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Nevada became the first state in the country this week to allow online gambling with a new law that gives the green light to poker and other games. The new policy is significant in light of research that predicts online gambling will be worth $100 billion worldwide on mobile devices alone by 2017. This potential market has attracted the established casino industry as well as tech companies that are vying to make gambling games or process back-end betting operations. The law is intended to keep Nevada out in front of rival New Jersey but will not do much for social game makers like Zynga that are counting on gambling to change their fortunes. The Nevada only applies to internet users in the state. The law is also primarily intended not to help social gaming sites but to ensure that Vegas casinos have a first-mover advantage in providing operational support when — and if — other states follow suit.
What stays in Vegas: how Nevada’s online gambling law will — and won’t — change social gaming
Online classes have exploded in popularity, with more than six times as many students enrolled in electronic K-12 courses now as compared to a decade ago, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Advocates say online classes offer a more flexible and personalized form of education, allowing students to progress at their own pace and on their own time. Supporters also tout online education as a way to dramatically expand course offerings, particularly at rural schools. But the rapid growth of online education is raising concerns—especially as more for-profit companies launch online programs. While unscrupulous or incompetent online educators may be rare, there are enough of them that many states are considering ratcheting up their oversight.
States Struggle To Keep Online Schools Accountable
The Homeland Security Department has launched a new online resource that makes cybersecurity career and training information more readily available to federal employees and the public. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies website is part of an effort to elevate cybersecurity awareness as well as educate the government and public about education, careers and workforce development opportunities available in the cybersecurity field.
DHS Wants to Help You Become a Cybersecurity Fed
The Obama Administration is committed to the proposition that citizens deserve easy access to the results of scientific research their tax dollars have paid for. That’s why, in a policy memorandum released Feb 22, OSTP Director John Holdren has directed Federal agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures to develop plans to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication and requiring researchers to better account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research.
OSTP has been looking into this issue for some time, soliciting broad public input on multiple occasions and convening an interagency working group to develop a policy. The final policy reflects substantial inputs from scientists and scientific organizations, publishers, members of Congress, and other members of the public—over 65 thousand of whom recently signed a We the People petition asking for expanded public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research.
Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research Fulfilling our Commitment to Open Government (more from WH)
The theft of Apple devices is so rampant in New York that a team of cops has been assigned to work with the tech giant to get the stolen gadgets back. Every time an Apple device is stolen, detectives attempt to get tracking numbers from the victim or online records. That number, known as the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity, is then shared with the officers in Police Headquarters who pass it on to Apple. Apple then informs the NYPD of the device’s current location — and it can track it even if it was reregistered with a different wireless provider.
NYPD forms dedicated team to catch thieves who steal iPhones and iPads
NBCUniversal spent $195 million to buy back the 50% of MSNBC.com that was owned by Microsoft.
The deal, which was signed last July, saw NBCU take control of the site and its employees, and redirected visitors to a new site called NBCNews.com. MSNBC.com is in the process of being transformed into a site dedicated to the politics-centric cable news outlet. It is a fascinating deal because websites tied to TV operations are rarely if ever broken out financially. The purchase price means that Microsoft and NBCU valued MSNBC.com at around ~$500 million. It is not a perfect science, but general traffic stats have MSNBC.com slightly behind CNN’s digital properties, and almost double that of Fox News Channel’s digital properties.
NBCU Spent $195 Million To Buy Back Half Of MSNBC.com
At what point can you cut the tie between your cellphone and your phone company? An online petition has just raised enough signatures to get the White House to take a second look at whether unlocking a cellphone, that is, switching the phone from one carrier to another, should be against the law. Officials say unlocking violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the same way people are not supposed to break into copy protection systems for movies or music.
Mobile phone monogamy: Should unlocking your cellphone be illegal? Will the White House Explain why Copyright Laws are Privileging Cell Phone Companies? (Public Knowledge)
This is the second report on the status of women in media. An avalanche of new surveys, studies and reports point to stubborn gender inequality in the ways that women are employed and represented in news, entertainment and technology-related media:
- At its current pace, it will take until 2085 for women to reach parity with men in leadership roles in government/politics, business, entrepreneurship and nonprofits.
- Only 17 women at media and technology companies are on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.
- By a nearly 3 to 1 margin, male front-page bylines at top newspapers outnumbered female bylines in coverage of the 2012 presidential election. Men were also far more likely to be quoted than women in newspapers, television and public radio. That’s also the case in coverage of abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood and women’s rights.
- On Sunday TV talk shows, one survey found that only 25 percent of guests were female.
- Another study found women comprised only 14 percent of those interviewed and 29 percent of roundtable guests. There was some overlap among the shows tracked in the two studies.
- In both legacy and online news sites, women are too often relegated to writing about the “pink topics” of food, family, furniture and fashion.
- Forty-seven percent of gamers are women, but 88 percent of video games developers are male.
- Talk radio and sports talk radio hosts are overwhelmingly male.
