Internet Security Alliance President Larry Clinton praised White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel Tuesday for saying the U.S. needs to take a more economics-based approach to cybersecurity, but added that there hasn’t been “adequate” follow-through on President Barack Obama’s 2013 cybersecurity executive order. Daniel had said during a Billington cybersecurity event Tuesday that improving cybersecurity is difficult in the U.S. because people still don’t fully understand the economics and psychology of cybersecurity. Daniel said the U.S. has improved its cybersecurity through its implementation of the executive order, particularly via the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (CD Sept 17 p9 ). There’s “no evidence that using the Framework is cost effective and there has been no obvious work to develop the market incentives called for by the President,” Clinton said in a statement. “Without these critical pieces the simple existence of the Framework is unlikely to generate significantly improved cyber security.” A similar process to the one NIST used to develop the framework could be used to “address the economic issues surrounding use of the Framework, such as cost-effectiveness and incentives,” he said.
Google has had a 150 percent increase in government requests for user information since the company began publishing user data in 2009, excluding requests for information on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the National Security Letters, said a company blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/1q8D5fi). The increase “comes against a backdrop of ongoing revelations about government surveillance programs,” it said. “Despite these revelations, we have seen some countries expand their surveillance authorities in an attempt to reach service providers outside their borders,” said Google. The USA Freedom Act (S-2685) would “prevent the bulk collection of Internet metadata under various legal authorities, allow us to be more transparent about the volume, scope and type of national security demands that we receive, and would create stronger oversight and accountability mechanisms,” it said.
"Instead of [ICANN] giving America and the world the assurance” that the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will be “seamless and imperceptible, exactly the opposite is occurring,” said Horace Cooper, National Center for Public Policy Research adjunct fellow, in a Politix op-ed Sunday (http://bit.ly/Zn1590). Cooper likened ICANN’s having the final say in its accountability process to a fox guarding the henhouse (CD Aug 27 p). He also endorsed the 12 principles for the coordination of unique identifiers (http://bit.ly/1l7SD1P) released in July by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (CD July 29 p10). The organizations involved in the drafting of the principles haven’t yet decided to go public, said an ITIF spokesman. ITIF wasn’t involved in the drafting of the principles, he said. ICANN initiated a public comment period on its accountability process (http://bit.ly/1qA0RFZ) in light of concerns raised by the ICANN community (CD Sept 9 p8). The comment period ends Sept. 27.
Cable and telecom companies that provide Internet service invest the most in domestic capital expenditures of any industry in the U.S., said the Progressive Policy Institute in a report (http://bit.ly/1Bsazh5). As a result, PPI said policymakers should avoid “massively altering Internet regulations” by taking a Communications Act Title II net neutrality approach, in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1wil1EX). The top four ISPs invested a combined $46 billion -- more than any other industry, it said. AT&T, Comcast and Verizon ranked in the top 10 of companies investing in the U.S., said PPI.
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) stakeholders in Istanbul (CD Sept 8 p10; Sept 5 p9) made “clear” last week that NTIA’s transition of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) should go “hand-in-hand” with ICANN’s accountability process, said Matthew Shears, Center for Democracy & Technology’s Global Internet Policy and Human Rights Project director, in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1oxZbIB). Shears cited a statement by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade at IGF that ICANN can’t be “'without the U.S. government [IANA] contract and without some activities to strengthen our accountability to the global interest and to all of you.'” IGF stakeholders said neither the transition, nor the accountability process, should be “rushed,” said Shears. Other stakeholders said the newly formed NETmundial Initiative (CD Aug 29 p4; Sept 2 p13) should be “more inclusive, transparent, and focused, and warned against duplicating or undermining existing efforts (such as the IGF),” he said. The CDT wants IGF to continue its work beyond 2015, as the UN considers its renewal, said Shears. “Across the world, others are also thoroughly dissatisfied with the current state of Internet governance -- yes, even with the IGF itself,” said Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation senior global policy analyst, in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1AxgjDK). The “tangible results” of the IGF’s “knowledge exchange have been thin on the ground,” he said. “The result has been a recent flourishing of independent Internet governance initiatives, all presented with the earnest disclaimer that they do not intend to duplicate the IGF -- but which nevertheless address areas well within the scope of the IGF’s original mandate.”
Pandora reached a licensing agreement with international music rights management company BMG, said a Pandora news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1rOh8DH). The deal lets Pandora access BMG’s complete catalog of works under performing rights organizations the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc., it said.
ICANN’s Public Experts Group for its accountability process extended its deadline to choose seven advisers for the process (http://bit.ly/1vdRn3j) from Sept. 10 to Sept. 30, it said in a Wednesday news release (http://bit.ly/1mZr3EP). ICANN cited the recent comment period on ICANN accountability, which ends Sept. 27 (http://bit.ly/1qA0RFZ), as the reason for the extension. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling is one four members on the Public Experts Group, which is asking for community input on the seven advisers, it said. ICANN’s Cross Community Group for the accountability process will have an informational call Monday (http://bit.ly/1ot0wjO).
A request for proposals (RFP) (http://bit.ly/WJWITF) and “suggested” Internet Assigned Numbers (IANA) transition timeline (http://bit.ly/1qFoBbw) were released by the IANA Coordination Group (ICG) Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1rIur8L). The RFPs are primarily for the ICANN communities with “direct operational or service relationships with the IANA functions operator,” which are the names, numbers and protocol parameters communities, it said. Proposals are due Jan. 15, it said. The ICG will develop draft responses to the proposals from Jan. 15 to March 13, said the timeline. The draft process will be reviewed from March 13 to May 15, it said. Testing and review of the final IANA transition proposal will take place from March 13 to July 17. The proposal will be submitted to NTIA sometime between July 17 and July 31; NTIA will have until Sept. 30, 2015, to approve the proposal, it said. The tentative timeline said NTIA has not offered any guidance on the time necessary for it to approve the transition. The ICG also released Wednesday an RFP to select a contractor to perform the group’s secretariat function (http://bit.ly/WK0VH4). Submissions for the secretariat are due Monday, it said.
The Internet economy -- including the information, communications and technology sector -- accounted for 20 percent of U.S. economic growth between 1997 and 2002 and 10 percent of growth between 2002 and 2007, said a Hudson Institute report released Monday (http://bit.ly/1roaWIg). It cited Department of Commerce data. “These contributions to economic growth are above the level of economic activity that would have occurred had economic factors remained constant,” said the report. The government, the report said, has never tried to pinpoint the exact contribution of the Internet economy to the overall U.S. economy. In total, the Internet economy contributed $922 billion in 2013 dollars from 1997 to 2007, it concluded.
Six major app developers signed on to build connected car apps through the AT&T Drive platform. The developers are AccuWeather, Glympse, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Streetline and Tribune Digital Ventures, AT&T said Friday in a news release (http://soc.att.com/1pwJbpt). The platform allows automakers and developers to implement their own innovative and customized connected car systems, it said. Apps include one from AccuWeather that warns against inclement conditions, and another from Glympse that allows connected car drivers “to share their dynamic location in real-time with anyone,” AT&T said.