July 2012

Defense Officials: Sequestration Cuts Would Be 'Devastating' for Cybersecurity

Potential budget cuts under sequestration would take a major toll on efforts to fight cyberthreats, top officers from each of the military branches warned a House Armed Services subcommittee.

“It would be devastating,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Suzanne Vautrinot told the House Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. Not only would current efforts to boost military cybercapabilities falter, but past advancements could be undone, she said. “We would actually lose ground in this important area.” Vautrinot’s fears were echoed by Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, who said that across-the-board cuts, which would happen if Congress doesn’t agree on budget measures, could undermine efforts to retain and train enough people to handle cybersecurity operations. In addition, the speed at which various military cyber programs have to acquire new technology, such as software, means that any cuts could disproportionately hurt cybersecurity, he said.

Justice Department trains prosecutors to combat cyber espionage

Confronting a growing threat to national security, the Justice Department has begun training hundreds of prosecutors to combat and prosecute cyber espionage and related crimes, according to senior department officials. The new training is part of a major overhaul following an internal review that pinpointed gaps in the department’s ability to identify and respond to potential terrorist attacks over the Internet and to the rapidly growing crime of cyber espionage, the officials said, describing it for the first time. Justice lawyers are grappling with two distinct categories of national security threats from the Internet. One danger is from terrorists plotting full-scale cyber attacks and the other comes from hackers, cyber criminals and foreign governments stealing trade secrets from the private sector and sensitive classified information from the military and government agencies.

London Olympics officials prepare for cyber attacks

As athletes compete for Olympic gold, a different group will seek international recognition — online hackers. Olympic security officials are bracing for an onslaught of cyber assaults that could easily surpass the 12 million attacks a day, or 500,000 an hour, that were logged during the Beijing Olympics four years ago. "From the hacker's perspective, this is the mother of all opportunities," said Larry Ponemon, president of the Ponemon Institute, an Internet think tank. The London Olympics is particularly vulnerable because it will be the most technologically interconnected, social media-driven event yet, security analysts said.

State Dept. Says It Will Fight For Internet Freedom At U.N. Telecom Conference

The State Department will advocate on behalf of Internet freedom, and oppose proposed plans by other nations to control the flow of content or turn more control of Internet technology standards to the United Nations at an upcoming U.N. conference, said U.S. ambassador Philip Verveer.

“We recognize that this is a very important conference,” Verveer said, referring to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), a summit to be held in Dubai in December that will involve all 193 member nations of the United Nations with the aim of revising global telecom regulations, last agreed to in a 1988 treaty, well before the full commercialization and adoption of the Internet. “We’re obviously particularly averse to seeing anything significant about [Internet] content being included,” in the updates to the 1988 regulations, Verveer explained. More specifically, Verveer said that the State Department would file its own proposals for updating the international telecommunications regulations on August 3. “We don’t want to see, by any means, advertent or inadvertent outcomes to impair the Internet as we’ve come to know it, and the freedom of expression and flow of information,” Verveer said. Further, the State Department said that the questions raised by lawmakers and advocacy groups about the proposals and the WCIT-12 conference itself are “entirely congruent” with the State Department’s own approach going into the conference.

FCC Releases New, Interactive Map Illustrating States Set to Receive 'Connect America Fund' Support

The Federal Communications Commission announced that nearly 400,000 residents and small business owners in 37 states will gain access to high-speed Internet within three years, as a result of the first phase of the ‘Connect America Fund.’ The FCC released a new, data-driven, interactive map developed to help illustrate areas in the U.S. that will receive broadband infrastructure build-out within three years through the Connect America Fund phase-one roll out.

This interactive map shows the 37 states where new broadband will be deployed as a result of the first phase of the Connect America Fund. The number of homes, businesses, and anchor institution locations that will gain access to new broadband are displayed, along with the number of residents in each state that currently lack access to broadband.

The new map is part of the Commission’s Data Innovation Initiative to modernize and streamline how the agency collects, uses, and disseminates data. The map builds on the government-leading work by the Commission using next-generation mapping tools to make geographic data more accessible.

Verizon, AT&T Decline Broadband Connect America Funding

July 24 was the deadline for the nation’s largest price cap carriers to advise the Federal Communications Commission whether they planned to accept funding offered to them to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband to high-cost rural areas where the service is not currently available. But as much as $185 million or more of the $300 million offered to the carriers in the first phase of the Connect America Fund program will not be accepted.

Just under $80 million of that amount was rejected outright, with carriers agreeing to accept an additional $106.3 million only if certain waivers are granted. Ten of the nation’s largest carriers were invited to participate in the program, which will pay carriers $775 per broadband line deployed to an unserved home within its territory up to a specific dollar level, which varies from one carrier to another. Seven of the 10 carriers were offered allotments exceeding $1 million.

Two of those carriers – AT&T and Verizon –declined all of the funding they had been offered. In a letter to the, AT&T — which was offered $47.8 million — said it is “optimistic” about its ability to get more broadband into rural areas, “particularly as the technology continues to advance.” But the company said it could not commit to participate in the program until it finalizes that strategy.

