The AP is reporting that the credit card information of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras was among those stolen from DSW Shoe Warehouse.

As I have blogged back on April 19, 2005, data thieves reportedly stole some 1.4 million customer names and credit card numbers from the computer systems of DSW, a popular shoe discounter. And on June 9, 2005, I blogged about the Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro’s suit against DSW for failing to promptly notify consumers whose data was stolen.

According to the AP report, Majoras learned of the loss of her data when she received a letter from the company notifying her of the breach.

The irony, of course, is that the FTC is the federal government agency responsible for policing many of the issues related to identity theft and fraud. This is not the first instance in which FTC commissioners have gotten first-hand experience in coping with problems under the FTC’s jurisdiction. Former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle — still the best named FTC commissioner ever — was often fond of recounting his battles with the credit bureaus over erroneous data on his credit report that was impeding his ability to get a home mortgage. At the time, the FTC was suing the credit bureaus for failure to promptly resolve complaints about errors in credit reports. (Naturally, the credit bureaus still deny any wrong-doing.)

Luckily for Chairwoman Majoras, the FTC has some good information available for victims of identity theft, should her information actually be misused.

According to DMNews, Orson Swindle is stepping down from his position as a commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. A Republican appointee, Swindle has been a leading force in anti-spam, anti-malware, Internet privacy, and other cutting-edge Internet consumer issues.

While some may not have always agreed with Commissioner Swindle when he occasionally balked at stronger consumer protection measures, there is no doubt that during his tenure at the FTC, his gentle yet firm — and occasionally forceful — guidance more often than not helped common sense and reason get a fair airing at the agency. His “kindly grandfather” appearance always belied his quiet power, his raucous sense of humor, and the astonishing heroism that has marked his life.

I count myself lucky to have been there the day he broke up a potential fist-fight at an anti-spam workshop, an incident that will go down in the annals of Washington lore. But it was just another day in the remarkable life of this outstanding public servant. I know I join many in wishing him the best in whatever life has in store for him next.

On Monday, the U. S. House of Representatives passed two separate pieces of “spyware” legislation, only one of which actually promises to do anything to help consumers terrorized by unwanted spyware and adware.

[Author's Note: From this point forward, I'm going to try and use the term "malware" to collectively describe the follies, felonies, and frauds, that constitute much of the behavior of the spyware and adware industries. If you want to know more about why I'm using the term malware, please read my explanation.]

As reported by CNet News.com’s ace DC bureau chief Declan McCullagh (who is apparently moving out here to SF soon; congrats Declan! and yay for us who enjoy his company!), the two bills take a very different tack, and together amount to exactly 200% more spyware legislation than the U.S. Senate managed to approve last year!

The first bill, H.R. 29, sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono (R-Ca.), identifies many of the most annoying and damaging features of “spyware,” “adware,” and anything else that falls into the semantic morass in between. It also focuses on issues of end-user notice and consent, two areas where most adware and spyware have chronic deficiencies. This bill would also empower the Federal Trade Commission to continue looking into malware issues, and require them to create regulations to guide future enforcement.

The second bill, H.R. 744, sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Ca.), is a far narrower bill, focused primarily on only that software used to steal personal information for the purpose of committing fraud or to intentionally crash someones computer. As such, the bill would offer virtually no protection for those consumers who are besieged by software, whose intention may not be, but whose actual consequences are crashed computers and frustrated end-users.

I’m still digesting the final version of the Bono bill and trying to determine what actual effect it might have on protecting end-users from the excesses of the adware and spyware industries. But my initial reading of the Goodlatte-Lofgren bill is that to the extent it prohibits unauthorized access to private data, it offers consumers nothing in the way of new protections over existing law. However, the language does a masterful job of completely avoiding any impact on some of the worst players in the malware business… many of whom I’ve written about extensively in this blog.

Why does the Goodlatte-Lofgren bill completely miss the boat?

First, the bill focuses on anyone who, “intentionally obtains… personal information with the intent to defraud or injure… or cause damage to a protected computer…” Of course, the makers of most spyware and adware don’t “intentionally” crash people’s computers, even though their software routinely does it. Indeed, according to Microsoft’s anti-malware team leader, Jason Garms:

“The primary problem that users have with spyware is that their systems crash or are really slow or don’t behave in the way they expect them to,” Garms said. “We try to figure out how many of the crashes that are reported to us are actually attributable to spyware, and it turns out that at least one-third of those machines had spyware installed on them, so it is a big problem.”

