WASHINGTON, June 1, 2011 - Cyberwar is war and the United States will treat it as such, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said an unnamed military official. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2011 - House Subcommittee members received answers long on ideas but short on specifics when they probed Obama administration officials during a hearing Wednesday on the President's cybersecurity review. The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet explored the ramifications of the Obama administration’s Cyberspace Policy Review in an oversight hearing that featured two witness panels representing federal and private interests. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON May 17, 2011- As part of National Small Business Week, the Federal Communications Commission assembled leading experts for a cybersecurity roundtable discussion on Monday and unveiled a set of new partnerships aimed at educating the public. “A recent Symantec study found that American small businesses lose billions annually to cyber-attacks, and 74 percent of small and medium businesses reported being affected by cyber-attacks in the past 12 months,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “The average cost of each cyber-attack to small and medium sized businesses is nearly $200,000.” Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2011 - Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Ed Markey (D-MD) released a discussion draft of to-be-introduced legislation that would update the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to reflect changes in current technology. The Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011 would make several changes to the existing law, which dates back to 1998. Since then, says Rep. Barton, the Internet landscape has changed dramatically. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON May 5, 2011- At the Washington Caucus meeting of the Computer and Communications Industry Association Wednesday, Congressional leaders presented their views on preserving the Open Internet, expanding patent reform, ensuring consumer privacy online and the need for spectrum reform. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, Monday, April 18, 2011 – The University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering Cyber Defense Team won first place in the 5th annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Challenge (NCCDC), with Texas A&M following in second place and the University of Louisville in third. The three-day challenge was held April 16-18th at the Hilton San Antonio Hotel. The competition was created in 2005 to spur regular cyber security exercises amongst post-secondary level students. The contestants are made up of winning teams from each regional challenge, with nine teams competing in this year’s challenge. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, April 14, 2011 - In a town where there are as many opinions as there are issues, TechFreedom, a new think tank, aims to provide a non-partisan approach to privacy issues from a free market, libertarian stance. The core focus of TechFreedom approaches privacy issues from two vantage points. One is to seek better protection from law enforcement intrusion, as seen in its efforts to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Second is in facilitating the least invasive government regulation of how the private sector uses data. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2011 - Reps. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), Co-Chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus sent letters Tuesday to Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T asking the wireless companies to disclose how the firms collect and stored user location data. The letters to all four major wireless carriers were sent response to a recent story in the New York Times, which reported that the German mobile provider Deutsche Telekom tracked the locations of German politicians. Keep Reading
PROVO, March 28, 2011 - Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) visited Provo, Utah, Friday to answer questions posted to the Brigham Young University Facebook page. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2011 - Ookla, the company that owns and manages the connection testing website, Speedtest.net, relaunched the site Monday with an updated look and new functionality to better record consumer connection data. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON March 3, 2011- The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has announced the formation of a Cyber Attack Task Force to evaluate and help protect the U.S. power grid in the event of an online assault. NERC is an independent, international organization that seeks to ensure the “reliability of the bulk power system in North… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 28, 2011 – Reps. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Edward Markey (D-MA), Co-Chairmen of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, shared Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s response to a letter they wrote to him on February 2, 2011, questioning a particular privacy feature on Facebook that would potentially share mobile numbers and home addresses with websites and third party-applications. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, February 4, 2011 - Senate lawmakers are considering a measure that would allow the President to declare a national cyber emergency and give him the power to use an internet “kill switch” which could shut down internet access nationally. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2011 - The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), released his legislative agenda for the upcoming year on Friday. The senator plans to prioritize three broad areas: economic security and growth, proactive homeland security and consumer protection. “In the new Congress,” said Rockefeller… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, November 3, 2010 - As consumers provide large amounts of private information to web services, the government is tuning into the fact that the use of this information by these companies is becoming increasingly important. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 28, 2010 - The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau hit Verizon Wireless with a record $25 million payment to the government for mystery fees the company charged its customers during the last several years. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 7, 2010 – The International Telecommunications Union this week opened its three-week conference in Mexico with a call by its secretary general for delegates to be “bold and visionary” in reaching agreements providing a sound platform for the development of information and communications technologies. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 14, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday unveiled a tool allowing anyone to view licenses overseen by the agency. A quick tour of www.fcc.gov/licenseview, shows that there are about 3 million total managed licenses, of which about 2 million are active. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 3, 2010 - The Indian government has announced that it will give notice to all communications services that it would like access to their networks. In the aftermath of last year's Mumbai terror attacks, the government wants to be able to access communications networks to monitor for terrorist activities. