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Biometrics, Critical Infrastructure On G-8 Agenda
by William New
The Justice and Home Affairs ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized countries met last week in preparation for the G-8 summit in Evian, France, on June 1 to 3. The G-8 ministers, plus their European Union counterpart, agreed at a Paris meeting upon the importance of developing biometric technologies and critical infrastructure protection.
Biometrics can combat the use of fraudulent documents for criminal or terrorist purposes and can strengthen transportation security, the ministers said in an official statement. A common framework and standards for the technology ought to be developed within the relevant international bodies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The ministers established a high-level working group co-chaired by France and the United States, with a first meeting in Germany, to recommend ways to develop biometric technologies. The goals should include ways to assess the technologies' effectiveness, the ministers said.
The ministers also cited the need for "unprecedented global cooperation" on the protection of information infrastructures, including computer networks and communication systems.
France and the United States co-sponsored a G-8 conference on information infrastructure protection in late March, the first of its kind internationally. It resulted in the first set of principles that can be the basis for further international policy. The ministers adopted the 11 principles from the earlier conference and directed their "high-tech crime experts" to lead the effort forward.
In another area, the ministers last week also reaffirmed concern about the growing use of the Internet to sexually exploit children and endorsed a G-8 strategy against it. Interpol has agreed to host an international image database of child victims and suspected pedophiles. The ministers urged their experts to accelerate work on an implementation study and noted that financial, technical and legal issues remain.
The United States Of Cyber Crime
More than 60 percent of the world's cyber crime originates in the United States, with hacking and fraud leading the list, according to an annual International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) review of cyber crime released on Tuesday. The review covered January 2002 through March 2003.
Reported crimes ranged from extortion to "get rich quick" schemes and attacks by disgruntled employees, according to Steven Matz, a senior analyst with the ICC's London-based cyber-crime unit. He voiced surprise that just 10 percent of crimes were in the heavily populated Far East.
Separately, the ICC issued its 2003 overview for companies and government officials of the latest developments toward protecting intellectual property rights. This year's report is the most comprehensive yet, including updates on Internet and biotechnology issues, among others.
Earlier this month, a committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) discussed the revision of the 1994 International Trademark Law Treaty and the protection of Internet addresses. The proposal would modify the treaty to allow any participating country to choose whether to accept trademark applications on paper or electronically.
Making the change would require financial and technical assistance for developing countries, WIPO members said. A survey on national practices will be circulated this year, with a summary of responses presented in 2004.
The committee also considered whether protection on the Internet should be extended to names by which countries are commonly known. In September, officials decided to apply WIPO's dispute-resolution policy to protect names and acronyms of international inter-governmental organizations and country names.
The committee also said country-name protection should not be extended retroactively, and it delayed a decision on establishing an arbitral appeal mechanism.
Inter-Korean Internet Bill Unveiled
More than 100 South Korean lawmakers introduced a bill this week that would legalize non-political Internet communications with North Korea, the Korea Times reports.
"We believe that Internet contact will help open up North Korea, remove the feeling that the people on the other side [of the border] are different and naturally promote unity," bill sponsor Rep. Cho Woong-kyu said.
Meanwhile, U.S. business groups are pressing South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to strengthen intellectual property protection, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The president is visiting Washington this week.
Elsewhere in the world, George Radwanski, Canada's privacy commissioner, last week warned that a privacy bill introduced in British Columbia has "a number of grave deficiencies" that would prevent the Canadian government from supporting it. As of Jan. 1, 2004, federal privacy law will take precedence over provincial law.
Homeland Security Holds Customs Training
The Homeland Security Department's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection recently held its first training seminar for members of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). Some 500 members of the customs field attended the Miami conference, according to a summary by the law firm Alston and Bird.
Customs officials reported that more than 3,000 companies have volunteered for the C-TPAT program, which allows customs officials to treat their cargo differently. Joining the program carries numerous requirements.
Officials at the meeting also discussed other programs, such as a joint U.S.-Canadian initiative called the Free and Secure Trade Program that allows for expedited electronic cargo release despite a lack of some data.
H-1B Program Cited As Potential Trade Barrier
At the recent Services 2003 conference of the Coalition of Service Industries and the Commerce Department, a labor expert raised the prospect that U.S. regulations such as those granting H-1B visas to highly skilled temporary workers could be seen as trade barriers.
Elizabeth Drake, a policy analyst at the AFL-CIO, told the conference that there are times when the stated goal of the services negotiations -- to open markets -- might be undesirable or even conflict with U.S. regulations. For instance, all of the programs to regulate the entry of service professionals into the United States are barriers by definition, she said. "That's what they are designed to do."
She said the H-1B visa program has barriers ensuring that foreign workers are paid competitive wages, that they are not brought in to break strikes, and that they are allowed to work in the United States only during labor shortages and not simply for company gain.
The Importance Of Good Statistics
Officials at the services conference also discussed the importance of good statistics to governments and the services sector.
Commerce Department chief economist Keith Hall gave an update on the initiative to improve Census Bureau measures of service industries activity and data deficiencies in federal economic statistics. Funding for the initiative was provided in the fiscal 2003 budget.
Hall said one feature of the initiative will be the establishment of a quarterly principal economic indicator of service industry activity, measuring the performance of key information-, communication- and technology-intensive industries. The quarterly survey will begin in April 2004 and will cover: information services such as software publishing, telecommunications and data processing; professional services such as computer design and consulting; and administrative services such as employment agencies. Coverage will expand each year.
Another change at the Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis is the annual provision of specific data about products sold by "fast-growing and rapidly changing" service industries, Hall said. Finally, annual information will be provided on the cost of purchased services and materials. Both of those statistics will begin being compiled in the 2003 Services Annual Survey and will be expanded in coming years, he said.
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