Government & Public Sector

The European Union (EU) struck back at tax breaks given to U.S. exporters Monday by slapping trade sanctions on the U.S. in a move that could potentially cost U.S. firms, including IT vendors such as Microsoft Corp., millions of dollars.

Canada's new privacy law, "The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act" (PIPEDA) came into full force for most Canadians and Canadian organizations on January 1, 2004.

Why do Americans trust the U.S. Postal Service with their personal information more than the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice? The reason may not be that surprising. According to the results of our first annual Privacy Trust Survey (PTS) of the United States Government, it seems to be due to the personal relationship we have with the friendly mail carrier who brings us our birthday cards and holds our mail when we go on vacation.

Eight officials from Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) entered the Japanese offices of Microsoft Corp. Thursday morning as part of an investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by the U.S. software giant, the company confirmed.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back the dates by which U.S. companies must comply with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act relating to financial reporting within companies, SEC said in a statement Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit Thursday to block Oracle Corp.'s attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft Inc.

The European Parliament has postponed a vote on a controversial law on intellectual property enforcement until early March, following drawn out negotiations with the European Commission and member state governments.

A panel of distinguished cryptographers at the RSA Conference in San Francisco weighed in on a variety of hot button issues, including electronic voting and rights management for digital media.