The Week in Internet News: India Rethinks Frequent Internet Shutdowns

Keep the pipes flowing: The Indian government’s Department of Telecommunications has told state governments they should avoid Internet shutdowns in situations not involving an emergency or public safety, Business Insider India reports. There were about 130 Internet shutdowns in the country in 2018, up from 79 the year before. But shutdowns close off residents’ access to banking and other online services, the agency said in its notice.

A fragmenting Internet: The global Internet is fracturing with governments increasingly exerting their influence on digital companies, markets, and rights, Foreign Policy says. The authors see a future Internet Warring States Period, in which several countries jockey for influence on the Internet, which could lead to a fragmented Internet in areas where there was once common ground.

Fake crackdown: Egypt is using a crackdown on so-called fake news to detain or jail “scores” of journalists, bloggers, and social media users, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 2018, Egypt jailed 19 journalists for allegedly “disseminating false information,” while all other countries jailed a total of nine journalists.

Beware the cryptominers: Internet users saw a 4,000 percent increase in crytomining malware in 2018, The Next Web says. MacAfee Labs noted more than 4 million new Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Fallout from Australia’s Anti-Encryption Law

A lack of support: Australia’s new law requiring technology companies to give law enforcement agencies access to customers’ encrypted communications isn’t so popular with the public, The Economist reports. The government there received 343 public comments leading up to the vote in favor of the law, and only one person expressed support.

Minor offenses: Meanwhile, critics of the Australian law say it may be used to target suspects of minor crimes, The Guardian says. The law is neither “appropriate or proportionate,” one lawyer says. One of Australia’s spy chiefs is defending the law, however, saying it will be used to target terrorists, pedophiles, and other criminals, not law-abiding citizens, ABC News Australia reports.

Getting tough: The Russian parliament is planning to vote on a package of bills intended to increase penalties for spreading fake news, Euronews reports. One of the bills would allow for fines and a short jail sentence for people “expressing obvious disrespect” for society and state officials. The Dutch government is taking a different approach to fake news, by planning an online campaign to make voters aware of disinformation and help them recognize it, NLTimes says.

China vs. trolls: The Chinese government has detained 30 members of Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Australia Adopts Controversial Encryption Law

Australia vs. encryption: The Australian Parliament has passed a law that requires tech companies to give law enforcement agencies there access to encrypted communications, the New York Times reports. Several tech companies and privacy groups opposed the law, saying it hurts efforts to protect data from hackers. Fortune, which called the law “draconian,” says it will create headaches for large tech companies.

Slow rolling: While several news stories this year talked about quantum computing being an eventual threat to encryption, that possibility is still more than a decade away, according to a report from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The U.S. may need to invest heavily in quantum computing to retain a global lead in the technology, the report recommends. Nextgov has the story.

Filling the pipes: Botnets of compromised Internet of Things devices make up more than three quarters of the malware on communication service provider networks this year, up from 33 percent of the malware in 2016, Infosecurity reports. Hackers are increasingly targeting IoT devices instead of PCs and other traditional systems.

Blockchain tackles phishing: A company called MetaCert wants to use blockchain to help fight the scourge of phishing emails, Wired. Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Huge Data Breach at Hotel Chain

Millions of records stolen: Marriott International, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, has reported a data breach affecting up to 500 million customers, the Washington Post reports. The breached database includes information on guests staying at Sheraton, Westin and St. Regis hotels. The 500 million records lost makes it the second largest data breach reported.

Encryption debate back yet again: U.S. deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, best known for overseeing the investigation into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, has renewed the Department of Justice’s long-term call for encryption workarounds in tech products, Wired.com reports. Addressing critics of encryption backdoors, Rosenstein said: “Just because people are quick to criticize you does not mean that you are doing the wrong thing. Take it from me.”

Countering view: Meanwhile, Robert Anderson, a former top cyber official at the FBI, said that since leaving the agency and working on cybersecurity issues, he now understands why tech companies would oppose government efforts to break encryption. Companies “entrusted by the clients who have given them information” have a responsibility to protect it, he said in an FCW.com story.

