Ars takes a look at the hard drive encryption option slated to be in Microsoft Vista in light of the fact that talks between the United Kingdom and Microsoft have occurred on the subject of backdoor access.^[1] In short, the UK is concerned that its police forces might not have access to hard drives when they seize computers as part of an investigation. As Ars notes, this is a concern that other governments are going to have similar concerns, if they have not initiated talks with Microsoft on their own already. It should be noted, however, that it is quite likely that any back door installed for a government will be discovered by someone else, and used against consumers, as well as by one government against others. Such a backdoor would render the hard drive encryption idea worse than useless, it would become a false sense of security.

1. Mr. Nate Anderson. “Britain wants access to encrypted Vista hard drives” ars technica 2006-02-15. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060215-6185.html

If a Catholic Hospital is truly concerned about money collection to the point of neglecting its mission to save lives regardless of the financial state of its patients, then something is clearly wrong. Equally obviously, any such wrong should be addressed and fixed. Something does not add up however. The bill being pushed in Illinois would push those Catholic hospitals not already running deficits into deficit spending, and would cost them over $158 million a year.^[1] When the ads supporting this bill specifically target the Catholic institutions, which provide 25% of the free car in Illinois, you have to wonder about the motivation. Is this really about some flaw in the hospitals, or more about attacking the Church?

1. Mr. Alejandro Bermudez. “Just a bad toenail or is about money?” Catholic Outsider 2006-02-14. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/blog/?p=160