Policy and Law: Federal and Contributed by Organizations or Campuses

Federal Register notice of inquiry concerning DNSSEC. The Department of Commerce (Department) notes the increase in interest among government, technology experts and industry representatives regarding the deployment of Domain Name and Addressing System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) at the root zone level. The Department remains committed to preserving the security and stability of the DNS and is exploring the implementation of DNSSEC in the DNS hierarchy, including at the authoritative root zone level. Accordingly, the Department is issuing this notice to invite comments regarding DNSSEC implementation at the root zone.

Comments are due on November 24, 2008.

Summary of the The Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is a subchapter of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. § 1601et seq.) requires employers to advise applicants if employment was denied based on a credit report.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, OTS, NCUA and FTC (the Agencies) are jointly issuing final rules and guidelines
implementing section 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act) and final rules implementing section 315 of the FACT Act. The rules implementing section 114 require each financial institution or creditor to develop and implement a written Identity Theft Prevention Program (Program) to detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft in connection with the opening of certain accounts or certain existing accounts. In addition, the Agencies are issuing guidelines to assist financial institutions and creditors in the formulation and maintenance of a Program that satisfies the requirements of the rules. The rules implementing section 114 also require credit and debit card issuers to assess the validity of notifications of changes of address under certain circumstances. Additionally, the Agencies are issuing
joint rules under section 315 that provide guidance regarding reasonable policies and procedures that a user of consumer reports must employ when a consumer reporting agency sends the user a notice of address discrepancy.

NACUBO's brief opinion concerning how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)'s Red Flags Rule applies to Colleges and Universities as Creditors.

This is a speech given by Michael K. Powell, when he was Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, at the Silicon Flatirons Symposium on "The Digital Broadband Migration: Toward a Regulatory Regime for the Internet Age." University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder, Colorado, February 8, 2004.

E-Waste is a popular, informal name for discarded electronic products such as computers, VCRs, cameras, which have reached the end of their "useful life". Discarded electronic products contain a stew of toxic metals and chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and PCBs. Unfortunately, e-Waste, a dangerous byproduct of technology's relentless expansion is one of the fastest growing segments of higher education institutions' waste stream. We need to be strong advocates of "producer responsibility" and give companies an incentive to produce environmentally friendly products. In addition we must learn about and educate our campus communities about managing old electronics and associated materials. In this report, we attempt to answer the question "What should be done with old electronic products?" discuss opportunities for waste prevention and reuse, and talk about regulatory issues.

A run down of various issues being debate over legislation to renew the Higher Education Act.

As U.S. accreditation advisory panel — with Congress watching — seeks to show kinder, gentler side, some members take aggressive tack on regional agencies.

The Democratic sponsor of a bill forcing anyone with an open Wi-Fi connection to report illegal images--or pay fines of up to $300,000--says a recent Internet outcry over the legislation misses the point.

Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas, who drafted the bill that the House of Representatives approved this week, said through a spokesman on Thursday that he didn't actually mean to target Americans who happen to have Wi-Fi access points at home. The legislation also covers social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail.

"Two weeks ago, we described a report from the National Research Council on the challenges of balancing an open academic research environment with the risks that the fruits of the research could be adopted by terrorists. One of the report's recommendations was the formation of a standing committee comprised of academics and members of the national security agencies. It turns out that the FBI had already heeded similar advice—back in 2005."