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BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2013

This week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-06-16--P1W/

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Officials: NSA Programs Broke Plots in 20 Nations [links to web]
   Officials: NSA Doesn't Collect Cellphone-Location Records
   Tech Firms Disclose Certain Data
   NSA admits listening to US phone calls without warrants
   US spy agency paper says fewer than 300 phone numbers closely scrutinized
   House Intelligence chairman: NSA ‘not listening to Americans' phone calls’
   Source: President Obama Considering Releasing NSA Court Order
   Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home [links to web]
   Secret to PRISM Program: Even Bigger Data Seizure
   US surveillance architecture includes collection of revealing Internet, phone metadata
   Governments Requested Information on as Many as 19,000 Facebook Accounts
   Google Calls U.S. Data Request Disclosures a Step Backward for Users
   Why Google is fighting back - analysis
   NSA revelations threaten worldwide trust in Facebook, Google
   Bills would clip NSA's wings on phone data
   After Profits, Defense Firm Faces Pitfalls of Cybersecurity [links to web]
   Digital Innovations Help Deliver News Under Repressive Regimes [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Administration Advances Wireless Spectrum for Economic Growth - press release
   Four Years of Broadband Growth - press release
   NIST and NTIA Announce Plans to Establish New Center for Advanced Communications - press release
   Obama Boosts Wireless Broadband with Spectrum Sharing Plan - analysis
   Our Schools, Cut Off From the Web - op-ed
   No Country for Slow Broadband - op-ed
   Google flies Internet balloons in stratosphere for a “network in the sky”

CYBERSECURITY/PRIVACY
   Taking the mystery out of cyberwar - editorial
   NSA’s Keith Alexander seeks cyber shield for companies
   A Call to Arms for Banks
   NSA-proof encryption exists. Why doesn’t anyone use it? [links to web]
   Phones Leave a Telltale Trail [links to web]
   House members introduce bill to stop TV devices from monitoring consumers at home

OWNERSHIP
   Koch brothers blast Reed Hundt's remarks on newspaper ownership
   Apple's crucial overscroll bounce patent claim is valid, U.S. patent office says [links to web]
   Liberty, Time Warner Cable CEOs Met [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Mobile Competition Shifts to Software Design
   NAB: FCC's Variable Plans All Pose Interference Issues [links to web]
   EU to end mobile roaming charges next year [links to web]
   Apple's crucial overscroll bounce patent claim is valid, U.S. patent office says [links to web]

LABOR
   How Technology is Destroying Jobs [links to web]

CONTENT
   The DOJ's last best chance in the Apple e-book case has passed [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   News Coverage Conveys Strong Momentum for Same-Sex Marriage - research
   Americans' Confidence in Newspapers Continues to Erode - Gallup research [links to web]
   Digital Innovations Help Deliver News Under Repressive Regimes [links to web]

AGENDA
   Wheeler Outlines Priorities: Spectrum, IP Transition, Advancing Civil Society
   San Francisco and New York call truce, will co-host tech summit [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   EU to end mobile roaming charges next year [links to web]

