Recent National Security Agency revelations created doubts about its cryptology work and raised questions about the agency’s building “backdoors” into communications devices, technologists said during a Cato Institute panel Wednesday. “In the general case, [distributed trust model] Tor works,” said Silent Circle Vice President-Engineering Jim Burrows, saying this “pleased me more than anything else,” referring to reports that NSA tried to hack into that secure network. Karen Reilly, development director at the Tor Project, praised the distributed trust model and hoped it would be used more widely. “We would like to know which particular chips are backdoored,” said Chris Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, saying technologists would like to protect people from compromised chips. What NSA has done has destroyed the reputation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and created broader problems, leaving a lot of people feeling “burned,” he said, saying it’s hard to view NSA as a “good faith stakeholder” in discussions of digital security now. When the government goes to a company like encrypted mail service Lavabit and asks for encryption keys, that’s a “death sentence,” Soghoian said, praising the way small U.S. companies have pioneered secure communications. “There is no multimillion-dollar lobbying association for secure communications yet. … These companies are in their infancy. They could be squashed.” No one who really cared about security would use a technology with a backdoor, Soghoian said, saying “you have to live in a cave” to hide metadata.

CenturyLink is expanding its gigabit fiber network pilot to residential and small business customers in select neighborhoods of Las Vegas starting this fall, said the company in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1hCESWE). CenturyLink started its first gigabit network in Omaha, in May, and it will have fiber-to-the-premises technology in that city by the end of this month, said the company. FTTP technology will also be delivered to Las Vegas, said CenturyLink.

A Google official praised the principles of two surveillance transparency bills introduced this year by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., “We're looking forward to a broader campaign to codify the principles in those bills,” said Google Privacy Policy Counsel David Lieber, speaking for the company’s public policy team Wednesday on a panel hosted by the Cato Institute. Google and other technology companies have sought to release more information about how many surveillance requests the government makes. Lieber argued that the prohibition on releasing that data violates the First Amendment. He called it “anachronistic” for companies to live under what amounts to a licensing scheme about who gets to speak and how.

Data center and colocation provider Equinix said Wednesday it bought the Kleyer 90 carrier hotel in Frankfurt from a private German investor under undisclosed terms. Kleyer 90 is “one of the busiest network nodes in Europe,” meaning the purchase will “provide Equinix customers with greater security, as well as continuity and expansion opportunities” in the Campus Kleyer data center environment, Equinix said. It said the deal also consolidates Equinix’s position in Frankfurt, “the connectivity gateway” between Western and Eastern Europe (http://bit.ly/GLHupP).

"There are certain attributes I have as a woman that are very positive in a business environment, and can bring out the best in organizations and results,” Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter said Wednesday at the Telecommunications Industry Association conference in National Harbor, Md. “I'm a nurturer” who is intuitive and likes to serve others, she said at the “Women in Leadership” panel discussion. Women tend to have those qualities, she said, and with women in charge “there are ways to create power differently than the more command-and-control approach” men sometimes take. Combining leadership styles of men and women can lead to better outcomes in terms of how companies go to market and take care of customers, she said. “Having that balance is important."

The Internet adds $141 billion to the U.S. economy by enabling part-time businesses, the Internet Association said in a Wednesday release, based on the results of a study it commissioned from Harris Interactive (http://bit.ly/1bbV8fo). The study said Internet-enabled part-time businesses employ 6.6 million workers, and the Internet accelerates the capacity of part-time business by increasing efficiency for 86 percent, expanding productivity for 82 percent, and saving money for 78 percent. Nine of 10 part-time business owners rely on the Internet to do their business, it said, and over half could not do business without it. The survey was done in June among 10,031 adults who are the primary owners of a part-time business that uses the Internet in one of the following ways: Has a dedicated website, sells or buys goods and services, monetizes user-generated content, advertises or markets business, uses search engine optimization, uses online or cloud-based services, uses social media, uses software available on the Internet, or uses Internet computing technologies.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Telecommunications Services approved the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials’ solution to “electronically triage” emergency medical dispatch (EMD) calls, said Smart Horizons and APCO in a news release Wednesday (http://yhoo.it/1fZZEUu). It said APCO’s 9-1-1 Adviser, developed in partnership with Smart Horizons, will serve public safety answering points in the state with EMD, law enforcement, fire and missing and exploited children guidecard sets.

NC Broadband is starting a statewide survey and scorecard project this month to help households and businesses “increase their economic vitality by better utilizing broadband technologies,” said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cvPA3p). Up to 500 businesses will receive a “uniquely-tailored scorecard” based on their survey responses to summarize the financial impacts that broadband has on their businesses, and the scorecard will suggest broadband-enabled tools to increase competitiveness, efficiencies and revenues, said Decker. The survey results will allow a comparison of broadband usage and economic impacts with peer organizations nationwide, she said.

Comcast, NBCUniversal and Twitter are collaborating in a social TV partnership, said the companies in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/GOeihj). It said Comcast will debut in November a new feature called “See It” to give Xfinity TV customers the ability to instantly access TV shows, movies and sports directly on NBCUniversal’s networks from a tweet. NBCUniversal is partnering with Twitter’s Amplify program to extend the reach of its portfolio of networks and digital properties through advertising campaigns and sponsorships to its audiences on Twitter and to drive tune-in to its programming, said the companies. They said NBCUniversal’s ad clients will also get access to Twitter’s promoted platform.

An enhanced version of the LOVEFiLM Instant streaming application was released for LG smart TVs in the U.K. and Germany, Amazon’s European video streaming service said Wednesday at its website. The enhanced app, available at the LG TV App Store, will allow LG smart TV owners to find content more easily via an improved search function and recommendation engine, and also “navigate more efficiently” with an optimized user interface, said LOVEFiLM. Users will also be able to plan the film and TV series they want to view with the addition of a Watchlist feature, it said. The new features are all complemented by LG’s Magic Remote Control, which uses point, motion, wheel and voice gesture to control the smart TV interface for a “seamless and intuitive user experience,” said LOVEFiLM. LG smart TVs are the latest addition to the list of devices benefitting from the additional functionality of LOVEFiLM’s new app, it said. The app will soon be made available on all remaining LOVEFiLM-enabled platforms, it said.