Global IT spending on cloud-based infrastructure grew 2.2% in Q1, while investments in “non-cloud environments plunged 16.3%, reported IDC Thursday. “The broadening impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was the major factor driving infrastructure spending,” it said. “Widespread lockdowns across the world and staged reopening of economies triggered increased demand for cloud-based consumer and business services.” IDC forecasts the Q1 pace “will continue through rest of the year as cloud adoption continues to get an additional boost."

The Wireless Bureau released an electronic process for FCC licensees to apply for expedited Section 106 historic review or emergency authorization of wireless facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation rules “include provisions to allow certain critical infrastructure projects to proceed under expedited Section 106 review during emergencies such as the COVID-19 crisis,” said a notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. “The Commission may issue emergency authorizations for infrastructure projects critical for responding to emergency situations."

With more employees working from home now, and possibly beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, home network security is a growing concern, experts told a webinar with cybersecurity company Bitdefender. Nearly 80% of U.S. consumers surveyed by Parks Associates are concerned about a data security break or privacy issues, said analyst Brad Russell. The increasing time households are spending on their Wi-Fi networks heightened home network exposure to phishing attacks, Russell noted. WFH puts the home network “in a completely different spotlight,” said Alex Balan, Bitdefender chief security researcher. Bitdefender is tracking 350 IoT-oriented botnets in its labs that are compromising such smart home devices as routers, power outlets, smart cameras, printers, smart TVs and connected coffee makers. Eventually, all devices in the home will be connected and the number of attacks on home networks will “dramatically expand,” said Balan. Vulnerabilities are present in 90% of the devices Bitdefender analyzes, he said, and are “very difficult to defend against.” Consumers can’t buy anti-virus software “for a smart light bulb or a Roomba,” he said. “You don’t know how to tackle security for your smart devices.” The average broadband household has 22 devices, up from 12-15 two years ago, said Razvan Todor, Bitdefender director-connected home security, and that will keep growing. “We’ve just now become painfully aware that we need to protect them,” ideally from a single point, said Todor. ISPs can help with cybersecurity, while clearing up their networks with fewer distributed denial-of-service attacks, experts said.

Auction 903 and rural broadband experiment funding recipients have a limited waiver until the end of 2021 from letter of credit rules, the Wireline Bureau said Friday. Skybeam and the Connect America Fund Phase II Coalition petitioned for waivers to conform with recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund rules (see 2003110034). Staff said waiver is justified given how the pandemic has increased demand for broadband while impeding business.

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Tom Carper, D-Del., urged the FCC, DOJ and IRS Friday to “aggressively” crack down on robocall scams about the COVID-19 pandemic. They wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Attorney General Bill Barr and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig: “Government and industry should always cooperate to fight illegal robocalls, but it is even more critical at a time when so many Americans are facing economic and health concerns.” The senators’ letter to Pai noted FCC recent actions, including a $225 million fine against robocall businesses Rising Eagle Capital and JSquared Telecom and their principals (see 2006090044). Only “a negligible amount of the hundreds of millions of dollars in FCC-levied fines against robocallers since 2015 have been actually been collected by” DOJ, the senators said. “This poor track record raises concerns that scammers using robocalls to deceive consumers and exploit anxiety associated with the COVID-19 public health emergency will be able to act without significant fear of reprisal, and never made to disgorge the ill-gotten proceeds.” The lawmakers sought recommendations whether further legislation is needed “to ensure that the FCC and DOJ work closer together and actually recoup fines that the FCC levies against robocallers.” They want to know whether six gateway providers the FCC and FTC contacted in April (see 2004030052) have cut traffic allowing pandemic-related scam robocalls originating outside the country into the U.S. The two agencies sent a second round of letters to the providers in May (see 2005200053). The FCC, DOJ and IRS didn’t comment.

World Wrestling Entertainment's annual shareholder meeting, postponed from April due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2004100003), will be held virtually on July 16 because of health concerns, it said Friday.

The FCC Media Bureau extended a waiver of sponsorship identification rules for donated COVID-19-related public service announcements through Aug. 31, said a public notice Friday. Since the PSAs are created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and don’t include the names of the entities that donated advertising time to air them, they would otherwise violate sponsorship ID rules. Despite some states lifting stay-at-home orders, “many restrictions, including 'social distancing' measures, remain in effect with uncertain timetables for their removal,” MB said.

More than a quarter of the more than 1 million people searching online for new homes at the peak of COVID-19 in April and May were looking at locales in other U.S. regions, said Redfin. There was a “huge increase” in people in large metropolitan areas “looking online at homes in small towns,” it said Thursday: The pandemic and resulting work-from-home trends are “accelerating migration patterns.” New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles had the biggest “net outflow” of users in April and May, the digital real estate brokerage said.

Analytics company Verint partnered with Viziblezone on COVID-19 contact tracing software for smartphones to help return employees to physical work spaces, said the Israeli startup Thursday. “While many global brands have already stated their intention to keep employees working from home, this solution has particular benefit for companies who require their workforce to be physically present.”

Rev launched live captions for Zoom virtual meeting users, said the speech-to-text company Thursday: Zoom quickly became the leading video conferencing platform during the pandemic (see 2006120054), previously lacking “a solution for on-screen captions.”