Comcast elevates Beth Choroser to vice president-regulatory affairs, moving to Washington and working on regulatory matters affecting broadband, voice, public safety and security with a primary focus on the FCC, succeeding Mary McManus, retiring Monday ... Progressive Policy Institute opens Brussels office; leading it is Michael Quigley, EU public affairs expert, named director-European office; the office also is led by PPI Executive Director Lindsay Mark Lewis ... 21st Century Fox hires Andrew Cripps, leaving Imax, as president-international theatrical distribution, Twentieth Century Fox Film, effective in January.
The U.S. and other nations with high internet connectivity would lose at least 1.9 percent of their gross domestic product each day that internet services are disconnected, the Global Network Initiative reported Thursday. It was based on a Facebook-funded study conducted by Deloitte, GNI said. The Deloitte study said countries with medium-level connectivity would lose about 1 percent of their daily gross domestic product in an internet shutdown, and a low-connectivity country would lose 0.4 percent of its daily GDP, GNI said. The report noted an earlier Brookings Institution study saying that 81 government-led internet shutdowns between July 2015 and June 2016 cost the affected countries a total of about $2.4 billion. Countries affected in those shutdowns included Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, GNI said. “Shutting down the internet undermines economic activity and chills free expression,” said GNI Executive Director Judith Lichtenberg in a news release. “The economic and human rights harms of network shutdowns reinforce each other, and are of particular concern in developing countries, emerging and fragile democracies, and jurisdictions with weak rule of law.”
The U.S. and other nations with high internet connectivity would lose at least 1.9 percent of their gross domestic product each day that internet services are disconnected, the Global Network Initiative reported Thursday. It was based on a Facebook-funded study conducted by Deloitte, GNI said. The Deloitte study said countries with medium-level connectivity would lose about 1 percent of their daily gross domestic product in an internet shutdown, and a low-connectivity country would lose 0.4 percent of its daily GDP, GNI said. The report noted an earlier Brookings Institution study saying that 81 government-led internet shutdowns between July 2015 and June 2016 cost the affected countries a total of about $2.4 billion. Countries affected in those shutdowns included Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, GNI said. “Shutting down the internet undermines economic activity and chills free expression,” said GNI Executive Director Judith Lichtenberg in a news release. “The economic and human rights harms of network shutdowns reinforce each other, and are of particular concern in developing countries, emerging and fragile democracies, and jurisdictions with weak rule of law.”
Senate Cybersecurity Caucus co-Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sought information Tuesday from the FCC, FTC and Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center on available and needed tools for preventing cyberattacks on IoT-connected consumer devices. He also raised a net neutrality concern. Warner said his inquiry stems in part from Friday's distributed denial of service attacks against DynDNS. The DDoS attacks caused outages of Twitter and other major websites that use Dyn's services (see 1610210056), leading to calls for action from other lawmakers and IoT stakeholders (see 1610250021). Warner cited the Mirai command-and-control botnet, saying it targeted “highly insecure” connected devices in increasing numbers since the start of October. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team also warned that release of the Mirai botnet’s code increased the risk of copycats. Mirai’s efficacy largely depends “on the unacceptably low level of security inherent in a vast array of network devices,” Warner said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Warner questioned FCC net neutrality rules mandating that “ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of ‘non-harmful devices’ to their networks.” Devices “with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the ‘network’ -- whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected,” Warner said. “While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area.” The FCC "received the letter and [is] reviewing it," a spokeswoman said.
Senate Cybersecurity Caucus co-Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sought information Tuesday from the FCC, FTC and Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center on available and needed tools for preventing cyberattacks on IoT-connected consumer devices. He also raised a net neutrality concern. Warner said his inquiry stems in part from Friday's distributed denial of service attacks against DynDNS. The DDoS attacks caused outages of Twitter and other major websites that use Dyn's services (see 1610210056), leading to calls for action from other lawmakers and IoT stakeholders (see 1610250021). Warner cited the Mirai command-and-control botnet, saying it targeted “highly insecure” connected devices in increasing numbers since the start of October. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team also warned that release of the Mirai botnet’s code increased the risk of copycats. Mirai’s efficacy largely depends “on the unacceptably low level of security inherent in a vast array of network devices,” Warner said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Warner questioned FCC net neutrality rules mandating that “ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of ‘non-harmful devices’ to their networks.” Devices “with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the ‘network’ -- whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected,” Warner said. “While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area.” The FCC "received the letter and [is] reviewing it," a spokeswoman said.
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, which began Tuesday, is drawing interest from U.S.-based internet governance stakeholders. Some told us they will be watching for potential clues about the future trajectory of ITU internet policymaking. WTSA is set to run through Nov. 3 in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia. The standards conference is the ITU’s first major meeting since implementation earlier this month of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, which most U.S. stakeholders had identified as crucial to the credibility of the multistakeholder internet governance model (see 1610030042).
Senate Cybersecurity Caucus co-Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., sought information Tuesday from the FCC, FTC and Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center on available and needed tools for preventing cyberattacks on IoT-connected consumer devices. He also raised a net neutrality concern. Warner said his inquiry stems in part from Friday's distributed denial of service attacks against DynDNS. The DDoS attacks caused outages of Twitter and other major websites that use Dyn's services (see 1610210056), leading to calls for action from other lawmakers and IoT stakeholders (see 1610250021). Warner cited the Mirai command-and-control botnet, saying it targeted “highly insecure” connected devices in increasing numbers since the start of October. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team also warned that release of the Mirai botnet’s code increased the risk of copycats. Mirai’s efficacy largely depends “on the unacceptably low level of security inherent in a vast array of network devices,” Warner said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Warner questioned FCC net neutrality rules mandating that “ISPs cannot prohibit the attachment of ‘non-harmful devices’ to their networks.” Devices “with certain insecure attributes could be deemed harmful to the ‘network’ -- whether the ISP’s own network or the networks to which it is connected,” Warner said. “While remaining vigilant to ensure that such prohibitions do not serve as a pretext for anticompetitive or exclusionary behavior, I would encourage regulators to provide greater clarity to internet service providers in this area.” The FCC "received the letter and [is] reviewing it," a spokeswoman said.
The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, which began Tuesday, is drawing interest from U.S.-based internet governance stakeholders. Some told us they will be watching for potential clues about the future trajectory of ITU internet policymaking. WTSA is set to run through Nov. 3 in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia. The standards conference is the ITU’s first major meeting since implementation earlier this month of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, which most U.S. stakeholders had identified as crucial to the credibility of the multistakeholder internet governance model (see 1610030042).
The National Association of Manufacturers took issue with several areas in CBP's interim rule for antidumping and countervailing duty evasion allegations (see 1608190014), the trade group said in comments to CBP (here). The association "believes that many aspects of the interim rules need to be strengthened to meet the legislative requirements and effectively ensure transparent, full and fair enforcement of U.S. trade-remedy laws," it said. Among other issues, NAM voiced concerns over the lack of administrative protective orders (APOs), something that others have mentioned to CBP as worrisome (see 1610140044).
Sennheiser is kicking off a live performance series Thursday at 7 p.m. with Roc Nation and Tidal artists Mayaeni and Kevin Garrett at its pop-up store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The performers will use Sennheiser mics and wireless systems, said the company. The store opened Friday as one of two new Manhattan demo spaces for Sennheiser products. The curated performances in the series will take place over the next four months and are designed to highlight emerging local talents.