October 2013

Tech titans’ muted response on NSA data mining

Another leak from Edward Snowden. Another flood of denials from the tech titans required to assist the National Security Agency. And another round of statements, from Silicon Valley and beyond, that sidestep the real issue at hand.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo are veritable warehouses for some of the data the National Security Agency desires as it investigates foreign terror suspects, but they’ve not come out swinging publicly on Capitol Hill for specific limits on what the agency can collect — even as those companies have deployed their big-bucks lobbying and legal shops in a bid for more transparency. The contrast again was evident a day after Snowden’s documents helped The Washington Post determine the NSA is snapping up Web users’ contact lists. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo said they had no knowledge of the program, but each still stopped short again of asking for any substantial changes to federal law. The companies also didn’t name any new restrictions they’d back on the NSA’s collection practices — a muted response that speaks volumes at a time when Congress is at the drawing board on surveillance reform.

EU Telecoms Chief Kroes: Reform Package Can Be Finished by May

The European Union can complete its overhaul of telecom regulations by next spring, the bloc's telecom chief Neelie Kroes said, addressing industry doubts that the reforms can pass by May.

Kroes, who presented her long-awaited legislative proposals to overhaul Europe's telecommunications industry last month, now faces a tight deadline to get them approved by member states and European countries' leaders. She said there is no alternative to passing the package as a whole, saying Europe will lose three years in its efforts to keep up with other regions if the measures fail to go through. Europe lags behind North America and much of Asia in fourth-generation mobile-phone coverage, which is holding back developments in the digital economy. "Of course we are in a hurry," Kroes said. "We can't afford a delay of three years in the whole sector." The proposals will die unless they are passed before elections for the European Parliament next May, the effective deadline. A new European Commission is due to take office in November 2014.

AT&T Could Struggle to Roam in Europe

AT&T has set its sights across the pond. But could Europe prove to be a sinkhole? The US telecom giant hasn't officially announced its intention to buy the rest of Vodafone's assets after the London-based company completes a deal to sell its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications. But anyone listening to recent public comments by AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson could hardly reach any other conclusion.

Stephenson has signaled he would likely pursue heavy investment in wireless networks. That could position AT&T to lead Europe's shift to next-generation LTE technology, where the Continent lags behind the US. Buying Vodafone, which gets more than two-thirds of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from Europe, would also make AT&T less reliant on its increasingly competitive home market. But Europe could prove to be a quagmire. Buying Vodafone now would effectively be a bet that this is as bad as things can get there. Stephenson is also wagering that regulators' desire for investment will get them to lend a hand, perhaps one reason he has been so vocal about his deal-making intentions.

Busting China’s Bloggers

In August, Chinese authorities launched the most severe round yet in their “campaign against cybercrime.” Ostensibly to curtail online “rumors,” they are rounding up and jailing outspoken netizens across the country.

Judging from official media accounts and police reports, the number of arrests is in the hundreds, and many of us believe it may be in the thousands. Meanwhile, the state media have published a steady flow of articles warning microbloggers to tone down their commentaries. It’s easy to see why the government feels threatened. The most popular microblogging service, Sina’s Weibo, has more than 500 million registered members and 54 million daily users, and has become the most important space for citizens to participate in public life — and expose government lies. Microbloggers dare to question the legitimacy of the one-party state. They expose corruption. They shame criminals. And bloggers don’t just express opinions; we act as information hubs. When we discuss issues online, people take notice. The vast state censorship apparatus works hard to keep us down. But posts race through Weibo so quickly that it’s difficult to control them with technology. Hence, the government is resorting to detainment.

Europeans Are Faulted Over Using Funds to Support Like-Minded Voices

During heated wrangling late last year over the size of a new long-term budget for the European Union, Notre Europe, a Paris-based policy group, wanted to make its voice heard. So it put one of its researchers on a small radio station in the French city of Nantes to answer questions and promote its vision of a “more effective” — and bigger — budget controlled by Brussels. The exercise in what appeared to be an energetic public debate had a catch, or two, however.

The radio station, it turns out, received more than $100,000 from Brussels last year, according to official European Union records. Notre Europe itself had received more than $650,000 from Brussels last year, nearly half of its total budget. “The whole thing is surreal make-believe: people who get EU funding talk about how wonderful the E.U. is, and then lobby for it to get more money,” said Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a privately financed research group based in London that is offering $135,000 for the best plan for a British exit from the Union.

The Money Is in the Email

Now you can just email cash, free of charge, directly from your debit card to anyone else’s, regardless of what bank each party uses. There’s no login or password to remember and no special software or hardware required -- you just use email.

It works on both ends using any email service or program on any email-capable device, whether a computer, a smartphone or a tablet. This new service, called Square Cash, comes from Square, best known for equipping small brick-and-mortar merchants with smartphone-swiping devices that allow them to accept credit cards, and with tablets that act as sophisticated cash registers. Square Cash permits you to send up to $2,500 a week in several transactions or all at once. At launch, it works only in the US, and with debit cards carrying either the Visa or MasterCard logo. It isn’t meant for buying things from merchants, online or off, only for person-to-person cash transfers.

Government shutdown raises cybersecurity concerns

A new poll finds that Americans' concerns about the nation's cybersecurity are heightened with the government shutdown.

Some 62% of 538 respondents said they felt some degree of heightened concern, while 54% of survey takers indicated feeling some degree less secure with the government shutdown. Chris Petersen, CTO and co-founder of LogRhythm, a security analytics company, predicts that cyberspies are likely to probe and penetrate poorly monitored systems. "New beachheads will be established," he says. "Some will be used for immediate gains. Over time, some of these compromises will be detected when furloughed cyber security workers return to their posts. However, other beachheads will stay intentionally hidden, buried and dormant, waiting for the right time to strike."

Why FirstNet Needs State CIOs

One highlight from day two of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) conference was an overview of how the FirstNet nationwide public safety network will impact state CIOs. Here’s a rundown of some of the issues addressed and why the government shutdown didn’t prevent federal representatives from attending.

FISA Court: We Approve 99 Percent Of Wiretap Applications

A letter released by a special surveillance court clears up some misconceptions about legal oversight for government wiretap activities.

Responding to a letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court says, yes, it's true, we do approve 99% of all wiretap applications. But for the first time, the FISC also says that it demanded changes to 24.4 percent of those applications before granting final approval (that's for a recent three-month period). This is the court's way of saying, we are not a potted plant -- or a rubber stamp, as some have alleged. We are reading these applications closely, and pushing back where appropriate. But the letter also shows that the court could also be accused of operating hand in glove with government lawyers making these requests.

Latest NSA revelation is black eye for Yahoo

The latest revelation that the National Security Agency collected millions of contact lists from the leading online messaging services is a particular black eye for Yahoo, security and privacy experts said.

During a single day last year, the NSA's Special Source Operations branch collected 444,743 e-mail address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Microsoft's Hotmail, 82,857 from Facebook, 33,697 from Google's Gmail service and 22,881 from unspecified other providers, the Washington Post reported. Those figures, described as a typical daily intake, correspond to a rate of more than 250 million a year, the newspaper added, citing an internal NSA presentation leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA may collect so many more address books from Yahoo than other big services because Yahoo, unlike those other providers, has left connections to its users unencrypted by default, the Washington Post said.

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