June 2015

Senate Commerce Approves JSA Bill

The Senate Commerce Committee, after a brief false start, passed a bipartisan bill limiting the Federal Communications Commission's decision that most TV station joint sales agreement (JSAs) attributable as ownership interests. Specifically, it would grandfather any JSA that violated the new rule but that was struck before the March 2104 decision. While the bill had a number of Democratic supporters, they were mostly not on the committee. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL), along with Sens Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) registered their concerns, and were among a number of Democratic Senators who voted no.

Sen Blumenthal wound up not introducing an amendment that would have limited the bill. And Sen Booker also had an amendment he kept in his pocket. But Sens Blumenthal and Booker said they hoped to work with the bill's author, Sen Roy Blunt (R-MO) and get the amendments or at least some of their principles, into the final bill. Sen Booker said he was concerned about the impact of JSAs on diversity, saying that while some JSAs could help smaller stations, they were also pretty clearly being used by media "behemoths" to in some cases sell 100 percent of the ad time for smaller stations.

Inside the Hack of the Century

A cyber-invasion brought Sony Pictures to its knees and terrified corporate America. The story of what really happened -- and why Sony should have seen it coming. This is part one of a special three-part investigation:

On Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, a four-man team from Norse Corp, a small “threat-intelligence” firm based in Silicon Valley, arrived early for an 11:30 am meeting on the studio lot of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City (CA). They were scheduled to see Sony’s top cybersecurity managers to pitch Norse’s services in defending the studio against hackers, who had been plaguing Sony for years.

Three weeks later -- starting at about 7 a.m. Pacific time on Monday, Nov. 24 -- a crushing cyberattack was launched on Sony Pictures. Employees logging on to its network were met with the sound of gunfire, scrolling threats, and the menacing image of a fiery skeleton looming over the tiny zombified heads of the studio’s top two executives. Before Sony’s IT staff could pull the plug, the hackers’ malware had leaped from machine to machine throughout the lot and across continents, wiping out half of Sony’s global network. It erased everything stored on 3,262 of the company’s 6,797 personal computers and 837 of its 1,555 servers. To make sure nothing could be recovered, the attackers had even added a little extra poison: a special deleting algorithm that overwrote the data seven different ways. When that was done, the code zapped each computer’s startup software, rendering the machines brain-dead.

Not OK, Google: Chromium voice extension pulled after spying concerns

Google has removed an extension from Chromium, the open source sibling to the Chrome browser, after accusations that the extension was installed surreptitiously and subsequently eavesdropped on Chromium users. The issue first came to light in late May when a bug was filed in the Debian bug tracker. Chromium version 43 was seen downloading a binary extension from Google, and there was neither any ability to prevent this download, nor any source code available for the extension. The extension, called "Chrome Hotword," was found to be responsible for providing the browser's "OK, Google" functionality.

Although off by default, both Chrome and Chromium, when set to use Google as their default search engine, can permanently listen to the microphone and respond instantly to voice queries, with "OK Google" used as the trigger keyword. This looked like an egregious privacy violation; Google silently installing software that listens in to the microphone (and potentially reports back everything it hears to the mothership), and doing so not only in its partially closed source Chrome browser, but the free and open Chromium browser. The extension is supposed to detect the "OK Google" phrase locally, sending only search phrases to Google, but as no source code is available, there's no easy way to determine this. Other trigger phrases could be included that start transmission, and nobody outside Google would be any the wiser. Google developers announced that they would make a change to Chromium; as of June 25, builds of Chromium 45 will no longer download the module by default.

FCC Gives IBM Green Light to Operate New Cloud Services

The Federal Communications Commission has granted IBM an authorization to operate its Softlayer Federal Cloud, meaning Big Blue is about to have both a new federal customer and a second cloud service in compliance with FedRAMP. The agency ATO applies to two of IBM’s Softlayer data centers -- in Ashburn (VA) and Richardson (TX) -- designed specifically for federal workloads. Once the FedRAMP program office validates the documentation, other agencies will be able to leverage it for their applications and workloads.

The ATO is an important step for IBM as it looks to incorporate the capabilities of Softlayer – which it purchased for $2 billion in 2013 – into its federal offerings, which already include its FedRAMP-compliant SmartCloud for Government. IBM has an additional cloud offering, Smart Cloud for Defense, seeking approval at the Defense Department’s highest level for unclassified information. FCC’s work with IBM figures to play an integral role in the agency’s modernization effort. Over the coming months, FCC will begin transitioning from internally operated data centers to the cloud.

Internet Test Reveals Many Americans Not Getting the Speeds They Paid For

[Commentary] For too long Internet users had to take it on faith that our Internet access providers were making good on their promises to give us what we pay for. But even those who pay a premium for top speeds have found that certain sites and services sputter out at the pace of dial-up. And calling your Internet service provider’s customer-service department to find out what’s going on can be a torturous exercise -- requiring you to endure an endless loop of hold music as you pray for a sentient being to pick up the line. Now you can do something about it.

