The Week in Internet News: Microsoft Reduces Password Count

What’s my password again? Microsoft has changed its baseline security configuration, which had suggested passwords be changed every 60 days, Ars Technica reports. Requiring users to change passwords so often can be counterproductive by encouraging them to pick easy-to-remember passwords, the article says.

Big money: Facebook has set aside $3 billion to pay a potential fine to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over its handling of users’ personal data and various data breaches, CNet reports. Some critics say the expected fine, which could reach $5 billion, is a slap on the wrist for a company that clears tens of billions a year in profits, Recode suggests.

Blocking speech: Terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 350 people on April 21 have prompted the government there to block social media in an effort to prevent the spread of fake news, CNN reports. While some groups praised the decision others said that restricting free speech isn’t productive, Wired.com says.

Censorship on the rise: Meanwhile, it’s becoming increasingly common for governments to block Facebook and other social media for a variety of reasons. This social media blocking could lead to wider censorship efforts, The Verge suggests.

Please regulate us: Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Arkansas Reverses Ban on Municipal Broadband

Change in direction: A story at CityLab.com examines why the state of Arkansas has moved to rescind a 2011 ban on community-financed broadband networks. The state is the least connected in the U.S., according to one group, and residents have complained about “lousy” broadband options.

White and male: The Artificial Intelligence too white and too male, according to research from the AI Now Institute at New York University. About 80 percent of AI professors are men, and just 15 percent of the AI research staff at Facebook and 10 percent at Google are women, notes a story on the research at The Verge. Racial minorities also make up a small percentage of AI staff at large tech vendors.

Comey vs. encryption: Former U.S. FBI Director James Comey, who pushed for ways for law enforcement agencies to break into encrypted devices while he was in government, now says he would have taken a different approach to the encryption debate, the Washington Post reports. Comey says it was “dumb” to launch the encryption debate by criticizing U.S. tech companies. However, he still believes law enforcement agencies need access to encrypted communications.

Censorship vs. disinformation: The Ukraine government Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Tech Giants’ ‘Ethical AI’ Efforts Scrutinized

Building nice AIs: Efforts by large tech vendors to think about ways to design “ethical Artificial Intelligence” systems have hit some speedbumps along the way, says Insurance Journal. Google abandoned its newly formed ethical AI council after employee complaints about its membership. Some critics say efforts to create ethical AI teams are attempts by companies to avoid regulations.

No smoking or bikinis: Business Insider India has a look at the efforts of the Chinese government to police Internet and social media content, with smoking, excessive tattoos, and in some cases, bikinis prohibited. At Inke, one of China’s largest livestreaming companies, a group of about 1,200 moderators attempt to keep up with the government’s rules, the story says.

Fake news arms race: Facebook has announced a new round of efforts to fight fake news with updates to updates to News Feed, Messenger, and Instagram, Fortune reports. The social media giant is expanding its fact-checking capabilities, and it is trying to limit the reach of groups that repeatedly spread misinformation. Facebook also says it’s getting better at identifying click-bait.

Comments gone wild: YouTube shut down comments on the livestream of a U.S. Congress hearing on white nationalism after the comments section Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Facebook Calls for New Internet Regulations

More regulation, please: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, called on governments to get more involved in Internet regulation, including defining harmful content and making rules on how sites should handle it. Governments should also look at new laws to protect elections, to improve consumer privacy, and to guarantee data portability, Zuckerberg said. His ideas weren’t universally embraced, however. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a blog post, said there were “fundamental problems” with governments policing harmful content, particularly in defining what’s harmful.

Hold my beer: Australia’s parliament didn’t take long to look at new regulations, with lawmakers passing legislation that would create three-year jail terms for social media executives and operators of other websites that do not remove violent content in an “expeditious” manner, NPR reports. Web-based services could also be fined up to 10 percent of their annual revenue for not complying with the law.

Even more laws: Singapore is the latest country to consider legislation attacking fake news. A proposed law there would require online news sites to publish corrections or warnings about stories the government decides are fake news and remove articles in extreme cases, the Straits Times reports. The Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: U.S. Census Seeks Help with Fake News from Tech Giants

Fake news fears: The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking help from Google, Facebook, and Twitter to fight off fake news during its 2020 population count, Reuters reports. Some groups appear to be targeting the census as a way to redirect congressional representation and federal funding.

