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New State Laws Could Make Encryption Widespread
New laws that took effect in Nevada on Oct. 1 and will kick in on Jan. 1 in Massachusetts may effectively mandate encryption for companies' hard drives, portable devices, and data transmissions. The laws will be binding on any organization that maintains personal information about residents of the two states. (Washington and Michigan are considering similar legislation.) Nevada's law deals mostly with transmitted information and Massachusetts's emphasizes stored information. Between them the two laws should put more of a dent into lax security practices than widespread laws requiring customer notification of data breaches have done. (Such laws are on the books in 40 states and by one estimate have reduced identity theft by 2%.) Here are a couple of legal takes on the impact of the new laws.
Democrats are using the financial crisis to push down all those heave regulations down our mouth
No, it's so that gov't officials will be legally obligated to hide all of their shady dealings.
oversight comittee: "So, mister congressman, why can't we see the data on your hard drive which details your arms sales to Iran?"
congressman: "I, uh, forgot the key."
Since Obama has essentially "clinched" the presidency (according to all major media accounts) expect more gov't interference in business, not to mention personal, life. Adoption of the UN's "millenium development goals" passed w/a mere voice vote, and most lawmakers who voted for it...didn't even know what was in it. That's just *brilliant*. This is our tax money at work, people. God *bless* it all, I say. It only gets better.