Mojave Experiment website
Windows Vista Team Blog.
Mojave: The Experiment Continues…
It’s been a couple weeks since we launched the Mojave Experiment, and the reaction in the blogosphere has been fascinating to watch. You should see my inbox - some of you really liked how the experiment helped you say “I told you so” to haters who’d just jumped on the bandwagon without trying for themselves. Others thought it was interesting but were skeptical about the validity of the project’s methodology, and others still questioned our sanity (not the first time) for doing the experiment in the first place.
Mojave- surprise, it was Vista
Ina Fried at CNET today.
Microsoft looks to ‘Mojave’ to revive Vista’s image
Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a “new” operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that “Mojave” was actually Windows Vista.
“Oh wow,” said one user,
Ironic, so perhaps it’s perception not usage that has led to at least part of any negative response to Vista.
I have Windows Vista on all my machines excepting Windows XP Pro on a laptop, which I did not upgrade because of Intel’s 915 chipset, which does not support Windows Aero.
Intel continued to provide motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded, and OEM’s sold them, right up to and after Windows Vista was launched.
Russinovich, Technical Fellow for the Platform and Services Division, has a new project named ‘Springboard’, a collection of resources, tools, and monthly articles at Technet.
Still on the Fence with Windows Vista? Springboard Live #1
New Microsoft website UltimatePC.com built by the Vista Ultimate Team.
It’s a sharp design with blueprints to map out a home theatre setup, travel photography and pc gaming. Home audio and home office to follow.
Source: Geek In Disguise
No it’s not ‘Patch Tuesday’, KB 940510 has been released out of cycle.
This update enables Windows Vista to detect activation exploits that bypass product activation and that interfere with usual Windows operation. An exploit is a form of software that replaces or modifies authentic Windows components. When exploits are present on a system, it indicates that a software or hardware vendor may have tampered with genuine Windows to enable the sale of counterfeit software. Therefore, the security and the privacy of the computer are put at risk. After this update is installed, you will know if exploits are present on the system.
Article ID: KB 940510
Windows Genuine Advantage
The list of 12 products is based on reported issues and is not comprehensive, check with vendors to see if their affected programs offer newer versions or upgrades that could work with Vista SP1.
KB Article ID: 935796
Programs that are blocked from starting after you install Windows Vista SP1.
- BitDefender AV or Internet Security, version 10
- Fujitsu Shock Sensor 2.1.0.0
- Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008<
- Trend Micro Internet Security 2008
- ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7.1
Programs that do not run after you install Windows Vista SP1.
- Iron Speed Designer 5.0.1
Programs that have a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1.
- Rising Personal Firewall 2007
With the Vista Service Pack 1 prerequisite updates released last week, reports came in that KB937287 had caused some Vista PCs to either fail to properly boot up or enter an endless boot up loop.
Microsoft released a statement:
We’ve received reports that some customers may be experiencing an unusual reboot cycle after installing KB937287, the servicing stack update we released last week. To prevent further instances of this issue, we temporarily stopped automatic distribution of the update and are investigating solutions to the problem. We believe this problem only impacts a small number of customers. We are working to identify possible solutions and will resume automatic distribution again after we address the issue.
If you were unfortunate to experience this problem you can try using system restore to correct it, or contact 1-866-PC-Safety for help troubleshooting.
Vista Team Blog
Update to Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) release
In my blog post on the subject, I noted that we were going to make SP1 available to customers in stages to make sure we delivered a great experience. As I explained, one reason for this is that we are working through an issue with a small set of hardware devices that may not function properly after the Windows Vista-based PC they are installed on is updated to SP1. This is an issue with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the SP1 update process, not with the drivers themselves — these drivers worked on Windows Vista RTM and they work on Windows Vista SP1. For new PCs with Windows Vista SP1 pre-installed, this is not an issue.
We are working with the manufacturers of these devices to get the drivers and their install programs updated, and also working on other solutions we can use to ensure a smooth customer experience when updating to SP1 over Windows Update.
My blog post also noted that when beta testers encountered this issue, the problem was typically corrected by simply uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. This type of issue can be addressed by our more technical customers since they are comfortable reinstalling drivers. While most people think that it’s smart that we are releasing SP1 in stages, some people asked why we haven’t made SP1 available to technical customers sooner.
We’ve heard the feedback and I want to update you on our plans and progress for making SP1 available to our beta participants, our Volume Licensing customers, and our MSDN/TechNet Plus subscribers:
- Late Friday we made SP1 RTM available to individuals and companies who participated in the SP1 beta program
- At the end of this week we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers. Other languages will follow soon after
- Later this month, SP1 will be available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers
Windows Vista Team Blog