Someone’s watching you: Chinese Internet companies have begun to keep detailed records Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: France Approves Fake News Law, Looks to Regulate Further

France tackles the Internet: The French government has been making news in recent days for examining ways to regulate the Internet. Its parliament has passed a controversial new law that would allow judges to order the immediate removal of online articles they deem to be fake news, Euronews.com reports. Critics warned the law, which allows for jail sentences for fake news creators, could lead to censorship.

Regulation or autocracy? French President Emmanuel Macron pushed the fake news law, and he also called for more government regulation of the Internet at a recent Internet Governance Forum in Paris. Macron called for international cooperation on Internet issues, as a way to tame disinformation, with CFR.org suggesting governments must adapt to fight modern problems. But TechDirt suggested Macron was acting like an autocrat in his call for more regulation.

Broadband plan MIA: Canada’s government, meanwhile, has “no plan” to bring broadband to rural and remote areas, a government auditor said. Canada’s rural broadband efforts so far have led to “a series of moving targets, lofty proclamations, piecemeal programs, and ultimately big letdowns,” Motherboard says.

Where the money is: Research firm IDC expects investments in Artificial Intelligence to triple in the next three Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: The Bottom Line of IoT Security

The cost of IoT breaches: Companies struggling with Internet of things security are seeing a monetary impact, says WeLiveSecurity.com. About a quarter of companies struggling with IoT security have reported losses of at least US $34 million in the last two years, according to a recent survey.

International cyber deal: French President Emmanuel Macron called on other nations to join his country in an international pact against malicious activity online, reports ITworldCanada.com. Nations signing the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace would agree to “condemn malicious cyber activities in peacetime, notably the ones threatening or resulting in significant, indiscriminate or systemic harm to individuals and critical infrastructure and welcome calls for their improved protection.” The pact, advanced at the Internet Governance Forum in Paris, was signed by 51 other countries, 224 companies, and 92 non-profits and advocacy groups. But the U.S., Russia, and China declined, ZDNet notes.

Booted from social media: In a three-week period, Chinese censors have deleted nearly 10,000 social media accounts operated by the country’s residents, reports the South China Morning Post via Yahoo News. Accounts shut down include those of a talk show celebrity and an entertainment blogger. The Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: China Wants Fairer Internet, More Control

China wants fairness: Chinese President Xi Jinping called for international cooperation to make the Internet more “fair and equitable,” while also asserting the Chinese government’s authority to shape it, Reuters reports. Xi has pushed for his country’s “cyber sovereignty” while promoting “core socialist values” online. Chinese officials also promoted the idea that each country should choose its own Internet “governance model,” The Star says.

Drones for broadband: A U.K. company has begun using drones to build fiber broadband networks in remote areas, reports Computer Weekly. Openreach is using drones to lay fiber in remote areas of the Scottish Highlands, where river gorges have previously presented a challenge.

Encrypted chat busted: Dutch police have found a way to infiltrate IronChat, an encrypted chat service running on proprietary hardware, Gizmodo says. The police were able to read 258,000 messages on the service, which costs about US$1,700 for a six-month subscription. News reports suggest the encryption wasn’t as strong as the vendor may have claimed.

Saving the Web: World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee has been pushing a new Contract for the Web, in hopes of defining the responsibilities that governments, companies and citizens each have on the Web. Shortlist.com examines Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Companies Fear AI Will Destroy Business Models

AI against businesses: More than 40 percent of U.K. companies believe Artificial Intelligence will destroy their business models within five years, according to a Microsoft survey featured on CNBC.com. Still, more than half of businesses in the U.K. have no AI strategy. And while 45 percent workers are concerned their job could be replaced by AI, 51 percent are not learning skills to prepare for the changes.

Government AI board: Meanwhile, Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group, has called on the U.S. government to create a new federal authority to develop AI expertise, as a way to effectively regulate and govern the technology, reports IP-watch.org. “The rapid and pervasive rise of artificial intelligence risks exploiting the most marginalized and vulnerable in our society,” the group argues.

Math against fake news: Professors from the U.K. and Switzerland have released a mathematical definition of fake news, in the hope that it will give lawmakers ideas on how to combat it, Phys.org says. The researchers have also introduced a model for fake news that can be used to study the phenomenon.