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, September 1, 2010 - Sometimes, no matter what you do, things are complicated and you can’t please every one all the time. Welcome to the world of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski who said Wednesday that his agency is seeking more public input on issues related to specialized services and mobile broadband. While he didn’t specifically refer to the recent controversial policy pact made by Google and Verizon regarding managed services and wireless issues, he was presumably reacting to it. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 31, 2010 - India's government has given BlackBerry-maker RIM two more months to comply with a request for increased access to e-mail from its users. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 19, 2010 - India is the latest nation to require Research in Motion to provide a government with access to the traffic across the RIM network. The nation gave the Canadian phone maker until the end of the month to comply with a request for access to its network. RIM has acquiesced and beginning Sept. 1 will give India access to the BlackBerry messenger service. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 16, 2010 – Complaints to the Federal Communication Commission about various issues increased 230 percent during the first quarter of this year over the fourth quarter of last year, largely thanks to broadcast indecency incidents. General inquires increased 7 percent during this timeframe. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 12, 2010 - The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on a cybersecurity roadmap to identify vulnerabilities to communications networks or end users as it endeavors to help craft a national plan to protect the nation. Keep Reading
The Saudi government has decided to back down from its threat to shutter the BlackBerry corporate messenger service in the United Arab Emirates, saying it is making progress in talks with device maker Research in Motion. Meanwhile, Germany's interior minister told a German newspaper that the German government is recommending banning the use of the BlackBerry and iPhone because of increased attacks on Germany networks. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON August 6, 2010 - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved legislation that gives the Secretary of Energy the power to issue orders regarding threats to the electric grid. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 5, 2010 - It has been reported that Google and Verizon are working on a secret pact about network neutrality. The New York Times says this pact will give Google products preferential treatment on the Verizon network. However both firms are claiming this is untrue. Public interest organizations however bemoan the entire concept of a secret pact. Keep Reading
LONDON, August 4, 2010 - The plan announced this week by the United Arab Emirates to ban use of BlackBerry Messenger, e-mail and web browsing services by Oct. 11 unless the company allows it to access the encrypted messages on demand has drawn universal condemnation from freedom and privacy groups, but more a muted governmental response. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 3, 2010 – Federal agencies have not provided top-level leadership for the United States on cybersecurity issues, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. Additionally, the United States possesses no “clear vision” of how cybersecurity impacts national goals. Rather, the nation has engaged in an ad hoc selection of cybersecurity measures. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, August 2, 2010 – According to a study on Cybercrime released by Verizon Wireless almost half of security breaches in the United States Government are committed with the help of insiders with knowledge of the system. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2010 – Following an investigation of Google’s unauthorized Wi-Fi data collection, UK data protection authorities announced that the telecom giant had not done real damage. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 – Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation are worried about unclear consumer online privacy policies and the negative effects of targeted advertising. Representatives from Apple, Facebook, Google, The Cato Institute, AT&T, and the Annenberg School for Communication overviewed their current privacy policies and tools, and outlined the future of their privacy controls. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 – The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission have formed a task force to deal with online privacy concerns facing American consumers. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON July 28, 2010 –Speaking at a conference on cybersecurity hosted by the Department of Commerce yesterday, one expert argued that when it comes to cybersecurity threats, “we don’t need a new strategy.” The speaker, Philip Reitinger of the Department for Homeland Security, made the observation in the introduction to his remarks on how combating cybersecurity might be accomplished in the current climate. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON July 21, 2010- Sweden’s Pirate Party is planning to launch its own ISP which will be maintained by users. Subscribers will be responsible for fixing network issues and helping their fellow customers with technical support. The ISP will also not maintain any logs of usage. Users will access the ISP via an anonymous virtual private network service, iPredator, which famously manages The Pirate Bay. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 21, 2010 – Buried within a 40 page privacy policy Apple says that it will share location data with its partners. “Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.” With increased concern by consumers about the collection and use of location data and other personal data being shared with advertisers Reps. Edward Markey and Joe Barton sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs a letter requesting information on the policy and services. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2010 –White House Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President Howard Schmidt has announced that 12 of 19 Federal agencies would be newly covered by EINSTEIN intrusion detection software. The decision came in the context of a series of talks regarding cybersecurity at the White House – talks in which President Obama himself participated. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2010 - A group of government bodies and a private entity with deep ties to the internet on Friday afternoon announced that they have taken additional steps to better protect internet users against cache poisoning and other cyber attacks. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 13, 2010 – Major U.S. technology companies are worrying over an international trade agreement currently under negotiations because they see it as putting them on shaky legal ground. At the third Intellectual Property Breakfast Club held by BroadbandBreakfast.com, panelists argued over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and its potential impact on the technology industry. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, July 12, 2010- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Cybersercurity Coordinator recently released a joint memo in which their specific responsibilities were outlined following the regulations in the Federal Information and Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA). Keep Reading