Mozilla released Firefox 41.0.2 to address a security vulnerability that may allow a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information from an affected system, said a Thursday alert from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. US-CERT also issued an alert Thursday saying Apple released security updates for Keynote, Pages and Numbers for OS and for iOS to address multiple vulnerabilities that may allow a remote attacker to take control of an affected system.
Reducing skywave protection for Class A AM stations could drive listeners from that band, said iHeartCommunications in a Sept. 29 meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 13-249 Thursday. The draft order on AM revitalization includes a Further NPRM that seeks comment on reducing skywave protections, broadcast industry officials have told us. The AM stations that would be most affected by such a rule change are also the stations that listeners tune to the AM band to hear, iHeart said, comparing the Class A stations to “an anchor commercial tenant in a retail development.” Discouraging listeners from using the AM band is counter to the goal of the AM revitalization, iHeart said. The FCC needs a “full and balanced” record on the issue and should find out what reducing skywave protections for Class A's would do to the AM band, emergency alert system warnings and other AM stations, iHeart said.
It may require more than one year to implement proposed new emergency alert system codes, replied broadcast engineers Cohen Dippell, posted in FCC docket 04-296 Friday. The proposed codes Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), Storm Surge Watch (SSA) and Storm Surge Warning (SSW) are intended give public safety officials more specific alerts.The FCC should take into consideration broadcasters' legacy equipment and the longer time it may take to implement the codes, the engineering firm said.
Network redundancy by itself isn't enough to protect networks from cyberattacks and other problems, David Simpson, chief of the FCC's Public Safety Bureau, said Monday during a meeting of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council at commission headquarters. Simpson spoke up during a presentation of one the CSRIC working groups, on security by design.
Cox Communications sued Tempe, Arizona, and Mayor Mark Mitchell over its new video regulations that Cox says unfairly skew in favor of Google Fiber. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 14 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, seeks a declaration that the city's ordinance and licensing of Google Fiber as a video services provider rather than a cable provider is illegal, and an injunction stopping the city from giving Google Fiber a license for a video services system and right-of-way use agreement. Cox said Google Fiber's proposed video service to the city "is indistinguishable" from Cox's cable service there, but video service providers are exempt from the "substantial statutory and regulatory obligations" put on cable operators. The city altered its codes in December to create a license category for video service providers, and gave such a license in July to Google Fiber, waiving such standard requirements as underground construction. Rules on service standards, consumer information protection and billing requirements also don't apply to Google Fiber, though they apply to cable operators, and Google Fiber won't have to comply with federal emergency alert system regulations under its license, Cox said. The city declined to comment Friday.
The FCC should allow broadcasters a year to implement three proposed new emergency alert system (EAS) event codes, along with an interim phase-in period and a waiver process for broadcasters with legacy equipment, NAB said in comments filed in docket 15-94. The proposed codes “Extreme Wind Warning” (EWW), “Storm Surge Watch” (SSA) and “Storm Surge Warning” (SSW) are intended give public safety officials more specific alerts. NAB supports the new codes but said implementation will mean additional costs for some broadcasters and challenges for makers of EAS equipment. “Since it appears that some EAS equipment will require more attention than a simple, free software upgrade, NAB submits that a realistic waiver process is warranted for those broadcasters with legacy or other equipment that cannot be easily updated for the new event codes,” said the association. A “reasonable process” would allow six-month waivers for those that need them, with “one or more renewals to be considered on a case by case basis,” NAB said. AT&T also supports the new codes, and seconded NAB’s support of the yearlong implementation period. For AT&T’s U-verse network, ”one year is necessary to engage in the requisite end-to-end testing and iterative work with its EAS equipment manufacturer to ensure the integrity of the modified architecture,” said that pay-TV and telecom provider.
Microsoft released 12 updates to address vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows that may allow an attacker to take control of an affected system, said a U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team alert Tuesday.
Adobe released a security update to address vulnerabilities in Shockwave Player that may have allowed a remote attacker to take control of an affected system, said a U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team alert Tuesday.
Google released Chrome v 45.0.2454.85 to address multiple vulnerabilities for Linux, Mac and Windows, said a U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team alert Tuesday. Exploitation of the vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to take control of an affected system, it said.
Many cities with large populations of Latino, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese speakers have few broadcasters transmitting in those languages, said Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, NAACP and 23 other groups in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler posted Thursday in docket 06-119. Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which took New Orleans’ only Spanish-language station off air for eight days, the groups said. “During those eight days, over 100,000 Latinos had no landline service, no cellular telephony, no television, no radio, and no print media in their language,” the groups said. Civil rights organizations in 2005 proposed the “Katrina Petition,” under which stations in localities would be designated to broadcast emergency alert system (EAS) warnings in multiple languages, but the FCC hasn’t acted on it, the groups said. The FCC should require stations to certify they will help other stations transmit life-saving information in emergencies as a condition of license renewal, they said. “Stations that declare that they ‘will not transmit, or even help other stations transmit, life-saving information in an emergency’ should have their fitness to hold an FCC license formally reviewed,” the letter said. “State EAS plans can easily be amended to incorporate reasonable methods of ensuring that lifesaving information finds its way to the public in an emergency.”