Vietnam against fake news: A new cybersecurity law in Vietnam is intended to combat Continue reading

Internet Freedom Declines Again, with ‘Polarized Echo Chambers’ Aiding Censorship Efforts

The amount of freedom on the global Internet has declined for the eighth straight year, with a group of countries moving toward “digital authoritarianism,” according to a new report from Freedom House.

A number of factors, including the spread of false rumors and hateful propaganda online, have contributed to an Internet that “can push citizens into polarized echo chambers that pull at the social fabric of the country,” said the report, released Thursday. These rifts often give aid to antidemocratic forces, including government efforts to censor the Internet, Freedom House said.

During 2018, authoritarians used claims of fake news and of data breaches and other scandals as an excuse to move closer to a Chinese model of Internet censorship, said the report, cosponsored by the Internet Society.

“China is exporting its model of digital authoritarianism throughout the world, posing a serious threat to the future of free and open Internet,” said Sanja Kelly, director for Internet Freedom at Freedom House. “In order to counter it, democratic governments need to showcase that there is a better way to manage the Internet, and that cybersecurity and disinformation can be successfully addressed without infringing on human rights.”

Thirty-six countries sent representatives Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Rural Maine Looks to Community Broadband

Broadband for themselves: Rural Maine residents are looking into ways to create their own community broadband networks because of a lack of service in some areas, the Press Herald reports. About 15 percent of the state’s residents don’t have access to 25 Mbps broadband service. A project in the St. Croix Valley would create Maine’s first publicly-owned broadband network.

Home patches: Amazon has issued 13 security patches, with some addressing vulnerabilities in its Internet of Things home devices, Engadget reports. If left unpatched, the security holes would let intruders crash devices and remotely run code, giving them full control.

Confusion and delay: Meanwhile, a lot of companies that are potential IoT users are delaying their deployments because of security concerns, reports Betanews. About half of companies labeled as early adopters have delayed an IoT purchase because of security issues, according to a survey from F-Secure.

The cost of a breach: Yahoo has agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to the 200 million people affected the company’s huge 2013 data breach, Fortune says. The company will also pay a tidy $35 million in lawyers’ fees. The settlement applies only to a fraction of the people affected by the email breach.

Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Artificial Intelligence Will Affect Every Job

AI and your job: Artificial Intelligence will affect 100 percent of the jobs out there, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty predicted, as noted at ZDNet.com. Everyone will have to change the way they work, she said. IBM’s work with its Watson AI system “starts with a fundamental belief that it’s going to change 100 percent of jobs, 100 percent of industries, and 100 percent of professions,” she added.

AI and your vote: Meanwhile, AI is creating new threats to election security, says CBS News. AI will help hackers better design attacks against voting systems, some security experts said. Automated bots can also be used to help hackers guess passwords, they said.

Big money for AI: Before we leave AI as a topic, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced it will spend US$1 billion on a new college of computing with an AI focus, Fortune reports. The new college will serve as an interdisciplinary hub for data and computer science-related work.

Call it a comeback: BlackBerry, the down-on-its-luck smartphone maker, plans to reinvent itself as a secure Internet of Things hub, FT.com reports. Building on its past reputation as a maker of secure phones, BlackBerry wants to become a Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Facebook Bans ‘Clickbait’ Political Accounts

Good-bye clickbait? Facebook has tossed out more than 800 publishers and accounts it accused of trafficking in clickbait and political spam, the Washington Post reports. Facebook also accused some of the accounts of “inauthentic behavior,” otherwise known as fake news. The bans met with some resistance, with some critics saying Facebook’s terms of service represent a moving target.

Let’s Encrypt rising: Let’s Encrypt, a service that provides websites free SSL certificates, is helping the Internet move toward better encryption, Forbes says. Let’s Encrypt “may finally fix the broken world of HTTPS hosting and usher in an online future in which creating an HTTPS site becomes as transparent as visiting one,” the author writes.

Government’s role in IoT security: The U.S. government could drive more security into the Internet of Things industry by changing its tech acquisition standards, says Nextgov. Federal agencies could use the Federal Acquisition Regulation to enforce minimum security standards, the author suggests.

RIP Google+: Google is planning to shut down the consumer version of its Google+ social media site after the company disclosed a massive data breach there, The Verge reports. Google+ also has “low usage and engagement,” according to Google.