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

NSA DOESN’T COLLECT CELL-LOCATION RECORDS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman, Julian Barnes]
The National Security Agency sweeps up data on millions of cellphones and Internet communications under secret court orders. But as it mounts a rigorous defense of its surveillance, the agency has disclosed new details that portray its efforts as tightly controlled and limited in scope, while successful in thwarting potential plots. On June 16, officials said that though the NSA is authorized to collect "geolocational" information that can pinpoint the location of callers, it chooses not to. The NSA chooses not to collect such data as the nearest cellphone tower used to place or receive a mobile call, U.S. officials said. In a statement released this weekend, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the NSA program doesn't collect "any cell phone locational information." Such information has been found to be of value to criminal investigators, who can use it to link suspects with crime scenes. However, the U.S. official said the data doesn't provide sufficient intelligence value to justify the resources that would be required to use it.
benton.org/node/154054 | Wall Street Journal
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TECH FIRMS DISCLOSE DATA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Evelyn Rusli, Shira Ovide, Jessica Lessin]
Silicon Valley companies are seeking to further distance themselves from government surveillance, though they don't agree on the best approach. Facebook, Microsoft and Apple each disclosed figures on data requests from U.S. government and law enforcement entities—though in a form that shed little light on how many of the information transfers were associated with intelligence agencies. Google, however, questioned the value of such disclosures without being permitted by the government to offer more details on classified requests. Google called the disclosures by its rivals a step back for users. "Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," a spokesman said in a statement, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
benton.org/node/154053 | Wall Street Journal | FT – Apple | FT – Facebook, Microsoft | CSM - Facebook, Microsoft | Bloomberg – Apple
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NSA ADMITS LISTENING TO US PHONE CALLS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed "simply based on an analyst deciding that." If the NSA wants "to listen to the phone," an analyst's decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Rep Nadler said he learned. "I was rather startled," said Rep Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA's formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically, it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls. Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, Nadler's disclosure indicates the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.
benton.org/node/154042 | C-Net|News.com
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300 PHONE NUMBERS CLOSELY SCRUTINIZED
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Mark Hosenball]
The US government only searched for detailed information on calls involving fewer than 300 specific phone numbers among the millions of raw phone records collected by the National Security Agency in 2012, according to a government paper obtained by Reuters on June 15. The unclassified paper was circulated Saturday within the government by US intelligence agencies and apparently is an attempt by spy agencies and the Obama Administration to rebut accusations that it overreached in investigating potential militant plots. The paper said that data from the NSA phone and email collections programs not only led U.S. investigators to the ringleader of a plot to attack New York's subway system in 2009, but also to one of his co-conspirators in the United States.
benton.org/node/154041 | Reuters
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NSA ‘NOT LISTENING TO AMERICANS’ PHONE CALLS’
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ben Geman]
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) said the National Security Agency is not listening to the content of Americans’ phone calls. His comments on the CNN program “State of the Union” follow a report that lawmakers were informed in a classified briefing that the NSA does not need court authorization to listen to domestic calls. Asked if he could provide assurance that calls were not being listened to or recorded by the U.S. government without warrants, Chairman Rogers replied, “absolutely.” “It is against the law for the NSA to record and monitor U.S., Americans’ phone calls. It is against the law, and the law is very clear on this,” Chairman Rogers said. “It would mean that the NSA had to conspire with the FBI, would have to conspire with both parties in Congress on the intelligence committees and the oversight functions in the executive branch to do something beyond what the law very narrowly allows. I find that implausible,” he added. “The NSA is not listening to Americans phone calls and it is not monitoring their emails. If it did it is illegal, it is breaking the law.”
benton.org/node/154040 | Hill, The
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NSA COURT ORDER RELEASE?
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Carrie Johnson]
The Obama Administration, under pressure to lift a cloak of secrecy, is considering whether to declassify a court order that gives the National Security Agency the power to gather phone call record information on millions of Americans. The document, known as a "primary order," complements a shorter Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court document leaked to The Guardian newspaper earlier this month. That document revealed the U.S. government had been asking Verizon Business Network Services Inc. to turn over, on a daily basis, phone call records for its subscribers, for 90 days.
benton.org/node/154039 | National Public Radio
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SECRET TO PRISM PROGRAM: EVEN BIGGER DATA SEIZURE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Stephen Braun, Anne Flaherty, Jack Gillum, Matt Apuzzo]
In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers. Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider. The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government. Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate. Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" — not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans. This frenetic, manual process was the forerunner to PRISM, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies.
benton.org/node/154037 | Associated Press
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COLLECTION OF REVEALING INTERNET, PHONE METADATA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Barton Gellman]
