July 2015

The United States wants to push back the date it gives up symbolic control of the Internet

The United States will likely need to retain its historical oversight authority over the Internet's naming and addressing system for a little longer, a delay that will keep the US government from moving ahead with a plan to give up some of its legacy powers over the Web. The extension could last through July 2016 or even longer, said Larry Strickling, head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, before a congressional panel on July 8. The United States' old contract with ICANN expires on Sept. 30, but will need to be extended to give ICANN a chance to finalize a proposal for handling the new responsibility, Strickling said.

The proposal is expected to be delivered to US officials by November 2015 -- a move that will kickstart a lengthy review process by Washington. The transition has been at times controversial, with critics saying it would give foreign governments such as China or Russia an opportunity to manipulate the future of the Web. But those concerns were largely addressed in June when the House passed the DOTCOM Act, which imposes accountability requirements on the transition process. ICANN president Fadi Chehadé said that governments have not asked for new or expanded powers.

Cyberthreats and Data Breaches Illustrate Need for Stronger Controls across Federal Agencies

Effective cybersecurity for federal information systems is essential to preventing the loss of resources, the compromise of sensitive information, and the disruption of government operations. Since 1997, the US Government Accountability Office has designated federal information security as a government-wide high-risk area, and in 2003 expanded this area to include computerized systems supporting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Earlier in 2014, in GAO’s high-risk update, the area was further expanded to include protecting the privacy of personal information that is collected, maintained, and shared by both federal and nonfederal entities.

This statement summarizes (1) cyberthreats to federal systems, (2) challenges facing federal agencies in securing their systems and information, and (3) government-wide initiatives aimed at improving cybersecurity. In preparing this statement, GAO relied on its previously published and ongoing work in this area. In previous work, GAO and agency inspectors general have made hundreds of recommendations to assist agencies in addressing cybersecurity challenges. GAO has also made recommendations to improve government-wide initiatives.

DHS Secretary: 'Federal Cybersecurity Is Not Where It Needs To Be'

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reaffirmed his goal to make the latest version of a cybersecurity intrusion detection and prevention platform -- known as EINSTEIN 3A -- available to all federal civilian agencies by the end of 2015. In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Secretary Johnson described the department's cyber response acceleration, in response to recent threats including the breach of Office of Personnel Management's employee data. The OPM breach "remains the subject of an ongoing investigation," Secretary Johnson said, but added, "to be frank, our federal cybersecurity is not where it needs to be."

What will happen to the Internet if Reddit shuts down

[Commentary] If Reddit went offline tomorrow, you would see immediate ripples across the Internet. First, and perhaps least importantly, traffic to porn sites would plummet. Later, major news, entertainment and e-commerce sites, including YouTube and Amazon, would feel a notable, if not debilitating, hit. And then, concur a dozen Reddit power-users, academics and social media experts, life would go on as normal across the Internet.

To be clear, no one actually expects the Internet’s “front page,” and its 35th most popular Web site, to shut down -- not now, anyway. But in the wake of Reddit’s latest and most traumatic bout of internal drama, several pundits have found themselves pondering the hypothetical worst case: one in which the tensions between Reddit’s leadership and its user base topple the site, entirely.

Alabama residents sue Windstream to get higher wireline broadband speeds

A number of Windstream's customers in Alabama aren't happy about the wireline DSL speeds they are getting from Windstream, and they are suing the company in the hopes the telecommunication company will respond by upgrading its wireline infrastructure. In St. Clair County, three lawyers are collaborating with the goal of motivating Windstream to upgrade its infrastructure in these areas, stemming from complaints residents have had about the service they get today. A number of users in Broadband DSL Reports' User Reviews site say that many customers have reported they can't even get 1 Mbps DSL speeds.

Michael Teague, a Windstream spokesman, said that the lines in the area were never upgraded with next-gen technology such as ADSL2+ or VDSL2 because of the belief that more consumers would just use their wireless devices as the primary means to get Internet services. Being a wireline-centric provider itself, Windstream capitalized on the 4G LTE buildout boom by building out fiber to cell towers in its service area to provide wireless backhaul services. What changed in the home was the advent Wi-Fi and the growing consumer appetite for streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu. "Industry-wide, we found people still want that broadband delivered to their homes so they can stream multiple devices wirelessly," said Teague. "It created a kind of shift in the thinking, and it's come back around."

Moffett: AT&T FTTH Commitment is Bad News for Cable Companies

Pending approval of its DirecTV acquisition, AT&T’s commitment to a major expansion of its fiber-to-the-premises network could create some major challenges for cable companies, notes Craig Moffett, senior analyst for financial research firm Moffett Nathanson in a research note. An AT&T Federal Communications Commission filing revealed that the company had agreed to extend its FTTP network to reach a total of 11.7 million locations if the DirecTV acquisition is approved -- and according to news reports that approval is expected during the week of July 6. The carrier also agreed to make gigabit service available to an undisclosed percentage of new locations passed.

“[N]obody to whom we’ve spoken had expected a number as high as this,” commented Moffett. “The number disclosed last week is fully nine million higher than their previously published commitments.” And that doesn’t bode well for cable companies, according to Moffett and his research team, who reminded readers that telecommunication company fiber builds of the mid-2000s “weighed on” cable stocks for five years.

FCC Review Team Announced for Proposed Charter-Time Warner Cable-Bright House Networks Transaction

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced the members of an inter-bureau steering committee and the working team leaders established to coordinate the FCC’s review of merger applications from Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

Jonathan Sallet, General Counsel, will chair the steering committee that will oversee review of the transaction. Bureau chiefs on the steering committee include Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre, Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Matthew DelNero, and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Roger Sherman.

Owen M. Kendler will join the Office of General Counsel to lead the working team responsible for the review of the proposed transaction. Kendler comes to the FCC on a detail from the Department of Justice, where he has been since 2003, most recently as Assistant Chief, Telecommunications & Media Enforcement Section, in DOJ’s Antitrust Division. Betsy McIntyre from the Wireline Competition Bureau will be Kendler’s deputy. The CharterTime Warner Cable-Bright House Networks working team will report to the steering committee.

William Rogerson will serve as senior economist overseeing the review of the proposed CharterTime Warner Cable-Brighthouse Networks transaction. Most recently, Rogerson served as the senior economist on the Comcast-Time Warner Cable and AT&T-DirecTV transactions. In addition to being a former Chief Economist of the FCC, Rogerson is a Professor at Northwestern University, where he has served as Chair of the Department of Economics.

FBI chief tells Senate committee we’re doomed without crypto backdoors

James Comey, the director of the FBI, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the government should have the right to lawfully access any device or electronic form of communication with a lawful court order, even if it is encrypted. Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates briefed the committee and complained that keys necessary to decrypt communications and electronic devices often reside "solely in the hands of the end user"-- which they said is emblematic of the so-called "Going Dark problem." Companies should bake encryption backdoors into their products to allow lawful access, they said. "We are not asking to expand the government's surveillance authority, but rather we are asking to ensure that we can continue to obtain electronic information and evidence pursuant to the legal authority that Congress has provided to us to keep America safe," read the joint prepared remarks.

"Mr. Chairman, the Department of Justice believes that the challenges posed by the Going Dark problem are grave, growing, and extremely complex." To counter this, the duo said the government is actively developing its own decryption tools. The remarks said, "We should also continue to invest in developing tools, techniques, and capabilities designed to mitigate the increasing technical challenges associated with the Going Dark problem. In limited circumstances, this investment may help mitigate the risks posed in high priority national security or criminal cases, although it will most likely be unable to provide a timely or scalable solution in terms of addressing the full spectrum of public safety needs."

How the audacious Pentagon agency that invented the Internet is now trying to save it

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the audacious Pentagon research agency that invented the Internet, is trying to figure out how to protect it. The agency’s conclusion: We’re doing cybersecurity all wrong. Today, most network protective systems are like fire alarms; they sound when there’s smoke, and then the firefighters arrive to extinguish the flames. But DARPA, dubbed the “Department of Mad Scientists,” envisions a massive, automated computer system that not only detects the smoke, but prevents the fire from happening in the first place -- or snuffs it out almost immediately. “The computer security industry is basically a bunch of automated detectors set up to let us know when it’s time to call the cavalry -- those people who can do the job computers can’t,” said Michael Walker, a DARPA program manager. “And when we call in the cavalry, most of the time we’ve already lost.”

To build a fully automated, computer-driven system that would find bugs in software and patch them on its own, DARPA has invited teams from all over the country to compete in a major cyberbattle it calls the Grand Cyber Challenge, with a $2 million first prize. The goal is to level a playing field that today is wildly in favor of hackers, Walker said. If a computer system could be envisioned as being 1 million miles long, he said, hackers only have to find a single crack, while “the defense has to guard the entire wall.” Only a computer system is capable of the immense task of finding every crack and patching them before they can be exploited, he said.

Judge tosses jury’s $533 million patent verdict against Apple, orders new trial

A $533 million jury verdict that would have been the largest ever for a "patent assertion entity" has been struck down four months after a jury granted it. US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who oversaw the case against Apple, has ruled that the damages verdict must be thrown out because of a faulty instruction to the jury. He has ordered a new trial to be held solely on the issue of damages. Judge Gilstrap said the jury was instructed about the "entire market value rule" of patent damages, even though Smartflash didn't apply that model in its case. "[T]he confusion created by the instruction noted above warrants a new trial on damages in this case," Judge Gilstrap wrote in the order. "The Court is persuaded, in the clarity of post-trial hindsight, that such instruction may have created a skewed damages horizon for the jury." If upheld, verdict would be largest yet for a patent assertion company. The judge also expressed concern about a consumer survey Smartflash used in its damage model but wrote, "At this time, the Court does not comment on the sufficiency of Smartflash's survey questions."

In a separate order, Judge Gilstrap ruled that Apple's infringement isn't willful, despite the jury's finding otherwise. During trial, Smartflash lawyers grilled Apple Senior Director Augustin Farrugia, who met with the Smartflash inventor back in 2000 before he worked at Apple. "[T]he Court finds nothing in his testimony which even approximates the clear and convincing evidence necessary to establish willfulness," Judge Gilstrap wrote.

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