Matt Hamblen
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UL takes on cybersecurity testing and certification
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) today announced a new Cybersecurity Assurance Program (CAP) that uses a new set of standards to test network-connected products for software vulnerabilities.The new UL certification will be for both vendors of Internet of Things (IoT) products and for buyers of products who want to mitigate risks.The testing standards were developed as part of a voluntary program involving industry officials as well as academics and the U.S. government.INSIDER: 5 ways to prepare for Internet of Things security threats President Obama's broad Cybersecurity National Action Plan, released in February, details a long-term strategy to improve cybersecurity awareness and protections. Obama's plan specifically notes that UL worked with the Department of Homeland Security to develop CAP to test and certify networked devices "whether they be refrigerators or medical infusion pumps, so that when you buy a new product, you can be sure it has been certified to meet security standards."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT tech goes from planning stage to execution
Internet of Things technologies can be complex and fragmented, but increasing numbers of pilot projects are emerging within smart cities, farms and at a wide range of businesses and industries."We are seeing adoption of IoT begin," said Mark Bartolomeo, vice president of IoT at Verizon, in an interview. "There are now use cases for IoT and less of an industry focus on the technology. The biggest macro trend lately is how IT can use the data [from IoT] more effectively to run a better business for customers."The carrier launched its ThingSpace development platform last October for companies to create and manage IoT applications more efficiently. In February, Verizon announced it had more than 4,000 developers using ThingSpace, and would open the software to third-party network and tech providers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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FCC votes to expand Lifeline program to include broadband subsidy
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-to-2 along party lines Thursday to expand the Lifeline telephone subsidy for low-income Americans to include Internet access.The decision generally follows an earlier proposal by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat, to expand Lifeline's current $9.25 monthly phone subsidy to include broadband Internet access or bundled voice and data service plans. The fixed speed of the service will be based on what a "substantial majority of consumers receive," which is currently 10 Mbps for downloads and uploads. The changes are expected to go into effect by Dec. 1.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Privacy issues hit all branches of government at once
In a rare confluence of events, all three branches of the federal government are weighing changes that would affect when and how personal data is accessed.The approaches are somewhat contradictory: Some moves would protect citizen privacy, while others could result in more access by government agencies to records kept by businesses and smartphone users about personal information. Encryption technology is usually at the center of the discussions, with intelligence officials eager to find ways to detect communications on smartphones used by criminals and terrorists.Various actions are taking place in the federal judiciary, before Congress, as well as the executive branch.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Legislation seeks independent commission on security and technology
Bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress on Monday calls for creating an independent, 16-member national commission on security and technology challenges.Including its two House and Senate sponsors, the legislation has eight co-sponsors in the Senate and 16 in the House. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) are the principle sponsors.The commission would have two members drawn from each of the following fields: cryptography, global commerce and economics, federal law enforcement, state and local law enforcement, consumer-facing technology, enterprise technology, the intelligence community and the privacy and civil liberties community.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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BlackBerry sets up cybersecurity consulting service
BARCELONA -- BlackBerry on Wednesday announced a new 60-person cybersecurity consulting service, which will include staff from its recent acquisition of UK-based Encription Limited.The purchase of Encription was completed Feb. 19, but terms were not disclosed.BlackBerry officials at Mobile World Congress said cybersecurity consulting is a lucrative field because of a global explosion of cyberattacks on businesses and governments.Data breaches cost the global economy more than $400 billion a year, BlackBerry said, citing 2015 data from the Ponemon Institute. Gartner said cybersecurity consulting is about a $16.5 billion annual global business, and that it is expected to grow to $23 billion by 2019.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Latest tests show all four major wireless carriers are strong
Despite claims by the four biggest U.S. wireless carriers that each one has the best nationwide network, the latest performance data gathered by testing firm RootMetrics shows that are all good and getting better."This a great time for consumers. Network providers are really trying hard so that consumers ultimately benefit. You're not going to go wrong with any one of them," said Julie Dey, vice president of RootMetrics, in an interview.The competition between all four has been tight for years, but came into special focus in the last two months as Verizon, then T-Mobile and Sprint started running separate national ads that show tiny colorful balls running down a track with a narrator asserting each carrier's network superiority.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AT&T to run field trials of 5G wireless in Austin this year
