NTIA wants to add 12 questions about broadband usage to the U.S. Census Bureau’s October 2012 Current Population Survey, the agency said in a request for comments scheduled for publication in Wednesday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm2mer). “Collecting current, systematic, and comprehensive information on broadband use and non-use by U.S. households is critical to allow policymakers not only to gauge progress made to date, but also to identify problem areas with a specificity that permits carefully targeted and cost-effective responses,” the notice said. It wants comments on whether the proposed collection is “necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency”; how accurate is NTIA’s estimate for “hours and cost” of collecting the information; “ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected”; and ways to minimize the burden of collection, such as using automated techniques or information technology -- JJessup@doc.gov.
The Oprah Winfrey Network said it reached a distribution deal with Comcast to expand its existing carriage on Comcast systems.
MetroPCS increased the price of its unlimited LTE smartphone data plan by $10 to $70 a month and will throttle the data speeds of its three other LTE pricing plans, according to the company’s website. A new $60 plan will be capped at 5GB while the $50 and $40 plans will include 2.5 GB and 250 MB, respectively. Meanwhile, the company no longer differentiates between Web browsing and streaming multimedia, a spokesman said. “All web usage is considered data,” he said. The move was expected by BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk (CD April 3 p13).
The Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center has led to a paradigm shift of how the Department of Energy approaches cybersecurity, said Brian Varine, director of the Incident Management Division, at the FOSE conference Tuesday. Labs and sites have realized that sharing information about security breaches will benefit them, he said. In the past, data centers have handled cybersecurity on their own, but the center gives them a centralized party to report breaches to, and the center can then warn other data centers, he said. “They're all under attack, and the more information they share with each other, the better off they will be.” Cybersecurity officers need to start small when it comes to anomaly detection, said Joe Albaugh, chief information officer of the Federal Aviation Administration. Due to limited resources, security must be compromised before a malicious signature can be detected, he said, expressing a desire for a more proactive way of identifying signatures.
Colorado’s congressional delegation urged the FCC to quickly complete the rulemaking notice on flexible terrestrial use of 2 GHz mobile satellite service spectrum. Its approval “could go a long way toward alleviating the spectrum crunch,” while spurring innovation, jobs and competitive choice for consumers, the lawmakers said in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, Republican Reps. Cory Gardner, Mike Coffman and others. They said they're pleased that the commission’s rulemaking “might let S-band licensees provide terrestrial-based mobile broadband service in a more efficient manner than current rules permit.” The commission’s approval of the transfer of two S-band licenses to Dish (CD March 13 p17) puts 40 MHz of underutilized spectrum “in the hands of an established Colorado company that intends to launch a mobile broadband service and compete in the wireless market,” they said.
Frontier has completed its 14-state systems conversion related to its 2010 acquisition of Verizon’s wireline operations, Frontier said. The conversion was done in three stages. The West Virginia operations were converted concurrent with the completion of the acquisition in July 2010. In October 2011, all acquired operations in Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and South Carolina moved onto Frontier’s operating systems and the acquired operations in 13 states moved onto Frontier’s financial and human resources systems. This month, acquired operations in Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin were successfully moved onto Frontier’s legacy operating systems.
IPhone users are twice as likely to use Wi-Fi as Android users, according to a report released Wednesday by comScore (http://xrl.us/bm2k52). Sixty-eight percent of Android users browsed with only mobile networks, compared to 29 percent of iOS users. Also, AT&T users were more likely to browse via both mobile and Wi-Fi networks, rather than just mobile, and Sprint Nextel users are more likely to use only mobile networks, the report said.
It will be a “long journey” before the government reaches true real-time continuous monitoring, an IRS official predicted at the FOSE exposition and conference. But even perfect continuous monitoring won’t be a “silver bullet” against cyber threats, he and other government officials said. “I would definitely say we are not in continuous monitoring right now,” said David Stender, IRS associate chief information officer for cybersecurity and chief information security officer. “We're not even really in dynamic monitoring. But we are at least in monitoring.” Government isn’t “at the point where … everything is monitored [and] I can sit at my desktop and I have the big board that shows me the Star Trek version of how everything is happening at any given time,” Stender said. “It’s just not there yet.” The biggest barrier slowing the process is the culture change in cutting through government bureaucracy and historical ways of doing security, he said. Continuous monitoring is “vitally important” to mitigating threats, said Gregory Wilshusen, director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office. Stender agreed it’s useful for detecting vulnerabilities but said he’s “leery of continuous monitoring as being seen as a panacea.” Rather, “it just gets us to a better place,” he said. Continuous monitoring is only an effective tool if one acts on its results, Wilshusen agreed. “Continuous monitoring can provide you information … but you have to act.” Monitoring is “just another tool” and it’s “not nirvana today,” said Kevin Deeley, chief information security officer at the Justice Department. “It’s definitely a maturity model that has to grow.”
I-wireless filed a revised version of its application seeking eligible telecommunications carrier status in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The revisions take into account the FCC’s recent Lifeline reform order. “Grant of i-wireless’ request, therefore, will promote the public interest by providing customers ... with lower prices and higher quality wireless services through innovative distribution channels -- particularly as enabled by i-wireless’ affiliation with The Kroger Co., the nation’s largest grocery retail chain and the second largest retailer overall,” i-Wireless said (http://xrl.us/bm2kvq).
Cloud services offer federal agencies opportunities for higher efficiency and cost savings, panelists said at the FOSE conference Tuesday. There are many examples of successful cloud implementation among federal agencies, including the General Services Administration’s moving to Gmail, said David McClure, associate administrator for GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies. Google and the GSA learned a lot about compliance while moving Google through the Federal Information Security Management Act compliance process, he said. The Google platform is “far more flexible” and offers the agency more tools than they had access to before, McClure said. The GSA has also moved all database systems like Data.gov and USA.gov to the cloud, he said. Cloud adoption also provides solutions that can be shared across agencies, McClure said. Chief information officers should at least include cloud solutions as an option, even if they don’t immediately choose cloud adoption, said Department of Defense CIO Robert Carey. The FedRamp program will provide a structure for agencies to implement the cloud consistently, he said. FedRamp will provide a catalog of architectures and security requirements for cloud providers, he said. But McClure said the program won’t be “fully sustainable” until fiscal year 2014.