Kenneth Corbin
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Kenneth Corbin
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Net neutrality defenders gear up for new fight
Advocates for strong net neutrality rules enforced by a powerful federal regulator may be on the ropes, but they are striking a defiant tone as they look to whip up grassroots opposition ahead of the effort to dismantle the FCC's open internet order.Later this month, the FCC is planning to hold a vote at its May 18 meeting that would begin consideration of an order reclassifying broadband service under communications law such that the commission would significantly limit its authority to police ISPs.The distinction in service classification is arcane, but in a practical sense the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to undo the legal underpinning of his predecessor's 2015 open internet order, which expanded the commission's oversight authority over the broadband sector, and established net neutrality rules that have been upheld in federal court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Net neutrality defenders gear up for new fight
Advocates for strong net neutrality rules enforced by a powerful federal regulator may be on the ropes, but they are striking a defiant tone as they look to whip up grassroots opposition ahead of the effort to dismantle the FCC's open internet order.Later this month, the FCC is planning to hold a vote at its May 18 meeting that would begin consideration of an order reclassifying broadband service under communications law such that the commission would significantly limit its authority to police ISPs.The distinction in service classification is arcane, but in a practical sense the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to undo the legal underpinning of his predecessor's 2015 open internet order, which expanded the commission's oversight authority over the broadband sector, and established net neutrality rules that have been upheld in federal court.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Federal CIOs tackle the next phase of cloud migration
The cloud has been the default setting in federal government IT for long enough now that most agencies have migrated over some basic operations like email, but that still leaves the hard work undone.After some quick wins -- moving relatively lightweight applications over to a cloud environment -- many federal CIOs are now trying to figure out what comes next. That requires a more challenging calculus and a nuanced evaluation of the agency's IT portfolio to determine what applications and systems really belong in the cloud."Agencies are struggling with that idea of how do they really in an affirmative sort of way adopt cloud technologies," Bill Zielinski, director of the Office of Strategic Programs at the General Services Administration, said during a recent panel discussion hosted by Federal News Radio. "It's one thing to find those kind of freestanding, low-hanging brand-new sorts of things to put in -- quote unquote -- the cloud, but when you really start talking about constituting your IT enterprise with a significant portion of it being cloud, they're struggling."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why we need the FTC to police ISP privacy practices
Critics of the recently scrapped federal privacy regulation for internet service providers (ISPs) argued that the rules were overreaching, and that broadband providers should be held to the same privacy framework as application and content providers.The only catch is, they can't.Terrell McSweeny, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), laments that her agency lacks the same oversight authority over ISPs that it exerts in the general consumer internet space, where it has brought privacy cases against the likes of Google and Facebook.Then, when Congress moved last month to nullify a privacy rule for ISPs advanced by the FCC, it effectively stripped the market of federal oversight, McSweeny argued at a recent event on privacy policy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Russian hacking goes far beyond 2016 pro-Trump effort
As the Senate Intelligence Committee held its first public hearings examining Russian hacking yesterday, lawmakers received a stark warning that the intrusions have been far broader in scope than the intelligence community's finding that Russian hackers meddled in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) seemed to confirm as much when he announced that former aides to his presidential campaign, had been targeted by an apparent cyberattack emanating from a Russian IP address last July and again just this Wednesday.Clinton Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that his organization in the past week had detected Russian involvement in a social media campaign aimed at discrediting House Speaker Paul Ryan (D-Wis.).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Feds to battle cybersecurity with analytics
For the federal government to better secure its information systems and support cybersecurity in the private sector, departments and agencies will need to dramatically improve the way they collect, analyze and share information about emerging threats, current and former government officials are cautioning.At a government IT conference convened by Akamai, a content delivery and cloud service provider, officials stressed the importance of casting a wide net for gathering information about cyberthreats, calling for the advancement of new standards and protocols to automate information sharing across the public and private sectors."The more participants we have in our process, the better that process is going to be," said Danny Toler, acting assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Cybersecurity and Communications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Future of tech policy murky under Trump administration