Second, the Goodlatte-Lofgren bill focuses on “intentional” gathering of personal information for purposes of committing fraud (which is already illegal). Most malware companies are proud that they only gather “aggregated” or “anonymous” data while their software is monitoring your Internet activities. They don’t need your Social Security number to cause an annoying pop-up ad; they don’t need your mother’s maiden name to hijack your default search engine. Thus, by limiting the reach of penalties to only those bad guys who are already committing fraud, they have created a loophole through which you can drive the entire malware industry.

So, pound for pound, I think the Bono bill is looking like a better piece of legislation. It doesn’t buy into the adware companies’ word-games and instead focuses on the actual harm visited upon consumers. The Bono bill reads like a laundry list of the annoying, frustrating, and intentionally harmful things that I have personally witnessed while trying to exorcise the demon-spawn of companies like Claria, WhenU, CoolSavings, QooLogic, 180 Solutions, and others, from the computers of my friends and family.

Meanwhile, the semantic battle over “adware” vs. “spyware” has Microsoft seeking protection from the frivolous, harassing lawsuits that have become the stock-in-trade of many of the most notorious malware companies. It seems that whenever malware companies perceive a threat, they try to kill the messenger. CNet pointed out a few of those incidents, such as Claria’s lawsuit against PC Pitstop, New.net’s suit against the maker of Ad-Aware, and threats against the tireless anti-spyware advocate Ben Edelman.

The folks at Reason have links to a truly remarkable piece of audio in which Sean Hannity’s lapdog, Alan Colmes, gets radical anti-abortion activist Neil Horsley to admit that he used to have sex with his family’s mule. Apparently beastiality is a fact of life on family farms in Georgia, according to Horsley, and youngsters will have sex with anything if “it’s warm and it’s damp and it vibrates”… I don’t exactly know what this Horsley twit thought he was accomplishing by discussing the free love livestock lifestyle, but it’s a pretty remarkable piece of radio. Congrats to Alan Colmes! And thanks to NewsHounds for transcribing and documenting the eye-opening view into what anti-abortion radicals do in their off-hours.

Many people like the President because he’s such a tough guy. Just not with the right people, apparently. As gas prices skyrocket, and the Saudis make record profits, Bush walks around holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. Crude oil prices fell a tick after Bush got a small concession from Abdullah, but that’ll take weeks to show up in the numbers you see in the picture on the bottom.

In the top photo, Abdullah has Bush by the hand — a traditional gesture of trust and friendship among Saudis. But shouldn’t our President have his hand somewhere around the Saudis’ testicular regions? The U.S. is helping to prop up this corrupt and barbaric dictatorship, and we pay them billions in cash and military protection for the privilege.

During the administration of Bush the Elder, there were proposals to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards over a 10-year period that would have insured America’s energy independence from unstable regimes in terrorist-producing corners of the world. But the administration of Bush the Elder, many of whom were clearly interested in high-paying jobs in the oil business (e.g., Dick Cheney leaving the Defense Department for oil services firm Halliburton), saw to it that energy independence efforts were quashed.

Now, Bush the Younger is touting energy independence, not through efficiency, but through less dependence on fossil fuels (well, except for coal. Oh, and we need to build more refineries. Yeah. And nukular, er, nuclear. Lovely.

Our lack of energy independence is exactly why we find ourselves mired in the Middle East, beholden to despots, and targets of terror. It’s in our vital national security interests to be energy independent, but its not a problem that we can drill or mine our way out of. Energy independence requires a holistic approach, from energy efficiency to real transportation alternatives.

Until the Republican leadership — which controls two of the three branches of government — understands those facts and acts upon them, their negligence gives aid to our enemies and abets our national insecurity.

The best picture of the weekend comes from Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) who appeared on this weekend’s Real Time with Bill Maher. He was describing his reaction to any news reporter who says they’re just “reporting” when repeating all that awful gossip about U.N. Ambassador nominee John “The Rager” Bolton. Although, to many observers, he was actually demonstrating what sort of gesture the Bolton nomination is itself towards the U.N.

Unfortunately, the era of grace and elegance in the Senate, as demonstrated so ably by Senator Simpson, has waned since his departure. Now, as the Vice President would say, go f*ck yourself. ;-)

I second the motion that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is a whack job. Why the opprobrium thrown at DeLay now? Well, try this on for size: (more…)

In yet another example of my devotion to recycling, I turned my April 12 blog entry about Google and ChoicePoint into a monthly column for eSecurity Planet.

While surfing my usual news sources last night, I stumbled upon some exciting news. According to Technology Daily, Google has hired Alan Davidson to open their Washington DC lobbying and policy shop. This is the best news I’ve heard in ages! (more…)

This is going to be my only entry discussing the Schiavo disaster. And it is a disaster. It used to be merely a tragic story, but when the religio-political opportunists got involved, it turned into a farce, and then rushed headlong into being a disaster. (more…)