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A big majority of information technology experts say mobile phones are vulnerable to cyberattacks and half said the wireless industry is not doing enough to address the problem, according to a survey released by the wireless industry group CTIA. In a survey of 500 officials who handle IT for a wide range of companies, 50 percent of those polled said wireless companies are doing a fair to poor job of addressing cybersecurity and 86 percent said mobile phones are vulnerable to a cyberattack. This is just slightly below the 88 percent who said tablets were vulnerable to cyberattacks.
IT Experts Say Mobile Phones Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks
A majority of technology executives think President Obama will be reelected, but consider Republican challenger Mitt Romney to be better for their business, a new study has found. The survey, conducted by international law firm DLA Piper, found 76 percent of senior executives, advisers and venture capitalists involved in the technology industry predict Obama will get a second term in office, while only 41 percent think such a result would positively affect the technology sector. Sixty-four percent of respondents said the same about a Romney victory.
Tech Industry: Obama Will Win, But We Prefer Romney DLA Piper (read the report)
A major health information technology trade group issued a statement opposing calls by House Republicans to suspend payment of incentives to providers for achieving “meaningful use” of electronic health records until the Department of Health and Human Services puts interoperability standards in place.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society argues that the final rule defining Stage 2 meaningful use of EHRs takes steps toward interoperability –- the ability of different systems to communicate and exchange data -- with the incentive program driving overall improvement in secure, interoperable health IT systems. HIMSS responded to an Oct. 4 letter from the Republican chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Health, and from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Health. The letter, to HHS, stated that it was “critical that your agency do everything possible to advance interoperability and meaningful use of HIT, not just in name alone.”
Trade Group Opposes Republican Move to Suspend HER Incentives
Piper Jaffray surveyed 7,700 teenagers and found:
- 40% own an iPhone, up from 34% in Spring 2012 and 23% in Fall 2011
- 62% planned to buy an iPhone as their next phone; Samsung was next at 22%
- 44% owned a tablet, up from 34% in Spring 2012 and 29% in Fall 2011
- 72% of those tablets were iPads, up from 70% in Spring 2012
- Of the 20% of students who didn't own a tablet, but plan to buy one in the next 6 months, 74% want an iPad
- 43% of teens planning on buying a tablet said they would be more likely to do so if Apple released a smaller iPad at $299.
Survey: 40% of U.S. teens own an Apple iPhone. 62% want one
Montana tried unsuccessfully to fight the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" ruling that opened up corporate spending in elections. Now the ads are thick and furious — but has the change in the rules tipped the advantage toward one party or the other?
Outside Political Groups Swamp Montana's Media Market
China issued its strongest statement yet against a U.S. congressional report urging U.S. business to spurn two Chinese telecommunications companies, saying the move could hurt relations between the countries.
A spokesman for China's Commerce Ministry said in a brief statement that the report against China's Huawei and ZTE "is merely based on subjective conjecture and untrue foundations, and made groundless accusations against China." The spokesman, Shen Danyang, said the move by the U.S. "violated its long-held free-market principles and would undermine cooperation and development between the two countries." "We hope the U.S. can make concrete efforts to create a just and fair market environment for the two countries and promote sound development of bilateral economic and trade ties," Mr. Shen said.
China Calls Huawei Report 'Groundless' China says accusations in House report are ‘groundless’ (Washington Post)
Apple's antitrust case with the European Union over e-book publishing could be settled in a couple of months, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
Almunia, the EU's antitrust chief, said he hoped to resolve soon an investigation into Apple and four publishers over deals setting e-book prices. "Hopefully in the coming couple of months, we will reach a settlement," Almunia told a British Chamber of Commerce conference. The European Commission is now market-testing an offer by Apple and the publishers in a bid to end the EU probe. The four are CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany.
EU antitrust chief hopes to settle Apple case soon
Taiwan is asking Apple to blur a map image of its new $1.4 billion early warning radar station that can detect aircraft and missiles coming from as far as western China.
Defense Ministry spokesman David Lo said that Apple should follow its rival Google in using only low-resolution satellite pictures to show sensitive facilities. He acknowledged the military should also try to camouflage them. Apple released the Apple Maps app with its new mobile operating system iOS 6, which is pre-loaded on the iPhone 5, and works on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The mobile app has a feature that lets users "flyover" a destination by using satellite imagery. The satellite picture that can be viewed with iPhones is believed to have been taken a year ago. Phys.org reports Taiwan's defense ministry reacted after the Liberty Times, a local newspaper, printed the satellite picture and showed a "top-secret long-range radar base" in Hsinchu. Representatives for Taiwanese officials have yet to submit a formal request to Apple, but say they will ask the tech giant to uses lower resolution satellite images.
Taiwan asking Apple to blur satellite images of "secret" military base
Moderating a discussion on the future of broadband, Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff tossed a provocative question to the audience: "By quick show of hands, how many out there think that broadband is a luxury?" Next question: "How many out there think it is a human right?" That option easily carried the audience vote. Ulanoff's fellow panelists at the United Nations' recent "Social Good Summit" took a similar view. Held annually to coincide with the UN's General Assembly, the gathering brings together business executives, activists, academics and entrepreneurs to explore how technology can help "make the world a better place." Broadband access is too important to society to be relegated to a small, privileged portion of the world population, Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, said during the discussion. Dr. Hamadoun Touré, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, echoed Vestberg's remarks.
Is mobile broadband a luxury or human right?
As marketers, browser makers and government regulators spar over efforts to let consumers limit custom advertising online, a new study suggests that Americans are largely unaware of what that means and have a strong aversion to being tracked online.
The majority of Americans surveyed by researchers at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, which is part of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, do not want information collected at all about which Web sites they visit, according to the study. Most of them said they did not find online advertisements useful. And nearly 90 percent said they had never heard of a proposal by the Federal Trade Commission, known as a “do not track” mechanism, that would let users opt out of having their personal data collected for the purposes of serving tailored advertisements.
Study Finds Broad Wariness Over Online Tracking