U.S. Senate Passes Pretexting Bill

The Senate has passed a relatively uncontroversial bill which would criminalize obtaining another person's phone records without authorization.

This kind of so-called "pretexting" has been in the news lately, due to the scandal at Hewlett Packard.

A House version provides for fines of $250,000 and 10 years in prison, while the Senate bill provides for 10 years and $500,000.

Not in the bill are requirements to protect customer information or protections for other kinds of customer information.

Link to New York Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/business/09pretext.html?th&emc=th