With Congress back in town, the big question for tech observers is whether it can pass some sort of cybersecurity legislation before the end of the year. That looks unlikely to happen in the lame duck session, making this month perhaps sponsors' last shot at turning something resembling their legislation into public policy before this fall's election. But despite ongoing talks between the two sides, progress has been hard to come by. So Democratic sponsors, including Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have been urging the Obama administration to move forward with an executive order that would accomplish many of the goals laid out by the Senate bill (S 3414).
The administration has been circulating a draft of such an executive order, but acting on it could raise the ire of both industry and Senate Republicans. House Republicans have passed an information sharing measure (HR 3523) without any security standards for critical infrastructure providers and are pushing the Senate to adopt their bill. But that legislation has sparked significant privacy concerns and would be unlikely to pass the Senate without major changes. While hope for cybersecurity legislation is not yet gone, chances of the landscape changing shrink with each passing day. We're not holding our breath for action from Congress, but the administration's executive order could shake things up when it finally goes public.
Small Carriers Push For Cellphone Interoperability: A new coalition of small wireless carriers is pushing Congress to require that cellphones be compatible across all mobile networks. The group launched Monday at a Capitol Hill briefing, where representatives of U.S. Cellular, Sprint Nextel and the newly rebranded Competitive Carriers Association argued for regulations that would force market leaders AT&T and Verizon Wireless to operate their 4G networks using industry standard handsets. Currently both firms operate fast data services on separate networks on the 700 MHz band, arguing that sharing a band class would cause interference on their networks. The smaller carriers dispute the interference claims and argue that the absence of a standard means consumers must spend more to purchase new devices every time they switch networks. CRS Report: Spectrum Policy in the Age of Broadband (Link fixed from yesterday, PDF) Anonymous-Affiliated Hacker Takes Down GoDaddy: A supporter of Anonymous, the loose collective of hackers, claimed responsibility Monday for an attack that brought down the Web hosting service GoDaddy along with millions of its customers' sites. A hacker affiliated with Anonymous claimed credit for the denial of service attack on Twitter and said it was not part of a broader Anonymous campaign. Anonymous went after GoDaddy in December after the firm expressed support for the Stop Online Piracy Act, which in turn prompted customers to protest and transfer their domains to other Web hosting providers. Another Twitter account associated with Anonymous sought to distance the group from Monday's attack, claiming it was the work of one rogue individual. On The Move: FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel announced Tuesday that Alexander Hoehn-Saric will join her office as policy director with primary responsibility for media and technology issues. Hoehn-Saric joins the commission from the Department of Commerce, where he served as deputy general counsel for strategic initiatives. Obama Names GMU Prof to FTC: President Obama nominated George Mason University Law School professor Joshua D. Wright to the Federal Trade Commission on Monday. Wright will replace fellow Republican J. Thomas Rosch, whose term is set to expire this month. The FTC is an independent agency with jurisdiction over consumer protection and antitrust issues; in recent years the FTC has found itself policing online companies to ensure they don't violate consumers' privacy. Administration Backs FISA Extension: The Obama administration released a statement late Monday expressing strong support for a House bill (HR 5949) that would extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until 2017. The law, which expires at the end of this year, allow the intelligence community to monitor the communications of foreign nationals without a warrant, even when they are in communication with American citizens. A similar bill in the Senate would extend the law until 2015, but it has been placed on hold by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., over privacy concerns. Company Says It Was Source of Apple ID Numbers: The tech firm BlueToad said Monday that it was the source of the million identification numbers for Apple mobile devices posted online last week, not the F.B.I. as hackers previously claimed. The company, which helps publishers translate printed content into digital formats, said hackers breached its systems more than a week ago and stole the file. The company voluntarily disclosed the theft and apologized to the public and its customers for the incident. Security experts disagree on how much damage can be done with one of the identification numbers, though some claim the breach poses little danger. AntiSec, a hacking group that is a subset of Anonymous, claimed to have taken the file from the F.B.I.