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Apparently, the White House is poised to release a cybersecurity executive order on Feb 13, two people familiar with the matter told The Hill.
The highly anticipated directive from President Barack Obama is expected to be released at a briefing Wednesday morning at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where senior administration officials will provide an update about cybersecurity policy. The executive order would establish a voluntary program where companies operating critical infrastructure would elect to meet cybersecurity best practices and standards crafted, in part, by the government. It has been revised several times over the past few months.
Sources: White House to issue cybersecurity order Wednesday
Copyright law is supposed to encourage creativity and reward artists but right now the system is a mess. Worse, the debate over how to change the law is dominated by bitter partisanship that makes real copyright reform impossible. That’s why it’s a relief to see a new group enter the debate. In the last six months, a growing number of figures on the political right have been taking aim at our broken copyright system and offering some very sensible solutions. The arrival of these conservative reformers, who join longtime liberal copyright critics, means the U.S. may at last get to have an honest debate over the best way to compensate content creators.
Can conservatives break the copyright stalemate?
T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche Telekom strongly defended its merger of T-Mobile with MetroPCS after a minority MetroPCS shareholder sent a letter to the company's board urging it to reconsider the deal.
The back-and-forth was triggered when P. Schoenfeld Asset Management disclosed that it sent a letter to MetroPCS' board Jan. 30 announcing its opposition to the planned transaction, arguing that it undervalues MetroPCS and would load it down with debt that would be "unsustainable" for a company of its size and credit rating. Pushing back, DT said it "remains committed" to the deal and that it will "enforce its rights under the definitive agreement with MetroPCS."
Deutsche Telekom defends T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal amid shareholder unrest
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson admitted that his company didn't execute well on its proposed $39 billion dollar deal to purchase T-Mobile USA when it made a bid for the operator in 2010.
"I wouldn't say it was a bad decision, but it was a decision that didn't go the way I wanted," Stephenson said. "We didn't execute well." The company ended up dropping its T-Mobile bid in late 2011 amid regulatory opposition. In a candid interview with Phil Weiser, dean of the University of Colorado Law School and executive director of the Silicon Flatirons at the Silicon Flatirons Center's Digital Broadband Migration conference, Stephenson said that the failed T-Mobile deal was one of his worst moments as CEO, but added that one of his great moments was in 2007 when AT&T decided to bet on Apple's iPhone. "We didn't have a great vision as to where this would go, we just knew that when you took data utilization and made it mobile, it would explode," he said.
AT&T's Stephenson: We didn't execute well on T-Mobile deal
Little by little, Kansas public broadcasters feel the pinch of state budget cuts. At High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, the air sometimes goes dead or programs play twice on consecutive days. Broadcasts at Radio Kansas in Hutchinson shut down from midnight to 6 a.m. so the station can cut its electric bill. In Kansas, public broadcasters find the statehouse reluctant to help with the bills for two reasons: There’s simply less money to spare, and Republican-dominated legislatures see the radio and TV stations as too liberal. Managers at public stations face even more gaps in their budgets if the Kansas Legislature agrees with Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R-KS) plans to cut funding even more.
Public broadcasting funding in danger in Kansas
Telecom companies reported no major disruptions but offered few specifics about the impact from the snowstorm, which comes four months after superstorm Sandy caused widespread problems for the major carriers.
Verizon Communications, which operates a large wired network in the Northeast, said the total reports of problems were "within a normal range for this time of year" although it expects an increase as the storm runs its course. A small number of telephone poles are down, the company said, and more than 50 locations related to wireline operations -- mostly in Massachusetts and Rhode Island -- are using backup power. AT&T said the "vast majority" of its wireless sites in the hardest hit areas were operating as usual, and it has deployed crews and equipment to restore any problems. Sprint Nextel said the overall impact has been "minimal" and it is servicing any affected sites as roads are cleared. T-Mobile USA, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, said the impact was "minimal" with a "small percentage" of sites hit.
Telecom Companies Report Minimal Disruption From Storm Phone cos: Cell service holding up after storm (Associated Press)
A new intelligence assessment has concluded that the United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness, according to individuals familiar with the report.
The National Intelligence Estimate identifies China as the country most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions to gain access to data that could be used for economic gain. The report, which represents the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community, describes a wide range of sectors that have been the focus of hacking over the past five years, including energy, finance, information technology, aerospace and automotives, according to the individuals familiar with the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the classified document. The assessment does not quantify the financial impact of the espionage, but outside experts have estimated it in the tens of billions of dollars.
US said to be target of massive cyber-espionage campaign National Intelligence Estimate: China Systematically Hacking U.S. Companies (Fast Company)
Who knew there were so many frustrated brand managers walking red carpets? Working with celebrities used to be a simple matter. Marketers would write a big check for a star to perform a specific purpose -- for Olympian Mary Lou Retton to grace boxes of Wheaties, or for model Cindy Crawford to don short-shorts and sip Pepsi. Now brands aren't just featuring celebs in marketing campaigns -- they're giving stars a place in the marketing suite. The model for these tie-ups is a "partnership" anointing A-listers with lofty titles like chief creative officer, head of creative design, chief innovator and brand ambassador. The link-ups are so fast and so furious it's hard for the Average Joe to keep track.
More Than a Pitchman: Why Stars Are Getting Marketing Titles
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed back against the argument that violent video games are responsible for mass shootings in the United States, pointing to other countries where similar games are played but rates of shooting deaths are low.
As part of their larger effort to address mass shootings in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown (CT), House Democrats are proposing using federal dollars for scientific research on the "relationship between popular culture and gun violence." On "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace challenged Pelosi on this plan, saying she should instead simply go to her "friends in Hollywood" and "shame them" into action. Rep Pelosi responded that Democrats wanted concrete scientific evidence in order to write the best legislation possible, and countered that Wallace's assumption about violence in the media could be incorrect. "I understand what you are saying," Rep Pelosi said. "I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother. But, they -- not Hollywood, but the evidence -- says that, in Japan, for example, they have the most violent games and the lowest death -- mortality -- from guns. I don't know what the explanation is for that except they may have good gun laws."
Nancy Pelosi: Video Games Are Not The Reason For Violence In America
Efforts to curb rising healthcare costs will cause the use of telehealth technology to spike, a new analysis predicted.
IMS Research, which studies the electronics industry, forecast a nearly sixfold rise in the number of telehealth patients over the next five years. About 1.3 million U.S. patients will use communications technology to interact with doctors by 2017, the firm said. "The cost of healthcare is a critical issue in the United States, with nearly one of every five dollars’ worth of the country’s gross domestic product going to medical expenditures,” said Theo Ahadome, an analyst who worked on the report. "Telehealth can help mitigate these costs by reducing the number of patient readmissions and cutting down on in-home care visits." The United States leads the world in adoption of telehealth technology, with 75 percent of the world's remotely monitored patients living within U.S. borders.
Analysis predicts spike in telehealth patients