On March 12, 2004, acting attorney general James B. Comey and the Justice Department’s top leadership reached the brink of resignation over electronic surveillance orders that they believed to be illegal. President George W. Bush backed down, halting secret foreign-intelligence-gathering operations that had crossed into domestic terrain. That morning marked the beginning of the end of STELLARWIND, the cover name for a set of four surveillance programs that brought Americans and American territory within the domain of the National Security Agency for the first time in decades. It was also a prelude to new legal structures that allowed Bush and then President Obama to reproduce each of those programs and expand their reach. What exactly STELLARWIND did has never been disclosed in an unclassified form. Which parts of it did Comey approve? Which did he shut down? What became of the programs when the crisis passed and Comey, now Obama’s expected nominee for FBI director, returned to private life? Authoritative new answers to those questions, drawing upon a classified NSA history of STELLARWIND and interviews with high-ranking intelligence officials, offer the clearest map yet of the Bush-era programs and the NSA’s contemporary U.S. operations.
benton.org/node/154036 | Washington Post
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GOV REQUESTED FACEBOOK INFO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Arik Hesseldahl]
Government agencies requested information on somewhere between 18,000 and 19,000 Facebook accounts, according to a post on the company’s website. The disclosures follow negotiations that Facebook and other tech companies have held with federal agencies over their desire to include requests approved under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Those requests are approved by a secret court and even discussing the fact that the requests have ever been made has been prohibited by law. In the post, Facebook general counsel Ted Ullyot said that the company had received a total of between 9,000 and 10,000 requests from government agencies, meaning that about two accounts were involved for each request received. And that’s out of about 1.1 billion total Facebook accounts or about 0.0009 percent of total accounts. It’s unclear exactly how many times Facebook cooperated, and how many times and on what grounds it may have refused. The disclosure covers the six months ending December 31 of last year.
benton.org/node/154035 | Wall Street Journal | Wall Street Journal | Los Angeles Times | Reuters
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GOOGLE CALLS DISCLOSURES STEP BACKWARD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
Even as tech companies were given permission to publish some data on national security requests for users’ data, Google said the authorization did not go far enough. Facebook and Microsoft published data that for the first time included national security requests authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which are broad surveillance orders that prohibit recipients from acknowledging their existence. The companies, led by Google, had publicly pressed the government to let them publish the data, in an attempt to quell anxiety among consumers after revelations of the government’s secret Internet surveillance program. The government gave the companies permission to publish the numbers only if they were grouped with all other government requests, including those from state and local governments and for criminal cases, making it difficult to glean any information about the national security requests. Google already publishes a report that separates requests by country and type, including search warrants, subpoenas and national security letters. The report does not include FISA requests. Google issued a statement saying that publishing data that combines criminal and national security requests would be even less transparent than the data it currently publishes, and that it would continue to push the government for permission to publish the number and scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests that it receives.
benton.org/node/154034 | New York Times | WSJ
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WHY GOOGLE IS FIGHTING BACK
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jessica Myers, Michelle Quinn]
In less than a week, Google has transformed a public relations nightmare into a crusade for Internet freedom. The Silicon Valley titan rallied loudest against reports that major Internet companies handed the National Security Agency information on foreign users. It released the first statement distancing itself from any “direct access” the government had to its servers. It made the initial call for transparency on surveillance requests. And so far it’s the only business to outline how it transfers that data to officials. The tech giant may have found its bully pulpit. But it also could have more to lose by staying quiet. Google, which casts itself as champion for free speech, ties the response to its core mission.
benton.org/node/154031 | Politico
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FACEBOOK, GOOGLE AND TRUST
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Facebook and Google want people the world over to trust them with the most intimate details of their lives. Now both Silicon Valley companies are fighting to preserve that trust in the wake of damaging revelations that they turned over users' data to the National Security Agency's secret Internet surveillance program. Facebook and Google each vigorously deny they gave the U.S. government special access to their servers or complied with broad requests for users' information and communications. And they have moved swiftly to quell criticism overseas, exerting public pressure on the Obama administration to shed light on the number and scope of national security requests they get under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. But many say the revelations have already undermined the companies' sweeping international ambitions in the very same countries where they are looking to put down deeper roots. "The implications are not just about what happens to the privacy of Americans and to the future of American political due process," said David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect." "There are potentially vast negative global consequences."
benton.org/node/154029 | Los Angeles Times
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PRIVACY BILLS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Burgess Everett]
Senators critical of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs are rushing to introduce legislation to limit the feds’ snooping ability. Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are pitching a bill that would require a demonstrated link to terrorists or international spies for the intelligence community to collect phone call data. The legislation would modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 by requiring “reasonable grounds” to be shown that data collection is relevant to an “authorized investigation” on foreign terrorists or espionage programs, according to a draft obtained by POLITICO. And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) dropped a bill much in harmony with the Udall-Wyden legislation, although it goes further by squashing the assumption that people “known to” suspected spies or terrorists are relevant to data-mining investigations. Sen Sanders also seeks to open up reports of these investigations to all members of Congress, rather than just members of intelligence and judiciary committees. Sens Wyden and Udall sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Sen Sanders does not.
benton.org/node/154028 | Politico
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

