-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- More of the same, from businessmen this time, not bureaucrats. A telling pulled quote: "I kind of feel like if the FBI wants to follow me around, God bless them. I've got nothing to hide." Disgraceful. ~F. If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" --Samuel Adams **** The Dallas Morning News Nation weighing value of security vs. privacy; An edgy America struggles with technology's role ALAN GOLDSTEIN and VIKAS BAJAJ BODY: But there will be no high-tech silver bullet this time, according to the panel of business and academic experts that convened Tuesday in a special session to discuss technology's role in the crisis. The panel was asked about proposed measures in which airlines could use electronic wizardry to search aggressively for high-risk passengers, culling through myriad databases from both corporations and law enforcement agencies. Security personnel at airports and other high-profile public places would have access to powerful databases brimming with sensitive personal information. FBI records, individual addresses and travel patterns could all be incorporated into the system to help raise red flags. Credit card records could be a particularly illuminating indicator of suspicious behavior, said Tom Klein, president of Fort Worth-based Sabre Holdings Corp.'s airline reservations and emerging businesses units. "It is much broader than how I booked a flight. There are things that will make lots of people uncomfortable. But there are people who say that's where we need to go." The public may be more willing to give up some measure of privacy in exchange for security, said Matt Yarbrough, a former federal prosecutor. The FBI's Carnivore system for monitoring e-mail traffic over the Internet stirred a huge controversy last year, said Mr. Yarbrough, who heads the cyberlaw group in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson PC. "For some reason, everyone was upset about Carnivore a few months ago. Today, you could probably get it through in a heartbeat." Personal privacy One member of the board said he was willing to subject himself to such scrutiny if it helped make the country more secure. "I kind of feel like if the FBI wants to follow me around, God bless them. I've got nothing to hide," said Guy Hoffman, a Dallas-based partner at TL Ventures, a venture capital firm. But the majority shot back that such systems, perhaps tied to some form of national identity card, could do more harm than good. "You don't know enough about the FBI," said Anne K. Bingaman, chairwoman and chief executive of Valor Telecommunications LLC in Irving. The agency has had a long history of abusing authority through violations of personal privacy, said Ms. Bingaman, a former antitrust chief with the U.S. Department of Justice. "It's one thing to have a card that says who you are. I don't think people object to that. It's what the driver's license is," she said. "But tying it to a database that has all kinds of information that is ostensibly for terrorism but is accessible to thousands of law enforcement people permanently - we have some pretty good reasons to feel threatened by that." Constitutional issues Americans' guarantees of civil liberties were put in place to protect individuals from an invasive government, said Hasan Pirkul, dean of the management school at the University of Texas at Dallas. "The Constitution has not become obsolete because of a terrorist attack," he said. Another threat to the public comes from unauthorized access to the database.
From mischievous teenagers across the planet to sophisticated organized crime rings, computer hackers have breached systems that had once been considered impregnable.
"I don't trust the hackers. Those guys can get into anything. Anything we design, they can break," said Mr. Shank of Ericsson. Board members also worried that flawed data could wreak havoc on people's lives. "Mistakes happen," said Laura Rippy, chief executive of Handango Inc. in Hurst, which sells handheld and wireless equipment. "What if they mistake you for someone and you're sitting in jail for a week?" Physical security procedures may prove a better solution for reducing terrorism than their high-tech counterparts, board members agreed. "I still think - the low-tech thing - lock pilots in the cockpit if we're worried about airplanes being used as bombs again," Ms. Bingaman said. "To me, that's far more fail-safe than any of this identification or screening or the rest of it." Limits High-tech screening wouldn't prevent an attack such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, board members said, because the tools were rudimentary and authorities weren't seeking the plotters. Technology isn't just defensive, said board member Shiek Shah. Surveillance tools and advanced weaponry can "exterminate the breeding grounds of terrorism," said Mr. Shah, co-chief executive of Akili, a Dallas firm that integrates software and other technology for corporate customers. "I agree, eradicate them, but part of the eradication is to wipe out the breeding grounds in positive ways," said Leon Kappelman, director of the Information Systems Research Center at the University of North Texas in Denton. Evaluating the impact of the attacks on the telecommunications and computing infrastructure of Wall Street, board members concluded that systems held up relatively well. Dr. Kappelman, a leading expert in the Year 2000 computer problem, said the financial services industry's preparations for the millennium bug helped get the markets running again. "A big part of Y2K, especially in those businesses, as dealing with disaster recovery and business continuity," he said. "Having those things in place made it very much possible to deal with this faster." The attacks should encourage businesses and governments to rethink their technological vulnerabilities, said John Breen, vice president of consulting services at SBC DataComm Inc., a division of SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio. "Assess what you have learned over the last three weeks," Mr. Breen said. "Analyze whether it's for your business or for your personal life, and then act," he said. "As Americans, we act. And we need to act as best we can to try and address these failures." Technology will probably be just a piece of a broader response, board members said. "Maybe we looked at technology as the answer," Mr. Hoffman said. "Today we recognize that technology is only part of the solution." Coming Monday: The tech industry's new challenges. First of two parts. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Hush 2.0 wl8EARECAB8FAjvB9nIYHGF1dG8zMDEwOTRAaHVzaG1haWwuY29tAAoJEKadvsVlUK4P U8kAoKsejzozyFnhWj0BIlPp28ROcCW2AJ9fIBKNEtmew0pWdYUve5d3NMxx5g== =SY2Y -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----