In May, BattlefortheNet.com launched the Internet Health Test to collect data on the speeds offered by the likes of AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. The test is an interactive tool that lets users run speed measurements across multiple “interconnection points” and gather information on whether and where ISPs are degrading speeds. The good news: Since its launch, more than 300,000 Internet users have run the Internet Health Test, resulting in over 2.5 million data points. Now here’s the bad: The evidence collected points to slowdowns for users on the networks of five of the largest Internet access providers -- AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon -- which represent 75 percent of all US wireline households. And the ugly: Since the test results were made public a number of paid cable industry operatives have tried to tear down these findings, suggesting without actually looking at the data that they are faulty and somehow corrupted. This is one of your best chances to hold your ISP accountable. The information the test collects is critical to protecting your online rights. The data provide more evidence to justify Net Neutrality protections -- and ensure that Internet users get the open and fast Internet that they deserve and are paying for.

[Tim Karr advocates for universal access to open networks at Free Press]

Akamai: Average US Broadband Speed Up 13 Percent

Average broadband speeds in the US reached 11.9 Mbps in the first quarter of 2015, a 13 percent year-on-year increase (and 7.4 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis), according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet Report. Despite that healthy jump, that placed the US in 19th among other countries. South Korea led all nations with an average of 23.6 Mbps, followed by Ireland (17.4 Mbps); Hong Kong (16.7 Mbps); Sweden (15.8 Mbps); Netherlands (15.3 Mbps); Japan (15.2 Mbps); Switzerland (14.9 Mbps), Norway (14.1 Mbps); Latvia (13.8 Mbps) and Finland (13.7 Mbps).

On a global basis, average connection speeds rose 10 percent, to 5 Mbps. When it came to average peak connection speed, Akamai said the US came in at 53.3 Mbps, up 31 percent year-over-year and 7.9 percent quarter-over-quarter, ranking it 22nd. In that category, Singapore led with a peak average of 98.5 Mbps, followed by Hong Kong (92.6 Mbps); South Korea (79 Mbps); Kuwait (76.5 Mbps); and Romania (71.6 Mbps).

Data Centers and Hidden Water Use

Silicon Valley’s appetite for data is well known. Its thirst is less understood. Amid record drought in California and other parts of the American West, the machines that support everything from Instagram photos to Netflix movie marathons require substantial quantities of water for the air-conditioning systems needed to keep the servers cool. California has more than 800 data centers, the most of any state, according to an estimate by tech consultancy 451 Research LLC that excludes smaller computer rooms that businesses use. Based on that and estimates for water use, the state’s data centers consume roughly as much water in a year as 158,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.

At a time when California authorities are telling waiters not to automatically offer water, data centers’ water use has largely escaped scrutiny. While data centers water needs are small relative to agriculture and power producers, their growth is entangling the state’s most successful business with its most pressing environmental problem. Industry efforts at greater efficiency so far have mainly focused on power. Some data center operators are looking for ways to reduce their demands on municipal water systems, by reusing dirty water or harvesting rainwater. Others are setting up giant storage tanks or digging their own wells.

NCTA, CEA Team On Modem, Router Efficiency Standards

Taking a page from its 2013 voluntary agreement for set-top energy conservation, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Consumer Electronics Association said they are teaming on a new voluntary agreement to make routers, modems and other broadband equipment more energy efficient. NCTA says the agreement will set "rigorous" requirements that will improve the efficiency of "small network equipment" (SNE) by 10 percent-20 percent compared to typical devices.

As with set-top boxes, Internet service providers and retail equipment manufacturers must report SNE energy use to an independent third party, with annual audits to make sure the equipment is meeting agreed-upon energy levels. That sounded good to the Department of Energy. “DOE appreciates industry’s voluntary commitment to improving the energy efficiency of small network equipment, and looks forward to the progress they can make and verification of the impacts at the appropriate time,” said Dr. Kathleen Hogan, DOE deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency, in a statement accompanying the announcement. Among those signed on to the new agreement are AT&T, Bright House, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and EchoStar.

Luxury hotel offers Internet kill switch to help guests disconnect

A luxury hotel in Germany has installed an Internet "kill switch" in its rooms, giving guests an easy way to completely disconnect during their stays. The silver switches have been installed at the Villa Stéphanie, a spa resort in the German town of Baden-Baden. When turned on, the switch activates a copper grid that blocks all wireless signals, acting as a Faraday cage for each room. The hotel has also installed a special coating on its rooms' walls, which it claims can block 96 percent of surrounding Wi-Fi signals.

T-Mobile’s big PR blitz is backfiring in Washington

If you follow John Legere on social media, then you'll know that his company, T-Mobile, has been on an aggressive PR and lobbying blitz of late. The campaign is brash. It's populist. It's everything we've come to expect from the nation's fourth-largest cellular carrier. It's also not going over particularly well with the people who count.

Officials across Capitol Hill and the Federal Communications Commission say they've grown increasingly frustrated by Legere's attempt to sway them on one of the most significant issues facing the industry: A looming auction of broadcast airwaves that T-Mobile hopes can supercharge its networks and help it compete against AT&T and Verizon with lower prices and better service. And on June 25, agency officials dealt T-Mobile a blow when they said they don't plan to go along with the company's request for more favorable treatment in the auction. "T-Mobile's aggressive campaign isn't going over well in most commissioners' offices," said one senior official, who asked not to be named discussing a pending issue before the agency. "People also don't understand what they are thinking they will accomplish."

Benton

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