August 8, 2012 (Cellphone exposure limits should be reassessed)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2012
Follow Headlines throughout the day via Twitter @benton_fdn
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Judge rules GPS tracking rule isn't retroactive
Cellphone exposure limits should be reassessed, GAO recommends
Homeland Security to Fund Next-Generation Emergency Wireless Service
Big tech forced to answer the phone
Free Wi-Fi catches on with NYC's subway riders [links to web]
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse's plan to fight AT&T and Verizon: 'doing the right thing'
Deutsche Telekom Gets US Relief As Rivals Cut Subsidies [links to web]
Want to Do Mobile Payments? Here’s a Free Tablet [links to web]
Forget ‘social media Olympics,’ these are the mobile games [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Team USA Deserves No Gold Medals for Internet Access - op-ed
Officials: United Nations Internet Regulation is not a Conspiracy
Lawmakers Raise New Concerns About New Domain Name Program [links to web]
On One Year Anniversary, Gig.U Delivers Impressive Results and Valuable Lessons for Gigabit Internet - op-ed
The Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network -- Disparities, Differences, and Distinctions - research [links to web]
Big tech forced to answer the phone
OWNERSHIP
Bounce TV Cofounder Tells Senate to Reject DeMint Bill [links to web]
Craigslist reportedly blocks search engines to kill competitors
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Obama Is an Avid Reader, and Critic, of the News
Online Public File for TV Launches and Stations Need to Adapt - analysis
Presidential campaigns buy up domain names for 'microsites'
FCC forces affiliates to share ad info [links to web]
Obama campaign app includes canvassing map [links to web]
Wintour, Weinstein Host Connecticut Fundraiser To Help Obama [links to web]
House Dems Battle for Social Media Supremacy [links to web]
ADOPTION AND USE
PC Pledge 100
CONTENT
ACLU and Facebook Defend the Right to 'Like'
Judge orders Oracle, Google to disclose paid journalists and bloggers
What's Going on with the Copyright Alert System? - analysis
The Math Behind Time Warner’s Bleacher Report Deal
With $34 Million, gift incentive network FreeMonee aims to upend advertising [links to web]
Court Prompts Twitter to Give Data to Police in Threat Case
TELEVISION
Forget Cord-Cutters: Cable Companies Should Worry About Cord-Nevers
Evidence Grows on TV Cord-Cutting [links to web]
TELECOM
FCC Seeks Comment On TracFone's Request To Include The Children's Health Assistance Program as a Qualifying Lifeline Program
Cable Operators to FCC: Don't Rush ISP-Based USF Contributions
The Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network -- Disparities, Differences, and Distinctions - research [links to web]
20,000 AT&T workers strike; company says customers 'a priority'
Trends in the International Telecommunications Industry: Summary through 2010 - research [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
US infrastructure vulnerable to attack
POLICYMAKERS
How the right’s challenge to Chairman Upton fizzled
REGULATION
A Smarter Approach to Regulation - analysis
COMPANY NEWS
Should Twitter charge users, or pay them – or both? [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Disinformation flies in Syria's growing cyber war
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
GPS TRACKING RULE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing an appeals court decision that says evidence obtained with a GPS tracking device prior to a major Supreme Court decision can be used in court. The Supreme Court in January ruled that when police use a GPS tracking device, it will be considered a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that decision doesn’t mean evidence police already have obtained with GPS devices must be thrown out. The court ruled that it wouldn’t exclude such evidence from being used at trial because settled law didn’t prohibit it at the time. The case, United States v. Pineda-Moreno, was already in the courts by the time the Supreme Court ruled. And the Ninth Circuit ruled that the decision doesn’t take effect retroactively. “When the agents attached and used the mobile tracking devices that yielded the critical evidence, they did so in objectively reasonable reliance on then-binding precedent,” wrote Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain in the opinion.
benton.org/node/131774 | Hill, The
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CELLPHONE EXPOSURE REPORT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Mobile phone exposure limits and testing requirements should be reassessed, according to a Government Accountability Office study. While the report did not suggest that cellphone use causes cancer, the agency did say that Federal Communications Commission’s current energy exposure limit for mobile phones, established in 1996, “may not reflect the latest evidence on the effects” of cellphones. The study recommends that the FCC reassess two things: the current exposure limit and the way it tests exposure. In its conclusions, the report says that the FCC has not formally coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency on the exposure limits. The report also raised questions about the FCC’s decision to only test exposure at a distance from a body while using an earpiece, simulating, for example, someone setting their phone on a nearby table rather than in their pocket while speaking.
