Grant Gross
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Cerf thinks encryption back doors would be ‘super risky’
Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf argued Monday that more users should encrypt their data, and that the encryption back doors the U.S. FBI and other law enforcement agencies are asking for will weaken online security.The Internet has numerous security challenges, and it needs more users and ISPs to adopt strong measures like encryption, two-factor authentication and HTTP over SSL, said Cerf, chief Internet evangelist at Google, in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.Recent calls by the FBI and other government officials for technology vendors to build encryption workarounds into their products is a bad idea, said Cerf, co-creator of TCP/IP. “If you have a back door, somebody will find it, and that somebody may be a bad guy,” he said. “Creating this kind of technology is super, super risky.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cisco names senior VP Robbins as new CEO to replace Chambers
Cisco Systems has appointed Chuck Robbins, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, as CEO, replacing long-time chief executive John Chambers. Robbins will take over as CEO in late July. Chambers, who has been Cisco’s CEO for 20 years, is moving to the role of executive chairman on July 26. He will continue to serve as chairman of the board at the company. Chambers, in a statement, called Robbins a “very strong leader” who has great knowledge of the company. Robbins joined Cisco in 1997 as an account manager and he now leads the company’s global sales and partner team. Before joining Cisco, he held management positions at Bay Networks and Ascend Communications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ACLU: NSA phone dragnet should be killed not amended
The U.S. Congress should kill the section of the Patriot Act that has allowed the National Security Agency to collect millions of phone records from the nation’s residents, instead of trying to amend it, a civil liberties advocate said Friday.Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the NSA to collect phone records, business records and any other “tangible things” related to an anti-terrorism investigation, expires in June, and lawmakers should let it die, said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to approve a bill to amend that section of the anti-terrorism law. The USA Freedom Act would end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records by narrowing the scope of the agency’s searches, backers of the bill said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ACLU: NSA phone dragnet should be killed not amended
The U.S. Congress should kill the section of the Patriot Act that has allowed the National Security Agency to collect millions of phone records from the nation’s residents, instead of trying to amend it, a civil liberties advocate said Friday.Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the NSA to collect phone records, business records and any other “tangible things” related to an anti-terrorism investigation, expires in June, and lawmakers should let it die, said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to approve a bill to amend that section of the anti-terrorism law. The USA Freedom Act would end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records by narrowing the scope of the agency’s searches, backers of the bill said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Telecom trade groups, ISPs ask for delay of net neutrality rules
Five telecom trade groups and two broadband providers have asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to put a hold on net neutrality rules it recently approved.Seeking a partial stay of the FCC’s rules are trade groups USTelecom, CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the American Cable Association and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association as well as ISPs AT&T and CenturyLink. The groups asked the FCC Friday to put a hold on its decision to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, but the requests do not affect the commission’s rules that prohibit blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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House committee approves bill to end NSA phone records program
A U.S. Congress committee has overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency.The 25-2 vote in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sends the USA Freedom Act to the House floor for a vote. The two votes against the bill came from lawmakers who had argued for stronger protections for civil liberties.The legislation is a stronger version of a similar bill that passed the House last May but stalled in the Senate, sponsors said. However, several efforts to further strengthen privacy protections by amending the bill failed in committee. Opponents said changes would upend a carefully crafted compromise with House Republican leaders who have threatened to kill an amended bill.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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House committee approves bill to end NSA phone records program
A U.S. Congress committee has overwhelmingly approved legislation designed to stop the bulk collection of U.S. phone records by the National Security Agency.The 25-2 vote in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee sends the USA Freedom Act to the House floor for a vote. The two votes against the bill came from lawmakers who had argued for stronger protections for civil liberties.The legislation is a stronger version of a similar bill that passed the House last May but stalled in the Senate, sponsors said. However, several efforts to further strengthen privacy protections by amending the bill failed in committee. Opponents said changes would upend a carefully crafted compromise with House Republican leaders who have threatened to kill an amended bill.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Rand Paul’s bill would overturn US net neutrality rules
U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, has introduced legislation that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s recent net neutrality rules.Paul on Wednesday introduced a resolution of disapproval, a move that allows Congress to review new federal regulations from government agencies, using an expedited legislative process.Paul, of Kentucky, joins House of Representatives Republicans, who introduced their own resolution of disapproval earlier in April. Both bills are largely symbolic. While resolutions of disapproval cannot be filibustered, or blocked, by minority Democrats in the Senate, President Barack Obama would almost certainly veto the efforts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lawmakers criticize FBI’s request for encryption back doors
U.S. lawmakers are skeptical of an FBI request for Congress to mandate encryption workarounds in smartphones, with critics saying Wednesday that back doors would create new vulnerabilities that bad guys can exploit.It’s currently impossible for smartphone makers to build in back doors that allow law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications but also keep out cybercriminals, witnesses and lawmakers said during a hearing before the IT subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee.Law enforcement representatives called on lawmakers to find a way to allow access to encrypted data as a way to prevent serious crime. Late last year, FBI Director James Comey called for a public debate on encryption after Apple and Google announced they would offer new encryption tools on their smartphone OSes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lawmakers criticize FBI’s request for encryption back doors
