03/31, 8:33pm
Messaging tools could be in violation of Saudi laws
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued orders to its regulatory bodies to ensure that communication tools like Skype and Whatsapp comply with the government's stringent requirements governing Internet communications. The kingdom's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced last week that it had "become evident that some communication applications through (the) Internet don't meet regulatory requirements." The regulatory body did not, though, specify which laws certain apps might be violating.
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03/26, 1:43am
Part of strange campaign against foreign-owned companies
China's government may be nervous that the population's growing dependence on foreign-made products could undermine its control, and has recently embarked on a state-run media campaign against large western corporations that dominate the commercial landscape in urban China, including recent attacks on Apple. Though a recent social networking "whisper campaign" against the iPhone maker backfired badly, the smear campaign continues in the Communist Party-run People's Daily newspaper.
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03/04, 3:18pm
President and officials consulted on issue last week, plan to allow unlocking
The White House has issued a response to the successful We The People petition. A statement issued earlier today confirmed that the petition response brought together experts from the entire governmental spectrum who "work on telecommunications, technology, and copyright policy," and the White house agrees with the expert and petitioners that consumers should be able to unlock cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties, calling it "common sense" and "crucial for protecting consumer choice."
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01/28, 12:39pm
Discussions could see console ban lifted in near future.
The Chinese government may reverse its ban on video game consoles in the future. Ministerial figures are reportedly discussing lifting the ban, put in place in the year 2000 in order to protect the physical and mental development of younger members of the population, which could open up the Chinese market for gaming products from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and others.
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01/23, 7:52am
Community events to use released government data to help nation
The White House has announced an event that will encourage US residents to make use of government data. The National Day of Civic Hacking on June 1-2 will see 27 cities play host to community events where publicly-released data will be used to create "solutions for problems that affect Americans."
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01/08, 6:17pm
Team of 20 officials raid factory, operations continue unhindered
A factory in India that makes Nokia phones has been raided by tax authorities, according to reports. The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer's factory in Chennai was raided by 20 officials, with authorities claiming that taxes amounting to 3000 Crore INR ($542 million) have not been paid by the company to the Indian government.
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12/14, 7:48am
Internet governance pressure point forced withdrawl from talks
Representatives of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are refusing to sign a treaty relating to Internet governance. The three countries all objected to the International Telecommunications Union treaty, refusing to sign anything that would allow "all states to have equal rights to the governance of the Internet."
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12/11, 10:00pm
High Tech Spectrum Coalition formed to spotlight issues
The High Tech Spectrum Coalition, a 'supergroup' of technology companies led by Apple and Samsung, petitioned Congress on Tuesday to provide more broadcast bandwidth for smartphones and tablet computers. The sent letter encourages the House and Senate technology committees to evaluate auctioning some of the spectrum currently in use by the federal government.
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12/10, 6:36pm
NASA, FBI, Interpol, others attacked by hacking group
Hacking collective GhostShell has released 1.6 million accounts and records claimed to be from various company and governmental agency systems. A total of 37 different organizations are said to have been attacked by the group, with the resulting data being released as raw data dumps on paste sites such as Pastebin and PasteSite.
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12/06, 6:06am
Unanimous vote to protect current Internet regulations
The US House or Representatives has voted unanimously to keep the Internet "free from government control." The passing of a Senate resolution to oppose United Nation control of the Internet comes while the International Telecommunications Union conference, to decide the Internet's future regulation, is in progress in Dubai.
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12/05, 5:56am
Cyber Emergency Response Team, Cyber Reserve to start in 2013
The UK government is updating its Cyber Security Strategy by creating two computer-related bodies of people. A Cyber Reserve of computer technicians will work with the military to fight online threats is being set up, as well as a task force geared towards helping defend businesses and public sector organizations from similar attacks.
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12/02, 7:23pm
Smuggled equipment used to bypass phone lines, cell networks
It has been revealed that Syrian rebels have resorted to using Skype to communicate with each other during the recent country-wide Internet outage. The messaging and voice-calling service was used alongside stockpiled equipment and a satellite connection so as to communicate with others around the country as well as overseas, despite government efforts to stop this from happening.