benton.org/node/131740 | Washington Post | GAO
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HOMELAND SECURITY TO FUND NEXT-GENERATION EMERGENCY WIRELESS SERVICE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The Homeland Security Department is preparing to spend $8 million for prototype wireless services that potentially could synchronize public safety communications systems nationwide without costing billions of dollars, government documents suggest. “Next-generation tactical wireless broadband” is intended to overcome several challenges authorities and first responders face in trying to exchange data and video during crises, according to an announcement about funding availability. Of particular concern is the lack of interconnected networks for public safety officials across the country, so critical messages may fail to reach the right people in time. The 18-month effort is expected to establish “the ability to seamlessly roam from public safety networks, commercial networks and [land mobile radio] networks,” while also “connecting users operating on different networks,” DHS officials stated. The competition for research funding is open to industry, government laboratories, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations. DHS is looking for approaches that could help upgrade existing network services quickly. The objective “is to support immediate technology transition wherever possible, and to create transition paths for new capabilities from the outset,” according to the call for applicants.
benton.org/node/131725 | nextgov
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MOBILE NET
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw, Richard Waters]
This year has seen a momentous change in the shape of the global Internet. More people now access the web on mobile phones than PCs in China, home to the world’s largest population of Internet users. North America and Europe are not far behind in making that digital switchover, as are fast-growing Internet markets such as Turkey and Indonesia. This presents a big challenge to today’s Internet leaders – Google and Facebook, as well as Yahoo and Microsoft – that emerged when most of their customers typically used the web while sitting in front of a large, static screen. Some mobile executives liken accelerating growth in the mobile internet to the disruption print newspapers faced from readers’ shift online. That creates opportunities for so-called mobile-first start-ups to potentially unseat the current leaders.
benton.org/node/131788 | Financial Times
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SPRINT
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Dieter Bohn]
Sprint wants to be the "good guys." Another way to put it: Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is betting that nice guys don't always finish last. "At Sprint, we describe it internally as being the good guys, of doing the right thing," said Hesse. That moral component pervades many of the PR-friendly activities Sprint engages in, from eco-friendly recycling programs to distracted driving prevention, but it also, Hesse says, informs what would otherwise seem like calculated business decisions like continuing to offer unlimited data. The topline example is Sprint's place in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which since Hesse's four-and-a-half-year tenure as CEO have gone from worst to first amongst carriers. Hesse says that "doing the right thing" when it comes to better customer service not only makes customers happier, but saves the company money: "Customer care costs are roughly half of what they were four and a half years ago."
benton.org/node/131763 | Verge, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
USA BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] The opening ceremony of the London Olympics showed us the Internet’s history by honoring Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and featuring a display of his live Twitter post: “This is for everyone.” Unfortunately, the games as a whole are providing a less inspiring vision of the Internet’s future, at least in the US. People in at least 64 territories around the world are able to watch free live streaming video of every event; 3,500 hours on 10 separate real-time channels are being made available online by YouTube. Yet in the U.S., this coverage is only available to those who pay for a cable, satellite or telephone- company TV subscription that includes MSNBC and CNBC. (About 7.8 percent of this streamed Olympic content is available over the air in the U.S.) If you’re a non-subscriber, almost the only way to get access to these multiple live streams is through a proxy server that shields your location -- IP addresses can be tied to geography -- or through other, possibly illegal, means. The group Global Voices Advocacy reports that the file-sharing site Pirate Bay, where users could upload video of Olympic events for all to see, briefly renamed itself “The Olympic Bay,” with the saucy tagline “This is for everyone.”
We seem bent on providing the technological equivalent of the Olympic sport of dressage -- high-speed Internet access only for rich people. We’re prancing around a core market failure that is undermining the future of our economy. The Internet was supposed to be for everyone.
