October 2014

Report: Despite Known Threats, Americans Putting Their Own Online Security at Risk

A survey of online security habits commissioned by the Digital Citizens Alliance and Blackfin Security shows that Americans open their devices to unknown entities, download files of unknown origin at high rates, and even ignore best practices when they know they should do otherwise.”

Key findings of the Zogby Analytics poll include:

Nearly one-third of Americans don’t change their passwords enough – going as long as a year without updating them;
More than one-third use public Wi-Fi that doesn’t require a password sometimes or even “always”;
16 percent said that using two-factor authentication (which requires the user to have two types of credentials before being able to access an account) makes signing on too much of a burden, while another 23 percent didn’t know what two-factor authentication is;
62 percent said they didn’t always check or weren’t sure if their downloaded movies, music, games, or books were legally authorized. Previous Digital Citizens Alliance research has shown this is a widely used delivery mechanism for malware;
More than 35 percent of all Americans like/follow/connect with people they barely know or don’t know on social media. While that can often be with a celebrity or influential figure, in some cases, people might be connecting with someone more interested in your habits than they are in your safety.

The Internet is Not Harming You. Here’s What’s Harmful: Fearmongering About the Internet

[Commentary] Google makes us dumb, Facebook numbs us, and cell phones pull us apart? Nonsense. It’s time to counter the narrative. Our brains changed to meet the challenge of driving cars. They changed so we could dance to recorded music. Now we are witnessing more change, and our brains will change again. Yes, change can be scary. But it's what we're built for.

France’s Iliad Abandons Efforts to Buy T-Mobile US

French carrier Iliad is giving up on plans to acquire T-Mobile US, following discussions with majority owner Deutsche Telekom and the T-Mobile US board. “The Iliad Group announces that it puts an end to its project of acquiring T-Mobile US, following exchanges with Deutsche Telekom and selected board members of T-Mobile US who have refused to entertain its new offer,” Iliad said in a statement.

Honda and Khanna locked in tight battle in Silicon Valley

Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) and challenger Ro Khanna, competing to represent a core segment of Silicon Valley, are locked in a dead heat, according to a new internal poll. They are tied at 38 percent each, according to the new survey released by Khanna’s campaign. The split shows significant progress for Khanna, who came in 20 points behind Honda during the June primary.

FCC Republicans Question Designated Entity Moves

Federal Communications Commission members Michael O’Rielly and Ajit Pai were not happy with portions of the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on competitive bidding in spectrum auctions, particularly the upcoming broadcast incentive auction.

The item passed, but not without the Republicans dissenting in part and making their unhappiness known. The FCC voted to allow small businesses and minorities more opportunities to bid by, among other things, loosening restrictions on third-party leasing or requirements for higher upfront payments from bidders with past debt issues. "The NPRM proposes to permit small businesses (known as 'designated entities' or 'DEs') to obtain taxpayer-funded discounts and then turn around and lease 100% of their spectrum to the world’s largest corporations. It does absolutely nothing good for competition in the wireless marketplace to award bidding credits to entities that flip their spectrum to large incumbent providers," Commissioner Pai wrote in his partial dissent. "To the contrary, it only makes it harder for small and regional facilities-based providers to win spectrum and compete on a level playing field. The Commission did not need to take this approach" He said there were some parts worth exploring, but on balance called it a "lost opportunity" by DEs to get into the wireless business. Commissioner O'Rielly also took issue with the NPRMs proposal that DEs not have to be a facilities-based provider -- allowing them to lease the spectrum to others.

AT&T Completes 1-Gig Upgrade In Austin

AT&T said it has completed an upgrade in Austin that transitions all U-verse with GigaPower customers to 1 Gbps, and, following the completion of a recent expansion, has doubled the reach of its fiber-based network in portions of Austin and in some surrounding communities.

Aereo to the FCC: Let us join the cable companies we tried to replace

The Federal Communications Commission is weighing whether to extend regulations for satellite television providers, cable companies and other "multichannel video providers" to Aereo and other "linear" online video distributors. (Linear distributors are considered distinct from on-demand services like Netflix or Hulu, so those services aren't likely to be affected by the rule.)

In a recent meeting, Aereo told the FCC that it would be willing to accept those regulations. "Online linear channel streaming services have the ability," Aereo wrote in its FCC filing describing the meeting, "to comply with the Commission’s regulatory obligations imposed on MVPDs, such as program carriage, emergency alerts, equal opportunity employment and closed captioning." What Aereo left unsaid here is really the biggest piece of news: By accepting the label of MVPD, Aereo would also need to start negotiating with broadcasters over content, or "retransmission" fees -- which is precisely what Aereo's original business model was designed to avoid. (Other MVPDs pay broadcasters money for the right to retransmit free, over-the-air television signals to their subscribers.)

ACA: Repair Program Access Before Redefining OVDs

American Cable Association President Matthew Polka grabbed some face time with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler at the COMPTEl show in Dallas to talk about closing a "loophole" in the program access rules before trying to extend those rules to over-the-top providers.

Polka argued that before the FCC takes on defining linear OVD's as multichannel video providers, it extend program access protections to the National Cable Television Cooperative, which negotiates programming deals for more than 900 small and medium-sized MVPD's -- ACA represents those smaller operators. Polka wants it to define NCTC as a buying group. "Fairness counsels that before the Commission spends time and resources expanding the scope of the program access rules in an unprecedented manner, it should take action to ensure that entities Congress explicitly intended to use the rules are in fact able to do so," said Polk. "ACA believes it is imperative for the Commission to conclude its long-pending program access rulemaking and ensure buying groups for smaller MVPDs have the legal protections Congress wanted for them."

Verizon FiOS Speeds To Top Of Netflix Rankings

Thanks to a paid interconnection deal announced in April, Verizon FiOS has surged to the top of Netflix’s ISP Speed Index for September, unseating Cablevision Systems as the best performer (by a small margin) among the 16 major US broadband providers ranked each month by Netflix.

Verizon FiOS ,with an average Netflix streaming speed of 3.17 Mbps, rose nine spots in the rankings, up from the 2.41 Mbps average Verizon FiOS turned in for August 2014. Verizon DSL averaged 1.68 Mbps in September (beating its 1.31 Mbps average for August), good enough to move it one spot ahead of now last-place Clearwire.

How to read books from your local library on your tablet

If you haven’t been inside your local library in the last ten years, you might be surprised how easy it is to check out e-books.

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