20th June 2008, Vancouver, Canada

The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy
is pleased to announce the symposium, “National and International Perspectives on
Identity Theft and Fraud”, to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The symposium features experts at a one day event focusing on:

- identifying and measuring the problem of identity theft and fraud;
- national and international perspectives on criminalization;
- strategies for enforcement and prevention of identity theft and fraud; and
- the challenges in international cooperation in the fight against identity theft and fraud.

Registration is $99 or $50 for students

For more information, go to
http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/Site%20Map/Events/2008/Fraud.htm

International Centre for
Criminal Law Reform and
Criminal Justice Policy
1822 East Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Tel: +1-604-822-9875 Fax: +1-604-822-9317
http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca

The BC Civil Liberties Association is holding a free public event on RFID titled What’s the frequency Kenneth? on Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:30 pm at the Vancouver Public Library in the Alma VanDusen and Peter Kay Rooms Here’s a pdf of the poster.There was also an informative link on Boingboing about how to kill/block an RFID chip.

Boingboing TV has an interesting video clip showing how easily RFID enabled credit cards cards can be hacked. Pablos Holman, Hacker and Futurist, says:

The credit card industry understands very clearly that creating a secure system isn’t really the priority. Creating a system that feels secure to the user is. In reality it is easier for me to get numbers now than it was before with the old card. All I need to do is get near your ass with my reader.

If credit cards can be hacked this way, I would imagine that the”getting near your ass” technique could be used to hack RFID enhanced driver’s licenses, passports, or library cards.

An article from last week’s Vancouver Sun describes a deeply unsettling new policy at BC’s provincial archive:

British Columbia researchers who want to work with “sensitive” archival records — including writers, journalists and university professors — must now agree to random security checks of personal computers, offices and even their homes by the government. […]

What defines a sensitive document? It contains an individual’s name, address or telephone number; race, national or ethnic origin, colour or religious or political beliefs or associations; age, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status; an identifying number, symbol or other particular assigned; fingerprints, blood type or inheritable characteristics; health care history including a physical or mental disability; educational, financial, criminal or employment history; anyone else’s opinions about the individual; the individual’s opinions, except if they are about someone else.

According to one researcher who has already been subjected to a security check, the penalty for noncompliance could be severe: “An individual who refused to provide the auditors with access to their home/office, or is in violation of the agreement, will have their research privileges at the B.C. archives revoked.”

Protecting personal information is a worthy goal, and it’s entirely reasonable to ask researchers to take basic security precautions when handling that sort of information. But random security checks are an extremely disturbing violation of researchers’ fundamental privacy rights. The Royal BC Museum, which houses the provincial archive, needs to rethink this policy and develop a more proportional approach to its protection-of-privacy responsibilities.

(Hat tip: Social Justice Librarian and Brian Campbell.)