USGovernment
Latest
US government to beat back botnets with a cybersecurity code of conduct
Old Uncle Sam seems determined to crack down on botnets, but he still needs a little help figuring out how to do so. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a request for information, inviting companies from internet and IT companies to contribute their ideas to a voluntary "code of conduct" for ISPs to follow when facing a botnet infestation. The move comes as an apparent response to a June "Green Paper" on cybersecurity, in which the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force called for a unified code of best practices to help ISPs navigate through particularly treacherous waters. At this point, the NIST is still open to suggestions from the public, though Ars Technica reports that it's giving special consideration to two models adopted overseas. Australia's iCode program, for example, calls for providers to reroute requests from shady-looking systems to a site devoted to malware removal. The agency is also taking a hard look at an initiative (diagrammed above) from Japan's Cyber Clean Center, which has installed so-called "honeypot" devices at various ISPs, allowing them to easily detect and source any attacks, while automatically notifying their customers via e-mail. There are, however, some lingering concerns, as the NIST would need to find funding for its forthcoming initiative, whether it comes from the public sector, corporations or some sort of public-private partnership. Plus, some are worried that anti-botnet programs may inadvertently reveal consumers' personal information, while others are openly wondering whether OS-makers should be involved, as well. The code's public comment period will end on November 4th, but you can find more information at the source link, below.
Amazon Web Services' GovCloud puts federal data behind remote lock and key
Uncle Sam's been making his way into the cloud, spurred on in part by the inherent billion dollar cost efficiencies, and Amazon's looking to help with the move. The Seattle-based company recently announced the launch of its new AWS GovCloud, a federal government-only region that offers a remote server solution for organizations bound by high-level data constraints. The service makes use of FISMA, FIPS 140-2 compliant end points, SAS-70, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS Level 1 security controls, providing a secure host environment that adheres to stringent "regulatory and compliance requirements," and restricts physical access to the US-only. NASA's JPL and the US Recovery and Accountability Transparency Board are just two of the 100-plus government agencies already employing AWS' remote servers, with more destined to join Washington's velvet-roped cloud. Jump past the break for Amazon's official PR spiel.
ASUS Eee Pad SL101 slides through the FCC, still misses promised May release
Sure, it's not unusual for gadgets to miss their shipping targets, suffering months-long delays as they jump through the varies hoops necessary before a release. Fortunately, ASUS can now check FCC approval off the Eee Pad Slider's to do list, with the Honeycomb QWERTY tablet receiving a green light from the feds late last week. ASUS has already confirmed August availability in the UK (after previously promising a May ship date), so we can only hope that the same timeframe applies stateside as well. We're also curious to see whether or not ASUS was able to use this unexpected delay to beef up supplies, so the Slide doesn't suffer a hangup similar to that of its Transformer cousin. The company has yet to confirm Slider pricing in the U.S., though we imagine those details will be revealed along with a shipping date within the next few weeks.
BlackBerry PlayBook receives certification for US government use
The BlackBerry PlayBook may not have exactly won over consumers en masse, but it looks like RIM can now at least put a feather in its cap when it comes to one of its key customer bases: government agencies. The company announced today that the PlayBook is the first tablet to receive the so-called FIPS 140-2 certification which, according to RIM, means that the US federal government can "buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information." Of course, those agencies will still need to make sure to supply a BlackBerry smartphone as well so folks can access some of that information -- although this may be one instance where that's considered to be more of a feature than an omission.
Pentagon says cyber attacks are acts of war: send us a worm, get a missile in return?
Well, the Pentagon is finally fed up with hackers picking on its buddies and foreign intelligence taking shots at its computer systems, and has decided that such cyber attacks can constitute an act of war. Of course, the powers that be won't be bombing you for simply sending them some spyware, but attempts to sabotage US infrastructure (power grids, public transit, and the like) may be met with heavy artillery. It's unclear how our government will identify the origin of an attack or decide when it's serious enough to start shooting, but Uncle Sam is looking to its allies to help create a consensus answer for those questions. The retaliatory revelation is a part of the Pentagon's new cyber strategy that'll be made public in June -- so saboteurs beware, your next internet incursion might get you an ICBM in your backyard.
