January 2019

Judges Picked to Hear Net Neutrality Challenge

The three-judge panel has been picked to hear the appeal of Mozilla et al. to the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality deregulation. According to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, the Feb 1 oral argument in the Mozilla appeal will be heard by Judges Judith Rogers, Patricia Millett, and Stephen Williams.

Cyberattack Disrupts Printing of Major Newspapers

The Los Angeles Times says an unusual cyberattack that disrupted its printing operations and those at newspapers in San Diego and Florida the weekend of Dec 28 came from outside the United States, but it stopped short of accusing a specific foreign government. Computer malware attacks on infrastructure, while relatively rare, are hardly new: Russia has been credibly accused of shutting down power grids in Ukraine and a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia, Iran crippled a casino in Las Vegas, and the United States and Israel attacked a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran.

FCC Investigating Link Between 911 Lines Going Down Nationwide and CenturyLink's Internet Outages

Some 911 emergency services in various parts of the country were inaccessible Dec 28 amid an internet outage from Louisiana-based CenturyLink, prompting a federal inquiry and rebuke. Calling the outages “completely unacceptable,” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said his agency has launched an investigation into the CenturyLink 911 outage in parts of Washington state, Missouri, Idaho, and Arizona. The outage started the morning of Dec 28 and quickly spread beyond people’s ability to watch online videos.