An employee of Akamai Technologies was arrested by the FBI and charged Wednesday for, authorities allege, providing confidential business information to a person he believed was an agent of a foreign government.

Elliot Doxer, 42, was charged with one count of wire fraud for allegedly sending an e-mail to a foreign consulate in Boston on June 22, 2006, stating he was willing to provide any confidential information he had access to in order to help that country. If convicted he could face a $250,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison.

“I am a Jewish American who lives in Boston,’’ authorities allege he wrote. “I know you are always looking for information and I am offering the little I may have.’’

The unnamed foreign government reportedly cooperated with U.S. authorities in the investigation. Authorites allege Doxer said his motivation "was to help our homeland and war against our enemies." He also allegedly referenced Akamai's business transactions with "some Arab companies from Dubai" and asked for $3,000 to compensate him for the risks he was taking.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Boston alleges an undercover federal agent posing as a representative of the foreign government spoke to Doxer and arranged a drop location which Doxer visited at least 62 times to either leave confidential business information or check for return communications.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Darrell Issa (Calif.) said in an editorial on Thursday that the White House has faced "transparency setbacks" despite touting ethics as a major priority.

"The administration has faced numerous transparency setbacks," he said, pointing to a May incident when the White House reprimanded Andrew McLaughlin, deputy chief technology officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, for using his personal e-mail account for work matters.

"McLaughlin’s Gmail messages included discussions with his former employer, Google, about policy matters under his review," Issa added.

He also cited a report that said White House staff members often receive and send e-mails on their personal accounts rather than their work accounts. New ways of sending messages have made it tougher to catch communications that would normally be collected in federal records, according to the report.

In light of these changes, Issa called on Congress to update federal record laws so they mesh with online communication.

"Common-sense improvements to federal-records laws must accommodate the digital, mobile and hand-held tools Americans increasingly use to connect with one another — whether it’s friend to friend or citizen to Washington," he said.

The update "will serve everyone interested in strong oversight and an accurate historical record — Republican or Democrat," he said.

A new survey of more than 300 IT companies found executives are more confident about their firms' prospects but less optimistic about the state of the economy as a whole, causing them to delay hiring and spending decisions.

The latest IT industry business confidence index from the industry group CompTIA shows a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points from June to 52.8 on a 100 point scale. The index measures executives' opinion on the overall U.S. economy, the IT industry in general and their firms' fortunes. The survey shows the outlook for the U.S. economy dropped 2.3 points in September as executives expressed fear about a stalled recovery or a backslide into recession.

“Caution is still the name of the game for many IT industry executives,” said Carolyn April, director of industry analysis at CompTIA. “Spending and hiring intent reveals a plurality of firms expect to take a wait-and-see approach to new capital expenditures.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wrote to Senate Commerce leaders on Thursday in support of "bill shock" legislation from Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

The bill would require phone companies to notify customers when they are on the brink of using up their minutes, text messages or data usage.

"As more Americans become dependent on their cellular phones, this means consumer expectations are increased substantially," said the letter, signed by David Coen, the president of NARUC. 

"To make informed decisions and to avoid bill shock or other unforeseen charges and fees, consumers need easy access to real-time information," the letter continued.

NARUC's board adopted a resolution over the summer that urged wireless carriers to provide services that help customers realize when they are accruing charges in excess of their plans in order "to avoid bill shock."

Coen added that NARUC will work with Congress, the FCC and the industry on this issue.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (Calif.) and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) restated their calls for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move forward with Title II regulation of broadband services in interviews with NPR that aired Wednesday.

The regulatory path they are suggesting would place broadband companies under certain rules that apply to telephones, which the companies see as too onerous.

Waxman restated in the interview that if Congress can't reach a compromise on broadband issues, the FCC should move forward.

"Then, I think the only course of action will be for the FCC to act on its own. As imperfect as that may be, as uncertain as that may be because of possible lawsuits, we just don't have any other recourse," he said.

Inslee's call for Title II was stronger.

"Now, we have to have FCC movement on this. There is only one cop on the beat with the whistle and the enforcement power," he said.

Listen here.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday for a case that could impact how much personal informational people are allowed to keep private from the government during a background or security check.

The case NASA v. Nelson looks at whether the agency violated federal contractors rights by requiring they submit to the same background checks as federal employees.