U.S. lawmakers are skeptical of an FBI request for Congress to mandate encryption workarounds in smartphones, with critics saying Wednesday that back doors would create new vulnerabilities that bad guys can exploit.It’s currently impossible for smartphone makers to build in back doors that allow law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications but also keep out cybercriminals, witnesses and lawmakers said during a hearing before the IT subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee.Law enforcement representatives called on lawmakers to find a way to allow access to encrypted data as a way to prevent serious crime. Late last year, FBI Director James Comey called for a public debate on encryption after Apple and Google announced they would offer new encryption tools on their smartphone OSes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Bill to rein in NSA phone data collection reintroduced
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country.Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Bill to rein in NSA phone data collection reintroduced
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country.Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Consumer groups dance on the grave of Comcast-TW deal
Consumer groups are cheering the news that Comcast abandoned its proposed US$45 billion acquisition of fellow cable and broadband provider Time Warner Cable, saying it’s good for customers and demonstrates the power of Internet activism.Comcast’s decision, announced Friday, would have taken away a major cable and broadband provider in the U.S., critics of the deal argued.“The only competition consumers would have had in their living rooms if this mega-merger had gone forward would be who handles the remote control,” Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement. “Combining Comcast and Time Warner Cable would have created a corporate colossi, hampering consumer choice, competition and innovation in both the broadband and pay TV marketplace.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Consumer groups dance on the grave of Comcast-TW deal
Consumer groups are cheering the news that Comcast abandoned its proposed US$45 billion acquisition of fellow cable and broadband provider Time Warner Cable, saying it’s good for customers and demonstrates the power of Internet activism.Comcast’s decision, announced Friday, would have taken away a major cable and broadband provider in the U.S., critics of the deal argued.“The only competition consumers would have had in their living rooms if this mega-merger had gone forward would be who handles the remote control,” Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement. “Combining Comcast and Time Warner Cable would have created a corporate colossi, hampering consumer choice, competition and innovation in both the broadband and pay TV marketplace.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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DOD wants to rebuild trust with the technology industry
The U.S. Department of Defense must rebuild trust with Silicon Valley because it needs new technology partners to fight against cyberattacks, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Thursday.The DOD is looking to build its defensive cybersecurity capabilities with help from technology vendors, but the military also will deploy offensive measures when its warranted, Carter said in a speech at Stanford University.The department sees its cybersecurity role as largely focused on defense, but “adversaries should know that our preference for deterrence and our defensive posture don’t diminish our willingness to use cyber options if necessary,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FTC complains retail tracking firm didn’t notify customers
A company that tracked retail store customers through their smartphones without notifying them and without giving them a chance to turn off the tracking has settled a U.S. Federal Trade Commission complaint that it didn’t live up to its privacy promises.Retail tracking firm Nomi Technologies stated in its privacy policy from late 2012 that it would provide a customer opt-out mechanism at stores using its tracking services, thus implying that it would notify customers of the tracking efforts, the FTC said. But the company did not give customers an opt-out option and did not notify customers they were being tracked, the agency said Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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House passes second cyberthreat information-sharing bill
For the second time in two days, the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to pass a bill that would give legal protections to companies that share cyberattack information.The House on Thursday voted 355 to 63 to pass the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (NCPA), which would protect companies from customer lawsuits after they voluntarily share cyberthreat information with each other and with government agencies.The NCPA is similar in several ways to the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA), which passed the chamber on Wednesday, despite concerns from some lawmakers that it would allow some customer information to wind up in the hands of surveillance agency the U.S. National Security Agency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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US House approves cyberthreat sharing bill; privacy concerns remain
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve legislation that would encourage companies to share cyberattack information with each other and with the government, despite concerns that it would put new consumer information in the hands of surveillance agencies. The House voted 307 to 116 on Wednesday to approve the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA), which would protect companies that voluntarily share information from customer lawsuits. Several digital rights groups and cybersecurity researchers oppose the bill, saying it requires data shared with civilian agencies, including potentially personal information, to be passed on to the National Security Agency.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Senate leader introduces bill to extend Patriot Act surveillance
The majority leader of the U.S. Senate has introduced a bill that would extend the surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, instead of expiring on June 1.The bill, introduced by Senator Mitch McConnell Tuesday night, would extend section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial part of the law that the U.S. National Security Agency has used to collect U.S. telephone records in bulk. Many digital and civil rights groups have protested the NSA phone records collection program, saying it violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protecting the country’s residents against unreasonable searches and seizures.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lack of broadband in some areas still limiting telemedicine
A lack of broadband service is limiting the deployment of telemedicine services in some places of the U.S., and not just remote rural areas, some experts say.Panasonic of North America, while providing Internet-based heart monitoring services for elderly residents of the New York City area, found several places were there were no wired broadband, Wi-Fi or strong mobile signals available, Todd Rytting, CTO for the company, told a U.S. Senate committee Tuesday.The SmartCare monitoring service significantly reduced the numbers of heart patients who had to return to the hospital, but “the biggest problem we faced was the lack of broadband to some of our citizens,” Rytting said. Some potential users of the service couldn’t get a broadband connection in “downtown New York City,” he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here