Broadband for all: The Vermont House has voted for a bill to add funding for broadband deployment, including community broadband projects, Vermont Public Radio reports. About 17,000 Vermont residents don’t have broadband available, and many others have slow Internet service.

Copyright rules divide: New copyright rules in the European Union may lead to a different Internet experience there, The Verge says. With the EU’s Copyright Directive, there’s now a European Internet that feels different that the U.S. Internet and the authoritarian Internet in some countries, the story says. Among other things, the new rules allow publishers to charge platforms like Google News for displaying snippets of stories.

Encryption rising: The use of encryption by large companies has hit an all-time high, Dark Reading notes. About 45 percent of enterprises have encryption plans in place.

Fake news fighters: Facebook has launched a fake-news fighting effort in India as the country heads toward elections, Time. Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Russia Moves Toward Test of Internet Disconnect

A separate Internet: The MIT Technology Review looks at the implications of Russia’s test to cut itself off from the rest of the Internet, scheduled for early April. The shutdown is a test of an Internet sovereignty law being considered in Russia, but it’s unclear how the country will actually accomplish the disconnect.

Clamping down: Egypt is cracking down on fake news with new rules that critics say are meant to curb dissent and restrict information the government believe is a threat to national security, The Hill reports. The country’s Supreme Media Regulatory Council can now block websites and some social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers for what it believes is “fake news” and can fine operators up to US$14,400 without getting a court order. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed two bills that critics say amount to censorship, Ars Technica says. One bill allows stiff fines for disseminating what the government determines is fake news, and the second allows fines and jail time for insulting government officials, including Putin.

Encrypting the IoT: The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is looking at encryption methods to protect the Internet of Things and other computing devices against future encryption-cracking technologies, Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Four Visions of the Internet

Competing visions: The World Economic Forum’s blog looks at four competing visions of the Internet that it sees emerging. These include Silicon Valley’s open Internet, Beijing’s paternal Internet, Brussels’ bourgeois Internet, and Washington’s commercial Internet. Will one vision win out?

Searching for fakes: WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, is testing reverse image search in its efforts to battle fake news, TheNextWeb reports.  The chat app may use Google APIs to compare the targeted image with similar pictures as a way to filter out doctored images.

Working against itself: An Artificial Intelligence that can right fake news articles may also be useful for spotting them, the MIT Technology Review says. Recently, OpenAI withheld the release of its new language model on fears that it could be used to spread misinformation, but researchers say the tool may be useful for the opposite effect.

Privacy laundering: Lawfareblog.com take a hard look at Facebook’s recent announcement that it was moving to end-to-end encryption. The social media giant won’t fix its privacy problems with the move, however, the article says. “Facebook’s business model is the quintessential example of ‘surveillance capitalism,’ with user data serving as the main product that Facebook sells to Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Companies Encouraged to Conduct Q & AI

Uncomfortable AI: Inc.com has a story asking 16 “uncomfortable” questions that companies should ask about Artificial Intelligence. Among them: Are your reasons for deploying AI in the best long-term interests of humanity? And, how can we ensure that our behavior is inclusive?

Russia attacks fake news: Russian lawmakers have passed two bills, one that outlaws the spreading of fake news, at least as determined by the government there. Another bill makes it illegal to “disrespect” authorities in Russia, the BBC reports. Both bills come with heavy fines, and critics said the laws will limit the ability of journalists to report critical information.

The way forward: Facebook believes encrypted communications and privacy are its future, Recode reports. CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined the website’s commitments to private messaging in a lengthy blog post.

The way backward: A teen who decided to get himself vaccinated said his mother got misinformation about the dangers of vaccines on Facebook, USA Today says. Ethan Lindenberger, an 18-year-old from Ohio, asked Reddit users if he should get vaccinated as an adult. There’s never misinformation on Reddit, of course.

