President Obama greets White House Cyber Security Chief Howard A. Schmidt in 2009. (Lawrence Jackson/White House photo)

The White House has just sent to Capitol Hill a proposal to beef up cyber security regulations, an attempt to forge consensus on how to protect vulnerable U.S. networks from attacks that could blow up city blocks, erase bank data, crash planes and cut power to large sections of the country.

One key provision would require electric utilities and others to disclose what steps they are taking to protect their networks, an attempt to use the market to force companies to beef up protections. Another provision provides legal immunity to companies that notify the government about cyber threats and intrusions against them, something they are sometimes reluctant to do now for fear of being sued.

The proposal will be derided as tepid by some critics, but a cross section of experts has long said even weak regulation is better than the status quo, with critical infrastructure now wide open for a variety of potentially crippling attacks. 

As the Los Angeles Times reported in March, electrical grids, pipelines, chemical plants and other infrastructure are controlled by computer systems that were designed without security in mind, and are vulnerable to crippling cyber attacks. 

Nonetheless, industry and privacy groups will probably oppose any government regulation of cyberspace, and the Republican-controlled House has shown little interest in moving a bill. 

"Our proposal outlines key steps to take in order to better protect the American people from cyber crime and identity theft, to better safeguard critical infrastructure as well as the federal government computers and networks, and to better protect individuals’ privacy and civil liberties," said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The proposal, the official said, was the White House's attempt to forge consensus among the dozens of cyber security bills pending, some of which call for starkly different approaches.

The proposal:

• Requires businesses that have suffered an intrusion to notify consumers if the intruder had access to consumers’ personal information, standardizing the existing patchwork of 47 state laws that contain these requirements.
• Empowers the Department of Homeland Security to quickly help a private-sector company, state, or local government when that organization asks for its help -- and clarifies the type of assistance that the DHS can provide to the requesting organization.
• Provides legal immunity to businesses, states and local governments that share information about cyber threats or incidents with the DHS, while mandating robust privacy oversight to ensure that the voluntarily shared information does not impinge on individual privacy and civil liberties.
• Requires operators of critical infrastructure, such as chemical plants and electric grids, to publish their cyber security risk mitigation plans so that the marketplace can assess whether or not their plans are adequate to the risks they face.

The proposal prevents states from requiring companies to build their data centers in that state, except where expressly authorized by federal law.

It includes a number of civil liberties protections, including limiting all monitoring, collection, use, retention, and sharing of information to protect against cybersecurity threats. Immunity for the private-sector business, state, or local government is conditioned on its compliance with the requirements of the proposal.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cyber-security-plan-20110512,0,4473795.story

Author: Jeff Berns "The RightPI"

Sources: California DRE, Credit Slips.com

April 21st, 2011

Unethical & Unlicensed Activity of Companies Offer Securitization Audits w/o Current Successful Case References. Question to Ask Your Auditor before you write and mail that check: " Where are the Current Case Examples?"

Have you read about the "Ibanez Case" in Massachussetts? The case involves an issue of the Chain of Title and in this case the actual audit of the securitization process is critical to identifying who holds title and who has the legal standing to foreclose.

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2011/01/ibanez.html

If you are in the market for a "Securitization Audit" or a "Forensic Loan Audit" services for yourself or a client, make sure you know who you are hiring and doing business with, or you may be their next victim. Ask for the specific names of people and cases that these "Audits" have actually been introduced as evidence in court.  Have they helped an attorney in foreclosure defense or a bankruptcy case? This might be critical to ask and to find out before spending your hard earned money.

Just having your Audit introduced as evidence is not enough if it leads to you or your client's foreclosure defense suit being dismissed. Unfortunately there are many companies and individuals out there producing flashy looking reports that have little or no value to the attorney litigating these cases. It has become so bad and prevalent in California that the Department of Real Estate (DRE) has had to issue a consumer alerts and warnings. 

http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/ConsumerWarningForensicLoanAudits.pdf

In some reports words are incorrectly spelled and the author's can't write a grammatically correct paragraph, much less a court ready legal summary or report. You can check current cases by searching (in many counties, even free) County Court Indexes or by signing up for Pacer (US Federal Court Search Site). If you need help with this email us or chime in on our "Ask The RightPI" Blog (Link Below)

For an administrative fee (2 hour minimum) Right Path Investigations can do a quick court check on whoever you plan on hiring. If you have been a victim of a particular individual or company we would like to hear from you. We'll help if we can. We may save you hundreds of dollars by doing so. If you need a more detailed investigation then contact us and we can make suggestions and recommendations based on your specific situation. We are not attorneys nor do we give legal advice. We do work closely with local, experienced real estate and bankruptcy, criminal and civil attorneys.

We also welcome your attorney calling us so we can discuss our Intensive SAIR and what investigation can be done.  Actually tracking down the legal holder of the note, the deed of trust, the documents needed to prove if and when the chain of title has or has not been broken, involves a much more in depth investigation. We recommend you contact an experienced real estate attorney if you believe this has happened and is your situation.

This post has been written to help educate homeowners and the public on Securitization Audits, Forensic Loan Audits. These Audit Reports have been finding their way into the courtroom. Getting in the door in court just isn't enough. The door will be slammed on you by the judge if you have been provided a useless report. Don't be afraid to ask the tough questions before you write your check for an Audit. If you have more questions: Follow our Blog "Ask The RightPI" on the web at http://asktherightpi.blogspot.com/

Respectfully,

Jeff Berns "The RightPI"
CEO/Director of Operations
Right Path Investigations. CA lic# 21832
Former Criminal Investigator, County of Sacramento, Former Insurance Adjuster