Symantec won “early termination” of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period on its proposed $4.65 billion cash acquisition of web security company Blue Coat, the FTC said in a notice Wednesday. Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark will be named CEO of Symantec after the close of the deal in Q3, succeeding Ajei Gopal, interim chief operating officer, Symantec said last month (see 1606130010).
Americans are making their smartphones more secure, CTIA said Thursday, reporting on the results of a Harris Poll it commissioned. Harris found that 69 percent of U.S. wireless consumers surveyed use PINs/passwords on their smartphones, which is an increase of 13 percent from 2015 and 38 percent from the first survey in 2012. Harris also found that 51 percent have installed remote lock and erase software on their smartphones, up 42 percent from 2015 and 31 percent from 2012. It said 73 percent of respondents say they run software updates “every or almost every time,” 51 percent have installed an anti-virus and 86 percent “are familiar” with cybersecurity. “These results show that our continued education initiatives are working, and we remain committed to increasing consumer adoption,” CTIA said in a news release. Harris used a sample from the Harris Poll Panel of 1,008 U.S. adults, 18 or older, who own and use a smartphone and/or tablet, the firm said. “Because the sample is based on those who were invited to participate in the Harris Poll online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated."
Microsoft now exceeds 350 million “active devices” using Windows 10, giving the operating system “the fastest adoption rate of any prior Windows release,” CEO Satya Nadella said on a Tuesday earnings call. “We continue to pursue our goal of moving people from needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows.” Microsoft in two weeks will launch a Windows 10 “anniversary update” that will include “a significant step forward in security,” he said. Shares of the company, which also reported earnings, rose 5.3 percent to $55.91in trading Wednesday.
Dun & Bradstreet is partnering with the Trustworthy Accountability Group to help the anti-fraud initiative (see 1605230010) verify the identities of buyers, sellers and intermediaries in the digital advertising supply chain. "With Dun & Bradstreet data, TAG can feel confident that only legitimate business entities are approved to participate in the TAG Registry," said Dun & Bradstreet CEO Bob Carrigan in a news release. "Supporting TAG in its efforts to bring transparency to online advertising aligns with Dun & Bradstreet's mission of uncovering truth from data to reveal a business' best -- or riskiest -- relationships." TAG was formed two years ago by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers and Interactive Advertising Bureau in part to combat digital ad piracy and copyright infringement. Dun & Bradstreet will vet the identities of companies applying to be "TAG Registered" by matching their information such as address, contact emails and names, tax ID and other fields. After TAG does a final check of companies forwarded by Dun & Bradstreet, approved companies get a unique identifier "that can be appended to digital ads, and shared with advertising partners to verify the legitimacy and reputation of the business," it said. The issue has come under more scrutiny, with two Democratic senators urging the FTC to get more involved in understanding and fighting fraudulent digital ads (see 1607110016).
Congress.gov, the Copyright Office’s website and other Library of Congress-hosted websites continued to experience intermittent outages at our deadline Tuesday after a distributed denial-of-service attack against LOC’s IT infrastructure. An LOC spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the DDOS attack began Sunday morning and is affecting LOC’s websites, online services and employees’ access to email. LOC announced the DDOS attack in a tweet Monday. LOC is “working to maintain access to its online services while ensuring security,” emailed a spokeswoman. GAO and Congress have highlighted deficiencies in the LOC IT program in recent years (see 1503310046 and 1509080058), and new Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said IT modernization will be one of her top priorities (see 1604200053).
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said states should find answers to cyberthreats, as he took the chair of the National Governors Association for the 2016-17 year. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) will be vice chairman, the association said in a news release Saturday. “Cyber crime is a growing threat to our states, territories and our nation,” McAuliffe said. “As governors, we must be prepared to combat this threat in order to protect the welfare of our citizens.” Under the initiative, states will develop strategies to strengthen cybersecurity practices, NGA said. Over the next year, McAuliffe plans to host several regional summits on the subject with state policy leaders, industry officials and federal partners, concluding with the National Summit on State Cybersecurity in Virginia, it said. McAuliffe hosted his first cyber roundtable Tuesday in Fairfax, Virginia, with a panel of CEOs discussing the intersection of cybersecurity and healthcare, the NGA said.
The pay-TV backed set-top proposal doesn’t address the security concerns pay-TV carriers have said they're worried about, Amazon officials said in meetings Wednesday with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairman Tom Wheeler, Chief Technologist Scott Jordan, and aides to Rosenworcel, Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, according to an ex parte filing. Hardware-based digital rights management is the “gold standard” for security and isn’t addressed in the pay-TV proposal, Amazon said. That’s in contrast with the FCC set-top NPRM, the company said. If the FCC goes with the pay-TV app proposal, it should require carriers to “adhere to the standard practices and business terms of app distribution,” provide their full channel lineup and on-demand library to customers using third-party boxes, and require pay-TV companies to provide access to guide and search metadata, it said in docket 16-42.