Break ‘em up: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president in 2020, wants to break Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Many Ugandans Quit Internet Services After Tax on Social Media

Taxing the Internet: A social media tax in Uganda has prompted many users to quit those same sites, The Guardian reports. The tax, intended to raise government revenues and discourage “idle talk,” amounts to 200 Ugandan shillings, or about U.S. 5 cents, per day. More than one million people have quit taxed mobile apps, the story says.

Tough measures: A large majority of Europeans support a proposal to require social media companies to direct all users who have seen take news toward fact-checks, Time.com says. A recent poll suggest that more than 86 percent of European residents surveyed support the Correct the Record proposal from advocacy group Avaaz.

Blockchain goes to pot: Blockchain technology can help marijuana dispensaries enforce daily legal limits on individual purchases, Forbes reports. Blockchain could help dispensaries keep track of attempts at smurfing, the practice of purchasing more than the daily legal limit by going to different dispensaries, and looping, purchasing more than the limit by returning later to the same seller, the story says.

Blockchain vs. censorship: A follow-up to a trend we noted earlier this year: China’s residents are turning to blockchain technologies to fight government censorship, The Conversation reports. Some users Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: IoT Botnets Come for Video Conferencing Systems

Botnets attack: A handful of botnets using compromised Internet of Things devises are now targeting enterprise video conferencing systems, reports CSO Online. Three recently identified botnets are based on the Mirai botnet, which had its source code leaked back in 2016. The original Mirai is no longer active, but its source code has served as the base for at least 13 other botnets.

Pulling the plug: Internet shutdown are common, but ineffective, argues a journalist and researcher on The Conversation. Shutdowns “seem to animate dissent and encourage precisely the kind of responses considered subversive by many governments,” writes George Ogola. “Internet shutdowns don’t stop demonstrations. Nor do they hinder the production and circulation of rumours: they encourage them instead.”

The war on porn: Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh has shutdown about 20,000 websites, including some popular social media sites, in the name of banishing pornography, the Guardian reports. Authorities believe some social media sites are contributing to the problem, apparently. 

Digital colonies? The BBN Times has a provocative opinion piece suggesting that the Internet, and Internet Governance, is aiding in a process of “digital colonization.” The U.S. is sending its language, culture, and tech products Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Researchers Develop AI Writing App but Worry about Fake News

Too easy to fake: OpenAI, a research institute in San Francisco, has developed an Artificial Intelligence program to write news articles, but has declined to release a full-featured version of it because of fears that the AI could easily produce fake news, the MIT Technology Review says. OpenAI, associated with AI skeptic Elon Musk, will make only a simplified version publicly available. The institute will publish a research paper outlining its work.

Secure your IoT: Eleven organizations, including the Internet Society and Mozilla, have asked retailers to stop selling Internet-connected devices that don’t meet minimum security and privacy requirements, Techbizweb reports. A letter from the organizations, sent to Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon, asks them to publicly endorse minimum security and privacy guidelines for Internet of Things devices.

Competing in AI: U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order meant to boost AI development in the country, The Hill reports. The order comes as some AI experts fear the U.S. is losing ground to China. Trump’s order directs federal agencies to prioritize and set aside funding for AI programs.

Broadband for all: Botetourt County in Virginia, where only about 70 percent of residents have access to Internet Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Google Moves to Make it Easier to Encrypt Cheap Android Devices

Easier encryption? Google engineers have created a new encryption regime that can run on cheap and underpowered smartphones, Wired.com reports. The Google effort takes established cryptographic tools and implements them in a more efficient way.

Email encryption required: The EU’s GDPR privacy regulation requires encryption at least at the transport layer for email, according to a recent ruling by Germany’s data protection authority. The ruling also suggests that transport layer encryption may not be enough for sensitive personal information, TechDirt says.

Encryption proposal questioned: India’s proposal to require tech companies to hand over encrypted communications is “not possible,” WhatsApp has said. The proposed rules are “not possible today given the end-to-end encryption that we provide and it would require us to re-architect WhatsApp, leading to a different product, one that would not be fundamentally private,” WhatsApp said in a Financial Times story.

Federal action: The U.S. White House is planning to take executive action to promote research and development related to Artificial Intelligence, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, and 5G wireless technology, Reuters reports. There’s some concern that the U.S. is losing ground to countries like China.

