January 2012

Apple Could Create Its Own TV Reality

The TV prototype in Apple's skunk works has many wondering if the tech giant will upend yet another major market.

Excitement over such a device increased when Walter Isaacson's recent biography quoted Apple's late Chief Executive Steve Jobs saying he wanted "to create an integrated television set" and that he had "finally cracked" the issue of simplifying the user interface. Apple hasn't spoken of such a device, and while it is known to exist, its precise form is a mystery. For curious investors, it is useful to study Apple's past forays into other new markets. It overcame doubts to remake music with the iPod, telephony with the iPhone and computing with the iPad. TV may prove trickier. Yet there are opportunities for Apple to innovate. Besides smart design, a defining feature of Apple's three blockbuster devices is simplicity. With a TV, Apple could streamline complicated on-screen menus and multiple remote-controls.

Cyber defense effort is mixed, study finds

A Pentagon pilot program that uses classified National Security Agency data to protect the computer networks of defense contractors has had some success but also has failed to meet some expectations, according to a study commissioned by the Defense Department.

The program showed that Internet carriers could be trusted to handle the NSA data, that direct government monitoring of private networks could be avoided and that the measures could be of particular benefit to companies with less mature cyber defense capabilities, according to the Carnegie Mellon University study. Although researchers said the pilot had demonstrated the concept of information sharing, they also cited deficiencies in the way it was implemented. The test program, which began last May, relied on NSA “signatures” or fingerprints of malicious computer code that in initial stages were “stale when deployed” and in many cases did not prevent intrusions that the companies could not have blocked themselves, according to the report, which was not publicly released by the Pentagon but was shared with Congress this week. The study underscores the operational, legal and policy challenges in building a robust defense of critical U.S. computer networks as foreign rivals and other adversaries seek to penetrate systems, steal data and perhaps lay the groundwork for a destructive attack.

Government Lab Maps Safer Federal Web Sites

Sandia National Laboratories, a research arm for the Department of Energy, has created a tool to help federal agencies fight cyber-crooks.

The new web-based tool, a visualization tool called DNSViz, creates maps of various web addresses corresponding to agency websites. The visual display is intended to help government IT staff comply with security standards that have been in place since 2008 but that have proved difficult to implement. The federal government owns 1,489 government web addresses and an estimated 11,013 websites spread across 56 agencies, according to the General Services Administration. Since 2008, federal websites have been required to comply with a new Internet security standard, but the standard is hard for government IT staff to configure and maintain; in fact, a 2010 report by Internet consultant and service provider Internet Identity found that just 36% of federal agency domains had met their obligation. That means up to 64% of government sites could harbor security threats, or in some cases, be unavailable to users trying to visit them. The standard, called Domain Name System Security Extensions or DNSSEC, was introduced to address security loopholes that have allowed criminals over the years to quietly hijack web sessions, luring users to websites that mimic the look of the site the user originally intended, and then baiting users into sharing personal information such as social security or credit card numbers that could then be used or sold.

Hulu to spend $500m on programming in 2012

Hulu, the online video site owned by Walt Disney, News Corporation and NBC Universal, plans to spend about $500 million on programming this year to bolster its library as cable television operators beef up their own competing online services. The company’s 2012 budget is a $200 million increase on the $300 million Hulu spent on programming in 2011.

Domain names: Internet takes big step toward end of .com era

January 12th marked the opening bell for anyone who wants a website ending with something other than .com, .edu, or one of the other 20 familiar Internet suffixes.

From a legal standpoint, there will be challenges to launching the new system, says trademark attorney Erik Pelton. “Who is entitled to .delta? Delta airlines or Delta faucet?” he says. But perhaps the bigger concern to businesses is that cybersquatters might register online addresses that intentionally mislead surfers. “Already, large and small trademark owners struggle to prevent cybersquatting and other malicious uses of their trademarks in connection with third-party domain-name registrations,” says Trevor Schmidt, an intellectual property attorney with Moore & Van Allen. This could represent an exponential increase costs associated with protecting a famous brand, he notes. Although ICANN has adopted a number of protections for trademark owners, “none of these protections are without cost,” he says.