AT&T announced today it will begin field trials of faster 5G wireless technology this summer in Austin, Texas.The 3GPP industry standard for 5G, also known as Fifth Generation wireless, is not expected to be completed until 2020, with the earliest phase completed in 2018.Wireless speeds with 5G could be 10 to 100 times faster than with 4G LTE, which generally averages in the 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps range for users downloading data.Both AT&T and Verizon have ambitious 5G rollout plans, prompted by the recent explosion of wireless video and Internet of Things connectivity. AT&T estimates that its wireless network grew 150,000% from 2007 to 2015, largely because of video traffic; more than 60% of its wireless traffic in 2015 was video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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ENCRYPT Act co-sponsor learned tech ropes at Microsoft
One of four congressional sponsors of the ENCRYPT Act of 2016, which would preempt state and local laws banning encryption on smartphones, cut her teeth in mobile communications for Microsoft.U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) worked as vice president of mobile communications at Microsoft from 2004 to 2007. That was her second stint at Microsoft; her first was from 1989 to 1998 after receiving an MBA when she worked on Windows 95, email and embedded systems. In between, she helped start Drugstore.com.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Snowden leaks furor still spilling over into courts
Nearly three years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first leaked details about massive domestic spying, his revelations have prompted a broader discourse, especially among legal scholars, over the potentially invasive nature of big data cybersurveillance tools.Even as intelligence officials, the FBI and Congress worry about the rise of terrorists using encryption to communicate, legal experts are concerned that the enormous volume of data still being collected and stored by the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies will pose legal concerns based on the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures without a judge's warrant supported by probable cause.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google Fiber to be free for select affordable housing residents
Google Fiber on Wednesday announced free gigabit Internet service to residents of selected public housing projects connected to its fiber optic service in U.S. cities.The program was launched at West Bluff, an affordable housing community in Kansas City, Mo., where 100 homes have been connected to Google Fiber. Across the Kansas City area, Google is now working with affordable housing providers to connect as many as nine properties that could reach more than 1,300 local families.Google described the program as an extension of its work with ConnectHome, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Obama administration.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Encryption bills pose challenges for Congress
Breaking encryption technology used by terrorists and criminals poses a frustrating dilemma for intelligence agencies and, most recently, congressional lawmakers.Bipartisan legislation to create a commission to study U.S. encryption policies and practices is still weeks away from being introduced as discussions continue, congressional aides familiar with the plan told Computerworld.The commission approach, backed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, (R-Texas) is intended to bring experts together to dive into the differing points of view, where tech companies want to protect privacy with encryption, while the FBI and other law enforcement agencies want to prevent acts of terrorism and crime by monitoring encrypted communications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Congress eyes commission to tackle encryption debate
Bipartisan congressional legislation will be introduced to create a national commission on security and technology that addresses the growing concern over encryption technology used by terrorists.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex. plan to discuss their joint legislative proposal to create a Digital Security Commission later today, according to aides. McCaul is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; Warner is a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, among other committees.A major focus of the commission will be encryption technology used in smartphone apps and elsewhere and how intelligence officials can legally monitor encrypted communications used by terrorists to plan attacks. Both lawmakers have written about how encryption poses a paradox for protecting both security and personal privacy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple CEO defends privacy, encryption amidst terrorist concerns
Apple CEO Tim Cook staunchly defended personal privacy and the use of encryption on iPhones amidst renewed concerns about terrorists hiding covert electronic messages when they plan deadly attacks.In an interview with Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning that aired Friday, Cook said the supposed tradeoff between privacy and security is "only a simplistic view—we can have both."Cook repeated Apple's stance that it complies specifically with court-ordered warrants to produce information as required by law enforcement, but said of encrypted data on iPhones, "We don't have it to give." That's because Apple's iPhones running versions after iOS 4 keep decryption keys on a user's iPhone and not on a server or some other place, as Apple has pointed out many times before.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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To break terrorist encryption, pay off Apple and Google, expert urges
