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  2. April 2014

April 2014

Flaw found in Internet Explorer browser

A serious flaw has been found in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser which has allowed cyber criminals to impersonate known websites to steal user data. Microsoft warned that the vulnerability had already been used in “limited, targeted attacks” against people and networks using Internet Explorer versions 6 to 11, which make up over a quarter of all web browsers. The company has not yet issued an update to protect users from hackers who are taking advantage of this vulnerability but said it would take “appropriate action” when it had completed its investigation.

Big Tech tracks are all over DC patent war

The Coalition for Patent Fairness talks up the importance of innovation. The Main Street Patent Coalition says it’s standing up for the little guy. The Partnership for American Innovation harps on job growth, and the Innovation Alliance chats up small inventors. What they’re not trumpeting: These groups are political agents of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm and a veritable army of other deep-pocketed DC tech players.

Silicon Valley has plenty on the line as Congress returns from recess and resumes its work to mediate the patent wars raging among tech companies and so-called patent trolls -- entities that threaten lawsuits in the hopes of extracting settlements or licensing fees. A key reform bill already has cleared the House, and another is forging ahead in the Senate. The flurry of activity has catalyzed the tech industry’s well-stocked Washington players to commit cash and clout to the fight.

Governments Grab for the Web

[Commentary] The Obama administration still doesn't seem to understand the whirlwind it reaped with its decision to give up stewardship of the open Internet.

The first Internet governance conference since that surprise March announcement was held last week. The State Department issued a statement before the conference urging everyone to avoid the issue: "We would discourage meeting participants from debating the reach or limitations of state sovereignty in Internet policy." But deciding who gets to govern the Internet was precisely why many attendees from 80 countries came to the NetMundial conference in Brazil. The host country's leftist president, Dilma Rousseff, opened the conference by declaring: "The participation of governments should occur with equality so that no country has more weight than others." The Russian representative objected to "the control of one government," calling for the United Nations to decide "international norms and other standards on Internet governance."

Authoritarian regimes want to control the Internet to preserve their power. President Barack Obama should revoke the plan to abandon the open Internet. The ugly spectacle of countries jockeying to control the Internet is a timely reminder of why the US should never give them the chance.

US Says It Built Digital Programs Abroad With an Eye to Politics

The United States built Twitter-like social media programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan, like one in Cuba, that were aimed at encouraging open political discussion. But like the program in Cuba, which was widely ridiculed when it became public this month, the services in Pakistan and Afghanistan shut down after they ran out of money because the Administration could not make them self-sustaining.

In all three cases, American officials appeared to lack a long-term strategy for the programs beyond providing money to start them. Administration officials also said that there had been similar programs in dozens of other countries, including a Yes Youth Can project in Kenya that was still active. Officials also said they had plans to start projects in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Some programs operate openly with the knowledge of foreign governments, but others have not been publicly disclosed.

China Forces Four US TV Shows Off Web

Four popular US television shows that air on Chinese video websites have been taken down because of government regulations, according to China's state-run media, raising the prospect of intensified government control over videos posted online.

The four shows -- "The Big Bang Theory," "The Good Wife," "NCIS" and "The Practice" -- have accumulated followings in China through online video companies such as Sohu, Youku Tudou and Tencent Holdings. The Chinese companies pay for the rights to the shows so they can stream them free of charge and earn money off advertisements. China has strict policies governing the release of foreign movies in China's theaters and has tight censorship rules regarding what can be broadcast on television. China's video websites, by contrast, have had comparatively more freedom. Two people familiar with the government's interaction with China's online video sites said the move indicates renewed efforts by the government to rein in the relatively freewheeling online-video sector. One of the people said that an online-video site for the past week had been in discussions with the officials at China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television about what content it can post. The government has been working on rules for online video since 2009, but had been hamstrung in the past by the sheer manpower required to go through the large number of videos posted on China's biggest sites, the person said.

The War on Truth in Ukraine

[Commentary] As Russia and the Ukraine leaders revved up their propaganda, the world got another taste of the confusion, uncertainty and distortion of information that have brought this conflict to the brink.

An absence of legitimate authority in eastern Ukraine has left an absence of transparent, agreed-upon facts -- a breeding ground for suspicion and manipulative diplomatic games on the margins of the truth that may yet carry the region to war. Healthy political systems have facts to turn to, because they have trusted sources of authority. Conflicts get resolved peacefully. That is what is missing in Ukraine. The fragmentation of consensus about critical events and the degradation of legitimate political authority are like two apocalyptic horsemen riding together. If there is a hope of escaping this condition, Ukraine must restore legitimacy to its leadership and its facts. It is hard to see how to do this on the brink of civil war, Russian intervention or both.

[Darden is an associate professor at American University]

Analysis

A Primer on Political Speech and Broadcasting

There is no speech more important than that of one citizen asking another for her vote. Congress has enacted a series of provisions addressing how broadcasters and cable operators treat candidates. With the 2014 primary season now under way, this is a good time to review those requirements.

“Equal time”

Surveillance court rejected Verizon challenge to NSA calls program

Verizon in January filed a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s program that collects billions of Americans’ call-detail records, but a surveillance court rejected it, according to newly declassified documents and individuals with knowledge of the matter. In denying the phone company’s petition in March, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer embraced the arguments put forth by the government that the program is constitutional in light of a Supreme Court decision in 1979 that Americans have no expectation of privacy in dialing phone numbers. Until January, no company had filed a legal challenge to the program, the judge said. But the documents make clear the filing came as a result of a December ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington that the NSA program likely was unconstitutional.

Aereo’s Supreme Court case balances innovation and copyright

[Commentary] At the Supreme Court, some observers have noted, the Justices seemed flummoxed by the case of Aereo, a company that pulls network TV broadcasts off the airwaves and streams it to online users for a monthly fee. That is not because the court’s jurists are hopelessly incapable of considering its business model. It is because taking decades-old law and applying it to new technological reality is hard. The principles at stake, however, are much simpler.

Aereo’s critics want to shore up the exclusive right of the people who own copyrights on programming to control -- and profit from -- the distribution of their work. Aereo benefits from the notion that the networks are allowed to send such programming over the public airwaves on the condition that anyone can view it for free. On principle, the balance should obviously favor consumers. There is no difference between getting network television for free with an antenna or doing so with an Internet connection that warrants different treatment of the two -- beyond accounting for the costs of the different sorts of infrastructure that makes each possible. The court has underscored that individuals have the right to put up antennas, record programs and use that material privately. The essence of Aereo’s case is that the firm provides the infrastructure -- antennas, recording space and streaming setup -- so that people do not have to bother with all of that on their own. Which makes sense. There is a chance, however, that the court will determine that the law does not leave enough room for that principle to survive.

Discrimination potential seen in ‘big data’ use

A White House review of how the government and private sector use large sets of data has found that such information could be used to discriminate against Americans on issues such as housing and employment even as it makes their lives easier in many ways. "Big data" is everywhere. It allows mapping apps to ping cellphones anonymously and determine, in real time, what roads are the most congested. But it also can be used to target economically vulnerable people.

The issue came up during a 90-day review ordered by President Barack Obama, White House counselor John Podesta said. Podesta did not discuss all the findings, but said the potential for discrimination is an issue that warrants a closer look. Federal laws have not kept up with the rapid development of technology in a way that would shield people from discrimination. The review, expected to be released within the next week, is the Obama administration's first attempt at addressing the vast landscape of challenges, beyond national security and consumer privacy, posed by technological advancements.

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