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One year after the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan, federal officials tout the past year's accomplishments while critics say the agency is moving too slowly and becoming distracted by the net neutrality debate. The truth is, both sides are right to a degree.
Of the plan's 200-plus recommendations, about 34 percent remain untouched, according to the Benton Foundation, a telecommunications public interest group. But almost 10 percent of the proposals are complete, and about 56 percent are in progress or have at least been started. And with a 10-year schedule for implementing the proposals, that puts the FCC roughly on track. According to the agency's own count, it has completed about 80 percent of its first-year goals, which leaves some observers unimpressed. The people who helped draft the 300-page document say it's too soon to render judgment on how effectively the plan is being implemented.
Among the plan's unaccomplished goals: a national public safety communications network and reform of a fund originally used to provide telephone service to rural and low-income areas. But the FCC has started the ball rolling on several of those major goals, while others require congressional action. And the agency has modernized a program to provide schools and libraries with Internet service; approved plans to extend broadband service to tribal lands; moved ahead with the debate over spectrum auctions; and launched a national broadband map.
National Broadband Plan: Too Slow Or Just Right?
A Q&A with National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin. The former Federal Communications Commission staffer is now an Aspen Institute fellow.
Asked -- What's the most grating misunderstanding you've confronted about the NBP? Answers: "That the only thing that counts is the speed of the wireline network to rural homes. It is a very counterproductive way to think about the problem. The right way is to ask: how do we have a ubiquitous, diverse and constantly improving ecosystem of networks, devices, applications, and most of all, people who know how to use them."
Happy Planniversary!
In a letter to Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who has authored comprehensive spectrum inventory legislation with Sen John Kerry (D-MA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski says the analysis is already done.
He says the FCC's "baseline spectrum inventory" is adequate for Congress to move forward on auction proposals. The inventory data is all publicly available in the agency's Spectrum Dashboard and License View online features. The websites will get an overhaul in the coming days to make them more user-friendly, providing granular, community-level information about spectrum holdings. The tools "reflect our understanding of where the most significant spectrum opportunities lie," Chairman Genachowski said in his letter to Sen Snowe.
FCC on spectrum inventory: Already did it Letter (Chairman Genachowski) Letter (Sen Snowe) Genachowski: FCC Has completed Baseline Spectrum Inventory (B&C) CTIA: Country Can't Wait For Spectrum Use Inventory (B&C - CTIA)
The National Association of Broadcasters wants to see the data driving Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's assertion that spectrum hoarding assertions are not true and that there are not "vacant lots" of spectrum being sat on as a speculative play by cable and satellite operators. NAB President Gordon Smith said in a statement smacking of Senatorial courtesy that NAB "would respectfully ask for an independent study to confirm Chairman Genachowski's assurances that spectrum suitable for wireless broadband is not lying fallow, given recent verbatim remarks to the contrary from current FCC licensees."
NAB wants FCC Data Suggesting No Fallow Spectrum
President Barack Obama was scheduled to receive an award March 16 from transparency advocates marking “his deep commitment to an open and transparent government — of, by, and for the people,” according to organizers of the National Freedom of Information Day Conference, who are giving him the award.
But the White House postponed the event due to an undisclosed scheduling conflict. The prize coincides with Sunshine Week, an annual effort by news organizations and transparency advocates to gain better access to government information. Ironically, the event was only open to pool press photographers only — not open to other reporters who cover the White House. The honor is meant to acknowledge Obama’s Open Government Initiative, an effort meant to improve access to government information by requiring federal agencies to adopt “a presumption in favor” of Freedom of Information requests, publicly releasing White House visitor logs, and posting more government data online. He’s the first president to mount an organized drive to improve access to the federal government’s information and data. The conference’s organizers are some of the nation’s most high-profile transparency advocates. Gary Bass is the founder and executive director of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton is director of the National Security Archive at the George Washington University, Danielle Brian runs the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish is executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Patrice McDermott is director of Open The Government, a coalition of good-government groups.
President Obama receiving transparency award
The White House's recommended changes to US copyright laws go too far and threaten civil rights, according to a technology industry association that's members include Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association released a statement condemning the legislative recommendations released by White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel. Espinel called for longer prison sentences for copyright infringers and said Congress should clarify that illegally streaming online content is a felony. CCIA President Ed Black said the White House's recommendations, such as expanding wiretapping laws to include copyright infringements, showed the administration has gone too far in its attempt to appease content providers.
Computer & Communications Industry Association opposes White House IP recommendations
For more than a decade, the United States has relied mainly on voluntary action by private companies to protect the nation's critical cyber infrastructure, but "it's not working," a cybersecurity expert told lawmakers.
Companies own 85 percent of the critical infrastructure, and they have been unwilling to invest what is needed to protect against cyberattacks, James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, told the Homeland Security cybersecurity subcommittee. That leaves key parts of the infrastructure, such as the electrical grid and financial institutions, vulnerable to crippling attacks, he said. Lewis heads the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "No sector has a greater incentive than banks to protect their networks," he said. "They are a constant target. Some banks, particularly top-tier banks, have sophisticated defenses. Despite this, they are hacked. "If banks cannot protect themselves, why do we think other sectors will be able to do so?" Lewis asked.
Private sector not adequately defending US cyberspace, security expert warns
This testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies discusses the cyber threats to critical infrastructure and the American economy.
Pervasive and sustained cyber attacks against the United States continue to pose a potentially devastating impact on federal and nonfederal systems and operations. In February 2011, the Director of National Intelligence testified that, in the past year, there had been a dramatic increase in malicious cyber activity targeting U.S. computers and networks, including a more than tripling of the volume of malicious software since 2009. Recent press reports that computer hackers broke into and stole proprietary information worth millions of dollars from the networks of six U.S. and European energy companies also demonstrate the risk that our nation faces. Such attacks highlight the importance of developing a concerted response to safeguard federal and nonfederal information systems. GAO recently issued its high-risk list of government programs that have greater vulnerability to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or need transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges. Once again, we identified protecting the federal government's information systems and the nation's cyber critical infrastructure as a governmentwide high-risk area. We have designated federal information security as a high-risk area since 1997; in 2003, we expanded this high-risk area to include protecting systems supporting our nation's critical infrastructure, referred to as cyber critical infrastructure protection or cyber CIP. This testimony describes: 1) cyber threats to cyber-reliant critical infrastructures and federal information systems and (2) the continuing challenges federal agencies face in protecting the nation's cyber-reliant critical infrastructures and federal systems.
GAO: Continued Attention Needed to Protect Our Nation's Critical Infrastructure and Federal Information Systems
Rep Jim Langevin (D-RI) unveiled a comprehensive cybersecurity bill that would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to regulate the security of private networks deemed part of the nation's critical infrastructure.
The bill would give DHS the authority to create an enforcement risk-based security standards for utility firms, financial institutions and other private networks deemed crucial to the nation's physical and economic security. The approach appears similar to the cybersecurity bill championed by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in recent years. Rep Langevin introduced his legislation the same day as a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing examining the cyber threat to the nation's economy. Obama administration officials and experts emphasized in their testimony the gravity of the threat facing US networks.
Rep Langevin introduces cybersecurity bill
The Obama Administration's recently-unveiled information technology roadmap is helping agencies push forward toward their IT goals, according to leading government chief information officers. But much work remains to be done before declaring success, the CIOs warned.
"We're very proud in the first 97 days of what has been done," said Vivek Kundra, federal CIO, addressing the annual Interagency Resources Management Conference. In December, the White House introduced a 25-point plan to improve information technology governmentwide. The plan encourages agencies to take advantage of Web-based computing services to reduce data center operations. It assigned agencies 25 goals and required they identify within three months three "must move" services, transitioning one of those services to the cloud within a year and shifting the remaining two within 18 months. "There were some concerns that maybe this was too ambitious," said Woody Hall, the discussion's moderator and CIO of General Dynamics Information Technology. "But all of you have actually embraced this -- these are real initiatives being implemented." Even so, the CIOs said by no means can the new plan succeed without significant and sustained effort on the part of agency managers.
Agencies on track to implement White House IT strategy, CIOs say