[Crawford a visiting professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School]
benton.org/node/131737 | Bloomberg
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OFFICIALS: UNITED NATIONS INTERNET REGULATION IS NOT A CONSPIRACY
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Although some have dismissed fears that other countries will use international telecommunications negotiations later this year to hand the United Nations a greater role in governing the Internet, the United States government doesn’t seem to be taking any chances. Internet companies, civil liberties advocates, and lawmakers have been debating the true extent of the threat from what The New York Times facetiously called the United Nations’ “Web-snatching black helicopters,” but newly released proposals from the State Department indicate U.S. officials have taken those fears to heart. The United States will be one of many countries to send delegates to the World Conference on International Telecommunications in December to negotiate updates to International Telecommunications Regulations, or ITRs, which were last negotiated in 1988. The ITRs, which are overseen by the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union, mainly addressed older telecom technologies like telephone service. Some countries have expressed interest in expanding their scope to cover Internet issues because the Internet is playing a larger role in communications in general. The issue may smack of a U.N. conspiracy theory, but now the State Department has officially outlined plans focused almost entirely on preventing a more government-centered system of Internet governance.
benton.org/node/131729 | National Journal
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GIG.U AT YEAR ONE
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Larry Downes]
[Commentary] Some people worry about slow deployment of high-speed broadband to U.S. consumers. Some people do something about it. Blair Levin does both. Now a Fellow at the Aspen Institute, last year Levin launched Gig.U, a consortium of university communities hoping to attract investment in next generation infrastructure that would deliver ultra high speed IP services to its residents—not ten but a hundred times faster than current broadband speeds. Using fiber optic technology run directly to the home, Gig.U is pushing for broadband speeds of 1 Gbps. The consortium has nearly forty members. Why the leap beyond even the NBP’s impressive goals? The answer starts with Google’s announcement, shortly before the publication of the NBP, to create a gigabit testbed in one lucky U.S. community. The goal of Google’s “think big with a gig” was to experiment with new ways of delivering broadband, largely to see what kinds of applications consumers would use if they only had the capacity.
Following the successful completion of its initial efforts, Gig.U is now moving on to Phase Two. The goal going forward is to develop tools that will help more consortium members “change the math,” making next generation network deployment attractive to private investors in communities where traditional financial analysis doesn’t pan out.
benton.org/node/131718 | Forbes
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OWNERSHIP
CRAIGSLIST BLOCKS SEARCH ENGINES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
A third-party site that relies on Craigslist data has accused the classified giant of changing its policies in an effort to kill it off. Craigslist has reportedly told major search engines to stop indexing its users' ads. That could leave 3taps -- which operates the site Craiggers and re-publishes the data for use by third parties such as Padmapper to use -- out in the cold. "At approximately noon on Sunday August 5, Craigslist instructed all general search engines to stop indexing CL postings," says a statement on the 3taps homepage. Because 3taps had been harvesting Craigslist data from cached copies offered by Google and Bing, the move to block search engines means Craigslist is "effectively blocking 3taps and other third party use of that data from these public domain sources," 3taps claims. "We are sorry that CL has chosen this course of action and are exploring options to restore service but may be down for an extended period of time unless we or CL change practices," the company says.
benton.org/node/131730 | Ars Technica
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
PRESIDENT AS NEWS CRITIC
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Chozick]
While former President George W. Bush and his aides liked to say they ignored the Fourth Estate, President Barack Obama is an avid consumer of political news and commentary. But in his informal role as news media critic in chief, he developed a detailed critique of modern news coverage that he regularly expresses to those around him. The news media have played a crucial role in Obama’s career, helping to make him a national star not long after he had been an anonymous state legislator. As President, however, he has come to believe the news media have had a role in frustrating his ambitions to change the terms of the country’s political discussion. He particularly believes that Democrats do not receive enough credit for their willingness to accept cuts in Medicare and Social Security, while Republicans oppose almost any tax increase to reduce the deficit. Privately and publicly, President Obama has articulated what he sees as two overarching problems: coverage that focuses on political winners and losers rather than substance; and a “false balance,” in which two opposing sides are given equal weight regardless of the facts.
benton.org/node/131793 | New York Times
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ONLINE PUBLIC FILE FOR TV
[SOURCE: CommLawCenter, AUTHOR: Lauren Lynch Flick, Paul Cicelski]
On August 2, the much anticipated Online Public Inspection File for television stations launched more or less successfully. To complete the task in the short time given them, the Federal Communications Commission staff put forth an Olympic effect, and while they were subject to some point deductions for a few stumbles in the regulatory gymnastics involved, they largely "stuck the dismount" as the system went live. To its credit, the FCC clearly listened to the many voicemails and emails sent to FCC staff, as well as the comments and questions raised during the FCC's online demonstrations prior to launch. Some potentially nasty pitfalls for stations were ironed out via the FAQs, and the system will hopefully continue to be refined in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, here is what stations need to do now that the system is operational.