ADMINISTRATION ADVANCES WIRELESS SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Tom Power, Lawrence Strickling]
President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that builds on the Administration’s commitment to make additional spectrum available for wireless broadband to drive innovation, expand consumer services, and increase job creation and economic growth. The memorandum establishes a set of measures that Federal agencies, in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders, will now take to more aggressively enhance spectrum efficiency and enable access to more spectrum for consumer services and applications. Under the memorandum, an agency that requests a new spectrum assignment or that seeks to procure a spectrum-dependent system will have to document its consideration of alternative approaches and verify that it is pursuing the most spectrum-efficient method, in consideration of all relevant factors including cost and agency mission. Other aspects of the memorandum build on existing strategies, particularly with respect to advancing collaboration with the private sector and other stakeholders. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will develop policies and best practices to promote and facilitate greater collaboration among agencies, the private sector, and academia with respect to research, development, testing, and evaluation of spectrum-sharing technologies. Helping accelerate the pace of technological change, the White House announced $100 million in upcoming and proposed Federal investments in public-private research and development of spectrum sharing and other advanced communications technologies. The memorandum also encourages the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in its role as steward of non-Federal spectrum, to continue its efforts to promote efficient, innovative, and flexible use of spectrum, including by imposing network build-out requirements or other conditions to guard against wasteful spectrum warehousing. In addition, the memorandum strongly encourages the FCC to take steps to encourage improved performance of radio receivers, a largely-untapped avenue for increasing spectrum efficiency.
benton.org/node/154046 | White House, The | Presidential Memorandum | WH Fact Sheet | NTIA | FCC Chairwoman Clyburn | FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel | Sen Rockefeller | Reps Upton and Walden | Rep Waxman | Washington Post | WSJ | The Hill | B&C – reaction | GigaOm | AT&T
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FOUR YEARS OF BROADBAND GROWTH
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Gene Sperling]
A fast, reliable Internet connection is as essential to the modern economy as electricity or phone service, and over the last four years, the country has made tremendous progress investing in and delivering high-speed broadband to an unprecedented number of Americans. We are releasing a new White House report entitled Four Years of Broadband Growth that makes that case even clearer. The results speak for themselves: since 2009, average broadband speeds have doubled, and the percentage of Americans with access to high-speed wireless broadband has more than quadrupled (from under 20% to over 80%). We were the first nation to deploy next-generation 4G/LTE wireless broadband on such a scale, which has in turn helped fuel the demand for the 500 million Internet-connected devices we now own. This technology is doing more than just enriching lives; it is creating jobs. With the right incentives in place over the last four years, companies have invested over $250 billion in broadband infrastructure. The “App economy” that has sprung up in that same time is estimated to have created 500,000 jobs alone. And America is again leading the world in these innovations; six years ago, only 5 percent of the world’s phones ran an operating system that was Made in America – today, over eighty percent do. But there is much more to be done to make sure we fully unleash the potential of this revolution in the way we communicate, learn, and work.
benton.org/node/154045 | White House, The | White House report
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CENTER FOR ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Press release]
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced plans to establish a national Center for Advanced Communications in Boulder (CO). A key focus of the center will be to promote interdisciplinary research, development and testing in radio frequency technology and spectrum sharing for public safety and commercial broadband applications. The two agencies recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the establishment of the center. The MOU states that the center will leverage the “critical mass of NIST and NTIA research and engineering capabilities concentrated in Boulder” to form a “unique national asset,” and includes the infrastructure and collaborative environment needed to address a wide range of advanced communications challenges. This joint effort will increase the impact of existing efforts already under way in both agencies. Examples of the specific types of research, facilities and other activities at the new center may include:
multiuser test beds that allow government and industry researchers to realistically measure and evaluate the performance of new advanced communications technologies;
targeted interdisciplinary research, development and testing projects in fields such as digital information processing, interoperability and quantum communications; and
outreach to international standards development organizations to help ensure compatibility of U.S. advanced communications efforts with the global marketplace.
