Ideas for a Secure Laptop

In its October 10, 2005 edition, Federal Computer Week ran an excellent article on how the US Justice Department is implementing new technology to protect data on laptop computers. A sidebar to the article lists 8 ways to improve security such as implementing encryption and tracking devices on laptop PCs; and the use of removable storage. Let's take three of these ideas one by one.

First, turning on encryption in Windows 2000/XP is pretty simple. According to Microsoft's website you perform the following steps: 

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Right-click the file or folder that you want to encrypt, and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Advanced.
4. Select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box.

Encrypting a Microsoft Word document is also a fairly easy affair. If you have a document you wish to secure, first open the document, then go to the Tools menu, select Options, and click on the Security tab. You can then enter the password for that specific document. But of course the danger in all of this encryption is forgetting the password, so rather than writing it on a "sticky note", one might consider an embedded fingerprint scanner such as the one built into a new laptop model when it's time to upgrade.

Second, the idea of a stolen laptop being able to "phone home" is now possible. There is a number of stealth tracking software solutions available that can be installed on your computer. When a laptop is stolen one notifies the service provider and they begin a process of tracking down your computer once it has been connected to the Internet. One could argue that if the thief simply erases the hard disk drive they could thwart this system. However, most computers have hidden sectors on the hard drives where this kind of software can be placed and disguised. And besides, as we know working in the criminal justice system, thieves are often not very clever.

Third, the use of removable storage is a great idea. There are three common ways that this can be accomplished. Currently for under $150 a two gigabyte USB storage flash drive can be purchased. While you won't be able to store your entire library of Beethoven Symphonies on this drive, it should be sufficient for most judges' working document files. A second option is a removable PC Card hard disk drive that contains 5 gigabytes of storage. And finally, for those of you who wish to backup everything on your computer along with your Beethoven, there is the popular Apple iPod (or other alternative) which in the near future will be able to store 60 gigabytes of information.

US National Archives Awards Electronic Archive Contract

We missed this announcement somehow last month in the run up to CTC9; but after a year long competition the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) held a press conference on September 8, 2005 to announce that the team headed by Lockheed-Martin had won. I have been searching the Internet, but technical details on the new system seem to be in short supply. Federal Computer Week wrote that the plan is to build a multi-tiered platform that will allow new technology and systems to be easily added to the archive. Washington Technology adds that it will be built using open standards. This is definitely something for our court community to watch as we transition to electronic records and archives.

CTC9 a Success!

We are just now recovering from CTC9. What a great conference. First, if you missed the conference, or attended and wanted to share the keynote and several sessions with your colleagues, you can do so via streaming internet video. Go to the CTC Streaming Media website to see keynote sessions by Senator Slade Gordon, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and Microsoft's Chris Capossela. Several educational sessions focusing on GJXDM technology and security were also captured.

Too many other things happened during the conference to be discussed in a brief article but, Scott Fairholm wanted to pass along that the Chief Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) held its first meeting during the Wednesday afternoon SIGs. Over 100 state and local court CIOs attended the meeting to hear from Chief Justice Toal (SC) who opened the session and to learn more about how they can be involved in CITOC. If you are a court CIO and missed the session, you can go to the CITOC website to learn more and to join.

Larry Webster noted that he was impressed with the progress that has been made with electronic filing and document managements systems in recent years. And another thing that struck him was how much more important electronic information sharing seems to be to courts than it has in the past. So the good news is that the courts are becoming more electronic and more connected.

Finally we would like to thank everyone who attended the conference for their participation and support. It was wonderful seeing all of our friends and we look forward to CTC10 in Tampa, Florida in October, 2007.

See You in Seattle!

Please come by the National Center for State Courts booth at CTC9 and say "Hi!" We are always happy to see our friends in the court community. There will be information about the various technology programs and initiatives plus a free NCSC Research and Technology CD packed with useful information such as the State Court Guide to Statistical Reporting and the first complete Global Information Exchange Package Documentation for Traffic Citations. See you in Seattle!

ABA Responds to the Aftermath of Katrina

From our friend Larry Smith at the American Bar Association:

The American Bar Association is coordinating with FEMA to provide resources, and will serve as a clearinghouse for lawyers and those in the legal profession who are willing to volunteer, either generally or specifically for law firm clients and for the firms themselves. This week, we (the ABA Law Practice Management Section and others) are also gathering resources that we have previously published on practice interruption/continuation and disaster recovery for the benefit of those practices that cannot continue. These resources will be published both at the LPM and ABA-wide pages, linked through the ABA Web site at www.abanet.org. We continue to field inquiries on these topics. If any of you have materials that you believe are appropriate for this effort, we encourage you to share them.