Insecure security cameras: Millions of Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: AI Can Help, But Humans Are the Problem with Fake News

AI battles the fake news: Can Artificial Intelligence combat all the fake news that’s out there? An article in Forbes looks at several ways fake news fighters are using AI, but the author casts some doubt on these approaches. Ultimately, humans are the problem, the article says: “The willingness to believe sensational information is a real phenomenon and debunking false information does not always change people’s minds.”

Fake tweets: As social networks take steps to fight against fake news, some still have a way to go. Twitter, for example, is still flooded with sham accounts that generate more than 1 million tweets a day, reports CBS News. Twitter disputed the study the story is based on, noting it has suspended more than 70 million suspicious accounts in May and June.

Tiny infiltrations: Chinese hackers have used tiny microchips to gain access to computers at 30 U.S. companies, including Apple and Amazon, Bloomberg reports. Both companies disputed the report, and the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre appeared to support the denials later in the week, Reuters says.

Blockchain’s bright future: There were several reports this week focused on the growth projections of the blockchain technology, with the blockchain Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Social Media Networks Sign onto Fake News Code

Fake news code: Google and several operators of social networks have signed a code of conduct to combat fake news, CNet reports. The code of conduct, pushed by the European Union, stipulates that they must work to disrupt advertising revenues of accounts and websites that spread disinformation. The code also requires that the websites empower people to report disinformation and access other news sources.

Government news vs. fake news: Indonesia’s communications ministry plans to hold weekly briefings to highlight examples of “hoax” news reports, Time.com reports. The briefs will also focus on digital literacy as the country moves toward a presidential election next year. The government also plans to have a 70-member content management team to determine fake news.

Fake news as cancer: Lots of news about fake news this week. The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times as called fake news the “cancer of our time,” CNBC.com says. Meanwhile, cancer still exists. Patrick Soon-Shiong blamed social media for the spread of fake news.

Too little regulation? California’s recently passed Internet of Things security bill may be “too little, too late,” says an opinion piece on Diginomica.com. “No one seems to believe that SB-327 will completely Continue reading

Push for Greater Control Over the Internet Coming Back Around

A group of countries will likely try to resurrect old battles on international control of Internet in the coming months, during upcoming meetings related to Internet Governance, some experts say.

The effort to relitigate unresolved debates on government control over the Internet will likely come up during the International Telecommunication Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference starting Oct. 29 in Dubai, said Robert Morgus, senior policy director focused on cybersecurity at U.S. think tank New America.

Morgus expects Russia, China, and other countries to renew their push for new internationally sanctioned controls over the Internet during the ITU meeting, he said Thursday at an Internet governance discussion hosted by New America and co-sponsored by the Internet Society’s Washington Chapter.

While the ITU has traditionally stayed away from Internet policy decisions, the group of authoritarian countries will likely push for a new World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) meeting, Morgus said, where Internet control and governance issues have been hot topics.

The last WCIT meeting, in December 2012, ended with the United States, the U.K., Japan, and a handful of other countries declining to sign an agreement supported by 89 nations that called for international cooperation in fighting security problems Continue reading

New York City Groups Take Broadband into Their Own Hands

A handful of groups in New York City are bypassing large ISPs and building their own community networks, as a way to provide cheaper, and in many cases faster and more reliable service.

NYC Mesh and Silicon Harlem, both about five years old, are among a handful of community-based network providers that are working to provide Internet connection alternatives in New York City. The projects seek to fill in coverage gaps – in terms of both geography and reliability – plaguing incumbent broadband providers.

The nonprofit NYC Mesh, with about a dozen core volunteers and no full-time employees, provides and combination of fiber and wireless Internet access in downtown Manhattan, a large chunk of Brooklyn, and corners of the Bronx and Queens, says organizer Brian Hall.

A monthly payment for service – with average speeds of 80 Mpbs and up to 200 Mbps for some users – is voluntary. Many residential members choose to pay $20 a month, while many businesses pay between $50 and $100, but it’s not required.