AI could go awry: Microsoft has warned investors that its AI Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Japan to Probe Residents’ IoT Devices

Government hacking: Japanese government workers will be able to hack into residents’ Internet of Things devices in an attempted survey of IoT insecurity, ZDNet reports. The Japanese government recently approved an amendment that allows the survey by employees of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. The government hacking effort is part of Japan’s preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Government officials are worried that other hackers might use compromised IoT devices to launch attacks against the games.

Evolving encryption: A story at TechTarget looks at the evolution of the Let’s Encrypt certificate authority, established in 2016. The free and automated certificate authority is “changing the industry in interesting ways” by making the certificate process less cumbersome, the story says. Meanwhile, a story at CSO Online looks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s efforts to encrypt the entire Internet and says that Let’s Encrypt is an important piece of that campaign.

Lagging encryption: Less than 30 percent of enterprise businesses encrypt their data across their on-premises environments, within their cloud services or on their mobile devices, according to a survey from French aerospace and security vendor Thales Group. A Computer Business Review story notes that encryption still isn’t widespread, Continue reading

International Approach to Internet Policy Declining, Some Experts Say

A long-time multistakeholder and international approach toward creating Internet policy is breaking down, with individual nations and some large companies increasingly deciding to go their own way and create their own rules, some Internet governance experts say.

The multistakeholder decision-making model that created the Internet’s policy standards over the last two decades has largely fallen apart, with countries pushing their own agendas related to privacy, censorship, encryption, Internet shutdowns and other issues, some of the experts said Tuesday at the State of the Net tech policy conference in Washington, D.C.

Recent efforts to keep the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise are “mission impossible,” said Steve DelBianco, president and CEO of Internet-focused trade group NetChoice.

Back in the early 2000s, the Internet was enabling the disruption of governments and powerful businesses by providing users ways to work around those organizations, DelBianco added. “Fifteen years later, I’d have to say that governments and big businesses have regained their footing and are reasserting control,” he said.

Many nations are looking for new ways to control Internet content and users, added Laura DeNardis, a communications professor at American University and a scholar focused on Internet architecture and governance.

For many Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Placing Money on AI

AI manages your money: Artificial Intelligence may eventually replace your financial advisor, Forbes suggests. AI can already spot financial trends really fast, but it may eventually compete with the personal touch of a human advisor, the story says. “Because artificial intelligence learns so much faster than humans, it is simply a matter of time before artificial intelligence can read human nuances and have an emotional intelligence quotient that exceeds those of most humans. When that happens, in the next few years, financial advisers will have a hard time competing based on personal relationships.”

Banning news: Russia has moved to ban what the government defines as fake news, joining several other countries headed in the same direction, the Boston Globe reports. A second law bans the publication of information showing disrespect to government bodies and officials. The fake news law allows fines of up to US$15,000.

Less fake, more news: Despite headlines about the spread of fake news during the 2016 U.S. elections, a majority of U.S. residents didn’t see fake news on social media, two recent studies suggest. On Twitter, fake news appeared on the feeds of just 1.1 percent of users, according to one study detailed in Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: IoT Hacked? Who Knows?

IoT survey: Nearly half of all companies using IoT devices don’t have mechanisms in place to detect if any of their devices have been hacked, according to a survey featured in a Fast Company story. Just 14 percent of the respondents to the Gemalto survey believe providing security is an ethical consideration.

Huge leak: More than 22 million unique passwords and 772 million email addresses were leaked and distributed by hackers in a folder named “Collection #1,” Mashable reports. The cache of emails and passwords were collected from several data, dating back to 2008.

Pushing back: WhatsApp is planning to fight India’s recent crackdown on encryption, FT.com reports. Indian policymakers have proposed rules that would allow authorities to trace the origin of encrypted messages, but WhatsApp says it will protest the proposals.

Fighting fake news: Japan’s government plans to come up with a plan to fight fake news by June, Japan Times says. The plan could include requiring social media companies to create codes of conduct. Several other attempts by governments to fight fake news have led to concerns about censorship, however.

