June 30, 2011 (New framework for an open Internet)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2011
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
New framework for an open Internet agreed at OECD - press release
White House considers new social media avenues
Looking At Violent Video Games Now, Seeing Indecency In The Future - analysis
Biz Stone Isn't So Sure About Twitter's Cozy Relationship With the State Department [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Regulators Avoiding Google Fight With Telcos
Senators Seek Help in Fighting Latest House Network Neutrality Rule Roadblock
California tells online retailers to start collecting sales taxes from customers
Regulator Closes Full Tilt Poker Website [links to web]
PRIVACY
Recap -- Privacy and Data Security: Protecting Consumers in the Modern World
Internet Privacy: The Views of the FTC, the FCC, and NTIA - press release
The first Google+ privacy flaw [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Sen Rockefeller looks to hitch 'D-Block' to budget
Just How Voluntary is Senate Spectrum Bill
State Broadcasters to Senate: Only One Incentive Auction
Economic Policy Institute Debates AT&T T-Mobile Merger
The iPhone Effect: How Apple’s phone changed everything - analysis
We have smart phones, but do we want dumb screens? - analysis
More Love Lost Between Apple And Samsung: Now At The ITC [links to web]
Smartphone Panic Button Connects Children with 911 [links to web]
Vodafone hopes for $5.5bn Verizon Wireless dividend
OWNERSHIP
Myspace sold to Orange County-based ad network
Vodafone hopes for $5.5bn Verizon Wireless dividend
CONTENT
Hollywood studios launch online piracy case [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Anna Eshoo bill seeks truth in wireless advertising [links to web]
Virgin Media ordered to end Internet speed ad [links to web]
JOURNALISM
First Time in 10 Years: Three Evening Newscasts Up in Ratings [links to web]
Where’s the diversity in network news? [links to web]
Little Tapped To Lead Newspaper Association of America [links to web]
TELEVISION
Where’s the diversity in network news? [links to web]
Subscription TV Resists Cord-Cutters [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
Lack of cyber pros puts US in dangerous position
The Cloud Darkens - editorial
Dem: Cybersecurity is not a partisan issue
EDUCATION
Demand for online learning increases [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Senate Votes to Streamline the Confirmation Process
MORE ONLINE
In a shift, firms say US will lead IT growth [links to web]
Many students use mobile apps while driving, some even after they crash [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OPEN INTERNET FRAMEWORK
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: ]
OECD governments and other stakeholders have created a new framework to promote a more transparent, open Internet. The new principles, agreed by OECD member governments, business representatives and technical experts, aim to advance the debate on Internet governance:
Promote and protect the global free flow of information
Promote the open, distributed and interconnected nature of the Internet
Promote investment and competition in high speed networks and services
Promote and Enable the Cross-Border Delivery of Services
Encourage multi-stakeholder co-operation in policy development processes
Foster voluntarily developed codes of conduct
Develop capacities to bring publicly available, reliable data into the policy-making process
Ensure transparency, fair process, and accountability
Strengthen consistency and effectiveness in privacy protection at a global level
Maximize individual empowerment
Promote Creativity and Innovation
Limit Internet intermediary liability
Encourage co-operation to promote Internet security
Give appropriate priority to enforcement efforts
They underline the benefits that today’s light-touch, flexible regulation has brought in driving innovation and economic growth. This model, which includes governments, business, civil society and the technical community in a so-called multi-stakeholder approach, has been key to the Internet’s rapid growth and impact. “The Internet has achieved global interconnection without the development of any international regulatory regime. The development of such a formal regulatory regime could risk undermining its growth,” according to the communiqué.
