I attended a very interesting public workshop hosted by the Anti-Spyware Coalition - Developing International Solutions for Global Spyware Problems. This one day event featured speakers and attendees from the US Federal Trade Commission, Microsoft, CA, Google, Symantec, McAfee, CAUCE Canada, The National Network to End Domestic Violence, and more.
The day started with Eileen Harrington. Associate Director in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, who highlighted the need for global co-operation in fighting malware. She spoke about pending legislation, the US Safe Web Act, that would enable law enforcement to share information about investigations with foreign law enforcement and the ability to request information from ISPs without their disclosure to the suspect.
The first panel involved discussions and demonstrations of spyware technologies and approaches. The second panel, Harms, discussed the impact of spyware on society, including spyware used to track and stalk victims of domestic violence.
Micheal Geist led a panel on legislative solutions. The final panel focused on Increasing Consumer and Enterprise Awareness.
One of the most interesting presentations was by Joe Jarzombeck, the Director of Software Assurance for the US Department of Homeland Security. Software Assurance is Joe's doing at DHS. His role, which he was allowed to design, focuses on increasing integrity and reliability of software systems in government and private practice. The DHS has developed several products that are free to use. I will be writing more on this topic soon.