Volunteers were inspired to launch the service for a number of reasons, Hall says. They wanted to close the digital divide by providing inexpensive broadband service, and Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: China’s New Cyberspace Head Talks Up New Controls

“Cleansing” cyberspace: Zhuang Rongwen, recently appointed as director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, has vowed to promote “positive energy” on the Internet while suppressing “negative elements,” including “wrong ideological trends” that attack the Communist Party there, reports the South China Morning Post. Zhuang called on all Internet users to join party members to fight a people’s war to rehabilitate the “cyber ecology.”

Told ya so: Meanwhile, another article in the South China Morning Post, this one an opinion piece, defends recent Chinese crackdowns on the Internet by looking at recent U.S. congressional inquiries into ways to “contain the freewheeling online space.” The piece looks at recent outbreaks of fake news and hate speech online. Some U.S. politicians “are starting to sound a lot like China’s leaders when warning of the insidious dangers of an untamed, unregulated internet,” says the writer, a former Washington Post correspondent.

AI arms race: Speaking of fake news, it’s continued spread has triggered an Artificial Intelligence arms race, says Popular Mechanics. Using AI, the spreaders of fake news reports are becoming more difficult to spot. Meanwhile, other companies will increasingly use AI to spot fake news. Perhaps an AI vs. Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: Facebook to Fact-Check Videos and Photos

Fight against fakes: Facebook plans to fact-check videos and photos posted on the social media platform in an effort to combat misinformation, reports the Associated Press on SeattleTimes.com. Fact-checkers will use several methods, including analyzing image metadata, to determine accuracy, and Facebook will label photos and videos that are fakes, the company said.

Regulating IoT: A controversial Internet of Things security bill has passed the California legislature, ZDNet reports. The bill requires IoT device makers to build in “reasonable security,” but the legislation is vague about what that might entail, critics say. Still, it’s the first bill passed in the U.S. that addresses IoT security.

Fake reports of fake news law’s demise: Malaysia’s opposition party has blocked efforts to repeal a controversial law that penalizes the spread of fake news, StraitsTimes.com reports. Critics say the law, which includes penalties of up to six years in prison for spreading misleading information, is an attack on free speech, but the Senate blocked the repeal in a challenge to the new government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Angry Birds tackles blockchain: We’ve talked about a lot of potential uses of blockchain technology here, but this is a new one. The Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: ‘Five Eyes’ Demand Access to Encrypted Information

Prying eyes: The so-called Five Eyes – the surveillance alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. – pledged not to weaken encryption, at the same time as the countries are pushing tech companies to give them access to encrypted evidence, notes SearchSecurity. Representatives of the five countries released a new “Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption,” after a recent meeting in Australia. Encryption can help “child sex offenders, terrorists and organized crime groups … frustrate investigations and avoid detection and prosecution,” the statement suggests. More at ZDNet.

AI as public enemy No. 1? Artificial Intelligence is a bigger concern than climate change or terrorism, says the incoming president of the British Science Association, The Telegraph says. Really? AI progress is “happening too fast” without enough scrutiny or regulation, according to physics professor Jim Al-Khalili. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time technology has outpaced regulation.

AI vs. democracy: Meanwhile, AI is transforming social media, with major implications for democracy, worries Clint Watts, a distinguished research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in an opinion piece at the Washington Post. “Over the long term, AI-driven campaigns may well be the undoing Continue reading

The Week in Internet News: More Communities Building Their Own Broadband Networks

Build-your-own broadband: Small towns in the United States and the United Kingdom are increasingly bypassing large ISPs and building their own broadband networks, according to two recent stories. Reuters notes that rural communities in the U.K. are building networks to improve speeds and expand coverage, while Wired.com reports that independent broadband networks are proliferating across the United States in small towns, with speeds often exceeding a gigabit per second.

Where the IT jobs are: If you understand blockchain or Artificial Intelligence, job recruiters are looking for you. SHRM.org, the website for the Society of Human Resource Management, notes there’s been a 500 percent increase in blockchain-related job postings on Stack Overflow in the past year. Meanwhile, the Economic Times of India reports that AI experts are getting job offers that include major salary increases.

Power grid and IoT security don’t mix: Princeton researchers have suggested that insecure IoT devices could be used against the power grid, potentially leading to local power outages or even widescale blackouts, SecurityBoulevard.com reports. During a recent conference, the researchers demonstrated how an IoT botnet of Internet-connected high wattage devices could give attackers the ability to launch large-scale attacks on the Continue reading