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North Korean Cyber Attack – Harbinger of the Future

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September 1, 2011

The Washington Post published an excellent article, “Suspected North Korean cyberattack on a bank raises fears for S. Korea, allies” detailing a significant cyber attack on a major South Korean bank that occurred last April. This was more than the Denial of Service attacks that have been executed in the past. It was a sophisticated virus attack that took down hundreds of servers at the bank, shut it down for days, and then corrupted a huge amount of financial data. We will see more and more of this. Poor and disconnected nations and terrorist groups have nothing to lose by executing these sorts of attacks.

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Emergency Response and Network Congestion – A Matter of Bandwidth

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August 31, 2011

As the East Coast is cleaning up from the effects of Hurricane Irene, pundits have not been shy in expressing opinions about the use (mostly about the benefits) of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get information out to affected audiences. The FCC has launched an inquiry into whether phone calls to 911 emergency response agencies were affected by congestion on the cellular phone communications networks. The FCC might also look into how media solicitations for viewer video affects network congestion.

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The Metropolitan Police – Buffeted by the Winds of Political Whimsy

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August 31, 2011

The London Riots prove, yet again, that one of the principal roles of the Metropolitan Police (“The Met”) in London is to be the whipping post of politicians pursuing an agenda. There are certainly commentators in the UK and the U.S. who are advocating for the much more widespread use of weapons in public order, some queries about why CS gas wasn’t used, etc. The answer is simple – if one cannot identify, incapacitate where necessary and arrest an individual for wrong-doing, as a police force, you simply become a weapon of suppression of the population, rather than a police force that is representative of the community protecting that community.

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Can we achieve security and prosperity at the same time?

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August 31, 2011

The problem with an over-politicized environment in Washington is that we’ve lost the ability to build consensus and find common ground, even with people who hold views contrary to our own. The Center for Immigration Studies, with whom we business immigration lawyers usually disagree on immigration policy, published a paper this week entitled “Border Watchlisting a Decade after 9/11.” Among the proposals is to expand the “Electronic System for Travel Authorization.” We have to give credit where credit is due. Though we would love to disagree with CIS on issues in the future, CIS is right in that our screening needs to be more than a perfunctory exercise.

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Hurricane Irene, Underwhelmed but alive – Is that a problem?

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August 31, 2011

With Hurricane Irene now nothing but some sputtering winds and loosely formed rain showers, we are about to endure the aftermath of whining naysayers and professional complainers. Even as the storm was beginning to pass through North Carolina and Virginia, observers began to comment that the storm was not packing the punch that it had been forecast to hold. It’s almost as if there was a measure of disappointment from these complaining parties that there was not some type of large body count or more catastrophic destruction.

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ATF chief, Arizona prosecutor resign amid gun inquiries

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August 30, 2011

ATF chief, Arizona prosecutor resign amid gun inquiries – USATODAY.com The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Arizona’s top federal prosecutor resigned Tuesday in the midst of congressional and Justice Department inquiries into a controversial gun trafficking investigation that allowed hundreds of firearms to fall into the hands of […]

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Category 5 coverage for a Category 1 storm–crying wolf is dangerous

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August 29, 2011

Category 5 coverage for a Category 1 storm–crying wolf is dangerous | Crisisblogger Is there any doubt that the overwhelming inclination of major media outlets in today’s hyper-competitive environment is to put ratings above responsibility? Survival is at stake. The problem is that as the coverage of Irene makes clear, lives are also at stake. […]

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White House Embraces Administrative Amnesty After Failing to Get Congress on Board

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August 29, 2011

Earlier this month, Cecelia Munoz, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and formerly of the National Council of La Raza, where she openly embraced amnesty for illegal aliens, announced a groundbreaking turn of events: for the first time ever, the White House is usurping congressional constitutional authority to determine immigration law and policy. Not only is the White House granting amnesty, but they are also making sure that immigration law only applies to those illegal aliens convicted of serious crimes.

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Terror on My Mind – A Strategy for the "Next Wave"

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August 29, 2011

Last week, we talked terrorism at the Heritage Foundation. The event featured some of our recent research on terrorist trends and the release of the work by the foundation’s Counterterrorism Task Force, “A Counterterrorism Strategy for the ‘Next Wave.'” Are we safer than we were on 9/11? Yes. Are we safe? No

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Avoiding the Costly Mistake of Asking for Too Much Information

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August 29, 2011

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, those of us who practice immigration law, in particular business immigration law, have seen substantial shifts in immigration enforcement at the worksite. Reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities have sensitized employers to the need for strict employment eligibility verification. However, the employers often forget about another side to their compliance obligations – that of avoiding immigration-related unfair employment practices.

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