The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a notice announcing that the next meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection and Related Functions (COAC) will be held on May 5, 2005 in Washington, DC. (This committee was previously called the "Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service.")
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message regarding ways that brokers can validate powers of attorney (POA).
Democratic Sens. Schumer (N.Y.) and Nelson (Fla.) unveiled what they called the first comprehensive bill dealing with identity theft and then took up the issue in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wed. In the past, the approach has been piecemeal and the nation hasn’t addresses the interplay among govt., citizens and information brokers “top to bottom,” Schumer said in a media briefing. Their legislation (S-768) proposes an FTC Office of ID Theft where citizens can go for help when personal information -- like Social Security numbers (SSN) and driver’s license numbers (DLN) -- is stolen.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources have confirmed by phone that CBP will begin enforcing the Free And Secure Trade (FAST) Card requirement for Border Release Advance Screening and Selectivity (BRASS) shipment drivers at all ports1 on May 1, 2005.
Personal data held by LexisNexis and compromised by security breaches might involve 310,000 people -- nearly 10 times the tally given when the breach was revealed last month (WID March 10 p9). Besides 30,000 users already alerted, LexisNexis will track down about 280,000 more people whose data may have been swiped. The new total followed scrutiny at Seisint, recently acquired by LexisNexis, plus inquiries at other LexisNexis units. In some 59 incidents, unauthorized persons, mainly using IDs and passwords of legitimate Seisint customers, may have acquired key data such as Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. The information broker is offering individuals it has notified free help dealing with possible fraud from identity theft, including credit bureau reports, credit monitoring for one year and fraud insurance. LexisNexis also will furnish fraud counseling and other help case-by-case. Kurt Sanford, CEO for corporate and federal markets, said: “We have taken a number of significant actions in recent weeks to further guard against these types of fraudulent intrusions at our customer sites and to enhance our security procedures and policies overall.” The LexisNexis announcement is “alarming, but hardly unusual,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.). “Every day seems to bring some horror story about how identity thieves have raided or conned their way into an electronic storehouse that was supposed to be safe and secure,” he said: “Identity theft is not much different than burglary, and more and more it looks like the crooks are walking into places where the doors and windows have been left open.” Barton said this reprises the question of whether it should be legal to sell a person’s SSN without permission. “Both Democrats and Republicans on this committee are determined to get to the bottom of this problem, and if it takes a new law to protect people from identity thieves, so be it.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has updated its document on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Information for New Accounts - Account Activation Process, which summarizes the relevant data to be gathered and submitted by trade participants and explains the Account Access Privileges for each user-type (i.e. brokers, carriers, and importers) to access the ACE Secure Data Portal.
The Senate Commerce Committee seems poised to act quickly next week on junk fax legislation that stalled last year in the Senate. Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) has set a hearing and mark-up next week on S-714, a junk fax bill introduced this week by Sen. Smith (R-Ore.) and Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Inouye (D-Hawaii).
CBP has issued a notice announcing that the following six individual Customs broker licenses, as well as any and all permits have been cancelled due to the death of the broker:
The Journal of Commerce reports that customs brokers are often caught in an awkward position between shippers and carriers when storage fees are charged, but brokers are convinced that technical issues related to demurrage and detention fees can be worked out or at least clarified if carriers and brokers discuss their operational methods. (JoC, dated 03/28/05, www.joc.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the March 2005 issue of its U.S. Customs and Border Protection Modernization newsletter which discusses, among other things, CBP's plan to launch (i.e., implement) the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 4 (Truck Manifest) at ports in geographic clusters, starting with the Blaine cluster.