Obama says federal fleet to run on alternative fuels starting in 2015
Chances are the Secret Service won't be ditching its signature black SUVs for these things anytime soon, but if all goes according to President Obama's new energy plan, even the Commander in Chief's armed guards will be rolling more eco-friendly in the next three years. In a speech given at Georgetown University Wednesday, the President said he expects all government agencies "to purchase 100 percent alternative fuel, hybrid, or electric vehicles by 2015." Now, that doesn't mean they'll have to get rid of pre-existing gas guzzlers, but any new purchases made after the cutoff date will be expected to comply -- the government's current fleet consists of 660,000 vehicles, 400,000 of which run on gasoline. Among other things, the President also called for increased infrastructure for the production of biofuels made from things like wood chips and switchgrass. So no, Cadillac One probably won't be replaced by a rechargeable egg car, but if Uncle Sam's taking suggestions, we'd be happy to make a recommendation -- Wheego Whip LiFe One does have a nice ring to it. Doesn't it?
IBM settles with SEC, pays $10 million for accusations of bribery
Hey, look, it's a major international corporation getting in trouble for bribery, and it isn't Samsung! This time it's home grown Big Blue, choosing to settle with SEC over allegations that its employees have spent the last 15 years or so illegally bribing and wooing foreign officials to score themselves bigger contracts. This includes $207,000 in cash bribes paid to South Korean representatives between 1998 and 2003 plus more in the form of gifts and trips to those willing and able to sign over big contracts, even paying for the personal vacations of Chinese officials. Ultimately $10 million is little more than a slap on the wrist for a company the size of IBM, which has not admitted fault and now will never have to, but we were glad to see that Watson has not been implicated in any of these nefarious misdeeds. His record remains squeaky clean.
US Justice Department and FTC looking into Apple's new subscription policy
Apple unveiled its new app store subscriptions earlier this week with a decent amount of controversy and even an official statement from Rhapsody saying it would not comply with the new regulations. The new policy requires any company offering subscription services to offer the same service, at the same price (or less) through Apple, with Apple skimming 30 percent off the top. It also no longer allows apps to have links to external sites where purchases can be made. Now, reports the Wall Street Journal, antitrust enforcers in the US are having a preliminary look into the new arrangement. So, what does that mean? Well, these kinds of pre-investigations are pretty common, so it could mean nothing at all. Or, it could lead to a more formal investigation into if the policy violates antitrust laws. When asked for comment on the story, unsurprisingly, no one at Apple, the FTC, or the Justice Department would comment. We'll keep our eyes on this one and let you know if anything more exciting happens.
Senate approves Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, ensures a future for noise pollution
If you've been lucky enough to occupy the driver's seat of a hybrid or electric vehicle you've surely enjoyed the bliss that comes from smoothly and silently pulling away from a stoplight. You've also, surely, run over at least a couple of pedestrians while doing it. (We hit at least eight of the poor souls during our latest Volt test drive.) Sadly, here comes John Kerry and the rest of the US Senate to ruin our Carmageddon-esque fun. The Senate has unanimously approved the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, which requires: ...minimum level of sound emitted from a motor vehicle that is necessary to provide blind and other pedestrians with the information needed to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle operating at or below the cross-over speed How much sound? Well, they haven't figured that out yet, nor have they figured out up to what speed it must be required, nor what sort of noise is required, but by golly there will be noise. Those answers will in theory be found through the course of a study that will take no more than 48 months to complete, leaving us wonder if current noisemaker options on the Volt, Leaf, and Prius will meet the need. Regardless, if you want a quiet car you'd better start your financing.
Sprint axes Huawei, ZTE telecom bids due to security fears in Washington?
Huawei might be making inroads into the US consumer smartphone market, but the Chinese telecom supplier's attempts to break into big business have been stonewalled. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint is excluding both Huawei and competitor ZTE from a multi-billion dollar contract -- where they would have been the lowest bidders -- primarily because of national security concerns. The US Secretary of Commerce reportedly called Sprint CEO Dan Hesse to voice concerns about letting firms with possible ties to the Chinese government supply local communications infrastructure, a perspective also penned by eight US senators back in August. "DoD is very concerned about China's emerging cyber capabilities and any potential vulnerability within or threat to DoD networks," the Department of Defense told the publication, without naming Huawei or ZTE directly. We're not doctors, but it sounds like someone's got a serious case of supercomputer envy.