benton.org/node/80148 | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development | read the communiqué | Electronic Frontier Foundation | Consumers Union | ars technica
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NEW SOCIAL MEDIA AVENUES
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
White House communications staffers are investigating using social media sites beyond Facebook and Twitter to broaden the Obama administration's public engagement and, perhaps, to communicate in different ways, a White House aide said. That investigation is driven partly by a belief that social media changes so rapidly the government must be willing to experiment with new platforms, and because outside advisers to the administration already are using newer platforms, White House New Media Director Macon Phillips said. Former America Online Chief Executive Officer Steve Case, who serves on President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, for example, uses Quora.com, an online question-and-answer site, Phillips said. As Twitter grows and develops, White House staff has noted that users tend to favor Tweets from individuals over institutions, Phillips said, even when an individual is Tweeting in his or her role as an agency or corporate official. The White House still intends to send the majority of its Tweets from its official Twitter account, Phillips said, but is looking closely at the trend as more officials and staff begin Tweeting.
benton.org/node/80121 | nextgov
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CONNECTION BETWEEN VIDEO GAMES AND INDECENCY?
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Kevin Goldberg]
[Commentary] When the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a California law regulating the sale or rental of violent video games to minors, many First Amendment types like myself asked why. A key issue was whether the Court would carve out a new exception to the First Amendment. And the Court accepted the case just one week after it decided United States v. Stevens, in which it emphatically declined to create such a new exception for videos that show cruelty to animals. Why take another First Amendment case so soon? Perhaps the Court was signaling an intent to limit the Stevens decision to its particular facts (i.e., animal cruelty videos) by opening the door to regulation of violent video games marketed to human children. And if so, might the Court be opening the door to Federal Communications Commission regulation of violent programming? After the decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, it appears the Court knew exactly what it was doing. Brown struck down the video game law, relying on Stevens in refusing to create another new kind of unprotected speech, even as to minors. Broadcasters should be happy. The decision clearly implies that the FCC does NOT have the authority to regulate violent programming. The decision also leads me to conclude that, perhaps more importantly, the Court will side against the FCC in FCC v. Fox Television Stations,the indecency case it accepted on the same day Brown was decided.
benton.org/node/80139 | CommLawBlog
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
REPORT FROM PARIS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Matthew Campbell, Jonathan Browning]
Telecommunications regulators in the UK and US say they plan to stay out of a dispute between mobile-phone operators and Internet companies such as Google over who should pay for high-speed wireless networks. “I think it’s premature to regulate,” Ed Vaizey, the UK communications minister, said. “Right now this really is a matter to be considered between companies.” Led by European operators including France Telecom and Telefonica, phone companies in 2010 began demanding a new deal from the owners of bandwidth-heavy services like YouTube and Apple’s iTunes. The operators face mounting costs for building next-generation networks, and have rarely succeeded in offering their own video or social-networking services over those conduits. Vaizey joined Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski at a summit in Paris this week in ruling out regulatory intervention for now to help wireless operators share network costs. France’s Industry Minister Eric Besson, who has in the past strongly backed such measures, softened his position, saying that the subject is ‘legitimate’ for regulators to consider.
benton.org/node/80171 | Bloomberg
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY LETTER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Language trying to block the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its network neutrality rules has surfaced again, now included in language in the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee version of a 2012 funding bill that passed out of committee June 23. But Democratic senators are calling on their colleagues to block the effort. House Republicans tried to attach a similar amendment to a temporary spending bill earlier in the year and succeeded in getting passage in the House but not the Democratically-controlled Senate. Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, had previously tried to attach a fund-blocking amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill last fall. On June 23, the Financial Services subcommittee approved the following bill language: "SEC. 621. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement the Report and Order of the Federal Communications Commission relating to the matter of preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices adopted by the Commission on December 21, 2010." In a letter to the chair and ranking members of the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday, 10 senators including Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) called on them to rebuff any similar effort in the Senate.
benton.org/node/80170 | Broadcasting&Cable | National Journal
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CALIFORNIA ONLINE TAX
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
Beginning July 1, a new California state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time. Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don't pay to the state if online merchants don't charge them, is "a common-sense idea," said Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA). The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue. But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers. That's because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here. Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.
