March 2016

President Barack Obama expanded upon his statement that the rising number of cyberattacks on the US constitutes a national emergency. “These significant malicious cyber-enabled activities continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States,” President Obama wrote in a notice. The President initially made the declaration on April 1, 2015, as part of an executive order that empowered the Treasury Department to levy sanctions on individuals or entities behind cyberattacks and cyber espionage. The move was an attempt to impose costs on foreign hackers who have peppered the US with cyberattacks for years with few repercussions. The sanctions would effectively freeze targets's assets when they pass through the US financial system and prohibit them from transacting with American companies. President Obama said Treasury would retain these powers for at least another year, given the pervasive cyber threat that remains. “The measures adopted on that date to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond April 1, 2016,” he said.

The No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR 2666) would amend existing law to prohibit federal regulation of rates charged for services related to broadband Internet access. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently regulates certain aspects of those services, including activities related to blocking, degrading, or charging fees to prioritize content. At this time, the agency does not regulate the prices charged to consumers for broadband services.

Based on information from the FCC, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would have no significant effect on the agency’s workload and spending relative to current policies. Moreover, under current law, the FCC is authorized to collect fees sufficient to offset the cost of its regulatory activities each year. Therefore, CBO estimates that the net cost to implement H.R. 2666 would be negligible, assuming annual appropriation actions consistent with the agency’s authorities. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2666 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.

China is considering new Internet rules that would pressure service providers to cut off access to foreign websites, adding to the government’s growing legal framework bolstering its control of cyberspace. The proposed rules would prohibit the country’s Internet-service providers from allowing connections to websites with domains, or Web addresses, registered outside China. Violators would face fines of up to 30,000 yuan ($4,621) and public notices exposing their failure to obey.

The new guidelines are part of a set of draft revisions to Chinese regulations on the management of Internet domain names, posted for public comment on a government website. If fully implemented, the regulations would effectively wall off the world’s most populous country from vast swaths of the Internet. Other, similar rules have been weakly enforced in the past, but with Chinese President Xi Jinping dramatically tightening political controls, it is unclear how meaningful the changes would be, analysts said. “They can always backtrack since it’s vague and enforcement is sometimes lax, but given the current climate, it seems to be in line with the increasing crackdown on press and Internet freedom,” said Lokman Tsui, an expert in media and technology policy at Chinese University of Hong Kong.