HP agrees to pay $55 million to settle investigation into illegal kickbacks
The company that kicked Mark Hurd to the curb for financial impropriety has today reported it'll pay $55 million in a settlement with the US Department of Justice relating to some fiscal delinquency of its own. HP was accused of greasing up the wheels of business, as it were, by throwing cash around to companies who would recommend its services to state procurement agencies. This particular set of allegations related to a federal contract obtained by HP in 2002, and the settlement also extinguishes investigation into whether or not the computer vendor had provided incomplete information to the US government. That's all well and good, but we have to question the size of these levies. Today's also the day that HP's announced a new $800 million supply contract with the US Air Force -- would a fine that's less than a tenth of the contract's value really deter HP's entrepreneurial spirit?
Perfect Citizen: secret NSA surveillance program revealed by WSJ
Do you trust your government? Do you just support it like an obedient Britney Spears, steadfast to your faith that it will do the right thing? Your answer to those questions will almost certainly predict your response to a Wall Street Journal exposé of a classified US government program provocatively dubbed, "Perfect Citizen." Why not just call it "Big Brother," for crissake! Oh wait, according to an internal Raytheon email seen by the WSJ, "Perfect Citizen is Big Brother," adding, "The overall purpose of the [program] is our Government...feel[s] that they need to insure the Public Sector is doing all they can to secure Infrastructure critical to our National Security." Histrionics aside, according to the WSJ, the "expansive" program is meant to detect assaults on private companies and government agencies deemed critical to the national infrastructure. In other words, utilities like the electricity grid, air-traffic control networks, subway systems, nuclear power plants, and presumably MTV. A set of sensors deployed in computer networks will alert the NSA of a possible cyber attack, with Raytheon winning a classified, $100 million early stage contract for the surveillance effort. Now, before you start getting overly political, keep in mind that the program is being expanded under Obama with funding from the Bush-era Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. The WSJ also notes that companies won't be forced to install the sensors. Instead, companies might choose to opt-in because they find the additional monitoring helpful in the event of cyber attack -- think of Google's recent run-in with Chinese hackers as a potent example. Like most citizens, we have mixed emotions about this. On one hand, we cherish our civil liberties and prefer to keep the government out of our personal affairs. On the other, we can barely function when Twitter goes down, let alone the national power grid.
Congress investigating general revamp of telecommunications law
We never had any doubt that Comcast's anti-net-neutrality court victory would prove to be more of a defeat in the long run, and that's exactly how it's shaping up: some 74 Democratic members of Congress have voiced concerns about the FCC's plan to re-classify broadband as a more highly-regulated "telecommunications service" instead of as an "information service" in letter sent to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski today, and a group of Democratic senators and representatives are planning a series of meetings in June with the goal of revamping US telecommunications law in general. According to Senate staffers who spoke to the Washington Post, the idea isn't to pre-empt the FCC's plan, but rather to bring the law into alignment with the modern market instead of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole -- our current telecom law was enacted in 1996 and is based on law written in 1934, so a more modern revamp could bring sweeping changes to the way broadband providers are able to sell and manage their services. We don't know what the specific agenda is yet, but we'd bet the FCC's recent finding that there's no "effective competition" in the wireless industry is sure to play a big part in these discussions, and we wouldn't be surprised to see some serious talk about cable providers and set-top hardware as well. Whatever happens, we'll be keeping a sharp eye on these meetings -- this is the first time we've seen the government take up the issue of modern telecommunications policy with this level of interest and momentum, and we've got a feeling some big things are afoot.
US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video)
European countries may have long ago banished the use of cellphones while driving to the dark side of the law, but many of the United States persist in allowing their citizens to talk while driving. One reason for their reluctance may be that outlawing something that has become second nature to most people would be both unproductive and tough to enforce. So what do you do? The natural alternative to forcing people to drive attentively is educating them of the reasons why. Never mind the fact that we all kinda, sorta know the risks we undertake while operating a Droid and a Dodge concurrently. The newly minted Distraction.gov is chockfull of scaremongering statistics, topped by a truly epic video which we've handily stashed for you just after the break. Go get it while it's hot.
Report says Nextel waived early termination fees for the government
Want to get around those costly, annoying fees the telcos hit you with if you break your cellphone contract early? Get a job with the US government. According to internal emails from Nextel which were uncovered by the Associated Press, the company debated whether it could charge the folks in power early termination fees (ETFs), with then-vice president Scott Wiener arguing that "the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts." Nextel ultimately decided to forgo the charges for Uncle Sam, while continuing to bilk its average users without as much as a batted eyelash. The FCC is currently taking a look at the fee situation -- let's see if they can give end users a fairer shake than the providers.[Thanks, Travis]