benton.org/node/131716 | CommLawCenter
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CAMPAIGN MICROSITES
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jackie Kucinich]
There is no website at theapologistinchief.com or agingrockstar2012.com yet, but these are two of dozens of Web addresses Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has purchased and could use to tweak President Obama. Experts in digital media say campaigns and political organizations of all stripes increasingly use the "microsites" as tools to draw attention to an issue, brand an opposing candidate or raise money around specific themes. "It's absolutely a good strategy," said Vincent Harris, a digital consultant who worked with the GOP presidential campaigns of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. "The shorter, the catchier the name the better." The Obama campaign, so far, has primarily launched websites that promote the president or defend attacks against him — such as on Attackwatch.com. However, the purchase of some domain names such as Mittbot.com, indicate the attacks could be on the horizon.
benton.org/node/131789 | USAToday
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ADOPTION AND USE
PC PLEDGE 100
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, joined by Ben Hecht, Chairman of Connect2Compete (C2C), Jill Vaske, Executive Vice President of Redemtech, and representatives from LULAC and the Latin American Youth Center in Washington (DC) announced a nationwide computer donation and recycling call-to-action, called “PC Pledge 100,” to help narrow the digital divide for low-income families across the country. More than 17 million still useable computers are prematurely retired from businesses in the U.S. each year, which could help get millions of Americans online.
The campaign will urge corporations that can donate at least 100 computers to divert surplus PCs from premature retirement so they can be refurbished, installed with Microsoft software, and provided to needy families.
benton.org/node/131768 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC Chairman Genachowski
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CONTENT
THE RIGHT TO LIKE
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Adam Mazmanian]
The right to "like" something on Facebook is protected under the First Amendment, say the American Civil Liberties Union and Facebook. The civil-liberties organization and the social-media company made that argument in amicus briefs filed in a lawsuit filed by Daniel Ray Carter Jr., a Hampton (VA) deputy sheriff. The deputy says he was fired from his job by elected Sheriff B.J. Roberts after he clicked the "Like" button on the Facebook page of Jim Adams, a candidate challenging Roberts in a 2009 election. A federal District Court ruled in May that liking a Facebook page "is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection." The case is on appeal to the Fourth Circuit, but as of this writing, no oral arguments are scheduled.
benton.org/node/131765 | National Journal
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ORACLE, GOOGLE AND PAYING BLOGGERS
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
In a surprise order, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said “the court is concerned” that Oracle and Google may have hired authors to comment about their ongoing court case. Now, Judge Alsup wants the parties to submit a list of their paid propagandists. The unusual request comes months after the “World Series” of intellectual property trials in which Oracle unsuccessfully sued Google for billions. The trial was remarkable not only for the large damage figures but for Oracle’s decision to hire Florian Mueller, a self-described “patent analyst” who also takes money from Microsoft. In his FOSS Patents blog, Mueller wrote a series of one-sided posts over the course of the trial such as “Oracle Java patent rises like Ph0enix from the ashes.” Despite a lack of legal training, Mueller holds himself out as a patent expert to the media and typically does not disclose that he is paid by the companies he reports on. He has also blocked me and other journalists who have questioned his impartiality from viewing his Twitter feed.
benton.org/node/131759 | paidContent.org
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COPYRIGHT ALERT SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] As I wrote in April, I joined the Advisory Board of the Center for Copyright Information to serve as consumers’ eyes and ears as an agreement between the major Internet service providers and copyright holders is implemented. The agreement requires ISPs to send up to six “alerts” to alleged peer-to-peer infringers, with the last two alerts resulting in so-called “mitigation measures” and an opportunity for the user to appeal. The system was scheduled to launch in July, and the delay in the launch and relative silence has some floating theories of ISP pushback and content industry scheming to turn the system into an excuse for disconnection. But the reality is a lot less exciting. In a nutshell, there was a lot of foundational and technical work that needed to be done before the launch, so the July date was unrealistic. What does the work consist of? Three things. First, the ISPs are still implementing the technology for sending the alerts and it has taken longer than first expected. Second, the Board, with the Advisory Board’s advice, has been testing messages for the alerts to see what will be effective and what will not. This testing has included focus groups with parents and young adults. Third, the American Arbitration Association is putting in place its procedures for appeals, including making sure the process is as simple as possible.