AI as a weapon: Forbes.com has a story raising concerns about the weaponization of Artificial Intelligence. Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Connected Hot Tub Lands in Hot Water

Hot tub vulnerabilities: New connections to the Internet of Things for hot tubs – allowing users to do things like adjust water temperature using their smartphones – also may make the products vulnerable to attacks, Naked Security writes. At least one connected hot tub would be easy to attack by a nearby hacker, according to research.

IoT security by BlackBerry: The vintage smartphone maker is rebranding itself as an IoT security vendor, with the release of three products, CNet reports. BlackBerry wants to license its technology to IoT device makers.

It’s a fake fake news study: Researchers who released a study on fake news in mid-2017 have retracted it, saying erroneous data lead to the study’s conclusion, Vice reports. The study had suggested that fake news is as likely to go viral on social media as true information, but the reevaluated data doesn’t support that conclusion, the authors said.

The golden years for fake news: Meanwhile, people over age 65 are likely to share the most fake news on Facebook, The Verge says. That’s the conclusion of researchers from New York University and Princeton University.  Older users shared more fake news than younger ones regardless of education, sex, race, income, Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Massachusetts Town Says ‘No Thank You’ to Broadband Network

Build your own: A Massachusetts town has declined an offer from a major ISP to build a high-speed broadband network and instead will create its own, the Boston Globe reports. While a locally owned network will initially cost more, residents of Charlemont say they want local control and local customer service.

Congo shuts it off: The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has shut down the Internet in several cities after a much-delayed presidential election, the BBC reports. Opposition candidate Martin Fayulu’s campaign accused the government of ordering the shutdown to avoid broadcasting his “overwhelming victory.” The shutdown in the Congo shows that China’s philosophy of Internet censorship is spreading, CNN comments.

Bangladesh, too: Meanwhile, Bangladesh ordered its own mobile network shutdown related to an election, Engadget reports. The country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission shut down 3G and 4G mobile data ahead of its Dec. 30 parliamentary elections to “prevent rumors and propaganda” from influencing the vote.

Blockchain marries IoT: Some large companies are looking for ways to use the blockchain technology with the Internet of Things, Network World says. Volkswagen is one of the companies, and automotive uses for blockchain include authenticating mileage for a lease return, or remote, Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: India Pushes for Sites to Remove ‘Unlawful’ Content, Break Encryption

Not this again: India’s government wants websites and social media platforms to remove content regulators determine as “unlawful” within 24 hours and to create automated tools to identify this material, BuzzFeed reports. The government also wants the tech companies to trace the source of the content, requiring platforms like WhatsApp to break encryption. This follows passage of an Australian law that forces online services to provide the government there with encryption workarounds.

The Wire of India defends the proposal, however, saying it’s aimed at holding websites and social media platform more responsible for the content they distribute.

More blocking: The government of Sudan has shut down most Internet access in the country and blocked access to social media platforms, Rogue Media Labs says. The government blamed the shutdown on massive protests over income inequality and other issues.

Missed assignments: In a related story, some college students in the Indian region of Kashmir have missed deadlines for submitting online application forms of their bachelors of education examination because of frequent and lengthy Internet shutdowns there, reports Kashmir Reader. Students are asking the University of Kashmir to extend its deadline.

Blockchain vs. national security? An ex-CIA official is targeting blockchain, saying the Continue reading

The Year in Review: Governments Try to Restrict Free Speech Online and Break Encryption

In 2018, the Internet saw concerted government efforts to restrict free speech on the Internet – some in the name of fighting “fake news” – and to compromise encryption on devices and messaging apps.

Can the government decide what’s fake news? Several countries either passed or explored laws intended to combat so-called fake news and online disinformation. In some cases, the laws contained significant prison time for those who create or disseminate fake news.

The problem, of course, is that the government decides what’s fake and what’s legitimate news. Free speech advocates have warned that the anti-fake news laws amount to censorship, with government officials playing content gatekeepers.

In Malaysia, the fake news law was quickly used to investigate an opponent of the administration in power. Malaysia repealed its anti-fake news law about four months after it passed, when opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad, one of the first people invested under the law, became prime minister.

In November, France passed its own anti-fake news law, allowing judges to determine fake news and order its removal. Distributors of news determined to be fake can face one year of prison time. India also considered but abandoned a fake news law earlier this Continue reading