August 2009

The Homeland Security Department's third large-scale cybersecurity drill in September 2010 will test the national cyber response plan currently being developed by the Obama administration, said industry and government participants in the simulation exercise during a conference on Tuesday. Cyber Storm III will build upon the lessons learned in the two previous exercises that took place in February 2006 and March 2008, and provide the first opportunity to assess the White House strategy for responding to a cyberattack with nationwide impact. "The national cyber response plan will be an offshoot of a lot of the findings that came out of Cyber Storm I and II that will formalize the roles and responsibilities," said Brett Lambo, director of the cyber exercises program in DHS' national cybersecurity division.

Argentina's president sent a media reform bill to Congress on Thursday, saying it would strengthen democracy by reducing the control of a handful of companies that dominate broadcasting. Many people in the industry agree with the need to overhaul broadcasting regulations drawn up during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, to reflect huge technological changes, but the government proposal has sparked controversy. President Cristina Fernandez, who has fallen out with the country's biggest media group Grupo Clarin and often criticizes news media, said the new broadcast law would challenge private companies' domination of the airwaves. "Freedom of expression can't become freedom to extort (and) press freedom can't be confused with freedom for press owners," she said in a speech. The reform bill, which Fernandez launched in March, would allocate a third of broadcast frequencies to private companies, a third to state broadcasters and the rest to nonprofit organizations such as churches and universities. It would also limit the number of licenses any one company can hold and aim to guarantee quotas for Argentine-made music, films and programs. Leftist groups have welcomed the government proposal, but critics say the reform is ill-timed and politically motivated.

When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made the momentous decision late in 2008 to allow unlicensed broadcasting devices access to "white spaces" in the television spectrum, backers hailed the move as a major step forward for US wireless networking. "WiFi on steroids," was how one engineer put it during the debate. But for white space devices to move from laboratory concept to store shelves, they would need more than steroids; they would need some sophisticated engineering. That's because the FCC imposed two critical conditions: whitespace devices must sense local transmissions from televisions and wireless microphones in order to avoid transmitting on those frequencies, and the devices must also access a geolocation database of known transmitters as a backup solution in case spectrum sensing failed. Google, Microsoft, and others promptly got to work on the database, and spectrum sensing technology has already existed commercially for years. But how would a white space device—say, one located in the kitchen next to the family computer—actually communicate with the access point providing a connection to the Internet?

According to a recent Common Sense Media survey, fielded by The Benenson Strategy Group, to examine how social networks are affecting kids and families, parents have a lot to learn when it comes to their children's behaviors online, writes Marketing Charts in summary. 49% of parents say their child was age 13 or older before starting unsupervised surfing, but just 14% of teens say they actually waited this long. The results of the poll illustrate a continuing disconnect between parents and kids when it comes to kids' digital lives. The survey of both teens and parents found that many teens use the Internet as a forum for gossip, sharing and blowing off steam, but others, unbeknownst to their parents, are also engaging in bullying and risqué behavior online.