benton.org/node/80175 | Los Angeles Times | Wall Street Journal | San Jose Mercury News
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PRIVACY
PRIVACY HEARING RECAP
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
After a meeting June 28 between Sens. John Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Kerry (D-MA), it appears that the two may be one step closer to some consensus about their respective digital privacy bills. Since May, when Sen Rockefeller introduced the Do Not Track Online Act one month after Sens Kerry and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights, neither bill has advanced in committee. Until a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Sen Rockefeller chairs, on June 29, neither Sen Rockefeller nor Sen Kerry had given any indication of whether the two bills would be combined or if one would supersede the other. While Sens Rockefeller and Kerry may be getting closer in resolving their two bills, lobbyists on the issue believe that neither bill has the vote to get through committee yet. And on the Republican side of the committee, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) clearly was not convinced that either bill should move ahead. “I'm not sure there is a consensus of how to protect consumers or whether legislation is the best way to do so," Sen Toomey said. "We need to make sure we don't supply a solution in search of a problem."
“Poll after poll shows," said Chairman Rockefeller at the hearing "that Americans are increasingly concerned about their loss of privacy; and those same polls show that Americans don't know what to do about it. It is my intent to change that. I want ordinary consumers to know what is being done with their personal information, and I want to give them the power to do something about it.”
Federal Trade Commission member Julie Brill said, “New online business models such as online behavioral advertising, social networking, interactive gaming, and location-based services have complicated the privacy picture. In addition, the aggregation of data in both the online and offline worlds have in some instances led to increased opportunities for fraud. For instance, entities have used past transaction history gathered from both the online and offline world to sell “sucker lists” of consumers who may be susceptible to different types of fraud. In both the online and offline worlds, data security continues to be an issue. The FTC continues to tackle each of these issues through enforcement, education, and policy initiatives.”
“Privacy is a key ingredient for sustaining consumer trust, which in turn is critical to realize the full potential for innovation and the growth of the Internet. The technical and organizational complexity of this environment makes it challenging for individual consumers to understand and manage the uses of their personal data even if they are technically adept, ” said Department of Commerce General Counsel Cameron Kerry.
Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Austin Schlick testified, "Increased use of personal data in connection with new online and wireless applications is raising serious privacy and security concerns. As the FCC recognized in the National Broadband Plan, successfully addressing these concerns will be critical to increasing adoption and deployment of technologies that benefit consumers, government, and the economy.“
“We continue to urge policymakers to examine ways to establish baseline federal legislation that will clearly articulate expectations for all organizations," Hewlett-Packard's Scott Taylor said. "As more and more services are delivered through multiple parties, such as applications on mobile devices, a consistent baseline standard will strengthen the chain of accountability and unify the divergent regulations currently in existence.”
"While we believe the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act will provide consumers with meaningful choice over how their personal information is collected, transferred, and used, our organization has long supported giving consumers the possibility to opt out of online tracking. That is why Consumers Union also strongly supports Chairman Rockefeller’s Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 as an important and necessary component of consumer online privacy policy. The bill would lend the force of law to industry’s self-regulatory efforts by requiring that when a consumer using a Do-Not-Track tool expresses a preference to not be tracked online, companies must respect that choice," said Consumers Union's Ioana Rusu.
benton.org/node/80146 | US Senate Commerce Committee | Key Quotes | Chairman Rockefeller | AdWeek | FTC Commissioner Brill | B&C - tension at FTC | B&C - recap | | The Hill
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HOUSE PRIVACY HEARING
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Greg Walden (R-OR) announced plans for a joint hearing of their panels, the first in a series of hearings in the coming months to examine how information is collected, protected, and utilized in an increasingly interconnected online ecosystem. The first hearing, scheduled for Thursday, July 14, will feature testimony from federal regulators called to report on existing federal laws and practices to protect online consumer privacy. The hearing will provide an overview of the existing privacy framework in federal law and help identify key issues for discussion moving forward. Topics for this and future hearings include consumer knowledge of online data collection and opportunities to control what information is obtained and maintained; aggregation and anonymization of individually identifiable information; the role of data collection to improve the online user experience and provide free online content; and the ability to mitigate unwanted marketing and other targeted outreach or rejection of services based on an individual’s online profile.