An appeals court found two years ago that NASA was too intrusive when it tried to look into the backgrounds of researchers and scientists at the California laboratory run by California Institute of Technology. NASA said it was complying with federal expectations for security checks on people who access government buildings and computers.

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GAO: Leadership needed on cybersecurity

President Obama's delay in appointing a White House cybersecurity coordinator last year has hampered the implementation of recommendations from the administration's May 2009 cyber policy review, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Only two of the 24 recommendations have been fully implemented and both involve appointing a federal official to oversee aspects of cybersecurity.

The White House's seven-month delay before naming Howard Schmidt to serve as cyber czar has left agencies scrambling to catch up even as they wait to find out what their specific roles and responsibilities will be with regard to protecting the government's networks. The GAO recommended Schmidt lay out specific assignments for the various agencies and urged him to act quickly to address the shortfalls.

Acting OMB chief sees eye to eye with tech CEOs

Chief performance officer and acting OMB boss Jeffrey Zients said Wednesday in a blog post that the administration agrees wholeheartedly with the Technology CEO Council that government could benefit greatly from adopting the private sector's best practices. Zients said the administration looks forward to working with the group and pointed to a range of efforts already underway to reform the way the government purchases and deploys information technology. http://bit.ly/duVj94

Hill notes

Lawmakers tell FCC that CenturyLink-Qwest merger will benefit rural America. A bipartisan group of 21 House members wrote the Federal Communications Commission on Friday hailing the potential benefits of the merger between CenturyLink and Qwest Communications, which they said would help bring technology services to the most rural regions of the country. http://bit.ly/aYCGfd

Writers want Comcast cash for public TV. The Writers Guild of America East wants Comcast and NBC Universal to set aside at least $100 million for public affairs programming as a condition for approving their proposed merger. http://bit.ly/b1xU6L

Half of critical private networks hit by political cyber attacks. Half of the companies that provide critical infrastructure such as utilities or communication services have experienced politically motivated cyber attacks, according to a new report from Symantec. The companies affected reported being attacked an average of 10 times over the past five years and said the attacks cost an average of $850,000 each. http://bit.ly/b6FOte

FBI chief wants wiretap laws revised to aid terror probes. FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday called for changes in federal law to help his agents with surveillance of communications in anti-terrorism and other criminal investigations. At a conference of intelligence experts, Mueller said that in some instances communications companies are unable comply with court orders seeking wiretaps of electronic messages. http://bit.ly/beRdQu

The Writers Guild of America East want Comcast and NBC Universal to set aside at least $100 million for public affairs programming as a condition for approving their proposed merger.

The FCC recently requested additional information from both companies for its review of Comcast's proposed acquisition of a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from GE. Numerous groups including the Writers Guild of America have voiced opposition to the merger, arguing it would consolidate too much control over media content and delivery in the hands of one company.

Writers Guild president Michael Winship wrote to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski and the Department of Justice on Wednesday requesting that if the transaction is approved, the new entity be required to set aside at least $10 million per year for ten years "for the creation of thoughtful, independent, well-researched public affairs programs for television and the internet."

Winship argued the merger would limit the amount of independent content produced and distributed, particularly in the areas of news and public affairs programming.

"Fewer and fewer entities creating news and public affairs programming for broadcast or cable television or for the Internet means less diversity of news content," Winship wrote. "By definition, fewer points of view are presented, fewer stories are reported in-depth and fewer resources are utilized to pursue them. True investigative reporting has almost vanished completely from commercial on-air news or has often been reduced to sensationalized, trivial coverage of no lasting significance."

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice responded via e-mail citing Comcast's support of C-SPAN as evidence of the company's commitment to public affairs content.

“Comcast has already pledged to make local news and other local programming available to consumers at more times and on more platforms than ever before and to facilitate and encourage the creation on new local programming and to add even more independent networks to our video systems," she said, adding that Comcast has promised its NBC-owned broadcast stations will produce an additional 1,000 hours of local news and information programming every year.

A think tank associated with AT&T funding got under the Federal Communications Commission's skin this week when it issued a negative report about agency proposals.

The report dug in on the administration's most vulnerable spot, arguing that the FCC's agenda could cause millions of jobs to vanish. 

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