Security Most people think of Internet security laws as pertaining to hackers, viruses and spam, but it covers much more. Internet security laws cover export restrictions, the usage of cryptography, digital signatures, and issues concerning privacy and anonymity. Historically, U.S. export restrictions prevented common browsers (those originating in the U.S.) to contain strong cryptography (The practice and study of encoding data so that it can only be decoded by specific computers). Exported browsers however did contain strong cryptography. These restrictions were relaxed and this allowed financial institutions to enable strong cryptography already present in browsers to expand their electronic banking functions. The Digital Signature Act is becoming law in most states. Such legislative efforts generally seek to make digital signatures as legally effective as traditional handwritten signatures (for various purposes). Digital Signature Guidelines developed by the Information Security Committee, Section of Science and Technology and the American Bar Association, consider digital signatures legally binding. The focus of policies toward Internet privacy had been to limit the collection of private information. Currently, the focus is directed towards the misuse of that data. The USA Patriot Act made many changes to electronic privacy law, federal law enforcement power, and privacy limitations now eliminated from many industry regulations. The law increases the ability of law enforcement to collect data, lowers the legal standards for collecting some evidence, streamlines inconsistent federal law enforcement practices, and expands criminal liability for misconduct and criminal activity. A provision of the USA Patriot Act, International Money Laundering
Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, provides that a
financial institution must be able to provide the identity and address
of the participants in each transaction, the description of the transaction,
and the beneficial ownership of the parties to the transaction. This
shows the real parties involved rather than just those whose names are
used on the account. |
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