The private sector must be just as involved as the U.S. government in improving cybersecurity -- particularly when it comes to economic cyberespionage and intellectual property theft, said former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff Thursday. Chertoff is now of counsel at Covington & Burling and chairman of the Chertoff Group, which consults with companies on cybersecurity issues. Industry actors can no longer consider increasing their cybersecurity protections a “luxury” -- it’s now a necessary protection of economic growth and profitability, he said at a Covington & Burling-George Washington University Cybersecurity Initiative event. Cybertheft has become the “preferred pathway” for entities to steal intellectual property -- and it’s the most visible cyberthreat the U.S. faces, Chertoff said. Recent studies have confirmed the Obama administration’s position that the pace of economic cyberespionage and intellectual property theft are accelerating, Chertoff said. He said the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (IP Commission) and others have estimated the theft of U.S. intellectual property is worth up to $300 billion annually.
Release of a preliminary version of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated Cybersecurity Framework will “inevitably” be delayed if an overall government shutdown occurs, said White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel at a Billington cybersecurity conference Wednesday. A shutdown could occur Oct. 1 if Congress and President Barack Obama can’t agree on a continuing budget resolution. A shutdown would furlough all but essential federal employees, including NIST staff working to finalize the preliminary framework, Daniel said. Obama’s cybersecurity executive order requires NIST to release the preliminary framework for public comment by Oct. 10 (CD Feb 14 p1). Delay of the preliminary framework’s release would be one of the many “bad things” to result from a government shutdown, but “ultimately we'll get there and get it published,” Daniel said. The cybersecurity summit also touched repeatedly on fallout from the leaks of information on the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance tactics.
The FCC is “totally in and invested” in efforts to prevent distracted driving caused by the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) like smartphones, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday at a National Organizations for Youth Safety-led rally for the “It Can Wait” anti-texting campaign. The National Safety Council said 100,000 car crashes are caused by distracted driving. That’s an “epidemic” that results in completely preventable deaths and injuries that can be prevented by education and advocacy efforts, Rosenworcel said. The FCC has led its own anti-texting education efforts directed at elementary, middle and high school students, along with sponsoring a distracted-driving technology event in April (CD April 22 p10), she said. Rosenworcel said she’s also invested in preventing distracted-driving deaths as the mother of two small children. “I never want to see them at risk because someone behind the wheel thinks that paying attention to a text is more important to paying attention to the road,” she said.
The House Cybersecurity Subcommittee voted Wednesday to send two cybersecurity bills to the full Homeland Security Committee. The subcommittee approved the bills -- the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act (HR-2952) and the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (HR-3107) -- on a unanimous voice vote with amendments. Both bills have bipartisan support, said subcommittee Chairman Patrick Meehan, R-Pa.
The FCC should “let the market, rather than government fiat,” guide how the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction is structured, said Commissioner Ajit Pai said Wednesday at a Mobile Future event. A market-based approach includes “letting all companies participate” in the auction by not adopting overly restrictive rules that limit participation by top wireless carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T, he said. Pai has long advocated for the agency to follow industry’s advice in developing the rules for the incentive auction. The auction rules must also be fair to all stakeholders, Pai said, saying broadcasters and carriers have collaborated well during the process. “That’s something we should embrace,” he said. The FCC must also stay within statutory bounds allowing the agency to hold the auction and complete the rulemaking process within a reasonable time frame, Pai said. Uncertainty about the timeline doesn’t serve anyone well, he said. If the ultimate goal of the auction is to provide funding for programs like FirstNet, the FCC must “impose little or no restrictions” on the auction to make it successful, said Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner in a related panel discussion. “The more you're imposing restrictions, the less money you'll get."
The federal government needs to do a “bona fide audit” of its spectrum holdings, said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Hudson Institute visiting fellow, Monday at a Hudson event. The White House and Congress need to “make it a priority to have there be a transparent -- as transparent as possible -- but meaningful audit of federal spectrum, and then move on to implement policies that would promote the auction of exclusive-use licenses,” McDowell said. The federal government’s use of its spectrum holdings in the 1755-1780 MHz band has been an ongoing debate as federal agencies seek to clear government users from swaths of the band to allow commercial use. Federal users need to be given an incentive to move off the band, but the process remains “opaque,” McDowell said. “I know a lot of federal spectrum is used for very important purposes, but I think we can all assume that not all of that spectrum is being used efficiently -- or sometimes not at all -- and that there would be a greater societal and economic benefit were it auctioned.” Troubles also lie ahead for the desired pairing of the 1755 band with the 2155-2180 MHz band in an AWS-3 spectrum auction, he said.
Efforts on Capitol Hill to pass legislation aimed at combating abusive patent litigation brought by patent assertion entities are being promoted through widespread misinformation, said CEO Nathan Myhrvold of PAE Intellectual Ventures. Patent reform advocates have been pushing for legislation to combat PAEs -- an issue they feel the America Invents Act (AIA) did not adequately address. There are already multiple bills in the House and Senate that address abusive patent litigation, with additional bills in both chambers’ Judiciary committees expected to drop this fall (CD Sept 5 p8).
Capitol Hill is divided on possible regulations on data privacy -- one camp believes the U.S. needs a new legal regime on data privacy and another believes regulation could injure the current data environment, said Senate Commerce Committee Senior Counsel Christian Fjeld. The pro-regulation camp, including committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., believes any regulations need to include baseline privacy protections based on giving users notice and choice on the collection of their data -- and secure retention of data where necessary, Fjeld said. Rockefeller and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced the Do-Not-Track Online Act (S-418) in March (CD March 4 p6) to create a “legal obligation” for companies to honor consumers’ Do Not Track requests, Fjeld said. Companies have no legal obligation to honor such requests, and the “balance needs to change” so such requests are honored, he said Tuesday during a Future of Privacy Forum and Stanford Center for Internet and Society event.
Mobile payment services have the potential to become more widespread in a few years, but industry standards may be needed to assuage consumers’ concerns about data security and other issues, said Jamie Barnett, co-chair of Venable’s telecom law practice, at a Law Seminars International event Tuesday. Barnett previously was the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau chief. A recent Federal Reserve study found that 42 percent of surveyed consumers said concerns about data security were the main reason they didn’t use mobile payment services -- the top reason given in the survey, Barnett said. Other barriers to adoption include network security, consumer privacy, liability, dispute resolution and a lack of uniform standards, he said. There’s no single legal framework that deals with mobile payment services, though 19 federal agencies have some regulatory interest in the sector (CD Sept 10 p9).
American Tower said Friday it will buy MIP Tower Holdings, the parent company of Global Tower Partners (GTP); the $4.8 billion purchase price includes $3.3 billion in cash and an agreement to assume $1.5 billion in debt. Macquarie Infrastructure Partners owns a majority of MIP Tower Holdings and GTP; Dutch pension fund manager PGGM has a minority ownership. Although the deal will allow American Tower to expand its position among the top U.S. tower companies, industry analysts told us they don’t believe it will fundamentally affect the U.S. tower market or encounter major regulatory issues. American Tower said it expects the deal to close in Q4 (http://bit.ly/15AKyL2).