benton.org/node/131757 | Public Knowledge
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TURNER AND BLEACHER REPORT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Turner paid some $180 million for Bleacher Report, a move that gives the cable programmer a bunch of online sports inventory to sell to advertisers. Reminder: Turner used to have a bunch of online sports inventory to sell to advertisers. But it recently had to give much of that to its corporate coworkers. Last quarter, Turner handed back control of Golf.com and Sports Illustrated’s Web site to Time Inc., ending an unhappy arranged marriage between the two Time Warner units. By my math, the divorce cost Turner about $40 million a year in ad revenue, a deficit it’s trying to fill with Bleacher Report.
benton.org/node/131743 | Wall Street Journal | AdAge
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TWITTER AND THE POLICE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Wendy Ruderman]
Twitter officials have complied with a court order to turn over account information to help New York police investigators identify who threatened to carry out an attack like the Colorado movie theater shooting at a Broadway theater where Mike Tyson is appearing in a one-man show, the police said. The compliance came three days after the social media company, based in California, denied an emergency request from the Police Department to provide the account holder’s registration information and computer network address. Investigators learned of the unsettling Twitter posts on Friday, the opening night of “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth” at the Longacre Theater in Midtown, said Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman.
benton.org/node/131792 | New York Times
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TELEVISION
WORRY ABOUT CORD-NEVERS
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Rebecca Greenfield]
Cord-never numbers are particularly hard to measure. A cable company, of course, can't report the amount of people who never subscribed to them in the first place, but we can do some piecing together to get an idea of the changing trends. U.S. census data found that 1.8 million new households were formed, but that only 16.9 percent of those signed up for pay-TV services, according to Ad Age's Dan Hirschorn. The TV industry has been flat for years; U.S. households continue to rise. Meanwhile, as cable subscription rates have stayed flat, Internet subscriptions are on the rise. Comcast added 156,000 net broadband subscribers, an 8.4% increase; Time Warner added 59,000 residential high-speed Internet subscribers. While something like 100 million U.S. households subscribe to TV services, the U.S. 2010 census data had 120 million households with Internet -- those numbers have only risen since then, with these companies reporting increased subscriptions. And what do people do on the Internet? Watch things. Though the most popular Internet activity, as of 2010, was social networking, video saw a 12 percent increase, according to a Nielsen report. Though, those numbers include people with cable. These cord-never numbers matter more than the cable-cutters because the people who tend to not ever sign up for cable are young -- and the youth is the future.
benton.org/node/131723 | Atlantic, The
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TELECOM
TRACFONE AND LIFE ELIGIBILITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a request filed on July 13, 2012 by TracFone Wireless to include the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in the list of programs which qualify households for Lifeline under the Commission’s uniform eligibility criteria. TracFone notes that in states where CHIP is administered as part of the Medicaid program, CHIP beneficiaries in those states qualify for Lifeline, but in other states where CHIP is administered as a program separate from Medicaid, CHIP beneficiaries do not qualify for Lifeline. TracFone argues that granting its request will advance the goal of ensuring universal availability of telecommunications services to low-income consumers and equalize the treatment of CHIP as a qualifying program across states.
Comments in this proceeding are due September 6, 2012; reply comments are due September 21, 2012
benton.org/node/131767 | Federal Communications Commission
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CABLE OPERATORS AND USF CONTRIBUTIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The American Cable Association and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association were on the same page when it comes to reforming the contribution side of the Universal Service Fund, which is that the current system is in need of repair, but said it should not rush into a broadband remake. Google countered that the FCC should take the plunge, but confine that expansion to Internet service providers (ISPs). The fund is paid into by telecom companies to subsidize telecom service in hard-to-reach (thus uneconomical) areas. The FCC is migrating the subsidies from traditional phone to broadband, and is looking to expand the contribution base to broadband as well. In reply comments to the FCC's USF contribution reform rulemaking, ACA asked the FCC to focus on relieving smaller operators -- the ones it represents -- of burdens under the current Universal Service Fund contribution regime, and to collect more data on the cost-benefits of broadening the contribution base to include broadband revenue.
benton.org/node/131739 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AT&T STRIKE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Tiffany Hsu]
About 20,000 AT&T workers in the East and West started striking even as the telecommunications giant reached tentative deals with unions in the Southeast. The company's contracts with two major branches of the Communications Workers of America expired in early April, leading to months of acrimonious negotiations. Now, 17,000 wireline employees in California and Nevada and 3,000 employees in Connecticut have decided to strike, AT&T said in a statement. Wireline businesses have slumped in recent years as use of land-based phones falls off amid the rise of mobile devices.
