March 2013

Hardening Our Defenses Against Cyberwarfare

[Commentary] Advances in technology that connect utilities, industries and information in real time have changed the nature of the threats facing the nation. Digital networks could be used as a conduit to gas lines, power grids and transportation systems to silently deliver a devastating cyberattack to the US.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Obama administration have made progress in promoting information-sharing. But the executive branch lacks constitutional authority possessed by Congress to provide the necessary liability protections that industry needs to freely and systematically share cyberthreat information with the federal government. To thwart attacks, we have to see and connect the dots. Congress has a responsibility to establish the statutory processes necessary to solidify and encourage this participation. Additionally, Congress must build on the administration's efforts in a way that promotes U.S. commerce while not hindering its expansion and innovation. The public sector and privately owned companies that make up the country's critical infrastructure are capable of handling this challenge—and we must aid them in creating lines of communication with the civilian entities involved in making the American economy and infrastructure work.

The House Committee on Homeland Security is working with all stakeholders and colleagues in Congress to foster consensus on necessary, bipartisan cybersecurity legislation. Threats to the U.S. homeland are evolving, both in the real and virtual worlds, and so too must the defenses evolve. Congress needs to act: The threat is real, and this time we have to see it coming.

[Rep McCaul is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee]

Facebook Study: Each Post Seen by One-Third of Friends, on Average

According to a study done by data scientists at Facebook, more of your Facebook “friends” saw what you posted than the average Facebook user realizes.

On average, each post was seen by one in three Facebook “friends,” according to an analysis of 220,000 Facebook users’ posts last June. Over the course of that month, users reached an average of 61 percent of their friends. The study also asked Facebook users about their perceptions of how many people they reached with their posts and concluded that they “consistently underestimate” their audience size. It was carried out by a Stanford University computer scientist, Michael S. Bernstein, and three members of the company’s data science team — Eytan Bakshy, Moira Burke and Brian Karrer.

More Americans Working Remotely

More American employees are working from home at least one day a week—a trend that could lower companies' costs and boost productivity.

Some 13.4 million people, or 9.4% of U.S. workers, labored at least one day at home per week in 2010, compared with 9.2 million people, or 7% of U.S. workers in 1997, according to one Census Bureau report. While the spread of communications technology is making it easier for workers around the world to work from home, for some critics, home-based work evokes images of employees dawdling in their pajamas. Giving further fodder to critics, home-based workers are more likely to work from home on Fridays and Mondays, potentially extending their weekends. Also, many jobs benefit from workers having face-time with colleagues; chats between colleagues can boost productivity by unleashing new ideas. But some research suggests allowing people to work from home can raise productivity.

Apps Are Creating New Jobs… But Are Also Replacing Workers

Smartphones and tablets—which typically have built-in cameras, Internet connections and global-positioning systems—enable just about anyone to be a roving merchant or courier. The proliferation of jobs tied to mobile apps recalls the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, when Americans realized they could sell goods to customers from their desktop computers. Though data on the size of the app economy for nondevelopers are scarce, venture capitalists say interest in mobile marketplaces is growing.

Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they're also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck. Businesses often say their main goal in developing smartphone applications is to make things easier for customers and to build brand loyalty. Yet they're finding it doesn't take much effort to turn the smartphones carried by most Americans into payment terminals or data-entry forms. As a result, Americans increasingly are becoming their own bank tellers, loan officers, insurance adjusters, checkout clerks, restaurant order takers, citrus-crop inspectors and mall concierges.

Behind the $1,000 Apps

Not all apps are free or 99 cents. A handful of developers are pricing their apps at $999.99—the upper limit of Apple's store.

These apps aim to serve a wide range of specialized markets, in some cases targeting professionals such as piano tuners and anesthetists. Other developers seek to appeal to consumers willing to pay up, such as law students preparing for the bar exam or flag-football enthusiasts tracking their statistics. As of January, there were 30 such apps available in the App Store, according to analytics firm Distimo. Some developers have already reconsidered their approach—at least one of those apps is now free, while another is $1.99. Most developers won't disclose how many times their apps have been downloaded or revenue figures, so it's not clear how well this model works. But many of them are experimenting with cheaper versions.

Few Good Choices for MetroPCS

MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA are preparing to tie the knot. But some investors object to the union. And at least some aren't making a secret of it.

They say they would reconsider their opposition if the deal were revised. Their arguments, which Deutsche Telekom disputes, may have some merit. Heavy debt loads kept rival Sprint Nextel from upgrading its network for years. And obviously, forcing T-Mobile to renegotiate the terms of the deal would be a boon for Metro PCS shareholders. But the hedge funds need to make the case that MetroPCS has other options. They claim MetroPCS would be better off as a stand-alone company than under the current T-Mobile offer. Yet MetroPCS posted its third consecutive quarter of net subscriber losses in January. And analysts say the company lacks the capital to build a competitive next-generation LTE network. Moreover, other prospective MetroPCS buyers haven't materialized.

News Corp. unveils long-anticipated Fox Sports cable channel

In the latest sign of how valuable the media industry considers sports programming, News Corp. unveiled plans for Fox Sports 1, a new national cable channel it hopes will eventually challenge Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN empire.

Scheduled to launch in mid-August in almost 90 million homes, the channel's initial lineup is to include NASCAR, college football and basketball, ultimate fighting and soccer. Next year, Fox Sports 1 is to add regular-season and postseason Major League Baseball to its lineup. Fox Sports is already eying rights to the National Basketball Assn. and is ready to pounce should the National Football League go forward with creating an additional package of games for cable. In an era when viewers have literally hundreds of networks to choose from and can use digital video recorders and video-on-demand as well as newer services such as Netflix to watch TV on their terms, sports has been seen as the one form of programming that can stand up to technology.

Michigan thwarts online attacks on records

Gov Rick Snyder’s administration has fended off a 19 percent rise in online attacks on millions of state records in the past two years — a sign that cybersecurity is a growing duty for government. The state said it spends $10 million a year on 23 technicians who staff an around-the-clock electronics security center that handles 187,000 cyberattacks a day, up from 157,459 a day in 2010. Like other states and the federal government, Michigan is dealing with online hacker attacks that are more frequent and sophisticated.

News Corp. Has a Tablet for Schools

For nearly two years, Joel I. Klein helped Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation weather a phone-hacking scandal at the company’s British tabloids with the promise that he would eventually be able to return to the role the company hired him for: to spearhead News Corporation’s new venture into the public school market. That day has finally come.

Klein, the former chancellor of New York City schools and the current chief executive of Amplify, News Corporation’s fledgling education division, will take the stage for a surprising announcement. Amplify will not sell just its curriculum on existing tablets, but will also offer the Amplify Tablet, its own 10-inch Android tablet for K-12 schoolchildren. In addition to tablets and curriculum, Amplify will also provide schools with infrastructure to store students’ data.

EU fines Microsoft €561m for pact breach

Microsoft was fined €561 million ($732 million) by Brussels over its failure to offer Windows users a choice of Internet browser in breach of a high-profile competition agreement with European regulators.

The European fine represents an unprecedented penalty against a company for failing to stick to a voluntary pact with antitrust regulators, and had been seen as a test of how vigorously Joaquín Almunia, EU competition commissioner, would seek to enforce such settlements. The penalty brings the overall fines imposed on Microsoft by European antitrust regulators during the past decade to €2.26 billion. The rare penalty came as it was reported that the US software group was also fighting Danish tax authorities over a claim of up to $1 billion, including penalties for late payment of taxes, that reach back nearly a decade.

Benton

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