Verizon, which operates largely in the densely populated Northeast, was offered $19.7 million. The company’s letter to the FCC did not cite a specific reason for the decision, other than noting that the amount of money involved was “relatively small.” Verizon also said it “fully supports” Universal Service reforms.

FCC Seeks Comment on Proposed Urban Rates Survey

In this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a proposed survey of urban rates for fixed voice and fixed broadband residential services. The Bureau also seeks comment concerning how, using data from the urban rates survey, to determine the local voice rate floor and the reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and fixed broadband services.

The rate survey, conducted once each year, will be used to establish a rate floor that carriers receiving high-cost loop support (HCLS) or high-cost model support must meet in order to receive their full support amounts, beginning in 2014.4 In addition, the rate survey will be used to develop reasonable comparability benchmarks for voice and broadband rates that carriers will annually certify their rates do not exceed, with the first certification due July 1, 2013.

[WC Docket No. 10-90]

Super fast fiber for Kansas City from Google

Google launched Google Fiber in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri. Google Fiber is 100 times faster than today’s average broadband. No more buffering. No more loading. No more waiting.

Gigabit speeds will get rid of these pesky, archaic problems and open up new opportunities for the web. Imagine: instantaneous sharing; truly global education; medical appointments with 3D imaging; even new industries that we haven’t even dreamed of, powered by a gig. Kansas Citians will choose where we install and when. We’ve divided Kansas City into small communities we call “fiberhoods.” To get service, each fiberhood needs a critical mass of their residents to pre-register. The fiberhoods with the highest pre-registration percentage will get Google Fiber first. Households in Kansas City can pre-register for the next six weeks, and they can rally their neighbors to pre-register, too. Once the pre-registration period is over, residents of the qualified fiberhoods will be able to choose between three different packages (including TV):

Gigabit + Google Fiber TV: What’s better than a gig of Internet? A gig plus TV, designed for how you watch today and how you’ll watch tomorrow. Google Fiber TV carries hundreds of channels (including your local favorites) and tens of thousands of shows on demand in crystal clear HD. With eight tuners and 2TB of DVR storage, you’ll never have to miss a show again. You’ll also get a brand new Nexus 7 tablet that you can use as your remote control. Gigabit + Google Fiber TV will cost $120 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.
Gigabit Internet: With a gig, you can do everything you love on the web at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans enjoy today. This package will include a gigabit-enabled network box with advanced Wi-Fi and 1TB of cloud storage on Google Drive. Gigabit Internet will cost $70 per month, and we’ll waive the $300 construction fee.
Free Internet: We know that not everyone is ready to commit to a gig just yet. But we want to make sure you have the opportunity to upgrade when you’re ready. So if you pre-register and your fiberhood gets installed, you’ll have the option to get a 5 megabit per second (Mbps) connection for zero monthly charge, and your home will be wired and ready for the switch. The Free Internet option will cost $0 per month, although you will have to pay a $300 construction fee (which can either be paid at once, or in $25 monthly installments).

The Economics of Google Fiber and What it Means for US Broadband

For Google, delivering gigabit internet access over fiber for $70 a month (and even free 5 Mbps fiber) is a business that will not only help advance Google’s consumer goals, but also make it money.

“There’s no sense selling a product at a loss,” said Google CFO Patrick Pichette. “But it’s not only about profits, it’s about changing the access costs.” His goal and Google’s goal is to bring the same efficiencies that have helped create cheaper, smaller and more powerful computers and create a cost and improvement curve for broadband access. And Google may have a found a way to do that — both in terms of constructing and operating a fiber to the home network — by using its engineering team, existing consumer technologies such as QR codes and social engineering to influence how users sign up for access. Existing ISPs should take note — what Google has done here has fundamentally lowered the cost of building and deploying a network. It was cagey about if and when it would take its fiber-to-the-home show on the road, but if it does, it will pummel existing ISPs on price and service, have repercussions throughout the carrier equipment industry and entice a lot of end consumers to take on a more active role in marketing Google’s broadband.

Why is Verizon in bed with Time Warner and Comcast?

[Commentary] Stop by a Verizon Wireless store in California and about two dozen other states, and you may encounter a sales pitch not for Verizon's own land-line phone, Internet and TV services but for those of a competitor such as Time Warner Cable or Comcast. You may be hard-pressed to even know that parent company Verizon Communications offers such services. The three telecom heavyweights involved call this a mere marketing partnership and say it has no relationship to Verizon Wireless' pending $3.6-billion purchase of wireless spectrum from the cable industry. They also say the competitiveness of the marketplace won't be affected by rival service providers cozying up to one another and that consumers won't be disadvantaged in any way. Sure. Because any time a market is dominated by only a handful of companies, and they all climb into bed together, that can only mean consumers will benefit. How could it be otherwise? "The question is whether this is good or bad," said Jeff Kagan, a telecom industry analyst. "All I see is bad."

Benton

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