FBI seeks software to enable taps on new systems
Article Abstract:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is hoping to force the telephone industry to provide the agency with the software necessary to intercept and decipher digital communications. A revised proposal to Congress asserts that the FBI's ability to wiretap communications will be severely limited without access to digital communications, resulting in a number of preventable crimes and lost prosecutions. Tapping a digital communications system requires sophisticated software and technology to isolate the signal and then translate the computer language signal into human language. The cost of modifying the technology would be passed on to the consumer, although the revised proposal eliminates the language that refers to consumer cost. The FBI also opposes unbreakable encryption schemes that companies and individuals use to protect highly classified data, claiming that indecipherable code limits the agency's ability to detect criminal activity. Both positions have stiff opposition.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1992
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The long wait: Mexico's phone company goes private, but that won't solve its problems soon
Article Abstract:
The recently privatized Telefonos de Mexico S.A. (Telmex) telephone company is spending $14 billion over five years for a mammoth upgrade of its telephone network. Mexico has the world's 13th largest economy but ranks 83rd in the number of telephone lines installed per capita. The country has five lines for every 100 people, compared to the world average of 10 lines per 100 people. Telmex wants to increase this figure by 13 percent in 1991 and begin to reduce high international phone rates. Telmex customers are dissatisfied with its poor service; the company is first on the list of complaints at the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office for Consumers. Telmex has signed an agreement with the attorney general to resolve complaints within 72 hours. It has made progress in one area in particular: the company has developed an integrated digital network, featuring fiber optic networks and microwave systems to transmit computer data, to which 400 businesses have subscribed.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1991
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The people's proxy: shareholder proposals on pay must be aired, SEC to tell 10 firms; at Bell Atlantic, a priest wins long fight for a vote on plan to halt bonuses: non-binding, but significant
Article Abstract:
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tells 10 major firms, including IBM, Bell Atlantic Corp and Eastman Kodak Co to permit non-binding stockholder votes on executive pay proposals. The decision comes at a time when executives' salaries are under increasing scrutiny, and it overturns a 10 year long ruling by the SEC which barred individual shareholders from voting on executive pay proposals. The new ruling, which takes effect Feb 13, 1992, is aimed at only top level executives and should not affect all corporate management positions. The SEC approved proposals all come from individual stockholders. Rev Leo Conti, who holds 76 shares of Bell Atlantic stock, forces a shareholder vote under the SEC ruling.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1992
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