Americans should have confidence in the NSA, Director and U.S. Cyber Commander Michael Rogers said Thursday at the National Press Club. “The nation is counting on us to generate the insights,” said Rogers. “So we’ve got to ask ourselves, how do you do that in a world in which resources are declining and … the technical challenges … are just getting more and more complex?” NSA professionals “believe in their missions, they believe in doing the right thing the right way and they are committed to doing it within a legal framework,” he said. “We always obey the rule of law. If we make a mistake, we acknowledge that mistake and we own it. We don’t take shortcuts.” Seeking better dialog between the government and technology companies, Rogers supported a model in which cyber professionals can move back and forth between the public and private sectors. “The two cultures at times talk past each other,” he said. Some in the government think the private sector is interested only in money, but Rogers said both sectors fight for something bigger than themselves. “If you’re out in the Valley, your view is that you’re harnessing the power of technology to change the world for the better,” he said. Better dialogue could crack how to deal with encryption, which Rogers said can be used for good and evil. “Encryption is a positive thing,” he stressed. “I don’t know what the answer is,” but there should be a conversation about what’s possible, he said. Neither a company nor an intelligence agency should decide alone, but rather there should be “a broader dialogue as a society about what are we comfortable with here and what makes sense for us.” Rogers said the U.S. Cyber Command is halfway through building “a dedicated cyber-mission force,” which will be a 6,200-person army of cyber professionals divided into 133 specialized teams. The mission force will reach initial operating capabilities by Sept. 30, and is expected to be fully operational by the same day in 2018, he said. The nature of cyber required that phased approach, he said. “Because demand at the moment exceeds capacity, this is the one mission set that I’ve been involved in as a military professional for 35 years [where] we’re not even waiting until the team is fully constructed. As soon as we get a cadre, we’re putting teams on targets.”
CTIA President Meredith Baker met with all five FCC members to lay out the group’s concerns headed into Thursday commissioner meeting, which will consider the spectrum frontiers order, said a filing in docket 14-177. “CTIA expressed support for moving forward to make the 28, 37, 39, and 64-71 GHz bands available to support innovative 5G and Internet of Things technologies,” the filing said. “CTIA urged the Commission to adopt policies that prioritize licensed, exclusive use spectrum and provide the flexibility to innovate. CTIA explained that such actions will enable wireless providers to improve service for U.S. wireless consumers, foster development of the Internet of Things, and extend this country’s global 4G leadership position into 5G services.” Baker said the rules as proposed by Chairman Tom Wheeler adequately protect satellite incumbents in the 28 GHz band. “Despite satellite operators having only limited rights to use of this spectrum, both the Commission and the wireless industry in this proceeding have made significant accommodations to satellite incumbents,” the filing said. “These options are especially noteworthy, CTIA explained, in light of satellite companies’ stated intentions to compete directly with terrestrial mobile providers in the provision of broadband services.” Baker also warned against imposing cybersecurity rules, the filing said: “CTIA described the wireless industry’s consistent track record of deploying and integrating cyber security protective measures without need for onerous government intervention.” Baker is a former FCC commissioner. CTIA also reported on call between Brian Josef, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory affairs, and Brian Regan, Wireless Bureau associate chief. “CTIA discussed the potential negative implications of adoption of a complex sharing arrangement for the lower portion of the 37 GHz band together with an operability requirement that spans the entire 37 GHz band,” the filing said.
The FCC should take a "time-out" from phasing down E-rate support for voice service, said Funds for Learning, in comments filed Tuesday in docket 13-184 on the commission's eligible service list for the school and library telecom discount program in the funding year beginning July 1, 2017 (see 1606060008). FFL said schools and libraries "desperately need" voice service support and it proposed keeping the phasedown at its 40 percent reduction from the support level for "Category One" services, which are needed to provide broadband Internet access. "Applicants submitted more requests for discounts on voice service than for any other type of service," the E-rate-compliance consulting and web services firm said. "Applicants must have voice services to conduct school business and to keep everyone in their buildings safe and secure. ... In contrast, the Commission’s short-term target of 100 Mbps service per 1000 students and longer-term target of 1 Gbps per 1,000 students remains just that -- something for schools and libraries to aspire to, but which remains, as a practical matter, something that they would like to have." In other comments (due Tuesday), AdTec asked for "the expanded inclusion of cellular data service for key staff members without the requirement that such a service be directly compared to the cost of providing data service" through building Wi-Fi service, which the group said wasn't reliable in emergencies. Cox Communications urged the Wireline Bureau to make "Distributed Denial of Service ('DDoS') attack prevention and mitigation services" eligible for E-rate support, given "a marked increase" in such attacks, which "can cripple" school systems. The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology recommended DDOS mitigation service be treated the same as firewall protection -- meaning it would be a Category One service if a standard component of a vendor's Internet access service but would be a Category Two service (for internal connections) if provided by other vendors or priced out separately. The department also recommended "that dark fiber obtained via lease or IRU [indefeasible right of use] as part of a construction project, with the goal of reducing the overall construction cost, be classified as special construction" under the program's terms.