benton.org/node/80132 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | The Hill | B&C
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
D-BLOCK AND BUDGET
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
One of the leading architects of a bipartisan Senate effort to build a nationwide data network for firefighters and police officers is suggesting the bill become part of the chamber’s deficit reduction plan. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told reporters this week that such an approach “would be my hope,” though he added that currently there is “certainly no commitment from anybody” to proceed that way with the bill. For Chairman Rockefeller, the bill is ripe to become part of the budget package because it could raise new federal revenue at a time when top Senate negotiators are seeking offsets and other means of tamping down the deficit. “When you think about it, [the bill] does reduce the deficit by $10 billion, and it's wildly popular,” the senator said, adding, “It's very hard to be against it." Rolling the public safety network bill into a deficit reduction package could boost its legislative prospects, if for no other reason than that the budget is sure to command lawmakers’ attention during a packed Senate schedule over the next few months. Chairman Rockefeller is aiming to get the 'D-Block' bill through the Senate by the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.
benton.org/node/80118 | Politico
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SENATE SPECTRUM BILL
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Kim McAvoy]
The Senate Commerce Committee adopted a bill (S.911) that would permit the Federal Communications Commission to auction television spectrum and share the proceeds with broadcasters who give up spectrum. But the bill’s intent — that broadcasters' participation in the so-called incentive auctions be voluntary — may be undermined by an amendment that was added by Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA). The Cantwell amendment states in part that "84 MHz shall be assigned via a competitive bidding process.” It's that "shall" that bothers broadcast lawyers and lobbyists. They believe the amendment, if it remains unchanged, directs the FCC to auction 84 MHz of broadcast TV spectrum even if that much spectrum is not voluntarily relinquished. It’s gotten the attention of the National Association of Broadcasters. "We want to make sure that voluntary stays voluntary,” says Dennis Wharton, NAB’s EVP for media relations. “Any provision that would force broadcasters to involuntarily relinquish spectrum would be strongly opposed by NAB,” he adds. According to Wharton, NAB is working with Cantwell to "clarify the amendment and to ensure that those stations choosing not to go out of business — along with the tens of millions of viewers that they serve — are held harmless by incentive auctions.” Some TV lobbyists say that Cantwell’s office has indicated it will fix the amendment. However, they also point out, the senator has so far made no move to do so.
benton.org/node/80134 | TVNewsCheck
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STATE BROADCASTERS ON INCENTIVE AUCTIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
An alliance of state broadcast associations has told Senate leaders that the Federal Communications Commission should only be allowed to hold a single incentive auction for reclaimed broadcast spectrum, and that stations not participating in the auction should not lose any interference protections or coverage area for their signals. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations, they praised the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), respectively, for coming up with a "solid framework for voluntary incentive auctions."
benton.org/node/80168 | Broadcasting&Cable
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DEBATING MERGER
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Rahul Gaitonde]
The Economic Policy Institute gathered leading industry experts for a panel to debate the impending merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.
“T-Mobile has been trying for the past three years to reverse their revenue loss but has not been successful, as a result Deutsche Telekom decided to stop providing funding to T-Mobile for expansion,” explained Debbie Goldman, Telecommunications Policy Director & Research Economist, Communications Workers of America. “T-Mobile does not have the money or spectrum to upgrade its network to real 4G, and without the merger with AT&T the network will be sold off to smaller companies.” Goldman went onto call AT&T the best company to buy the T-Mobile network since both companies use similar technology, which would allow for a quick integration of the two networks. Sprint purchased Nextel in 2004 but still has not been able to fully integrate the Nextel network into the Sprint network and now maintains two separate networks.