benton.org/node/131734 | Los Angeles Times
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CYBERSECURITY
US INFRASTRUCTURE VULNERABLE TO ATTACK
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: ]
If it is left to the politicians, the door to the nation's utilities might be left open. Almost telling terrorists, like in those motel commercials, "We'll leave the light on for you." The ironic part is that a terrorist attack on the nation's infrastructure would mean those lights would go out, along with other catastrophic possibilities. A cybersecurity bill has been largely declawed by Congress, leaving a watered-downed version barely alive. A recent survey showed that security experts have little faith that government regulation will be the answer. Critical infrastructure has been defined as natural gas, electricity, water, roads and highways, air traffic, railroads and the Internet. Operators of America’s vital power, water and manufacturing facilities use industrial control systems (ICS) to manage them, and the security of these systems, increasingly linked with Microsoft Windows and the Internet, is now under intense scrutiny because of growing awareness that they could be attacked and cause massive disruptions.
benton.org/node/131715 | NetworkWorld
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POLICYMAKERS
CHALLENGE TO UPTON FIZZLES
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Darren Samuelsohn, Jennifer Haberkorn]
Rep. Fred Upton’s conservative conversion was the key to his easy victory in his tea party primary challenge. Once a prime target of the right, the powerful House Commerce Committee chairman is now on his way to the November general election after outspending his Republican opponent, former state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, by a nearly 20-to-1 margin. Heading into the August 7 primary, Michigan pollsters and political observers had Upton up by as much as 30 points. And that’s pretty much where he ended up on election night. With 99.7 percent of the precincts counted, Chairman Upton had 66.6 percent of the vote to Hoogendyk’s 33.4 percent. Frequently criticized for being too moderate during his 26-year House career, Chairman Upton courted pivotal business groups under his powerful panel’s jurisdiction this election cycle to amass a $2 million-plus campaign war chest. And by courting conservatives back in his southwestern Michigan district, Chairman Upton was able to avoid an all-out revolt from the right wing of his party. Perhaps most important, Hoogendyk never got the air support he needed from the Club for Growth. After an initial spate of anti-Upton television ads, the anti-tax group didn’t extend its buy beyond the January run.
benton.org/node/131783 | Politico
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REGULATION
A SMARTER APPROACH TO REGULATION
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Cass Sunstein]
Since taking office, President Obama has been committed to eliminating red tape and ensuring that when rules are issued to protect safety and health, they are sensitive to the economic situation and attuned to the importance of job creation and economic growth. As this White House White Board shows, the net benefits, or the benefits minus the costs, of regulations issued through the third fiscal year of the Obama Administration have exceeded $91 billion. This amount, including not only monetary savings but also thousands of lives saved and tens of thousands of illnesses and injuries prevented, is over 25 times the net benefits through the third fiscal year of the previous Administration. What are the ingredients of these benefits? Part of the answer lies in the reduction of regulatory costs. President Obama has created an unprecedented government-wide regulatory “lookback,” designed to revisit rules on the books to see if they really make sense. Government agencies have identified over 580 reform proposals and already acted on over 100 of them. Just a very small fraction of those reforms, already finalized or proposed to the public, will save over $10 billion over the next five years and eliminate tens of millions of hours of paperwork requirements. This is just a beginning. As the reforms continue, we expect to be able to produce far greater savings.
benton.org/node/131781 | White House, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
SYRIA AND DISINFORMATION
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Peter Apps]
As the situation on the ground becomes ever more bloody, both sides in Syria are also waging what seems to be an intensifying conflict in cyberspace, often attempting to use misinformation and rumor to tilt the war in reality. "It's not surprising that Syria has attempted to develop a cyber warfare capability. It's in line with their chemical and biological warfare programs and their aspirations as a regional power," said John Bassett, former senior official at British signals intelligence agency GCHQ and now a senior fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute. "But the regime's technical capabilities look pretty basic, and the opposition hacking of the personal emails of Assad and his wife earlier this year show the regime's cyber defenses have serious weaknesses." The opposition too, many suspect, have been doing what they can do to spread rumors about their opponents.
benton.org/node/131769 | Reuters
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