At the outset of the Trump presidency, there is considerable uncertainty around what the new administration might mean for tech policy, a deeply complex set of issues that were largely out of view on the campaign trail.As a candidate, Trump did not articulate a tech policy agenda, though he stressed the need for a tougher posture on cybersecurity.[ Related: What to expect from the Trump administration on cybersecurity ]Now in the Oval Office, Trump has a range of areas where he could advance polices that impact the tech sector, from immigration to privacy to curbing regulations on emerging technologies such as drones and health IT applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How the DOT discovered its network was compromised by shadow IT
When Richard McKinney set out to migrate the Department of Transportation (DOT) to Microsoft Office 365, he got a valuable lesson in shadow IT, one that could serve as a cautionary tale for other government leaders as they look to upgrade and consolidate their systems.McKinney, who only recently stepped down as CIO at DOT, had been leading a turnaround mission at the department since his arrival, but when it came time for the Office 365 rollout, he quickly discovered how chaotic the situation was, with hundreds of unauthorized devices running undetected on the sprawling network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How the DOT discovered its network was compromised by shadow IT
When Richard McKinney set out to migrate the Department of Transportation (DOT) to Microsoft Office 365, he got a valuable lesson in shadow IT, one that could serve as a cautionary tale for other government leaders as they look to upgrade and consolidate their systems.McKinney, who only recently stepped down as CIO at DOT, had been leading a turnaround mission at the department since his arrival, but when it came time for the Office 365 rollout, he quickly discovered how chaotic the situation was, with hundreds of unauthorized devices running undetected on the sprawling network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How the DOT discovered its network was compromised by shadow IT
When Richard McKinney set out to migrate the Department of Transportation (DOT) to Microsoft Office 365, he got a valuable lesson in shadow IT, one that could serve as a cautionary tale for other government leaders as they look to upgrade and consolidate their systems.McKinney, who only recently stepped down as CIO at DOT, had been leading a turnaround mission at the department since his arrival, but when it came time for the Office 365 rollout, he quickly discovered how chaotic the situation was, with hundreds of unauthorized devices running undetected on the sprawling network.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism
WASHINGTON -- Social media heavyweights like Facebook and YouTube have been working with the U.S. government and other international partners as they look to take a more active role in combating terrorist propaganda and other extremist messages that have gained traction online.Officials from the popular social network and YouTube parent Google addressed the issue here at a recent tech policy conference, where they described efforts to go beyond simply removing extremist content, and actually engaging in counter-messaging programs to present alternative narratives to those advanced by groups like ISIS."We're really focused on utilizing the strength that comes out of YouTube to push back on these messages," said Alexandria Walden, Google's counsel on free expression and human rights. "We know the power of our platform, and so we know that the best way to counter messages of hate and violence is to promote messages that push back against that, that push back against the hate and extremism and xenophobia around the world."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How Facebook and Google are battling internet terrorism
WASHINGTON -- Social media heavyweights like Facebook and YouTube have been working with the U.S. government and other international partners as they look to take a more active role in combating terrorist propaganda and other extremist messages that have gained traction online.Officials from the popular social network and YouTube parent Google addressed the issue here at a recent tech policy conference, where they described efforts to go beyond simply removing extremist content, and actually engaging in counter-messaging programs to present alternative narratives to those advanced by groups like ISIS."We're really focused on utilizing the strength that comes out of YouTube to push back on these messages," said Alexandria Walden, Google's counsel on free expression and human rights. "We know the power of our platform, and so we know that the best way to counter messages of hate and violence is to promote messages that push back against that, that push back against the hate and extremism and xenophobia around the world."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump’s trade TPP move a setback for cloud computing
WASHINGTON -- On the heels of the news that President Trump has removed the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade deal that he blasted as a candidate, experts warned of the fallout for cloud-computing companies that have been advocating for policies to break down digital trade barriers that restrict the flow of data traffic across international boundaries.Here at the annual State of the Net tech policy conference, the news was met with disappointment by a panel of experts, who said that the provisions of the TPP governing the activities of tech companies would have been an important step toward establishing international norms for trade in the digital age.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump administration threatens net neutrality, cloud and IoT
