This book ?nds its roots in the horror that engulfed us all around the globe as we experienced and watched with disbelief the events of September 11, 2001. Naturally, policy-makers around the world rushed to examine their law enforcement capabilities and the suitability of these tools to the new war on terror. This examination resulted in a wave of legislation around the world, aimed at increasing the power of law enforcement agencies. The digital environment was a major focus of these regulatory and legis- tive attempts. Given the horror of the events and the haste to provide law enforcement agencies with the best tools possible to ?ght the new threat, policy-makers moved forward without much public discussion. Legis- tors around the world rushed to do the same. No real public debate took place before the USA PATRIOT Act was approved by Congress, 6 weeks 1 after 9/11. Our concern is that the publics voice is also needed in this process.

Martin Charles Golumbic is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation Institute for Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Science at the University of Haifa. He is the editor of the book "Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language and Knowledge-based Systems" (Springer, 1990), the author of the book "Algorithmic Graph Theory and Perfect Graphs" (second edition, Elsevier 2004), coauthor of a second book "Tolerance Graphs" (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and the founding editor-in-chief of the journal series "Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence" (Springer). Professor Golumbic received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University in 1975, and has previously held positions at New York University, Bell Laboratories, IBM Israel and Bar-Ilan University as well as visiting positions at Université de Paris, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He has given guest lectures in 15 states in the U.S.A. and in 20 other countries, and he was elected as a Fellow of the European Artificial Intelligence society ECCAI in 2005.

The Balance Between Security and Civil Rights.- The Legal Situation: Prevention and Enforcement in the Information Age.- The Legal Framework in Israel.- Technological Issues.- Recommendations: Is There a Need for New Regulations?.