Thanks,
Larry C. Smith, Director
Law Practice Management Section
American Bar Association
E-mail: SmithL@staff.abanet.org
Phone: 312-988-5661
Web: www.lawpractice.org

Wireless in the Courtroom

Submitted by Hon. Kenneth L. Fields, Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County

In mid 2004 the Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County (Phoenix), decided to experiment with wireless service for the parties and counsel in four of its electronic courtrooms. The Court, working with County administration, installed the necessary equipment, developed the necessary protocols and initiated the service in early 2005.

At the present time it is offered as a free service for any attorney, party, witness or spectator on the 4th floor of the East Court Building. The comments from counsel are positive. The ability to have wireless support has lead to many new ideas for litigation support in the Courtroom. Examples are to have your expert available via instant messaging to support your cross examination while the opposing party is presenting its case or having the ability to locate missing documents at the last minute and forwarding them to you while the trial is on-going. Another recent use was to have a witness testifying telephonically coast to coast while the paralegals were sending him copies of exhibits as an e-mail attachment to be viewed during the examination. The costs saving were significant when one considered the alternative of video broadcasting or conferencing the testimony.

The use of wireless is just starting to catch on with the more adept attorneys and is expected to be a routine request in larger trials. For more information, contact Eric Ciminski at ciminskie@superiorcourt.maricopa.gov.

CTC9 Justice Integration Net

New at CTC9, the Justice Integration Net, sponsored by Microsoft Corporation and powered by SAIC, will demonstrate how a jurisdiction can quickly realize the benefits of an integrated justice system. As many court technology experts know, criminal justice integration has been a difficult and expensive enterprise. In addition, issues such as security, authentication and trust have been significant barriers. The Justice Integration Net demonstration will incorporate all of the technologies and components you expect - XML, middleware, digital signatures, speech recognition, and more - and present a framework for evolving standards and solutions, all in a compact demonstration venue adjacent to the NCSC Pavilion in booth number 435. The CTC9 Justice Integration Net will also demonstrate what is possible in integration today using off-the-shelf software and hardware. Presentations will be made on the half-hour for most of the first day and on the hour on the second day of the exhibition.

NCSC Jur-E Bulletin Warning on Identity Theft

The August 5, 2005 edition of the NCSC's Center for Jury Studies Jur-E Bulletin contained the announcement on the latest identity theft scam.

Identity Theft Alert: Courts Beware

It seems that the latest target for those in the identity theft business is the jury system, as Jur-E was made aware of two separate cases this week in which jury programs were being used as a vehicle for obtaining individuals' personal information.

First, in Maricopa County, Arizona, citizens have been the targets of phone calls from individuals claiming to be court officials. These occurrences have drastically increased over the past month. Often, the individual claiming to be an agent of the court indicated that the phone call was in regards to jury service, issuing harsh threats regarding failure to appear and requesting personal information for "verification purposes."

Maricopa County was made aware of the problem when citizens called the court directly to question the validity of the calls, and to complain about the treatment they had received from the individuals posing as court staff. The court reacted swiftly, issuing a statement to the press emphasizing that the court would never request personal information over the phone, and also providing warning signs to prevent identity theft and fraud over the phone. In the press release, the court emphasized that they did not contact individuals over the phone regarding jury duty at any time.

A similar scam was reported in Thurston County, Washington. Again, a resident called the court to report that a man, claiming to be a court official, had called her at home regarding her "failure to appear at jury service." The caller pressed the woman for her Social Security number, name, and date of birth. The court emphasized in their statement to the press that they would never request such information over the phone.

Both of these cases should serve as notification to courts around the country that this type of fraud may be on the rise. Jur-E has heard of other similar cases over the course of the past year, but it seems as though they are increasing in frequency. In both cases in question, courts responded quickly to the claims and made public their policies regarding jury duty and non-response follow-up. This case further emphasizes the importance of jury managers maintaining communication with the general public. See our NCSC KIS department's page on trends in identity theft for more information.

Chris Caposella to be CTC9 Keynoter

One of the presentations that I am most looking forward to at CTC9 is Wednesday morning's keynote address by Chris Capossela of Microsoft. He is currently the Corporate Vice President, Information Worker Product Management Group, which means he is in charge of the new version of Microsoft Office. Because this software is such an overwhelming standard in business and government, any change to this technology is significant. The new version of Office completely embraces the use of XML technology as an integral part of the software. Because of the possibilities such as easier integration between documents and court case management databases, I am very much looking forward to his talk.

PDF for Lawyers Web Site

Wandering around the web today I found a blog called PDF for Lawyers. It has good information generally about PDF files and has links to information about digital signatures, scanners for lawyers, and, most interesting, PDF redaction