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11/29, 11:50am
Internet, telecommunications disrupted as fighting escalates
Syria is cut off from the Internet, according to an access monitoring firm, in what is being seen as a bid for censorship by the local government. All 84 of Syria's IP address blocks are currently unreachable, "effectively removing the country from the Internet," and appears to be linked to the current battle between the country's armed forces and Syrian rebels.
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11/28, 4:43pm
Continued requests to keep details confidential ignored by government
More details about Amazon's UK tax affairs have been released to the public by the British government, despite requests for secrecy. The ongoing Parliament's Public Accounts Select Committee released details supplied by the retailer relating to taxes, with the provided evidence showing that a total of £1.8 million ($2.9 million) in corporation tax was paid in 2011.
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11/27, 1:11pm
Supplied sales information requested to remain confidential
Amazon has released details on its Black Friday and Cyber Monday Kindle sales, calling the two days the "best ever for the Kindle family." The figures are released at the same time as confidential sales figures for the company's UK operations were published by a parliamentary committee investigating its British tax affairs.
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11/25, 5:47pm
Failed registrations face 20-percent loss of application fee
Objections have been made to a number of generic top-level domain (gTLD) applications. The ICANN Government Advisory Committee, consisting of 50 countries, has posted an initial list of 250 objections where member countries claim there to be an issue with the gTLDs being registered. Rejected applications will receive 80-percent of their $185,000 application fee.
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10/20, 3:20pm
Remarks given at business meeting in Norfolk, VA
Just a week after a major policy speech on Internet security in front of a New York business group, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that cyberspace is the battlefield of the future, with organized groups of attackers assaulting financial institutions and developing the power to assail US power grids and government systems.
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10/01, 1:19pm
Gmail block had led to parliamentary complaints
Authorities in Iran have unblocked access to Google's email service, it was announced today. Access to Gmail had been blocked last week in protest over a YouTube video that had been deemed blasphemous by religious leaders. Reuters reports that the reversal came partly as a result of complaints from officials within Iran's own government, and Iranian officials now claim that the blocking of Gmail was unintentional.
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09/30, 2:42pm
Evaluating plans for purchase, consolidation, future sale of spectrum
In February, Congress passed legislation allowing the FCC to re-allocate wireless spectrum by acquiring it from television broadcasters. The three-phase plan to re-acquire bandwidth has entered the rule-making process on Friday. The reverse auction process will allow the FCC to rearrange the remaining broadcasters to make larger blocks of spectrum available for other uses, such as existing wireless internet technology, or other future technologies. Unallocated spectrum will be placed up for auction, with the government expecting to make more money on the auction that it did buying the bandwidth freed by the shift to digital broadcasting. The FCC is seeking public comment on the details of the plan.
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09/27, 7:34pm
Insulin pumps, defibrillators capable of killing patients
According to a Government Accountability Office report, wireless medical devices vulnerable to remote control by hackers are proliferating, and should come under greater government oversight. Devices with wireless connections potentially vulnerable to attack include insulin pumps, pacemakers, defibrillators, and neurosurgical implants.
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09/26, 4:37pm
President of Brazil Operations arrested over political YouTube videos
Fabio Coelho, president of Google's Brazilian operations, was arrested today in São Paulo after the search giant failed to comply with a court order to take down a YouTube video. As the BBC reported, a Judge ordered Coelho's arrest yesterday, and Brazilian site G1 confirms that Federal Police took Coelho into custody today. Coelho will not remain under arrest, according to the police, but will be released upon signing a document in which he commits to obey a subpoena.
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08/11, 8:06pm
App to provide constantly updated economic statistics
The US Census Bureau has released its first ever mobile application. Dubbed America's Economy (Mobile, Tablet, Google Play), the app will provide constantly updated statistics on the US economy, including economic indicators, trends, and a schedule of upcoming announcements The new service forms part of the Census Bureau's efforts for data openness, following the government's Digital Strategy project.
