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The White House has backed away from its push for mandatory cybersecurity standards in favor of an approach that would combine voluntary measures with incentives for companies to comply with them. That approach reflects recognition of the political reality of a divided Congress, which makes mandated standards difficult to push through, and a belief that an executive order President Barack Obama signed in February could improve companies’ cybersecurity.
The White House’s focus now “is more about having discussions with Congress about the right incentives we could put in place to encourage the adoption of the framework,” a senior administration official said. A range of possibilities exist, including tax breaks and immunity from lawsuits for failing to protect systems. The administration still wants cyber legislation, the official said, but that means creating incentives to meet voluntary standards, revised procedures for government cybersecurity and the removal of barriers to the sharing of cyberthreat data between industry and government.
White House backs off mandatory cybersecurity standards for companies
[Commentary] If the Arab Spring realized social media’s civic promise, then the Boston bombings may be the moment that promise evaporated.
By now, we’re only too familiar with the much-analyzed, much-disparaged mistakes the ambiguous “hivemind” made in the wake of the attacks. In a thousand disparate ways, across every available social channel, we all made the same mistake: We believed we were entitled to and could easily possess first-hand knowledge of the Boston tragedy. And we believed our networks, the ones we had come to know and trust, imparted that knowledge. The fact remains that — in the wake of a devastating tragedy, at a moment that should have humbled us — the only thread uniting social media users was our conviction of the Internet’s infallibility.
Why the Internet is a false idol
IDC, the research firm, issued a report that found that more than half of cellphone shipments in the first quarter were smartphones.
Manufacturers shipped 418.6 million cellphones, 216.2 million of which were smartphones, says IDC. Samsung, the top maker of smartphones, shipped 70.7 million, commanding 32.7 percent of the market in the first quarter. Apple was in second place with 37.4 million iPhones sold and 17.3 percent of the market. LG was in a distant third with 10.3 million smartphones, for 4.8 percent of the market.
Smartphones Finally Surpass the Feature Phone More smartphones sold than feature phones for the first time (Los Angeles Times)
In this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of the Managing Director (OMD) of the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) provide instructions to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) regarding collections for the new Healthcare Connect Fund, pursuant to the Commission’s directives in the December 2012 Healthcare Connect Fund Order. The Bureau and OMD also instruct USAC not to consider excess collections for rural health care support when making its overall universal service fund (USF) demand projections.
FCC Issues Collection Instructions for the Healthcare Connect Fund
Media outlets operating in China face an unpleasant dilemma: self-censor or else lose access to millions of readers and a valuable news market. Both the New York Times and Bloomberg News chose the second option, and don’t regret the decision.
Banned in China: Bloomberg and New York Times say they had no choice
Hollywood galloped into Washington before this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner with its usual message: protecting content.
Popular film producer Harvey Weinstein reintroduced the message April 26, lunging at companies that push open access and spinning a relatively lighthearted event into a political one. “You can start by paying the artists, paying the newspapers, paying the magazines,” Weinstein said to heavy applause at the first Creativity Conference, sponsored partly by the Motion Picture Association of America and held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. “When you are starving, you are starving. It’s hard to be creative in that situation. Let’s even up the score.” The conference, which spanned more than four hours, encompassed several panels and delved into a wide swath of issues related to technology and innovation. But the content controversy — who owns what in a fast-moving digital age — remains one of the most unresolved.
Hollywood’s content rights back on DC stage
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski appoints the following persons to serve on the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC):
- Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) (other than Bell Operating Companies) with annual operating revenues in excess of $40 million: Kenneth F. Mason
- Representative for ILECs (other than Bell Operating Companies) with annual operating revenues less than $40 million: Geoffrey A. Feiss
- Interexchange carriers with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less : Rochelle D. Jones
- Representative for competitive local exchange carriers: Joseph Gillan
- Representatives for schools that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules: Daniel A. Domenech, Ph.D., Brian L. Talbott, Ph.D., and Julie Tritt Schell
- Representative for low income consumers: Ellis Jacobs
- Representatives for rural health care providers that are eligible to receive supported services pursuant to section 54.601 of the Commission’s rules: Eric Brown and Katharine Hsu Wibberly, Ph.D.
- Representative for state telecommunications regulators: Ronald A. Brisé
- Representatives from the telecommunications industry: Raquel R. Noriega and Olivia Wein
- The FCC also released an order waiving portions of its own rules on the composition of the USAC board.
FCC Names Universal Service Board Members Letter (Wireline Chief Veach)
President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Howard A. Shelanski to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget.
Shelanski is the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a position he has held since 2012. Mr. Shelanski is currently on leave from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he has been a professor since 2011. From 2011 to 2012, he was also Of Counsel to the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Director for Antitrust in the FTC's Bureau of Economics from 2009 to 2011. Before joining the FTC, Mr. Shelanski was on the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley from 1997 to 2009. He served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2000 and as Senior Economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisers at the White House from 1998 to 1999. He was an associate with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans from 1995 to 1997. He served as a clerk for Justice Antonin G. Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, for Judge Louis H. Pollak of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, and for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Mr. Shelanski received a B.A. from Haverford College, and a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Shelanski Nominated for Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Brent F. Nelsen for the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Nelsen is a Professor of Political Science at Furman University, a position he has held since 2002. He has served as Chair of the South Carolina Educational Television Commission since 2011. From 2003 to 2009, he served as Chair of the Department of Political Science at Furman University, and has held various teaching positions there since 1990. He was President of the South Carolina Political Science Association from 2009 to 2010, and is a member of the American Political Science Association. Dr. Nelsen received a B.A. from Wheaton College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nelsen Tapped for CPB Board
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy Committee to make recommendations on the implementation of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. There is an opening on the committee for a member from the research community. Candidates considered for this appointment will be required to complete a financial disclosure form. For this appointment the Comptroller General of the United States is announcing the following: Letters of nomination and resumes should be submitted through May 18, 2013 to ensure adequate opportunity for review and consideration of nominees.
Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment