Morning Security Brief: Sentencing Guidelines, Terrorist Rights, Cybersecurity, and Mobile Phone App Risks

♦ Sentencing for white-collar crimes like securities fraud is inconsistent and needs to be addressed, according to a Justice Department study reported on by The New York Times. The problem stems from a five-year-old Supreme Court ruling that said judges were not bound to follow the United States Sentencing Commission guidelines. The guidelines were originally imposed to reduce the leeway judges had, but there have been concerns ever since that the guidelines went too far the other way. The report also notes a high degree of inconsistency in sentencing for pornography cases. "The key in both areas is helping judges find ways to differentiate the worst offenders from those who have caused less damage or are less of a threat to society," writes the NYT.

♦ Three unnamed terror suspects have won an appellate court ruling in the United Kingdom, giving them the right to sue "for having control orders wrongly imposed on them for three and a half years," reports the U.K.'s Guardian. The story goes on to report that "The decision to quash their control orders followed a landmark high court ruling that none of them had been given sufficient disclosure of the evidence against them to support the home secretary's claims that they were engaged in terrorism-related activities."

♦ The U.S. Commerce Department's Internet Policy Task Force and the National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking comments on how to improve cybersecurity in commerce without stifling innovation. In connection with its study, the Commerce Department also hosted a one-day symposium where government and private-sector stakeholders discussed how to address cyberthreats.

♦ Lookout, a company specializing in app security, "has started what it calls its App Genome Project, whereby it has scanned 300,000 free apps and did a deep analysis on 100,000 of them to gain insight into what apps are doing once they're on devices," reports Wirelessweek.com. Third-party code with the capability to interact with sensitive data in a way that may not be apparent to users or developers is found on 47 percent of free Android-based apps and 27 percent of iPhone apps, Lookout found.