June 2011

Cybersecurity becoming U.S. diplomatic priority

Cyber security is now a diplomatic priority for the United States with Washington looking to build relationships to tackle information theft and reduce the risk of conflict, a senior official said.

State Department coordinator for cyber issues, Christopher Painter, said the United States faced a host of potential threats in cyberspace from freelance hackers to militants and potentially rival states. Diplomacy and policy was only just beginning to catch up with technology, he said. "It is clear that cyber security is now a policy imperative," he said. "It goes across governance issues, economic issues, military issues. The best course of action is to engage with countries and have a free and frank discussion. We're just at the beginning of this." Painter, appointed in April after working as senior director for cyber security policy at the White House, would not discuss recent security breaches nor say who he thought might be responsible. But it was clear issues needed to be addressed, he said.

US Reviews Gmail Hacking Effort

Google’s discovery of an attempt to steal passwords from Gmail users, which may have originated in China, is being reviewed by the U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The U.S. was notified this week and is looking into the allegations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. The FBI is working with Google to review the matter, said Jenny Shearer, a bureau spokeswoman. The attacks likely targeted hundreds of Gmail users, including U.S. government officials. China’s foreign ministry said yesterday that any suggestion the government is behind the attack would be a “fabrication.” “We are obviously very concerned about Google’s announcement about a campaign that the company believes originated in China,” Clinton said yesterday at the State Department. “These allegations are very serious. We take them very seriously.”

Hacker Group Claims Responsibility for New Sony Break-In

A hacker group calling itself LulzSec claimed responsibility for breaking into a Sony Web site and stealing the personal information of about 52,000 customers. The group, which also claimed this week that it hacked sites belonging to PBS, said it used a “simple” attack on a “primitive” security hole that gave it full access to Sony Pictures’ internal database. In a posting to Pastebin and several other Web sites, the group claimed it infiltrated SonyPictures.com and accessed a database that contained personal information belonging to more than 1 million customers, including passwords, e-mail addresses, home addresses and dates of birth. The group also said it found 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons.”

Just Two items on FCC's June 9 Agenda

The Federal Communications Commission released the agenda for its June 9 meeting and there's just two items. The FCC will consider:

Electronic Tariff Filing System Report and Order: A Report and Order that enables all carriers that file tariffs with the FCC to do so electronically, thereby streamlining their filing processes while also making tariff information more readily accessible to other carriers and the public.
Space Path Interference Report and Order: A Second Report and Order adopting technical rules to mitigate space path interference between the 17/24 GHz Broadcasting-Satellite Service (BSS) space stations and current and future Direct Broadcasting Service (DBS) space stations that operate in the same frequency band. (IB Docket No. 06-123)
The Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau and the Assistant Administrator of FEMA will also give a presentation regarding the Emergency Alert System.

Dropped from the preliminary agenda:

Wider Channel Bandwidths FNPRM: An FNPRM seeking comment on a proposal which may permit operators to use spectrum more efficiently by enabling the use of wider channel bandwidths for the provision of broadband services in the Broadband Radio Service (BRS) and the Educational Broadband Service (EBS). [See FCC to consider proposal that could boost Clearwire network speeds http://benton.org/node/66315]
Maritime Automatic Identification Systems Order: A Memorandum Opinion and Order considering a petition for reconsideration of the deadline by which VHF Public Coast (VPC) licensees must vacate Channel 87B following its re-designation for the exclusive use of Automatic Identification Systems and to modify the VPC frequency band.

Copyright Office joins in: let's make illegal streaming a felony

On her first day as the new Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante trekked across the street from the Library of Congress to the Rayburn Office Building for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on whether unauthorized Internet streaming should become a felony.

