European data-protection officials are broadening their investigation into the alleged transfer of personal banking details by the Swift banking cooperative in Belgium to U.S. authorities, the European Commission said Wednesday.
Separately, the Belgian data-protection authority is expected to conclude its report into the affair in the coming weeks. Unlike the European officials, the Belgian authorities could impose sanctions on Swift, a banking industry payment-transfer organization.
"Recognising the seriousness of the questions that have been raised, the working party agreed to continue fact-finding and conduct further analysis based on all relevant factual and legal elements," the Commission said in a statement, referring to a working party of data-protection officials from around the European Union. The group met in Brussels Tuesday and Wednesday.
"The working party's priority is to safeguard European data protection rights," the Commission said.
The officials will conclude their investigation in November at their next meeting, the Commission said. If they find that European data protection laws have been violated they could propose that the Commission take legal action against Belgium for failing to uphold Union-wide laws.
In the statement, the Commission said the officials expressed "immediate concerns about the lack of transparency" surrounding the transfers, which began in secret shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
The transfers, which came to light in newspaper reports in June this year, have raised fears that Swift has abused European citizens’ privacy. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies allegedly demanded the information in order to trace terrorist financing activity.
The so-called Swift affair comes at a time of heightened tension between Europe and the U.S. over how to balance counter-terrorism needs and preserve citizens' civil liberties. Last month U.S. President George Bush admitted that terrorism suspects have been secretly detained in Europe, sparking an angry outcry among European civil liberties groups, politicians and newspapers.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts
This white paper provides guidance on how to develop a strategic approach to managing and monitoring logs, a key function required for compliance with many regulatory mandates and a critical defense against security threats.
Download now! »
Learn about the processes and technologies that support security information management (SIM) operations, as well as the business case for SIM. The series examines different options for implementing SIM and gives you evaluation criteria for selecting the best option for your organization.
Download now! »
Learn the strategies, actions, and capabilities that Best-in-Class organizations employ and technologies they choose to obtain superior performance against various security performance metrics. This report provides guidelines for identifying which security solutions to consume as a MSS and defines best practices for choosing and managing MSSPs.
Download now! »
4 Recommendations
