Privacy and security in cloud computing will be best defended by the industry technologists rather than the regulators in Washington and Brussels, said Jim Reavis, executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance, speaking on a panel Monday at CES in Las Vegas. The speed at which technology evolves and consumers adopt the technology frequently puts privacy at risk and it will be up to those on the industry side to make certain that their customers are only giving up parts of their data they are willing to give up. Much of the progress on security and privacy in the cloud must come from better informing consumers of exactly what they are and aren’t giving up when they upload their information to another company, said Sid Stamm, lead privacy engineer at Mozilla. As systems become increasingly complex, it will become harder and harder to know and understand the privacy risks involved, he said. Part of that issue is the idea of informed consent, the long terms of services documents that are often agreed to yet rarely read, said Scott Morrison, chief architect at Layer 7. The scrutiny on the agreements is largely falling to public interest groups that can spend the time and resources to make the public aware of the poor actors, said Reavis. Still, part of the equation of companies such as Facebook and Twitter letting consumers use their services for free is the tradeoff of some privacy, said Rip Gerber, CEO of Locaid Technologies. It’s also in the best interest of the companies and their brands that control that information to only use it for purposes the public seems willing to accept, said Gerber. Among the major concerns is the question of what bad actors could use stolen cloud data for that hasn’t yet been considered, said Stamm.
ATK received a contract to do a study of network-centric small satellites for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Defense Weather Systems Directorate. The study will provide insight into the capabilities and characteristics of a 21st-century weather data service that can systematically augment the legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, ATK said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bn9s6e). The study will focus on net-centric architectures and small, cost-effective heritage spacecraft buses “that can be used to support a variety of future weather payloads,” it said.
A pair of Senate Democrats urged the FCC in separate letters made public this week to deny Progeny’s petition to operate mobile radio transmitters and high-power base stations. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Progeny’s “unacceptable interference” issues remain and the company hasn’t met the agency’s conditions to begin commercial operations. Progeny recently completed testing on a joint basis with three other parties, to examine whether the company’s Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service (M-LMS) network would cause harmful interference to unlicensed devices in the 902-928 MHz band (CD Dec 26 p13). The senators argued that the FCC’s definition of unacceptable interference in the proceeding has not been “clearly defined” and urged the commission to protect the millions of unlicensed device users operating in the band. Companies have used the unlicensed spectrum for medical devices, remote controls, baby monitors and home alarm systems, among other connectivity devices, the letters said. Cantwell said if Progeny’s petition is approved, the company “will have absolutely no incentive to try and work with the various Part 15 users to see if they can find a technical remedy for mitigating the impact of unacceptable interference,” according to her letter. Klobuchar said a favorable decision for Progeny could impact the “untold number of successful companies that have integrated unlicensed devices into their operations if they are subject to unacceptable levels of interference.”
South Dakota’s landline customers are having a harder time receiving calls from out of state, said Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson in a Rapid City Journal op-ed Saturday. He slammed the rural call completion problems, which he said concern state commissioners but fall outside their authority to fix. “The FCC has clearly dropped the ball for rural America,” Nelson said (http://xrl.us/bn9s5d). “Despite this inaction your PUC continues to push the FCC to do its job.” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield praised the piece on her blog and echoed his call to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bn9s5o).
Travelers’ Information Station operators need “utmost leeway” when disasters like Superstorm Sandy or the shooting in Newtown, Conn., occur, the American Association of Information Radio Operators told the FCC in a supplemental ex parte filing containing exchanges from public safety officials (http://xrl.us/bn9s4v). The association said the authority of these operators should be “explicitly included in Section 90.242 of the FCC’s rules” and not “arbitrarily” limited, with options for broadcasting information before the emergencies happen. Such a change is needed in order for these operators to be “a primary source of pre-emergency and emergency information,” as intended, the association said.
The FCC seeks comment on its proposal to create a new Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3550-3650 MHz band currently used for military and satellite operations. The commission approved a notice of proposed rulemaking last month to reallocate the service under Part 95 rules (CD Dec 13 p6). The commission is requesting comment on techniques that could be used “to manage access within the 3.5 GHz band as well as protections for incumbent Department of Defense and Fixed Satellite Service users,” it said in a Federal Register notice to be published Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bn9szo). It also asks for comment on how the unique characteristics of small cells “may help reduce the need for geographic protections and enable shared access of the 3.5 GHz band across the widest possible geographic footprint,” it said. Comments are due Feb. 20 and reply comments March 22, it said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will speak at 5:15 p.m. PST Tuesday at the Citi Global Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. Genachowski’s speech will not be webcast and is closed to the media, a Citigroup spokeswoman said.
Four House Commerce Committee Democrats sought more interoperability in the lower 700 MHz band, in a letter sent Monday to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “A single lower 700 MHz band with nationwide scope would benefit all customers because it would enable consumers to use the same devices across multiple carrier platforms as well as roam to and from networks inside and outside of the 700 MHz band,” it said. The letter was signed by House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo of California, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, and Doris Matsui of California. The lawmakers said reducing the number of bands in the lower 700 MHz would assist first responders by adding value, reducing costs and creating “more redundancy options for public safety broadband capabilities.” The FCC approved an interoperability rulemaking notice at its March meeting. Genachowski said at the time regulation may not be needed and encouraged industry players to come up with a voluntary, industry solution (CD March 22 p2). AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations Tim McKone said the letter “fails to address the main issue: the interference caused from the adjacent Channel 51 television stations.” That interference “is the main reason there has been such little deployment to date by A Block license holders,” McKone said in an email statement. “Forcing carriers to place interfering radios in their smartphones will result in less efficient spectrum utilization and, importantly, a poor consumer experience.” AT&T has been the leading opponent of an interoperability mandate.
Cisco partnered with AT&T on Digital Life, an all-digital wireless-based home security and automation service. Cisco said Monday it built the service’s control panel and back-office provisioning and applications life-cycle management system. The system allows customers to monitor and manage their homes via a smartphone, tablet or PC, Cisco said. The service allows a consumer to view live surveillance video and control appliances and other home systems, Cisco said. The service will use AT&T’s wireless network but is broadband provider-agnostic, Cisco said. AT&T said Digital Life will be available in eight U.S. markets in March, and in up to 50 additional markets through the end of the year (http://xrl.us/bn9syr).
Qualcomm Technologies developed an Internet of Everything (IoE) development platform, which is based on its QSC6270-Turbo chipset and supports Oracle’s Java ME Embedded 3.2. The platform, which uses Qualcomm’s Gobi 3G modem solution, helps developers accelerate efficient development -- and decrease time to market -- on applications and devices used on AT&T mobile broadband, Qualcomm said Monday. The Qualcomm/AT&T development platform will be available to developers by Q2, Qualcomm said. The platform is “an ideal starting point” for creation of mobile products and apps for IoE verticals such as tracking, industrial controls and healthcare, Qualcomm said. AT&T will support the platform in North America, “allowing developers to test their solutions and demonstrate functionality on a live network in the design and development phases,” Qualcomm said (http://xrl.us/bn9swn).