Facebook users have a lot to say on debates

Facebook users have strong opinions about presidential debates, according to a Facebook survey of its U.S. users. And they don’t always mirror those of voters.

On Dec. 16, for instance, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman shot to the top of the GOP pack in terms of positive “sentiment” — roughly 70 percent of the postings and comments on Facebook about them were positive — according to a monthlong survey done exclusively by Facebook and provided to POLITICO. That was the day after the Sioux City, Iowa, Fox News debate, the last before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. While the Facebook chatter presaged Santorum’s surge, users of the social network were more inclined to be supportive of Huntsman than Iowa voters, who gave him just 1 percent in the caucuses. It was also a day when most of the mainstream media covered the debate and judged who won and lost, and could have been when most Facebook users shared and commented on articles, or even watched the late-night debate, or clips of it, for the first time. This is the first time that Facebook has undertaken such a survey of its users about presidential candidates. And the results do not always accurately reflect what happens in the early states. The survey, for instance, is not of registered or likely voters, and includes people from all political parties. It also examines Facebook users nationally, not just those in early states such as Iowa.

LightSquared seeks probe of GPS advisory board member

LightSquared is seeking an investigation of a federal official involved in deciding whether the company can deploy its hybrid satellite-LTE network, saying he simultaneously serves on the board of a GPS company opposing the network.

The mobile broadband startup petitioned the Inspector General of NASA to investigate Bradford Parkinson, the vice chairman of a board that advises the government on GPS. Parkinson should be removed from discussions about potential interference between GPS and LightSquared's proposed LTE (Long Term Evolution) network because he is also a director of GPS vendor Trimble Navigation, LightSquared said in its petition. The Coalition to Save Our GPS, an industry group that includes Trimble, called the complaint an act of desperation.

Cornish village blazes internet trail

The irony that one of the more remote, and previously out of touch, areas of the UK is now among the best connected in Europe has not been lost on the citizens of a small Cornish valley.

These lucky 180 telecoms customers have been at the heart of a trial of next generation services that offer superfast connections to the internet via both mobile devices and fixed lines. But a UK-wide rollout of similar systems is likely to require more than £3bn for mobile spectrum to be sold at auction this year and a similar amount on cabling. In the village of Trerice, just south-east of Newquay, “e-poverty” is the new catchphrase, although this appears a particularly first world problem, the equivalent of not being able to download the latest Hollywood blockbuster while simultaneously talking over a video application and playing a computer game online against friends in Korea. However, Everything Everywhere and BT, which are conducting the trial, insist there are more altruistic purposes.

Chairman Leahy preparing amendment to online piracy bill

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he is preparing a manager’s amendment to the Protect IP Act (S.968) that will take concerns about the bill’s possible effect on Internet service providers under consideration.

Critics of the bill say that PIPA, as the bill is known, forces ISPs to censor the Web when the government seizes a domain name that it has identified as a site primarily dedicated to online piracy. In remarks on Vermont Public Radio, Sen Leahy said he worked closely with ISPs to draft the bill, but is open to looking at the provision again. “I remain confident that the ISPs – including the cable industry, which is the largest association of ISPs – would not support the legislation if its enactment created the problems that opponents of this provision suggest,” Chairman Leahy said, according to a transcript of the interview released by his office. “Nonetheless, this is in fact a highly technical issue, and I am prepared to recommend we give it more study before implementing it.” A cloture vote, which would move the bill to floor debate and allow Chairman Leahy to propose the amendment, is expected when the Senate resumes on Jan 17.

Companies taking a stand against piracy caught in SOPA crosshairs

The debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act has been emotional. And as politicians consider the language of the House bill, Web users are taking matters into their own hands by compiling lists of companies that are said to support the bill and by calling for boycotts. But not all of the companies that have been identified as SOPA supporters are actually backing the measure. Video game company Electronic Arts, for example, has been identified as in favor of SOPA simply because the company’s name appeared on a letter calling for Congress to consider online piracy legislation.

Benton

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