The evacuation of the World Trade Center Twin Towers on 9-11 has provided a treasure trove of information for researchers studying building evacuations. View some of the research from the High-rise Evacuation Evaluation Database project.

Racial profiling is no more effective than random screening, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

People are using Google e-mail alerts to monitor whether their personal information is inappropriately available in cyberspace. If alerts show the personal data online where it should not be, users can take steps to have it removed.

A school board’s random drug testing policy is unconstitutional, ruled a federal district court. The court found that the school board’s rationalization—that employees held safety-sensitive jobs and that drug use among workers was increasing—was insufficient to justify the policy.

A government guide offers a primer on the fundamentals of all-hazards emergency planning for state and local first responders, focusing on functions first and scenarios second.

Would knowledge of a confession influence your memory of a crime you witnessed? Researchers say it could. See the research online.

Find out how to disable Microsoft Windows’ Autorun feature to protect your machine from spreading the Conficker/ Downadup worm via flash drives. These two links provide IT administrators and individuals with relatively simple instructions.

• http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html
• http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2008032111570648

The damage from data theft and cybercrime cost global businesses about $1 trillion in lost intellectual property and damage repair in 2008, according to the McAfee report, Unsecured Economies: Protecting Vital Information.

The biggest cost of data breaches for businesses is lost customer relationships, according to a Ponemon Institute study. This type of loss accounts for 69 percent of breach costs, up from 65 percent in 2007 and 54 percent in 2006.

The National Emergency Communications Plan lays out the Department of Homeland Security’s goals and deadlines for advancing interoperable voice communication among different first-response agencies and jurisdictions, building on the agency’s Interoperability Continuum.

Due to the abundance of employees with degrees from diploma mills and unaccredited universities, the Department of Education has provided a database of schools with legitimate accreditation.

Although conducting credit checks aren't illegal during the hiring process, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is concerned it could lead to discriminatory hiring practices. To provide guidance, the EEOC has published an online fact sheet to help employers steer clear of discrimination.

In 2004, the Government Accountability Office discovered that 28 senior officials in the government had received their higher education degrees from either diploma mills or unaccredited universities. Read the testimony before Congress that helped cause the scandal.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's admninistration has launched a new lauched public education campaign for emergency preparedness, with local sports and music celebrities lending their names to the effort.

Read the Migration Policy Institute's recommendations on how to improve effectiveness of current immigration laws. 

Humanitarian Policy Group's recent study "Private security contracting in humanitarian operations" maps the trends in the use of private security providers in humanitarian operations.

The London Underground and National Railways (LUNR) passenger screening trial conducted by the U.K. Department for Transport and other stakeholders concluded it’s not yet feasible to carry out 100 percent airport-style screening in the U.K.’s railway system. Read the other findings in the summary report.

An employee who erased computer data and was later arrested for the crime cannot pursue his claim of malicious prosecution against his former employers. A federal appeals court ruled that the employee could not prove that the company acted without probable cause in turning the case over to the police.

(Deng v. Sears, Roebuck, and Company, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, No. 07-3331)

A federal appeals court has denied a motion to rehear an employee monitoring case. The action means that a prior ruling—that a police department violated the privacy rights of its officers when it obtained transcripts of their text messages—stands. (See the October 2008 issue of “Legal Report” for a more detailed account of the case.) The court ruled that because officers had been told that their messages would not be read, the city had no right to access them without the permission of the officers. (Quon v. Arch Wireless, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 07-55282, 2009)

An employee who sued her employer under California’s fair employment law was treated fairly and given reasonable accommodations, according to a state appellate court. The employee had appealed a jury verdict in favor of her employer. In the case, the employee claimed that the company took too long to respond to her requests. The court rejected the argument, noting that the accommodation process is informal and that it was obviously a success because the company was able to meet each of the employee’s requests. (Wilson v. County of Orange, California Court of Appeal, No. G039733, 2009)