Parul Desai, communications policy counsel for Consumers Union, cautioned that the merger would lead to increased market concentration and create a duopoly between AT&T and Verizon that would increase prices for consumers. “Right now T-Mobile is able to offer a similar product to AT&T at a lower price giving consumers the choice of bringing their handsets to T-Mobile if AT&T is too expensive,” Desai said. “If AT&T were able to merge with T-Mobile there would only be a single GSM provider in the US which will lead to a decrease in handset diversity.”
benton.org/node/80130 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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THE IPHONE EFFECT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
Apple’s iPhone debuted four years ago, and we sometimes take for granted how much has changed since then. The phone altered the smartphone landscape and ushered in the modern era of intelligent, connected devices. Apple hasn't cruised easily to the top; in fact, it continues to trail nemesis Google’s Android in smartphone market share. But it shook up the industry and forced changes and upheaval among many competitors. Here’s a look at some stats on how things have changed over that period, both for Apple and for other companies operating in the same space.
benton.org/node/80127 | GigaOm
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SMART PHONES AND DUMB SCREENS?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] Almost two-thirds of Americans are using more than one computing device — defined as a smartphone, tablet, computer or netbook — according to a poll released this week. Unsurprisingly, the poll, which surveyed 2,000 Americans, found that 83 percent of people want access to their documents in the cloud. Of course they do. When 63 percent of the population has multiple computers and one-third has more than three, keeping them synced is a pain best left back in the early ’00s and late ’90s where it belongs. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of a company that provides presentation software in the cloud, helped crystallize a question: Do we only want dumb screens? By dumb screens I mean the ability to get whatever content and services you want over the web as opposed to stored on a hard drive or locked to a device. So far today, the answer is we want it both ways, but in the future I lean toward dumb terminals with one exception: the smartphone.
benton.org/node/80143 | GigaOm
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VERIZON WIRELESS DIVIDEND?
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Paul Taylor, Andrew Parker]
Vodafone could receive an annual dividend of up to $5.5bn from its 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless beginning next year, said Andy Halford, Vodafone chief financial officer. The dividend estimate is based on the $1bn-a-month or $12bn-a-year free cash flow that Verizon Wireless generates, cash that to date has been mainly used to pay down the company’s debt. Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile operator, stopped paying a dividend to its corporate parents, Verizon Communications and Vodafone, in 2005. Vodafone, the UK-based mobile network operator, has been pressing Verizon Communications, which owns a majority stake in Verizon Wireless, to sanction a resumption of the dividend from the end of this year when the debt is due to be fully repaid. Verizon Communications has said that Verizon Wireless is likely to pay “a fair dividend” to its parents beginning in 2012, but has not indicated what level of pay-out it favors. Analysts believe Verizon Communications will sanction a resumption of dividend payments from Verizon Wireless next year, in part to avoid the risk that Verizon Communications might have to reduce its own dividend pay-out.