benton.org/node/154044 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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OBAMA BOOSTS WIRELESS BROADBAND WITH SPECTRUM SHARING PLAN
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] For a second week in a row, the Obama Administration made a major announcement about expanding access to high-speed broadband in the US. On June 14, President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that establishes a set of measures that federal agencies, in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders, will take to more aggressively enhance spectrum efficiency and enable access to more spectrum for consumer services and applications. Under the Memorandum, an agency that requests a new spectrum assignment or that seeks to procure a spectrum-dependent system will have to document its consideration of alternative approaches and verify that it is pursuing the most spectrum-efficient method, in consideration of all relevant factors including cost and agency mission.
http://benton.org/node/154047
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OUR SCHOOLS, CUT OFF FROM THE WEB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Luis Ubiñas]
[Commentary] Since 2007, when I was named president of the Ford Foundation, we’ve given $44.5 million to dozens of organizations — like Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the Mozilla Foundation and the Media and Democracy Coalition — to make the Internet more accessible, affordable and mindful of privacy. But as I prepare to step down in September, I must acknowledge that there has been little real progress on this issue. Like any effort to develop our national infrastructure, success demands more than the dedication of the nonprofit sector alone. The factors that will drive our national future — educational achievement, a healthy population, broad political participation and economic opportunity for all — depend in significant ways on how we structure and manage our spreading digital frontier. Virtually all of America’s schools are connected to the Internet today. But that success is a lot like trumpeting, a century ago, that virtually every town in the country was reachable by road. Then, as now, the question is quality. Children who go to school in poor neighborhoods are connected to the Web at speeds so slow as to render most educational Web sites unusable. The exploding world of free online courses from great academies is closed to those who lack a digital pathway. A good first step in addressing this problem would be to overhaul E-Rate to make sure it gets the Web into every classroom and library, not just a school, either through cable or Wi-Fi, and with sufficient financing for upkeep. Second, a subset of teachers and librarians need to be trained as champions of digital education. Without such advocates, the pedagogical impact of broadband won’t be fully realized. Third, any conversation on national infrastructure must put broadband as a priority alongside aviation, bridges, energy, highways, ports, rail and water.
[Ubiñas is president of the Ford Foundation]
benton.org/node/154058 | New York Times
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NO COUNTRY FOR SLOW BROADBAND
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Bennett]
[Commentary] There is a popular story going around about the state of America’s broadband networks: service is pitifully slow, hugely overpriced and limited to the richest neighborhoods — whereas in Europe, service is cheap, fast and widespread because regulators force big companies to make room for smaller service providers. Almost none of this is true: America’s broadband networks lead the world by many measures, and they are improving at a more rapid rate than networks in most developed countries. Much of the disparity between perception and reality has to do with timing. Before the recession, American Internet service was on a very different path, not keeping pace with large sections of Western Europe and East Asia. But that began to change as the economy turned around. Private investment and advances in technology, brought about by a competition policy that encouraged cable and phone companies to improve their networks, have propelled America’s networks forward.
[Bennett is a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation]
benton.org/node/154043 | New York Times
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NETWORK IN THE SKY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Google launched 30 balloons into the stratosphere in the first step toward creating what it calls a "network in the sky" that could eventually bring "balloon-powered Internet [to] everyone." Dubbed "Project Loon," Google's balloon-based wireless networks aim to bring 3G-like speed to what Google says are the "2 out of every 3 people on Earth" who lack a fast, affordable Internet connection. Google's plan has been rumored for weeks. Google could be the first to make balloon-based networks widely used for commercial Internet access. Google is starting small and admits its system is just in the experimental stages. Google said the 30 balloons launched this week were sent into the air "from the Tekapo area of New Zealand’s South Island" and that a group of 50 pilot testers have been equipped with "special Internet antennas" to try to connect to the network. The solar-powered balloons are 15 meters in diameter when fully inflated and are being sent 20 kilometers into the sky.
benton.org/node/154014 | Ars Technica | Google | Wired
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CYBERSECURITY/PRIVACY

