U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced this week a new service that should help its frontline personnel to identify counterfeit goods and prevent them from entering the U.S.

The service allows trademark and copyright holders to electronically provide CBP with product identification guides. Previously these guides had to be printed. CBP says the new system will make the in-depth resources readily available to all CBP personnel involved in intellectual property rights enforcement.

For more information visit the CBP website here.

The Greek government on Wednesday began issuing "civil mobilization orders" to striking truckers that, according to Greece's Kathimerini, essentially calls them up for army duty and forces them back to work. However, many truckers are not giving in and are refusing to return to their routes.

The biggest problem with this strike is most of these drivers are responsible for hauling fuel from refineries to the country's gas stations. And now many stations are running dry.

On Thursday the Washington Post (subscription) was first to report about the Obama administration's desire to make it easier for the FBI to gain access to "an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation."

In short, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked Congress to make a "clarification" about the type of information the FBI can demand from a company via a National Security Letter (NSL). The DOJ wants to add the words "electronic communication transactional records" to the list of items an NSL can be applied to. The Post reports that government lawyers define this type of information as "addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history."

Of course, the Obama administration's request is sending up a lot of red flags over privacy and data security. The Electronic Frontier Foundation was one of the first groups to jump on the Post story yesterday.

A suspected Mexican drug gang has a new propaganda tactic in its quest to squash the competition.

On Monday, four journalist were abducted in La Laguna, a region that includes parts of Coahuila and Durango states. Later in the day one of the reporters called his station and said his kidnappers wanted videos aired on TV as a condition of his release. The station complied and broadcast footage of "people apparently being held prisoner accusing local police officers of collaborating with the Zetas, one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels," reports the New York Times.

On Thursday, July 29, Henley-Putnam University's exclusive webinar series continues, this time led by University President and co-founder Michael Corcoran, PhD, former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent and one of America's foremost authorities in threat assessment and workplace violence.

During the webinar Dr. Corcoran will discuss how you can recognize and react to potential threats; how violence impacts the daily lives of law enforcement, corporate security, and others at the organizational, local, state and federal levels; and what those entering strategic security careers should know about the inherent risk of dealing with violence.

"Insider's Guide to Assessing Violence Risks" will take place Thursday, July 29, at 11:00 a.m. PDT (2:00 p.m. EDT). For registration information, please visit the Henley-Putnam website here. The webinar is open to the public and completely free of charge.

Via this Kathimerini story we learn that the Greek newspaper Ta Nea has received a CD containing a seven-page statement from a group claiming responsibility for the gangland-style murder of journalist Sokratis Giolias last Monday (7/19).

From the Kathimerini article it isn't clear who the statement is from, however police are probing the document, and last week said that bullet casings from the attack on Giolias match ones from handguns used in an earlier attack by the domestic terror group Sect of Revolutionaries.

A strike by Greek truckers, many who deliver gas to stations, sent Greek citizens scrambling to fill their tanks Monday across the country. The deluge of people taking more fuel than normal is leaving many stations short on supplies or completely dry.

The truckers are protesting a significant change in how licenses are issued for their profession.