[Shacs] Texas legislation - PC Techs need PI certification?

[Nate Ashe]

It strikes me, jaded as I am, that bills don't turn into laws without
lobbyists pushing from the legislator's pockets (or ballot boxes)... so,
I would ask, who has a vested interest in this?  The people selling PI
licenses?  A competitor with political influence?  Someone who's using
these exploits for their own advantage (executive branch?), that doesn't
want to be discovered by someone that they can't track?  ... gah!
where's my tinfoil hat?!?!?

I "investigate" stuff all the time... it's what I get paid to do:  make
it work.
Does running rootkit revealer, nmap, lanshark or using a spectrum
analyzer count as an "investigation"?

I guess when I start seeing folks going to court for this, I'll start to
worry.

Nate

Kevin A. Estis wrote:
> OK, so I'm finally catching up on all my email and news feeds and came
> across this blurb in the SANS newsletter:
>
>  --Texas Law Requires Computer Technicians to Have PI Licenses
> (June 26, 208)
> The Institute for Justice has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Private
> Security Board because of a 2007 law that requires computer repair
> technicians to obtain government-issued private investigators' (PI)
> licenses.  Technicians could face both civil and criminal penalties if
> they take "any action that the government deems to be an
> 'investigation.'"  The definition of investigation is broad and includes
> many commonly performed repairs.  To obtain a license, computer repair
> shop owners would have to obtain a criminal justice degree or complete
> a three-year apprenticeship with a licensed PI. Consumers who knowingly
> use an unlicensed operation to conduct an "investigation" would also be
> subject to penalties.
> http://www.ij.org/first_amendment/tx_computer_repair/6_26_08pr.html
>
> [Editor's Note (Guest Editor, Rob Lee): Part of this suit began when
> Best Buy's Geek Squad was served a cease and desist letter for stating
> to customers that they can perform "computer forensics" to aid clients
> in discovering how they were compromised. Does this PI license
> requirement make sense to anyone?]
> (Northcutt): The State of Texas is putting the Geek Squad tag line to
> test, "There's nothing we haven't seen. Go ahead. Use us." This
> legislation goes beyond dumb. The Geek Squad's "forensics" would be to
> help the end users understand the errors they made that caused their
> systems to become compromised. One would think this is something
> government would want to support. I would be surprised if Best Buy
> doesn't hand Texas its hat.
> (Schultz): Hopefully, reason will prevail, and this nonsensical law will
> be repealed. Requiring a PI license to perform a computer repair just
> does not make sense.]
>
>
>
> --
> This signature was created on a Mac...therefore it should look better than
> other signatures but will cost you more and doesn't really work in the
> enterprise.
> Kevin Estis
> macinhack at shsu.edu
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