Grant Gross

Following the disclosure of two recent large-scale identity theft operations, the U.S. data brokerage industry will most likely face new laws this year governing what personal data it collects and shares, several U.S. lawmakers said Tuesday.

A handful of Web sites, including the site for the popular open source bulletin board project phpBB, were recently compromised by a group apparently trying to make a political point.

A group of Democratic U.S. lawmakers called Thursday for a federal investigation on how terrorists could use information from commercial databases, such as the compromised records thieves obtained from ChoicePoint Inc. Five Democrats, four of them senior members of congressional committees related to domestic security, called for investigations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) after data collection company ChoicePoint announced in February that identity thieves had tricked the company into giving them personal records of up to 145,000 U.S. residents.

Three recently announced telecommunications mergers received mixed revenues in a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing Wednesday, with some lawmakers questioning whether the deals will lead to less competition and higher prices.

Qwest Communications International Inc., in its effort to lure MCI Inc. away from rival Verizon Communications Inc., on Thursday made a new bid for MCI that guarantees the price it will pay to MCI stockholders. Qwest's new offer would continue to pay US$24.60 per share in cash and stock to MCI stockholders, in a deal worth about $8 billion, the same price Qwest offered on Feb. 11.

U.S. government agencies on Wednesday collectively received a D+ grade in their cybersecurity efforts, a slight improvement from the grade they received a year ago from a congressional watchdog committee. A year ago, the U.S. government received a D grade from the House Government Reform Committee, with eight agencies receiving failing grades. For 2004, seven agencies received failing F grades, said Representative Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the committee. Davis, asked during a press conference if he was frustrated with the marks, said government agencies are generally "moving in the right direction." This is the fifth year the committee has given the cybersecurity grades.

A U.S. senator influential on telecommunications issues said Tuesday he's "troubled" about recent announcements of multibillion-dollar telecommunications mergers, saying he will press the U.S. Congress and federal agencies to thoroughly examine the deals' potential impact on customers. Senator Conrad Burns, chairman of the Communications Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in e-mailed remarks that he's concerned about the effect of telecom "mega-mergers" on services for rural consumers. Burns is a Republican from Montana.