A top Microsoft executive on Tuesday suggested a broad Internet tax to help defray the costs associated with computer security breaches and vast Internet attacks, according to reports.
Speaking at a security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney pitched the Web usage fee as one way to subsidize efforts to combat emerging cyber threats -- a costly venture, he said, but one that had vast community benefits.
"You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation," Charney noted.
Ultimately, Charney was only offering one suggestion during the RSA security conference; not a precise policy prescription.
But his idea has already riled many in the computer world, some of whom have since charged Microsoft and its historically vulnerable Windows operating system are responsible for countless, worldwide cybersecurity problems.
Still, Charney implored those in his own industry to focus more on "social solutions" to growing Internet security concerns. He described the importance of cybersecurity in terms of national healthcare, noting that computer ailments and hacks, like preventable diseases, travel to and incapacitate other, connected units -- not just the infected user's home computer.
"Just like we do defense in depth in IT, we have to do defense in depth in... response," he later added.
Google is imploring U.S. officials to argue against China's strict Internet censorship laws before the World Trade Organization, according to media reports.
The move would be "well worth consideration," as China's Web practices have made it exceptionally hard for a number of companies to do business there, explained Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel at Google, at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
However, it remains unclear whether the White House might actually press the issue before the world's predominate foreign trade body, especially at a time when diplomatic relations with China are already tenuous.
Previously, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Bloomberg that the Obama administration was "looking at" the possibility of an official WTO complaint against China on its Web rules. But no decision seems to have been made, and there's no mention of such a tactic in the administration's recently released trade guidelines.
Kirk's office was unavailable for further comment on Wednesday.
But even the discussion about an official WTO complaint signals the level of frustration over China's Internet practices that is brewing in both U.S. political and commercial circles.
A number of companies, including Google, are now trying to frame China's strict censorship rules as detriments to doing business and obstacles for world trade.
However, Google, in particular, remains in compliance with China's Web standards; while the company plans to stop censoring its results, it has yet to do so.
The burgeoning social network just posted new positions to build on its current team of three D.C. staffers.
Facebook is looking for a "public policy manager" and a "public policy associate" to help tackle the growing list of issues the company now faces in Washington.
Congress continues to flirt with the idea of enacting privacy legislation, which would have an enormous impact on how Facebook and other internet companies collect consumer data. The Federal Trade Commission is eyeing new regulations for the online advertising industry, on which Facebook relies for revenue. And privacy advocates and consumer groups are quick to voice concerns Facebook's growing arsenal of personal information.
At least one of the new additions will be a lobbyist. Responsibilities will include leading outreach to consumer groups, monitoring legislation, meeting with government officials and building coalitions to advance Facebook's policy goals.
Facebook opened its D.C. office in 2007, relying on Adam Conner to handle outreach to lawmakers and their staffs. Last year, Facebook hired veteran privacy advocate Tim Sparapani, formerly with the ACLU, to lead its lobbying efforts. Andrew Noyes, former Congress Daily reporter, joined the team in November as communications manager.
The company is expanding outside the United States as well. It just opened an office in Germany and is looking for two new policy managers to represent Facebook in Europe. Since each country has vastly different privacy laws, Facebook needs additional resources as the social network spreads around the world.
Broadcasters, she said "don't pay musicians a single penny for their work."
Using lyrics from one of her popular songs, she said, "I'm sure you all thought that I walked on by with a check in my hand. I wish I did, but I just walked on by."
Warwick , wearing Ugg boots, a baseball cap and sunglasses, said Congress needs to do more than "say a little prayer" for singers who aren't compensated by passing the Performance Rights Act.
Broadcasters' refusal to pay royalty fees to musicians when airing
their songs is a form of involuntary servitude, Conyers said Tuesday afternoon.
During a
press conference with singer Dionne Warwick on Capitol Hill, Conyers
promoted the Performance Rights Act, which would require AM and FM
radio broadcasters to pay royalties to singers and bands for playing
their songs on the air.
The city of Topeka, Kansas is trying something rather unorthodox to win a highly prized broadband contract with Google.
In an attempt to become one of a few cities to partner with the search-engine giant on its new, ultra-fast broadband project, Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation on Monday that would temporarily rename his locale as "Google, Kansas -- the capital city of fiber optics."
The Topeka City Council approved the switch unanimously on Monday afternoon, according to local media reports. Topeka will thus be known, informally, as "Google" for the duration of the month of March.
(It isn't immediately clear, though, how one might refer to Topeka residents now residing in the new land of Google.)
Nevertheless, the city's lighthearted attempt to stand out among its competitors only highlights the early, high demand to be part of Google's new Internet trial.
The company announced earlier this month that it hoped to incubate new, high-speed broadband lines in one or more "testbed" cities across the country this year, with the stated goal of creating connections 100 times faster than most broadband lines.
Applications for that program are not due until late March, according to reports. However, a number of cities and states have jumped on the opportunity to try the new broadband lines, believing the tech upgrades could foster local economic development.
The White House on Tuesday plans to declassify excerpts of a secret cybersecurity policy drafted in 2008, in part to assuage fears that the administration is unprepared for a nationwide cyberattack.
Howard Schmidt, the Obama administration's top cybersecurity expert, will unveil the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative at a convention in San Francisco later Tuesday, according to reports. The White House will also publish key portions of the proposal on its official blog sometime in the afternoon.
The official release arrives at a time when both congressional lawmakers and industry experts are hammering the White House for a lack of leadership on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare.
Two high-profile attacks in the opening weeks of 2010 -- one primarily targeting Google, another targeting thousands of businesses around the world -- have only frustrated insiders, who charged the United States was without a framework to address emerging online threats.
But the Obama White House's decision to declassify portions of its Initiative, drafted during President George W. Bush's second term, seems to be an attempt to quiet those concerns -- at least until lawmakers take additional action.
According toThe New York Times, which spoke with Schmidt about the Initiative, the policy is comprised of 12 programs, one of which deals with cyberwarfare. However, details on that provision in particular will not be available on the White House's Web site late Tuesday, Schmidt told the newspaper, citing national security concerns.
“I don’t think there will be any surprises,” he later told the Times. “Much of what has
been going on has been what people would expect us to be doing.”
A Google executive told lawmakers on Tuesday that the company has not yet set a deadline by which it will stop censoring search results in China.
Google first announced its seminal policy change in January, following news that a massive cyberattack on the search engine giant and a handful of other companies originated in the country. But Google Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong told a Senate hearing early Tuesday that her company does not yet "have a specific timetable" for its new protocol.
"Having said that, we are firm in our decision that we will not censor our search results in China," she promptly stressed.
Wong's lack of specificity is sure to upset China's biggest critics, not to mention Internet freedom's most vocal advocates. Both groups have pressed Google to abandon its censorship efforts for years now -- long before security experts discovered a January cyberattack in part targeted human rights activists using Google's Gmail network.
However, Google has mostly dismissed those criticisms, stressing even its limited presence in China has assisted the cause of Web openness. Wong, specifically, said Tuesday that Google had censored only limited content in the most transparent way possible -- telling users what had been removed, and sometimes why.
But it is unclear when that much-debated policy may end. According to Wong, part of the delay stems from Google belief that the policy change is as much of a "human" issue as it is a political consequence.
"We have many employees on the ground... so we recognize both the seriousness and the sensitivity of the decision we are making, and we want to figure out how to get to that end... in a way that is appropriate and responsible," she told lawmakers.
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