To break encrypted smartphone messages used by terrorists, tech companies such as Apple and Google need to be paid by law enforcement, an expert urged Thursday."If there were a financial incentive for Google and Apple to assist law enforcement, then they would be more willing to change their encryption technology to facilitate law enforcement in possession of a warrant," said Professor Darren Hayes, director of cybersecurity at Pace University, in an interview.Tech companies and wireless carriers currently get reimbursed "quite nicely," he said, for their time and help when faced with a court warrant under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), a wiretap law that allows the FBI and others access to some communications, but not encrypted data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Encryption used by terrorists provides lively GOP debate fodder
The ongoing political discourse over encrypted Internet communications used by potential terrorists sparked some major fireworks in last night's GOP presidential debate.Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was booed by some in the Las Vegas crowd when he called for "getting our smartest minds to infiltrate [ISIS's] Internet." In reaction to the boos, Trump told the crowd, "You're objecting to infiltrating their communications -- I don't get that."It wasn't only some in the crowd that objected to Trump's view. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took Trump to task, saying Trump had argued to "close the Internet, which defies the First Amendment...Are you going to change the Constitution?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google Fiber eyes Chicago and L.A.
Google Fiber could be coming to Chicago and Los Angeles, where more than 6 million people live, Google announced Tuesday.The company invited the two cities to get the 1Gbps service, then plans to work with city leaders to collect detailed information on factors that would affect construction, such as topography and city streets.“While we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to bring Fiber to Chicago and L.A., this is a big step for these cities and leaders,” said Jill Szuchmacher, director of Google Fiber Expansion, in the blog.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 5 free Ethernet tools you should check out Google Fiber currently serves three metro areas: Kansas City (in both Kansas and Missouri), Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah. Six more cities are listed by Google as “upcoming” Fiber cities and 11 others are potential cities, including L.A. and Chicago.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Message service blocks 78 ISIS-related encrypted channels
Encrypted messaging app maker Telegram blocked 78 ISIS-related propaganda channels in reaction to abuse reports sent by users, Telegram tweeted late Wednesday.The Berlin-based company said in a statement that it took the action because "we were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread propaganda. We are carefully reviewing all reports sent to use at [email protected] and are taking appropriate action to block such channels."Telegram also said it will block terrorist bots and channels including those that are ISIS-related, but will not block anybody who peacefully expresses alternative opinions. Telegram announced on its second anniversary in August that it was delivering 10 billion messages daily.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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U.S. may be financing encryption apps to stay ahead of terrorists
The U.S. government's financial support for the development of smartphone encryption apps doesn't surprise security experts.U.S. intelligence agencies are probably involved in funding commercial encryption apps through the government's Open Technology Fund to stay on top of terrorists and organized criminals that use encryption to cloak their communications, several security experts said Wednesday.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 26 crazy and scary things the TSA has found on travelers "It would not surprise me if federal agencies were funding encryption apps because it is possibly the only option available to monitor terrorism and organized crime," said Darren Hayes, assistant professor and director of cybersecurity at Pace University. "ISIS members have been actively pushing potential recruits to move to encrypted communications."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Half of U.S. businesses have no formal BYOD policy for security
Years after the widespread adoption of workplace smartphones, more than half of U.S. companies said they have no formal BYOD (bring your own device) policy to safeguard their enterprises, according to a survey. The survey of 447 businesses of all sizes was conducted over the summer by systems integrator Champion Solutions Group. It found that 53% of those businesses haven't implemented a formal BYOD policy, while more than one-fourth confessed they have no systematic security approach, much less a formal policy. The survey findings are "ridiculous … surprising," said Champion CEO Chris Pyle, in an interview. Mobile security best practices have been promulgated by analysts and security firms for more than a decade to protect sensitive corporate data, but there is apparently widespread variation about how companies implement security for BYOD workers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here