New FTC Chief Technology Officer Ashkan Soltani will focus on improving the agency’s tech recruitment, big data initiatives and data security, he said in a blog post Tuesday. “Data security is one of the most important aspects of a functioning marketplace and a critical aspect in consumer protection,” he said. “I hope to expand the agency’s ability to measure big data’s disparate effects in order to ensure that the algorithms that consumers interact with on a daily basis afford them the same rights online as they’re entitled to offline.” Consumer advocates and technologists expect Soltani to put the agency at the forefront of emerging tech issues (see 1410290060).
Legal and regulatory scrutiny of corporate leaders’ management of cybersecurity may increase in 2015 if more “major” data breach incidents occur, Experian said Monday in a report. Data breaches in the coming year are likely to increasingly result in the theft of usernames, passwords and other information stored in the cloud, because cloud services’ increasing popularity make them an “attractive target” for hackers, Experian said. Data breaches at physical retail locations may also increase in the coming year as hackers attempt to make final profits from point-of-sale attacks before the more secure chip-and-PIN technology is adopted in the U.S. in October, the firm said. Data breaches at healthcare facilities are also likely to increase due to the increasing use of electronic medical records and wearable technology, Experian said. Third-party breaches also will increase due to the increased use of the Internet of Things, the firm said. Despite the increased threat from outside actors, employees’ mistakes will remain the main threat to corporations’ cybersecurity, Experian said. Only 54 percent of companies say they provide security awareness training to employees, far lower than what’s needed to make a “significant dent” in breaches during the coming year, the firm said.
BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music sued Cox Communications for failing to penalize subscribers who repeatedly infringe copyrighted materials, said documents filed Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The music publishers alleged that Cox failed to comply with the Copyright Alert System, which lets ISPs terminate Internet services to repeat infringers. “Despite its published policy to the contrary, Cox's actual policy is to refuse to suspend, terminate, or otherwise penalize subscriber accounts that repeatedly commit copyright infringement through its network in any meaningful numbers,” the publishers said. Cox didn't comment.
The Chinese government has “legitimized” ICANN and the notion of “one global Internet,” said ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade in a videoconference Monday. He said he had just returned from China’s World Internet Conference. The “danger” of the Chinese government partitioning its Internet is “largely behind us,” he said. That’s “extremely powerful and notable,” said Chehade. The Chinese expect to have a “seat at the table” in global Internet governance debates, he said. China’s participation within and endorsement of such debates was “impossible” as long as the U.S. maintained its contract over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions with ICANN, said Chehade. ICANN couldn’t claim China had an “equal seat at the table” while the U.S. had authority over the IANA functions, he said. “By ‘seat at the table’ Fadi was not talking ‘seat on the ICANN Board’ but rather the euphemistic seat at the table of discussion,” emailed an ICANN spokesman Wednesday. He said ICANN has had Chinese board members in the past; Hualin Qian served from 2003 to 2006 and Pindar Wong served as the board’s first vice chairman in 1999.
Consumer sentiment toward the overall economy slipped 1.2 points in November but is above that of last year, said a CEA report released Tuesday. Consumer expectations about technology spending, meanwhile, climbed 7.3 percentage points in November, 1.6 points above the year-ago period, CEA said. “Consumers appear to have held off slightly on tech purchases in October in preparation for holiday shopping, including Black Friday,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA chief economist. For the holiday period, the association is forecasting 2.5 percent growth in tech spending, compared with 0.9 percent growth for the period in 2013, to reach a record $33.76 billion.
Sixty-four percent of global Internet users are “more concerned” about online privacy than they were a year ago, said a joint survey released Monday by the Center for International Governance Innovation and Ipsos, a market research firm. They surveyed more than 23,000 Internet users in 24 countries, including Australia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S., from Oct. 7 to Nov. 12. Eighty-three percent of respondents said “affordable” Internet access should be a “basic human right,” it said. Among a selection of Internet governance models, 57 percent of respondents chose the multistakeholder model. Thirty-six percent of Americans have taken steps to improve their online privacy and security since the surveillance revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, it said.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that an administrative subpoena can be used to obtain Internet service subscriber data. The case, on appeal from the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, hinged on the constitutional rights of Guy Wheelock, who was convicted of receiving child pornography. Wheelock challenged the use of the administrative subpoena -- rather than a warrant -- to obtain his Internet subscriber information, and his 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. The 8th Circuit upheld the constitutionality of that sentence. “With Comcast in possession of his subscriber data, Wheelock cannot claim a reasonable ‘expectation of privacy in [the] government’s acquisition of his subscriber information, including his IP address and name from third-party service providers,’” the 10-page decision said. “Because Wheelock had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the subscriber information, a warrant was not necessary,” it said.
The FCC said it’s seeking comment on a petition from Marriott, the American Hospitality & Lodging Association and Ryman Hospitality Properties seeking FCC guidance on what they should do to protect the security and quality of their Wi-Fi networks. Marriott agreed last month to pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether the hotel company intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at a Tennessee convention center (see 1410060039). The comment deadline is Dec. 19, the FCC said.
The FTC seeks comment on its proposed settlement with patent assertion entity (PAE) MPHJ Technology Investments. The settlement, announced last week, would prohibit MPHJ and the Farney Daniels law firm from sending out deceptive prelitigation demand letters to entities the PAE claims have violated its patents. The FTC had been investigating MPHJ’s sending of more than 9,000 demand letters over its patent portfolio, which includes multiple patents on scanning documents for attachment to emails (see 1411060044). The FTC will accept comments on the proposed settlement through Dec. 8, the commission said Thursday in the Federal Register.
Ninety-four percent of U.S. consumers heard about major data breaches during the past year, but only 45 percent of surveyed consumers have changed an online password, ISACA said Wednesday, based on a survey. About 28 percent of consumers said they were shopping less frequently at one or more retailers that had experienced major data breaches over the past year, while 15 percent of consumers said they made fewer online purchases using mobile devices, ISACA said. “An interesting conclusion from this study is the gap between people’s concerns about protecting their data privacy and security versus the actions they take,” said ISACA International President Robert Stroud in a news release. “Businesses need to address this gap by aggressively educating customers and employees about how they can help reduce the risk or minimize the impact of data breaches or hacks.” ISACA surveyed 1,646 ISACA members, along with an additional 4,224 consumers in Australia, India, U.K. and U.S.