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05/31, 6:35pm
Some agencies remain leery of cloud migration, holding off
Microsofthas announced Office 365 for Government, its version of cloud productivity software. The specific government version of the suite released in July 2011 uses specific government-only encryption and storage to help soothe concerns about privacy and data security. Other than the government-level encrypted storage, Office 365 for Government is the same as regular Office 365, keeping Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and the other Office web apps in the cloud, but giving the option of installing a desktop version of the Office 2010 suite as well.
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05/24, 10:10am
Obama order forces agencies to make two public apps each
President Barack Obama has ordered all major federal agencies to make more services available on mobile devices in the next year. The administration wants to increase governmental technology use, with agencies ordered to make services available for public access within 12 months. The news comes at the same time as reports that the US Navy will add LTE capabilities to three of its ships, allowing Android smartphones to be used out at sea.
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05/10, 2:34am
Apple 11th place among tech firms
Politico reports that Apple has spent only $500,000 on federal lobbying and associated governmental programs thus far in 2012. By contrast, political action committees (PAC) formed by Google have dropped $5 million, and a separate Microsoft PAC has doled out $1.8 million in the same time period. Sources within Washington suggest that Apple will have a rocky road with DC lawmakers unless they start building a "Washington brand."
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04/30, 12:50pm
Joint Cellcrypt and Verizon service by Fall
Verizon and Cellcrypt are collaborating to supply the US government with secure mobile calling capabilities. The government-grade encrypted voice calling service is aimed to be marketed to military, intelligence, and civilian agencies in the fall as a currently unnamed co-branded service.
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03/07, 7:10pm
Waits until after formal announcement
The government's regulatory body on telecommunications and computer equipment, the FCC, has officially approved the new products announced today at Apple's event in San Francisco. The updated, 1080p-capable Apple TV, and three versions of the new iPad (Wi-Fi only, AT&T LTE and Verizon LTE) have been cleared for sale in the US. The reports included teardown pictures of the Apple TV but not the new iPad models.
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02/22, 8:40pm
Move believed to be due to security concerns
The Air Force Special Operations Command has reportedly canceled its immediate plans to acquire several thousand iPads. The command is said to have removed its request from the Federal Business Opportunities website just days after Nextgov raised concerns over the government's inclusion of Russian-developed GoodReader software as part of the purchase.
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12/15, 10:40pm
Company still faces opponents
Just one week after a leaked draft of a government report pointed to ongoing interference problems with LightSquared's network, the US Department of Defense and Department of Transportation have issued a joint statement echoing the concerns. The agencies claim the network will not interfere with cellphones, however it has demonstrated "harmful interference to the majority of other tested general purpose GPS receivers."
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12/12, 11:45pm
Firm up to $1.8M in reported spending
Apple has spent around $1.8 million on lobbying the federal government through the third quarter of 2011, figures filed with the U.S. House of Representatives' clerk's office show. While third-quarter spending, at $460,000, was down significantly (42 percent) from the $790,000 it spent in the second quarter, it is up 35 percent from the year-ago third quarter of 2010.
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12/01, 8:15pm
Legislators to limit spyware distribution
Legislators are currently drafting a bill that aims to impose export restrictions on software that can be used by foreign governments to monitor citizens or censor Internet content. Republican Representative Chris Smith, the bill's sponsor, suggests such legislation is necessary to help prevent certain governments from using American-produced software to quash political dissent.
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11/17, 10:20pm
Brief order points to the Fourth Amendment
United States District Judge Lynn Hughes has issued an order that bars law enforcement agencies from obtaining cellphone tracking data without first obtaining a warrant. The judge argues that the government cannot use the Stored Communications Act as a legal justification to force cellular carriers to relinquish cellphone location data without probable cause.
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11/14, 9:55pm
Switching to tablets may save money
Two more US federal agencies -- the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service -- are evaluating iPads as replacements for notebook computers and other computer tasks, according to PDFs obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. While no final decision has been reached yet, the Forest Service appears to be planning to deploy iPads beyond the test program beginning in the middle of next year, while the BLM is currently at an earlier stage of evaluation.
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10/26, 10:15pm
Company discloses thousands of user accounts
Google claims to have refused government requests to remove videos showing police brutality, however the search giant complied with the vast majority of inquiries regarding user data. Law enforcement agencies in the US made a total of 5,950 requests for user data between January and June, involving more than 11,000 separate accounts, marking a significant year-over-year increase.
