Senate Commerce Committee members used a hearing Wednesday on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework to call for further cyber legislation, including cybersecurity information sharing and data breach notification. NIST released its “Version 1.0” framework almost a year ago (see report in the Feb. 13, 2014, issue) and continually has emphasized that private sector use of the framework is entirely voluntary. NIST Information Technology Laboratory Director Charles Romine told Senate Commerce that the Cybersecurity Framework needed to remain voluntary for NIST to continue receiving active participation from industry stakeholders in developing the framework. NIST is set to lead a technical workshop on the framework at Stanford University Feb. 12, the day before a planned White House-sponsored cybersecurity summit. President Barack Obama is expected to outline executive actions at the summit that will facilitate cyber information sharing via the Department of Homeland Security, an industry lobbyist told us.
Senate Commerce Committee members used a hearing Wednesday on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework to call for further cyber legislation, including cybersecurity information sharing and data breach notification. NIST released its “Version 1.0” framework almost a year ago (see report in the Feb. 13, 2014, issue) and continually has emphasized that private sector use of the framework is entirely voluntary. NIST Information Technology Laboratory Director Charles Romine told Senate Commerce that the Cybersecurity Framework needed to remain voluntary for NIST to continue receiving active participation from industry stakeholders in developing the framework. NIST is set to lead a technical workshop on the framework at Stanford University Feb. 12, the day before a planned White House-sponsored cybersecurity summit. President Barack Obama is expected to outline executive actions at the summit that will facilitate cyber information sharing via the Department of Homeland Security, an industry lobbyist told us.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he will circulate an order Thursday reclassifying broadband as a common carrier service and imposing the same net neutrality rules on fixed and mobile broadband. Wheeler’s office briefed the FCC’s eighth floor and others on the plan Wednesday. Wheeler published in Wired an op-ed Wednesday explaining why his thinking had shifted to embrace reclassification. “I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” he said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he will circulate an order Thursday reclassifying broadband as a common carrier service and imposing the same net neutrality rules on fixed and mobile broadband. Wheeler’s office briefed the FCC’s eighth floor and others on the plan Wednesday. Wheeler published in Wired an op-ed Wednesday explaining why his thinking had shifted to embrace reclassification. “I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” he said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he will circulate an order Thursday reclassifying broadband as a common carrier service and imposing the same net neutrality rules on fixed and mobile broadband. Wheeler’s office briefed the FCC’s eighth floor and others on the plan Wednesday. Wheeler published in Wired an op-ed Wednesday explaining why his thinking had shifted to embrace reclassification. “I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC,” he said.
Protecting U.S. national security at the cost of privacy and civil liberties through signals intelligence (SIGINT) is being examined, and in some cases reformed, said a signals intelligence reform 2015 anniversary report released by the Director of National Intelligence Tuesday. “While the collection of SIGINT is necessary to protect national security ... it carries multiple risks to our relationships with other nations; our commercial, economic, and financial interests; the credibility of our commitment to an open, interoperable, and secure global internet; and the protection of intelligence sources and methods,” the DNI report said. Last week, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board said (see 1501300049) the U.S. "intelligence community" (IC) hadn't implemented all 22 recommendations PCLOB issued in 2014 that addressed concerns related to U.S. Patriot Act Section 215 and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702.
Protecting U.S. national security at the cost of privacy and civil liberties through signals intelligence (SIGINT) is being examined, and in some cases reformed, said a signals intelligence reform 2015 anniversary report released by the Director of National Intelligence Tuesday. “While the collection of SIGINT is necessary to protect national security ... it carries multiple risks to our relationships with other nations; our commercial, economic, and financial interests; the credibility of our commitment to an open, interoperable, and secure global internet; and the protection of intelligence sources and methods,” the DNI report said. Last week, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board said (see 1501300049) the U.S. "intelligence community" (IC) hadn't implemented all 22 recommendations PCLOB issued in 2014 that addressed concerns related to U.S. Patriot Act Section 215 and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702.
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal revives a previously-floated but unapproved plan to consolidate some federal trade agencies into one agency, and the two largest food safety agencies into one shop as well, the White House said in its budget release on Feb. 2 (here). The budget proposal asks Congress to give the White House more power to unilaterally make consolidations and cuts. Obama has asked for that consolidation authority several times over recent years (see 12021417).
The skyrocketing Asian population and regional economic gains will open the door for huge amounts of U.S. agricultural exports in the coming years, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be critical in ensuring U.S. companies have fair access to those markets, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in a speech to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Washington on Feb. 2, according to prepared remarks released by USTR. “With the contours of a final TPP agreement coming into focus and strong expressions of bipartisan support for increasing ‘Made-in-America’ exports, it’s looking like some of that excitement will emerge from our trade policy,” Froman said, adding that there will be roughly 3.2 billion middle-class consumers in Asia by 2030.
FCC increase of speed thresholds for broadband was criticized by industry groups and others in statements after Thursday's decision (see 1501290043). Reflecting the party-line division in Thursday’s vote, consumer groups praised the move, saying it will push ISPs to provide faster service. The decision “by regulatory fiat” to raise the standard for judging broadband deployment to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up “is not grounded in marketplace realities dictated by actual consumer demand and willingness to pay,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May said: “It is conjured up in the imaginations of those who wish to exert more government control over Internet providers by artificially narrowing the market definition."