1. Monthly archive
  2. December 2014

December 2014

Newly published NSA documents show agency could grab all Skype traffic

A National Security Agency document shows that the agency had full access to voice, video, text messaging, and file sharing from targeted individuals over Microsoft’s Skype service.

The access, mandated by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrant, was part of the NSA’s PRISM program and allowed “sustained Skype collection” in real time from specific users identified by their Skype user names. The nature of the Skype data collection was spelled out in an NSA document dated August 2012 entitled “User’s Guide for PRISM Skype Collection.”

NSA has VPNs in Vulcan death grip -- no, really, that's what they call it

The National Security Agency’s Office of Target Pursuit (OTP) maintains a team of engineers dedicated to cracking the encrypted traffic of virtual private networks (VPNs) and has developed tools that could potentially uncloak the traffic in the majority of VPNs used to secure traffic passing over the Internet today.

A slide deck from a presentation by a member of OTP’s VPN Exploitation Team, dated September 13, 2010, details the process the NSA used at that time to attack VPNs -- including tools with names drawn from Star Trek and other bits of popular culture. While some VPN technologies -- specifically, those based on the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPTP) -- have previously been identified as being vulnerable because of the way they exchange keys at the beginning of a VPN session, others have generally been assumed to be safer from scrutiny. But in 2010, the NSA had already developed tools to attack the most commonly used VPN encryption schemes: Secure Shell (SSH), Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.

Technology's Impact on Workers

Pew Research surveyed online a representative sample of adult Internet users and asked those who have jobs a series of questions about the role of digital technology in their work lives. The most recent survey data from Pew Research in late 2013 shows that 94 percent of jobholders are Internet users and they work in all kinds of enterprises from technology companies to non-technology firms; from big corporations to small proprietor operations; and from those in urban areas, farms, and places in between.

Some of the key findings include:

  • Email and the Internet are deemed the most important communications and information tools among online workers.
  • While commentators worry that digital tools can be a distraction in the workplace, many online workers say that is not the case when it comes to their productivity.
  • Bosses are adapting to technology, too.

The most unpopular company in America is...

The honor for most unpopular company among consumers goes to Internet service provider, Time Warner Cable, which placed last on the December 2014 edition of the University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index. Cable companies have come under scrutiny in 2014 for their rising subscription rates and lack of choice within the market. Cable bills have more than doubled over the last decade and the average cable bill is roughly $112 per month, including Internet and telephone, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

In Internet age, ratings show TV news remains relevant

Americans are getting more of their news from their Twitter feeds, friends' Facebook posts and websites such as Reddit. There are live bloggers who chronicle events as they unfold -- now they can even stream live video with their smartphones. But TV news is still overwhelmingly watched on televisions. Although the landscape has become more challenging, TV news can still be a lucrative endeavor. The morning shows each generate hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue for their networks. The evening newscasts remain vital to each network's image, and after years of fighting off irrelevancy, are now seeing a ratings renaissance. Cable news outlets are big profit centers for their corporate parents, and while their audience levels appear to have plateaued, they can still set the agenda for what the country will be talking about.

Five Trends for Nonprofit News in 2015

[Commentary] There continues to be good news coming out of one of the fastest-growing sectors in the American media landscape: nonprofit news organizations. In fact, I am so bullish on the nonprofit news model that I am predicting that 2015 will be the year of nonprofit news.

Here's why:
1) There is a much brighter light at the end of the tunnel: There are now enough examples of long-term success in revenue diversification and generation that we have a good sense of what can and will support mission-driven organizations
2) Low cost/Ease of use: It has never been easier or faster to establish a nonprofit news organization
3) Money attracts more money: Organizations that were able to secure sufficient funding for both the editorial and business side of the house tend to do much better in the near and long-term
4) More mergers and acquisitions: Seeing the trend of independent and public media nonprofit news organizations coming together to jointly meet the needs of the communities that they serve will continue and accelerate in 2015
5) Becoming a hits-driven business: It is the discovery and sharing parts that are essential in breaking-out in today's media maelstrom

[Davis s CEO and executive director of the Investigative News Network]

Hacked e-mails reveal China’s elaborate and absurd internet propaganda machine

Thousands of e-mails obtained from the Zhanggong propaganda department by a Chinese blogger -- and released on his website -- offer a rare view into the mechanics of manipulating web conversation in China at its most local level. Among the hacked documents are instructions to paid commenters, their posting quotas, and summaries of their activity.

Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
January 21st and 22nd 2015
http://mmtconline.org/bbsj-summit/


Silicon Flatirons Center
University of Colorado Law School
February 8, 2015 - February 9, 2015
http://siliconflatirons.com/events.php?id=1495

The conditions that produced the late twentieth century and early twenty first century boom around the Internet and information technology merit careful examination and analysis. The platform technologies related to computing and networking owe their roots to investments by government supported and private sector-supported research and development from organizations like DARPA, Bell Labs, and Xerox PARC. In a world where "M&A is the new R&D," it remains to be seen how the innovation model of the future will evolve.

The role of established firms vis a vis new upstarts in driving technological progress remains a topic of ongoing conversation, often focusing on Joseph Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction and Clayton Christensen's portrait of disruptive innovation. The implications of such theories for regulatory policy and intellectual property protection in spurring (or hindering) innovation continue to be developed. In practice, for example, policymakers must determine whether law and regulation should provide clearer up-front guidance through rules or more after-the-fact flexibility through standards.

In this 15th anniversary year of Silicon Flatirons, we will address the first principles for innovation policy, evaluating a set of important policy questions. These questions will include: (1) What are the Sources of Innovation? (2) What are the Preconditions for a Vibrant Innovation Ecosystem? (3) What is the Role of Interoperation and Interconnection in Network Industries? (4) What is the Role of Competition Policy With Respect to Innovation? And (5) What Does a Jurisprudence of Innovation Look Like (e.g., what institutional approaches and legal regimes are most effective)? To address these questions, we will bring together an impressive group of policymakers, academics, industry executives, entrepreneurs, and civil society leaders.


Broadcasting Board of Governors and Gallup
Thursday, January 15, 2015
9:00 - 10:00 AM

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Gallup invite you to attend a research briefing on media use in Afghanistan. The Afghan media scene has experienced tremendous growth in the post-Taliban period.

Although the country remains a radio market, there have been recent shifts in modes of listenership. Most weekly radio listeners (79.2%) still use a conventional radio set, but three in 10 (29.5%) say they've listened on their mobile phones in the past week. This reflects the overall increase in mobile phone usage, as four in five Afghan adults (81.1%) now say they have access to a mobile phone. This is a remarkable achievement when considering that the entire country had only 60,000 active phone lines in 2002.

The speakers will share data on media trends in the country, and review attitudinal data from the Gallup World Poll. Speakers include:

  • Chris Stewart, Partner, Gallup
  • Bruce Sherman, Director, Office of Strategy and Development, BBG
  • Mohamed Younis, Senior Analyst and Senior Practice Consultant, Gallup
  • Sonja Gloeckle, Director of Research, IBB
  • Paul Tibbitts, Director, Market Insight and Evaluation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

This event is free, but registration is required at http://bbggallupafghanistan.eventbrite.com

For more information, please contact the BBG's Office of Public Affairs at (202) 203-4400 or publicaffairs@bbg.gov


© 1994-2024 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.