Simson Garfinkel takes a look at the future trends in security tools for CSOonline.com. He focuses on the next generation of tools being designed to address problems that CIOs are trying to resolve today. The email wish list includes technology that operates at the system level (removing the end user from equation); combines antispam with antivirus; and simultaneously protects company confidentiality. In the area of forensic tools he notes disk forensic tools “that can run off a bootable CD-ROM so that they can be used without disturbing the host operating system” and network forensic tools that are more proactive and automatically report abnormalities. With regard to the delivery of a variety of security “appliances” he registers a concern regarding their ability to be “updated in the field”. Most run on operating systems that have significant security vulnerabilities of their own and require constant updates to remain secure. Finally, he comments on the prospects for biometrics and single sign-on systems, and progress in the area of encryption.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows FBI agents to obtain a warrant from a secret federal court for library or bookstore records of anyone connected to an investigation of international terrorism or spying. Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need for agents to show that the target is suspected of a crime or possesses evidence of a crime. In a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D Vt., Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant said Americans who provide personal information to borrow or buy books “assumes the risk that the entity may disclose it to another.” In addition, libraries and bookstores are prohibited by law from telling their patrons, or anyone else, that the FBI has sought the records.