benton.org/node/80173 | Financial Times
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OWNERSHIP
MYSPACE SOLD
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Dawn Chmielewski]
Myspace, once the dominant social networking site on the Internet but now an afterthought to Facebook, will be sold to Specific Media in a deal worth $35 million in cash and stock. News Corp., which acquired Myspace in 2005 for $580 million as part of a bold digital strategy, plans to retain a small stake in company. The media conglomerate had hoped to fetch as much as $100 million for the site, which has been steadily shedding users and advertising revenue over the last several years. The sale marks a significant fall from grace for Myspace, which once commanded a billion-dollar valuation and was the premiere online hangout for musicians, actors and their fans to interact. But the site peaked in popularity in October of 2008 with 76.3 million users. The number of monthly visitors has since dwindled to 35 million in May, according to ComScore Digital Analytix. The little-known new owner Specific Media was founded in 1999 by Tim Vanderhook and his brothers, Chris and Russell. The firm helps companies distribute advertising online, on mobile devices and on Internet-connected televisions. Specific Media wants to return the site to its roots as a place for music fans to discover new bands and songs, according to the person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
benton.org/node/80144 | Los Angeles Times
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CYBERSECURITY
LACK OF CYBER PROS
[SOURCE: Government Computer News, AUTHOR: Kevin Coleman]
In testimony this year before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee, Gordon Snow, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said the number and sophistication of cyberattacks have increased dramatically during the past five years and are expected to continue to grow. Although that paints a pretty bleak picture, what he said next caught the attention of cybersecurity professionals around the world. “The threat has reached the point that given enough time, motivation and funding, a determined adversary will likely be able to penetrate any system that is accessible directly from the Internet,” he said. If you think that is bad, hold on — there is more, and it gets worse. He went on to say, “The FBI has identified the most significant cyber threats to our nation as those with high intent and high capability to inflict damage or death in the U.S.; to illicitly acquire assets; or to illegally obtain sensitive or classified U.S. military, intelligence or economic information.” He went on to warn that the threat posed by cyber criminals and the potential economic losses were only part of this huge risk. He included in his threat description the FBI’s serious concerns about attacks on our critical infrastructure, the theft of intellectual property and disruption of supply chains.
benton.org/node/80107 | Government Computer News
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THE CLOUD DARKENS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Internet is getting scary. Cyberattacks this year alone compromised the data of more than 22 million people, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Companies and the government are unprepared. There are some signs of progress. Security experts are deploying a new worldwide system to identify Internet addresses that will make it very difficult to forge or spoof a Web site. In May, the Obama administration proposed legislation with sensible provisions to ensure that companies running critical infrastructure — like the nation’s power grid — have adequate systems to reduce the risk of an attack online. The proposal would standardize 47 state laws on breach reporting, requiring notification of customers whose accounts were compromised. This could be a powerful incentive for firms to take security more seriously. Other tactics are also needed. The Federal Trade Commission wants rules to force companies to minimize the information they collect from customers and to dispose of such data as soon as possible. The stolen Sony data, for example, had been on dormant servers for years. We are putting our lives in the cloud, as companies and consumers store everything from family photos to corporate business secrets on remote servers. Beefing up online security is of paramount importance.
benton.org/node/80182 | New York Times | Financial Times
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CYBERSECURITY IS NOT A PARTISAN ISSUE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Following the recent spate of hacker attacks on government and corporate websites, the creation of a House GOP-only cybersecurity task force is prompting charges from at least one Democrat that a national security issue is being politicized. Shortly after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) unveiled the 12-member Republican task force late last week, a prominent lawmaker protested that Democrats were being excluded from the group. “It’s frustrating to see at the leadership level that Speaker Boehner and Cantor are making this into a partisan issue,” Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) said. “There’s too much at stake here, and we need to have both parties working on this.” When Rep Langevin caught wind that only Republicans would be appointed to the task force, he sent a letter to Speaker Boehner on June 15 asking him to reconsider and open membership to both parties. In the letter, Rep Langevin noted that his congressional résumé includes holding top roles on key Homeland Security and Armed Services subcommittees. He offered to help Speaker Boehner and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) develop new policies to fend off cyberthreats directed at critical US systems.
benton.org/node/80181 | Politico
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POLICYMAKERS
CONFIRMATION PROCESS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Carl Hulse]
The Senate took the rare step of relinquishing power on Wednesday, easily passing a measure that would exempt about 170 executive branch appointees from confirmation in an effort to streamline a process that has increasingly tied up the Senate and become punishing for those tapped for administration jobs. By a vote of 79 to 20, senators approved the bipartisan bill that would allow presidents to fill cabinet agency public affairs jobs and other positions that do not involve policy making without putting appointees through what even senators acknowledge has become a cumbersome and partisan ordeal. At the same time, the Senate approved, 89 to 8, a second proposal that would expedite consideration of appointees to about 250 positions on part-time boards and commissions, slicing the number of confirmable posts to 1,000 from about 1,400.
benton.org/node/80184 | New York Times
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