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08/24, 10:55pm
4G upgrades said to start with pilot groups
Motoroola and Verizon are reportedly set to begin LTE upgrades for the Xoom tablet, however the initial rollout is said to be limited to business and government accounts. Unnamed sources have told Droid-Life the companies will be providing LTE upgrades to the pilot groups over the next two weeks, ahead of availability for the general public.
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07/28, 11:00pm
Statistic used to highlight debt crisis
As pointed out by several publications, as of yesterday Apple -- the world's most valuable technology company -- has more cash and marketable securities on hand than the federal government does, according to the U.S. Treasury's own daily statement. At the end of June, the iPad and Mac maker had $76.2 billion on hand, while the government currently has $73.8 billion in operating cash balance.
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07/27, 9:40pm
Meets federal requirements for iOS management
Best known for their business-oriented iOS reader app GoodReader, iOS developer Good Technology have now released a more-secure device management and application-access app called Good for Government that enables federal agencies and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) more securely manage sensitive government data on current iOS devices running iOS 4 or higher. The app lets employees access encrypted e-mail, intranet content and more while obeying DoD and Homeland Security directives.
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05/11, 9:10pm
Meredith Baker to lobby for Comcast-NBC
Comcast has announced that it has hired Meredith Attwell Baker, an FCC Commissioner. The Republican Commissioner will join the cable provider as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for NBC Universal, a leadership position in the company's Washington DC-based lobbying division. The move has raised eyebrows, considering the Commissioners recent role in approving Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal.
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02/28, 5:50pm
Simplified version of enterprise ADmitMac PKI
Government and military employees and contractors who need to access secure U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) or civilian federal websites on a Mac - which usually requires a login with a Common Access Card (CAC) -- now have a simpler method of doing so. Thursby Software Systems has released PKard for Mac software. PKard is short for Public Key Card and pronounced P-card, and the software works with all current types of CACs and the hardware readers, including the next-generation "Oberthur" and "Gemalto" type cards.
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10/01, 12:50am
Broadband bill approval
A bill pertaining to accelerating growth of broadband service was recently passed through both the Senate and the House, and is currently undergoing its final approval at the Senate and the President. PC Mag writes that measure S. 1492 seeks to ensure underserved communities are provided with proper service, as well as updating the government's definition of what broadband service is. The FCC considers 200 Kilobits per second to be broadband, which is not concurrent with modern technology.
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08/15, 8:10pm
Apple spends to lobby
During the second quarter of 2008, Apple reportedly spend $450,000 on lobbying within the federal government, under a broad spectrum of interests in energy conservation, education, and intellectual property rights. Forbes writes that a disclosure form – which Apple filed July 21st – shows Apple dividing the aforementioned figure among patent reforms, consumer product safety, No Child Left Behind, and energy efficiency, as well as initiatives to quash spyware.
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06/12, 12:20am
Canadian Copyright Act
The Canadian government on Wednesday announced it would hold a press conference regarding pending amendments to the Copyright Act, a move said to resemble the DMCA measure in the US. The conference is set to transpire at 9:30 on Thursday, June 12th for press, with ministerial comments following at 10:45. Press have been advised that no wireless communications devices would be permitted at the assembly, including cell phones, modems, and wireless microphones.
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05/26, 5:45pm
RIM's Indian market woes
The latest update in the Indian government's ban of the BlackBerry cellular phone has the Canadian maker of the device, Research In Motion, telling the government it is not able to provide it with encrypted messages sent by its enterprise customers. RIM already had a 15-day ultimatum imposed on it by the government, which is demanding access to all wireless communications for security reasons.
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05/20, 4:00pm
UK looks to Comm Data Bill
A controversial bill may be passed in front of the UK legislature later on this year that would keep all text, e-mail, VoIP and phone messages as well as Internet history from cellular networks on file with the government for one year, alleges a report published on Tuesday. Unlike the current requirement outlined by the European Union, the bill would have cellular network providers surrender all information to the government, instead of keeping just phone and text logs themselves.
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