Businesses could lose their choice of cloud services and applications if the incoming administration or the new congress rolls back net neutrality rules, Tom Wheeler, the outgoing chair of the Federal Communications Commission, warned in his final planned speech before stepping down.Identifying the 2015 open Internet order as one of his signature policy achievements, Wheeler positioned the FCC's net neutrality regulation, which bars ISPs from blocking or slowing transmissions on their networks, as a needed protection for consumers and businesses alike."As everything goes into the cloud, the ability to access the cloud free of gatekeepers is essential. If ISPs get to choose which applications and clouds work better than others in terms of access, speed and latency, they will control the cloud future," Wheeler said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump administration threatens net neutrality, cloud and IoT
Businesses could lose their choice of cloud services and applications if the incoming administration or the new congress rolls back net neutrality rules, Tom Wheeler, the outgoing chair of the Federal Communications Commission, warned in his final planned speech before stepping down.Identifying the 2015 open Internet order as one of his signature policy achievements, Wheeler positioned the FCC's net neutrality regulation, which bars ISPs from blocking or slowing transmissions on their networks, as a needed protection for consumers and businesses alike."As everything goes into the cloud, the ability to access the cloud free of gatekeepers is essential. If ISPs get to choose which applications and clouds work better than others in terms of access, speed and latency, they will control the cloud future," Wheeler said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump’s DHS pick urges more coordination on cyberthreats
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Homeland Security chief wants to forge closer ties with the private sector in the cyber arena.Gen. John F. Kelly (Ret.), a more than four-decade veteran of the Marine Corps, appeared this week before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for his confirmation hearing, the second of Trump's appointees to begin that process.In his testimony on cybersecurity, Kelly noted the challenges of keeping pace with an ever-evolving spate of threats from a variety of actors, and stressed the importance of the government coordinating its defense efforts and intelligence with the private-sector firms that could be targeted by attackers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump’s DHS pick urges more coordination on cyberthreats
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Homeland Security chief wants to forge closer ties with the private sector in the cyber arena.Gen. John F. Kelly (Ret.), a more than four-decade veteran of the Marine Corps, appeared this week before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for his confirmation hearing, the second of Trump's appointees to begin that process.In his testimony on cybersecurity, Kelly noted the challenges of keeping pace with an ever-evolving spate of threats from a variety of actors, and stressed the importance of the government coordinating its defense efforts and intelligence with the private-sector firms that could be targeted by attackers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Feds frustrated by constantly crashing apps
Imagine if Twitter was offline for an entire day. Sure, some might be happy for the break, but the uproar that would greet a day with no access to the internet's public square would no doubt be loud and angry.Within the federal government, however, seeing collaboration, communication and database applications go offline for a day or longer is commonplace, a new survey has found.[ Related: Not dead yet: 7 of the oldest federal IT systems still wheezing away ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Trump says mergers like AT&T/Time Warner ‘destroy democracy’
When President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, one of the biggest items awaiting his Justice Department will be the antitrust review of the proposed $85 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner, a deal that could have major ramifications for online video and TV distribution arrangements.Trump addressed the proposed acquisition when it was announced in October while on the campaign trail, saying in no uncertain terms that he opposed the deal on the grounds that the combined entity would hold too much market power. Many consumer advocates feel the same way.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT attacks could bring real-world damage
Members of Congress received a dire warning this week about security vulnerabilities in the so-called internet of things (IoT), as cyber experts cautioned that with billions of new devices coming online, coordinated hacking attacks could become -- literally -- a matter of life and death.House lawmakers convened the hearing on IoT security in response to last month's distributed denial-of-service attack on the internet addressing provider Dyn, which resulted in temporary outages at popular sites like Twitter and Spotify.[ Related: How the Dyn DDoS attack unfolded ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here