“Copyright policy is never finished,” she told the assembled Representatives, adding that it's time for another tweak to the law. "It is clear that unauthorized copyrighted content is a significant problem that will only increase in severity if technology outpaces legal reforms," she concluded. At issue is a proposal from the IP Enforcement Czar, backed by the White House, to upgrade illegal online streaming from a misdemeanor to a felony. The government currently treats unauthorized reproductions and distributions as potential felonies, giving it leeway to go after certain kinds of website operators that offer access to full downloads of music and movies. Streaming is a little different; an online stream is not necessarily a “reproduction” or “distribution” under the Copyright Act, but is instead a “public performance.” And such unauthorized public performances are currently held to a different legal standard. Why bother to change the law? In Pallante's view, the disparity only exists because, when Congress previously considered copyright changes, online streaming was not a major problem. Now, with increased bandwidth and more scrutiny of file-sharing networks, easy to use and less-traceable online streaming sites have grown hugely in popularity.

Senate Commerce leaders reach deal on spectrum bill

Apparently, the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee have reached an agreement on legislation aimed at building a national broadband network for public-safety officials. The committee plans to mark up the compromise version of the bill on June 8.

Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has been pushing to pass his legislation before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and had been negotiating to gain the support of ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). The attacks helped expose the deep problems with the nation's emergency communications system when firefighters and police officers were unable to communicate with each other. Rockefeller's original bill would reallocate a chunk of spectrum known as the D-block to public safety officials for a national interoperable network. It would also authorize the Federal Communications Commission to hold voluntary incentive auctions that would free up spectrum for wireless broadband technologies and generate funding to help pay for the public-safety network. The incentive auctions would entice broadcasters and others to give up some of their spectrum in exchange for a share in the proceeds. Sens Rockefeller and Hutchison introduced a placeholder bill in early May and will offer a substitute version at next week's markup. The latest version of the substitute, a copy of which was obtained by National Journal, maintains the main elements of Rockefeller's original bill and adds several new sections.

TV executives confirm Hollywood's liberal agenda

In clips that will hit the Internet to promote a new book, producers including "Friends" co-creator Marta Kauffman and "House" creator David Shore say Hollywood discriminates against and belittles conservatives. Some of TV's top executives from the past four decades may have gotten more than they bargained for when they agreed to be interviewed for a politically charged book that was released Tuesday, because video of their controversial remarks will soon be hitting the Internet. The book makes the case that TV industry executives, writers and producers use their clout to advance a liberal political agenda. The author bases his thesis on, among other things, 39 taped interviews that he'll roll out piecemeal during the next three weeks.

The Last Taboo on Television

[Commentary] Virtually every forbidden topic imaginable has been covered on television, except for one. The last taboo on television is television itself -- and how it is profoundly biased toward high consumption lifestyles that the earth cannot sustain. In the U.S. the average person sees more than 25,000 commercials a year on TV. Commercials represent far more than a pitch for a particular product; they are also advertisements for the attitudes, values and lifestyles that surround the consumption of that product. Mass entertainment is being used to capture a mass audience that is then appealed to by mass advertising to promote mass consumption that, in turn, is devastating the Earth's biosphere. By programming television for commercial success, the television industry is also programming the mindset of civilizations for ecological failure.

Court Ruling on California Prisons Leads on Blogs

Bloggers displayed a strong law and order streak last week as two crime and public safety topics combined to account for nearly half (47%) of the news links studied by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

From May 23-27, the top story on blogs (34% of the news links) was the May 23 U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering California to release thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding, making it the No. 1 subject, according to PEJ's New Media Index. The Court's 5-4 decision found that the overcrowding led to "needless suffering and death" among prisoners. But that position held little sway with most bloggers who were upset with the ruling and far more concerned about a threat to public safety than any dangers posed to the inmates. Another California crime story, the May 22 arrest of a suspect accused of severely beating a San Francisco Giants baseball fan at Dodgers Stadium in March, was the No. 3 story on blogs, at 13%. It had been almost two months since the initial highly publicized incident occurred, and bloggers expressed relief that an arrest was finally made in a case that has left the victim fighting for his life.

Can Todd Park Revolutionize the Health Care Industry?

A look at the Department of Health and Human Services' Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park. A better title might be entrepreneur-in-residence as he inspires others to make government data accessible.

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