European national news

This article tracks developments at the national level in key European countries in the area of IT and communications and provides a concise alerting service of important national developments. It is co-ordinated by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and contributed to by firms across Europe. This column provides a concise alerting service of important national developments in key European countries. Part of its purpose is to complement the Journal's feature articles and briefing notes by keeping readers abreast of what is currently happening “on the ground” at a national level in implementing EU level legislation and international conventions and treaties. Where an item of European National News is of particular significance, CLSR may also cover it in more detail in the current or a subsequent edition.     

EU update

This is the latest edition of the DLA Piper column on developments in EU law relating to IP, IT and telecommunications. This news article summarises recent developments that are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. This is a hard copy reference guide, but links to outside web sites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

The use of COVID-19 contact tracing app data as evidence of a crime

This commentary draws attention to the introduction of data collected by COVID-19 tracing apps as evidence in criminal proceedings and the novel considerations this evidence presents for criminal justice agents and digital forensics professionals.     

The effects of four different solvent vapours on the restoration of obliterated stamp markings from five different wooden surfaces

The stamp markings on wooden surfaces, which are placed on trees and products including antiques, indicate the status of trees and involve identifying data regarding the products. Such markings are obliterated either to facilitate illegal logging or to conceal product information. Despite the wide literature on the restoration of obliterated characters on metal and polymer surfaces, the recovery of defaced characters on wooden surfaces appears to be understudied. Several reference texts in the forensic marks’ examination literature suggest that water, water vapor, and alkaline solutions are useful in restoring the abraded markings on the wood. Since there does not seem to be any experimental study proving such success, this study aimed to fill this gap. This study conducted experimental research by using water, ethanol, ammonia, and chloroform to recover the scraped characters on samples obtained from walnut, beech, spruce, oak, and cedar trees. The cold-stamped characters, which were defaced at varying depths, were restored using vapor and liquid phases of four solvents. While the vapor phases of water, ethanol, and ammonia yielded good outcomes on all types of wooden surfaces, the liquid phases did not seem to be useful in the revisualization process. The response of the vapors, which varied between 62 and 220 s, depended on the type of wood. The restoration technique developed in this research offers the possibility of on-site usage, easy application, utilization of low-cost solvents, rapid recovery, and effectiveness on various wooden surfaces. Overall, the restoration methodology used in this research appears to be fruitful in retrieving identifying information on wooden samples.     

美国网络安全审查制度研究及对中国的启示

网络安全审查是一个系统工程,其涵盖的层面和内容十分广泛,既涉及技术,也涉及立法和管理等问题。美国拥有较为成熟的网络安全审查制度,在国家立法层面,有完善的网络安全审查相关法律法规;在管理层面,有网络安全审查机构以及一整套的国家关键信息基础设施保护审查手段、信息通信技术供应链审查等防线,以重点保障国家网络安全。美国之所以成为信息强国,离不开其网络安全保障、信息通信技术自主可控和管理体制的健全,其中一个重要制度便是其网络安全审查制度,既控制了产业,又影响了世界,极具借鉴意义。目前,中国是网络大国,但还不是网络强国,大量外国信息技术产品已经深度渗透至中国的关键信息基础设施,中国面临着严峻的网络安全保障、信息通信技术自主可控和网络安全管理体制等方面的挑战。要想保障国家安全、网络安全,网络安全审查必然要成为国家安全审查的重要组成部分。这就要求中国在关键信息基础设施领域尤其是信息技术通信产品、服务、系统以及相关投资领域开展是否危及国家安全、网络安全的审查,并建立完善的适应中国国情的网络安全审查制度。