The Status of Women in the U. S. Media 2013
[Commentary] America is an unsolvable problem, a nation divided and deeply in hate with itself. If it was a startup we’d understand how unfixable the situation is, most of us would leave for a fresh start and the company would fall apart. America is MySpace.
But leaving America means renouncing your citizenship, moving out of the country and leaving family and friends behind. You can retain your citizenship if you like, but you’ll still be away from loved ones and still be paying taxes. You lose all the good stuff about America and have to keep all the bad stuff. I love this country but we have a management team that’s both evil and incompetent. And the way “stockholder rights” are implemented there’s absolutely no way to stop or even slow down the rush to misery. I wish people had the choice of voting with their feet. This tends to keep the individual states somewhat honest in their dealings with citizens because they have to compete against 49 other states. But there’s no escaping the fed. It’s like a startup where everyone is miserable but no one is allowed to quit.
If America Was A Startup We’d All Quit
Public Forum on Threats to Mobile Devices
Federal Trade Commission
June 4, 2013
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/02/mobilethreats.shtm
The Federal Trade Commission will host a one-day public forum on June 4, 2013 addressing malware, viruses and similar threats facing users of smartphones and other mobile technologies.
As the use of mobile technology increases at a rapid rate and consumers take advantage of the technology’s benefits in large numbers, it is important to address potential threats that exist today, as well as those that may emerge in the future. The forum will bring together stakeholders such as technology researchers, industry members and academics to explore these issues.
The forum will focus on the security of existing and developing mobile technologies and the roles various members of the mobile ecosystem can play in protecting consumers from these types of security threats. The forum will serve to inform the Commission about the current mobile security environment and facilitate an exploration of potential challenges that may arise as consumer use of mobile technology continues to grow.
9:00 Opening Remarks -- Edith Ramirez, Chairwoman, Federal Trade Commission
9:15 Overview -- Steven M. Bellovin, Chief Technologist, Federal Trade Commission
9:25 Panel 1: Understanding Mobile Malware
Moderator: Emily Cope Burton, Staff Attorney, FTC Division of Marketing Practices
Panelists:
- Gareth Maclachlan, Chief Operating Officer, AdaptiveMobile
- Dan Guido, Co-Founder and CEO, Trail of Bits
- Omar Khan, Co-CEO, NQ Mobile
- Patrick Traynor, Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
10:35 Break
10:55 Panel 2: Building Security into Modern Mobile Platforms
Moderator: Nithan Sannappa, Staff Attorney, FTC Division of Privacy and Identity Protection
Panelists:
- Pablo Chavez, Director of Public Policy, Google
- Michael Coates, Director of Security Assurance, Mozilla Corporation
- Dallas De Ately, Senior Manager for Platform Security, Apple
- William Enck, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University
- Geir Olsen, Principal Program Manager, Windows Phone Engineering, Microsoft
- Adrian Stone, Director of Security Response, Blackberry
12:15 Lunch
1:30 Speaker Markus Jakobsson, CTO, Fatskunk
1:50 Panel 3: Extending Security Throughout the Mobile Ecosystem
Moderator: Paul Ohm, Senior Policy Advisor, FTC Office of Policy Planning
Panelists:
- Alex Gantman, Vice President of Corporate Product Security, Qualcomm
- John Marinho, Vice President, Cybersecurity & Technology, CTIA
- Jon Oberheide, CTO, Duo Security
- Alex Rice, Head of Product Security, Facebook
3:00 Break
3:15 Panel 4: Solutions for Consumers to Protect Themselves from Mobile Threats
Moderator: Colleen Robbins, Chief of Online Threat Initiatives, FTC Division of Marketing Practices
Panelists:
- Kayvan Alikhani, CEO, Passban
- Jeff Fox, Technology Editor, Consumer Reports
- Derek Halliday, Director – Project Management, Lookout
- Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer, F-Secure
- Markus Jakobsson, CTO, Fatskunk
- Terry Shofner, VP Sales America, Yubico
4:30 Closing Remarks: Charles A. Harwood, Acting Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
The Commission invites technology researchers and other interested parties to recommend topics for discussion and to submit requests to serve as panelists on a wide variety of topics affecting U.S. consumers. These could include emerging mobile security threats and trends, security challenges in the mobile environment and infrastructure, potential solutions to mobile threats, password and authentication strategies for lost or stolen devices, industry best practices for preventing or reducing risks associated with mobile devices and next generation products and services.
Recommendations for topics for discussion and requests to serve as panelists should be submitted electronically to mobilethreats@ftc.gov by March 28, 2013, and should include information about the parties’ expertise on the issues they propose to address, and complete contact information. The Commission will select panelists based on expertise and the need to represent a range of views about the issues. Panelists selected to participate will be notified by April 23, 2013. For questions, contact Emily Cope Burton at 202-326-2728 or Colleen Robbins at 202-326-2548. The FTC also invites those interested to submit written comments to mobilethreats@ftc.gov on any of the topics mentioned above.
The event is free and open to the public. The forum will be held at the FTC’s satellite building conference center, located at 601 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.