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  2. February 2016

February 2016

Google, Twitter and other tech firms face growing pressure around online safety

Tech firms are under growing pressure from the government, parents and advocacy groups to do more as social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter grow in popularity, mobile phone use skyrockets and the lives of children, teens and adults increasingly become tied to the digital world.

Online activity is also becoming more immediate with live video, augmented reality and other innovations creating a tough environment for tech firms dealing with online harassment, terrorism and the dark side of the Internet. Silicon Valley tech firms highlighted their efforts around online safety as part of Safer Internet Day, which happens every year and is meant to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones.

Federal Communications Commission Budget In Brief

The Federal Communications Commission requests $358,286,000 in budget authority from regulatory fee collections to carry out its core statutory mission and Congressional mandates. This represents a decrease of $25,726,497 million or 6.7 percent from the FY 2016 level of $384,012,497, of which $44,168,497 was specifically made available for the necessary expenses associated with moving to a new facility or reconfiguring the existing space to significantly reduce space consumption. In FY 2017, the Commission requests the second installment of $16,866,992 for that same purpose. The Commission also requests funds to follow through on essential information technology (IT) upgrades that includes rewriting legacy applications as part of a modular “shift” to a modern, resilient cloud-based platform.

The President’s National Cybersecurity Plan: What You Need to Know

President Barack Obama has worked for more than seven years to aggressively and comprehensively confront the challenge of malicious cyber activity. So Feb 9, he is directing the Administration to implement a Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) -- the capstone of our national cybersecurity efforts. CNAP puts in place a long-term strategy to ensure the federal government, the private sector, and American citizens can take better control of our digital security. Here’s a brief look at what it does:

  • Establishes a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity that will bring top strategic, business, and technical thinkers from outside the government to make critical recommendations on how we can use new technical solutions and best practices to protect our privacy and public safety.
  • Transforms how the government will manage cybersecurity through the proposal of a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund and a new Federal Chief Information Security Officer to help retire, replace, and modernize legacy IT across the government.
  • Empowers Americans to secure their online accounts by using additional security tools – like multi-factor authentication and other identity processing steps – and by working with Google, Facebook, DropBox, Microsoft, Visa, PayPal, and Venmo to secure online accounts and financial transactions.
  • Invests more than $19 billion for cybersecurity as part of the President’s budget – a more than 35 percent increase from 2015’s request to secure our nation in the future.

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