TAKING MYSTERY OUT OF CYBERWAR
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] If the United States ever faced a genuine conflict in cyberspace, with decisions having to be made at network speed against adversaries unknown or hard to find, who would be in charge? A major attempt to sort this out at the highest levels is evident in President Policy Directive 20, which President Obama signed last October. Presidential approval is required for cyber-operations if they might result in “significant consequences,” which include loss of life, serious levels of retaliation, damage to property, adverse foreign policy consequences or economic impact on the country. Wisely, cyberweapons are being put in a category with nuclear weapons, not to be fired off by a field commander without authority. There’s an exception for emergency actions. The directive is still classified as top secret but was among the papers spilled into public view by Edward Snowden, the contractor for the National Security Agency who also revealed classified materials on Internet and telephone surveillance. Certainly, this leak must have pained the White House. But on balance, it is a good sign that the imponderables of fighting a cyberwar are being examined and clarified. Better now, before trouble arrives, than in the midst of crisis or after conflict has broken out.
benton.org/node/154052 | Washington Post
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SEEKING CYBER SHIELD
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Even as he defends controversial government surveillance programs, the head of the National Security Agency is asking Congress for another authority sure to inflame critics — legal immunity for companies that help the feds fight cyberattackers. Gen. Keith Alexander has petitioned Capitol Hill for months to give Internet service providers and other firms new cover from lawsuits when they rely on government data to thwart emerging cyberthreats. That may be a powerful perk to persuade companies to work with Washington toward bolstering the country’s digital defenses. But it’s also a source of alarm for some civil liberties advocates, who are already peeved with the NSA’s vast electronic spying regime. Those critics’ new fear: Companies acting with the government’s blessing in cyberspace could skirt legal accountability if they hit the wrong target.
benton.org/node/154051 | Politico
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CALL TO ARMS FOR BANKS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Crittenden]
US regulators are stepping up calls for banks to better-arm themselves against the growing online threat hackers and criminal organizations pose to individual institutions and the financial system as a whole. The push comes as government officials grow increasingly concerned about the ability of a cyberattack to cause significant disruptions to the financial system. Banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Capital One Financial have been targeted by cyber assaults in recent years, including potent "denial-of-service" strikes that took down some bank websites off-and-on for days, frustrating customers. Banks have spent millions of dollars responding to or protecting against such attacks, including a wave of attempted online assaults targeting major banks beginning last year that U.S. defense officials say had the backing of the Iranian government. The warnings reinforce the message from Washington that the private sector has primary responsibility for fending off attacks, even from groups the U.S. believes are tied to a foreign government. Some banks have bristled at the suggestion they can fend off a foreign nation and have asked the U.S. to intervene to mitigate such attacks, either by blocking the attacks or moving against those mounting them. A banking industry official said the onus can't just be on banks to combat cyberattacks. "It needs to be collaborative; the industry can't take on foreign countries alone," the official said.
benton.org/node/154018 | Wall Street Journal
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TV DEVICE MONITORING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Reps. Mike Capuano (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) filed legislation that would regulate a new technology that targets television ads to people by observing their activities and conversations while they watch TV via their set-top boxes and DVRs. Verizon, Intel and other tech companies have developed technology that utilizes infrared cameras and microphones built into cable boxes and DVRs to serve up targeted TV ads to people based on their conversations and activities while watching TV. Verizon had filed a patent application last year for a technology that would allow a set-top box to recognize when people are eating, cleaning, reading, laughing and doing other activities while watching TV and serve relevant ads to them according to that behavior. The application was rejected this past December. In a statement, the two lawmakers said they want to get out ahead of the release of this new technology and pass legislation that ensures it would include beefed up privacy protections for consumers. They added that this legislation is particularly relevant given the recent revelations about the National Security Agency's Internet surveillance programs.
benton.org/node/154026 | Hill, The
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OWNERSHIP

