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Sybase Advertises 'PATRIOTcompliance'

Posted by michael on from the boogiemen-of-the-infopocalypse dept.

xmtrx writes "While everyone is rabidly pouncing, pounding and going pundit on Palladium, little-to-no attention is being paid to enterprise-class spyware such as Sybase's PATRIOTcompliance Solution. Their ad includes such gems as "Non-compliance is not an option" and "...helps you satisfy the many integration requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act by... filtering your customers, employees and suppliers against known suspects, and then... continuously monitoring their future activities." No punchline." The laws passed which affect financial institutions are mostly opaque to Joe Citizen. Sybase's press release sheds a little bit of light on what is going on behind the scenes.

1 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Why /. should not opine when they have no clue. by dvk · · Score: 1, Troll
    This will likely modded down well below such gems as AC comment that Bush destroyed WTC (Modded +1 Insiteful), but still...

    Fact: This legistaltion (Patriot Act) is not designed to affect Joe Average Citizen PERIOD, as far as banking is concerned.
    There is, as Sybase stated (quite correctly), a well defined list of entities with whom financial institutions can not deal with. The list is VERY small (being an employee of a trading company, I get compliance lists in company-wide e-mail virtually every week).

    Fact: In part, this regulation is designed with the same purpose as "Have you ever been member of nazis/Communist party?" question on INS forms. Its purpose is NOT to stop ex-nazis from entering US (who'd say the truth answering that question?), but to give INS legal ground to deport ex-nazis once they are found out, for lying on INS form. The same way, US Patriot act allows US govt. to go after any financial institution which does help terrorists financially and lies about it.

    Fact: the Sybase software is there simply to make sure that Joe Schmoe Bank Programmer who codes trading systems doesn't have to break their brains trying to find out a way to help his company comply with the legistaltion. So don't go bashing Sybase for trying to make a buck solving an actual problem requiring programming solution. Bash them for having Fsck-ed up isql if you want to find a real reson to yell at them. <g>

    -DVK

    --
    "The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein