Network management

Last year when Facebook blocked news in Australia in response to potential legislation making platforms pay publishers for content, it also took down the pages of Australian hospitals, emergency services and charities. It publicly called the resulting chaos “inadvertent.” Internally, the pre-emptive strike was hailed as a strategic masterstroke.

I’m not sure that most people understand the extent to which our online experience has moved to the cloud – and this movement to the cloud means we’re using a lot more bandwidth than in the recent past. A huge number of online functions now reside in the cloud, when only a few years ago a lot of processing was done on our computers. The shift to the cloud is still an ongoing transition and there are still plenty of software packages that are not processed in the cloud, but it’s obvious that everything will eventually be in the cloud.

Your internet service provider (ISP) could be throttling your speed. Here’s a smart way to check what’s going on behind the scenes. All you need is a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN creates a secure bridge between your device(s) and the internet, encrypting your online traffic from all forms of interference, snooping and censorship. If your speed test shows faster speeds without the VPN, it’s time to get to work to improve your connection. First, try updating your router’s firmware.

The US Department of the Treasury is exempting telecommunications services from ongoing sanctions against Russia. The move, confirmed April 7, follows requests from advocacy groups who feared a disruption would cut off Russian activists’ access to the outside world. It may not, however, cause companies that voluntarily cut off access to restore it.

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen delivered remarks on digital assets policy, innovation, and regulation at American University's (DC) Kogod School of Business Center for Innovation. "A few weeks ago, President Biden signed an Executive Order calling for a coordinated and comprehensive government approach to digital asset policy," Yellen said. "Digital assets have grown explosively, reaching a market cap of $3 trillion last November from $14 billion just five years prior.

Increasing interdependencies and deepening uncertainty change how the information society can be governed sustainably. In response, policy approaches worldwide are being reconsidered and new approaches developed that are more appropriate to these conditions. This research explores the conditions under which policies that worked in the past remain appropriate and when they will likely fail. It explores the role of dynamic analytical frames and a reconsideration of the normative principles of information society policies in overcoming these weaknesses.

Global standards ensure that things like smartphones and laptops — and even the internet itself — work across borders. "Standard bodies are essential to ensure interoperability which is critical to achieving 'economies of scale' and technology reach the masses," wireless consultant Chetan Sharma told Axios.  "Geopolitical tensions have a real prospect of splintering the Internet and the wireless industry and the emergence of completely decoupled supply chains and ecosystems around the world," Sharma said.

As Russia makes preparations to possibly disconnect from the global internet in a bid to control the narrative around the invasion of Ukraine, Lantern is rushing to lay the final pieces of an unbreakable network that the Kremlin won’t be able to take down. The company has seen staggering growth inside Russia in the last four weeks for its app that allows users to bypass restrictions the Kremlin has put in place on platforms like Facebook, Twitter

The United States and the European Commission have committed to a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework, which will foster trans-Atlantic data flows and address the concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union when it struck down in 2020 the Commission’s adequacy decision underlying the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. By ensuring a durable and reliable legal basis for data flows, the new framework will underpin an inclusive and competitive digital economy and lay the foundation for further economic cooperation. Through the framework, the US makes commitments to:

There’s no doubt that the open radio access network (RAN) movement has taken the wireless industry by storm. Interest is at an all-time high, but is there a risk the whole thing will blow up due to industry sniping? After all, some players would like to see the big incumbent vendors get out of the way, making room for the new and, presumably, improved set of players.