KOCH MEDIA OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
The Koch brothers are firing back at former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, who last week made a speech at UCLA in which he said he couldn’t “imagine anything good from the Koch family owning the Los Angeles Times." A statement posted on KochFacts.com written by Mark Holden, Koch Industries' general counsel, said Hundt was being hypocritical. In his remarks, Hundt advocated removing federal regulations that would prevent Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. from acquiring the Los Angeles Times. "I'd rather have Murdoch than the Kochs own The Times, if it came down to that choice," he said. The Koch brothers, he charged, "use money and media to misinform, misdirect and make miserable all of us." The response statement pointed out that when Hundt was chairman of the FCC during the Clinton administration, he made no effort to remove rules that limited common ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. It also cited remarks Hundt made in a 2003 interview with Salon in which he advocated keeping the cross-ownership ban in place for the sake of media diversity.
benton.org/node/154015 | Los Angeles Times
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

MOBILE SOFTWARE DESIGN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
It is the design of the software, far more than the look and feel of the device itself, that allows a company to leap over its competitors. Hardware features like processing speed or screen resolution or even how well a camera works offer only fleeting advantages in the constant competition among smartphone manufacturers. And with more than a billion smartphones in the world today, much of them with the same rectangular design meant to fit in your hand yet large enough to be used as a phone, it is hard to imagine a breakthrough in their general look. But changes to the software are limited only by the skill and creativity of a company’s engineers and designers and are not as easily mimicked since they appeal to softer notions like “experience” rather than speed or weight.
benton.org/node/154056 | New York Times
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JOURNALISM

NEWS COVERAGE CONVEYS STRONG MOMENTUM FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Paul Hitlin, Amy Mitchell, Mark Jurkowitz]
In a period marked by Supreme Court deliberations on the subject, the news media coverage provided a strong sense of momentum towards legalizing same-sex marriage, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. Stories with more statements supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those with more statements opposing it by a margin of roughly 5-to-1. In the coverage studied, the central argument among proponents of same-sex marriage was one of civil rights. Arguments against were more varied, but most often voiced the idea that same-sex marriage would hurt society and the institution of traditional marriage.
benton.org/node/154050 | Project for Excellence in Journalism | New York Times
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AGENDA

WHEELER’S PRIORITIES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission chairman nominee Tom Wheeler outlined the top three challenges he would face under his leadership in a Republican staff memo for his upcoming nomination hearing. Wheeler said that the top three challenges the FCC would encounter under his leadership are: 1) implementing the spectrum incentive auctions and creating a public safety network; 2) the IP transition--overseeing the transition from switched-circuit networks to Internet Protocol (IP) delivery (Wheeler has been chairman of the FCC's Technological Advisory Council, which has been wrestling with that IP transition); and 3) advancing civil society through communications, including the broadband buildout and promoting diversity. The memo points out that Wheeler has said in the past that the FCC has the authority to impose merger conditions or spectrum auction rules "that might seem to be regulation in another guise."
benton.org/node/154057 | Multichannel News
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