April 27 2018

HILL UPDATE

Forbes Entrepreneurs Should Get Free Training, Tax Breaks To Boost Cybersecurity, Senate Told
Entrepreneurs should get free training and tax breaks to boost cybersecurity in their firms, the Senate Small Business Committee heard Wednesday. But an attitude adjustment by small business owners is needed as well, the panel was told. “Cybersecurity hasn’t risen to the level of a matter critical for business success for many entrepreneurs. They see it strictly as an IT issue,” said Gina Abate, owner of a Maryland cyber protection consulting firm, Edwards Performance Solutions. She said small businesses need to implement a culture of safety: leveraging employee training and low-cost tactics like enforcing proper passwords, encrypting hard drives and limiting user ability to unload undesirable software.

Axios Facebook can’t get a break from D.C. conservatives
Facebook, despite years of outreach to conservatives, remains a punching bag for the right. Facebook can’t maintain its power as a network for everyone if one group of lawmakers — and users — keeps perceiving it as biased against them. Just two weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional grilling, the social giant is bracing for another beating — this time, from some conservatives at a hearing featuring pro-Trump video stars Diamond and Silk, who say Facebook discriminated against their content. The internet companies aren’t sending representatives to the hearing Thursday morning.

ARTICLE SUMMARY

High Plains Journal Stuck in the ‘dial-up’ age
According to industry records this year, the urban-rural digital divide leaves about a quarter of the nation without wired broadband access. Another 47 million are underserved, according to advocacy group Broadband Now. It was just one of the issues that McCloud and about 100 Kansas Farm Bureau members addressed during a mid-March leadership trip to Washington.

Motherboard What It’s Like to Live in America Without Broadband Internet
In every single state, a portion of the population doesn’t have access to broadband, and some have no access to the internet at all. This article profiled first-hand experiences of people living without broadband in Michigan, West Virginia and California.

Inc. How Silicon Valley Leaders Are Continuing the Fight for Better Immigration Reform
Since President Donald Trump was elected, Silicon Valley leaders have railed against government policies that restrict immigrants’ ability to work legally in the United States. The latest development in that fight comes from FWD.us, a tech lobbying group founded in 2013 by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The group released a report Tuesday that examines the economic impact of the administration’s policies and calls for effective immigration reform. FWD.us has many other industry heavyweights behind it, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Dropbox founder Drew Houston.

Wired FCC Delays Are Keeping Broadband From Rural School Kids
According to EducationSuperHighway, under the Trump administration “rural schools requesting funding for broadband expansion have faced record delays and denials.” The story profiled Woodman School in Montana which has been denied broadband funding by the organization that administers E-rate.

Reuters EU moves to regulate tech giants’ business practices
Tech giants including Google, Apple and Amazon will for the first time face rules governing their commercial relations with smaller businesses under a law proposed by the European Union on Thursday. The proposal would also give companies the right to collectively sue online platforms if they do not respect the new rules on non-discrimination and transparency.

Forbes Cybersecurity And The Board’s Responsibilities — ‘What’s Reasonable Has Changed’
Michael Yaeger focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense and investigations, securities enforcement, internal investigations, accounting fraud, cybercrime/cybersecurity and data security matters, as well as related civil litigation. Yaeger also leads internal investigation and cybercrime-related representations for financial services companies and provides guidance on drafting written information security plans and incident response plans for investment advisers. A thought leader in the industry, Yaeger has been featured in numerous articles on cybersecurity, including “Proactive Steps to Prevent Legal Pitfalls in Bug Bounty Programs,” The Cybersecurity Law Report, “Cyber-SARS: Anti-Money Laundering and Cybersecurity Rules,” The Hedge Fund Journal, “NYDFS Revises Its Proposed Cybersecurity Regulation for Financial Services Companies,” among many, many others.

NYT Why Privacy Scandals Haven’t Dented Facebook, Yet: DealBook Briefing
Facebook can afford to clean up its act
The tech giant has promised to spend a lot of money on improving its operations after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It’s not yet clear quite how much — Mark Zuckerberg told analysts yesterday that the company was still working on making its products “good for people and good for society.” And his chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, told U.K. lawmakers this morning that Facebook would vet British political ads next year.

Bloomberg Why Facebook Fears the EU’s New Privacy Rules
Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg have apologized (again and again) for the company’s handling of user data. The best indication that they aren’t actually sorry, however, is the social network’s intention to change its terms of service to put all non-European users under the jurisdiction of its U.S. headquarters rather than the international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. That means users in Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Latin America won’t be covered by the European Union’s General Data Protection Directive, which goes into effect on May 25. The U.K. may also get a carve-out after Brexit.

WSJ How North Korea’s Hackers Became Dangerously Good
North Korea’s cyber army, long considered a midlevel security threat, is quietly morphing into one of the world’s most sophisticated and dangerous hacking machines. Over the past 18 months, the nation’s fingerprints have appeared in an increasing number of cyberattacks, the skill level of its hackers has rapidly improved and their targets have become more worrisome, a Wall Street Journal examination of the program reveals. As recently as March, suspected North Korean hackers appear to have infiltrated Turkish banks and invaded computer systems in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, cybersecurity researchers say.

 

THINK TANK/TECH TRADE ASSOCIATION HIGHLIGHTS

Center for American Progress (CAP)

  • Press release on DACA: Analyzing a recent report from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), CAP noted that “USCIS needs to provide up-to-date guidance on processes and timelines as it adjudicates [DACA] applications.” Managing director Philip E. Wolgin stated, “Until Congress takes action to protect Dreamers, it is important that DACA recipients apply for renewal, and, to ensure that there are no lapses in their status, USCIS must do more work to make it clear that renewal applications are currently open and that applications are quickly adjudicated.” (CAP PRESS RELEASE – RELEASE: USCIS Must Do More on DACA Renewals and Adjudicate Dreamers’ Status Quickly, New CAP Analysis of USCIS Data Concludes, April 19, 2018)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

  • Blog post on NIST cybersecurity framework: “The U.S. Chamber wants companies to invest heavily in sound cybersecurity practices, particularly having a plan and exercising it regularly,” vice president Matthew J. Eggers wrote. He added that “The [The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) updated] Framework enables organizations—regardless of their size, risk profile, or cyber sophistication—to develop a plan from scratch or improve an existing one. Quality cyber practices don’t simply drain businesses’ resources, they add to it.” (U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BLOG – One and Done? Not for NIST and the Cyber Framework., Matthew J. Eggers, April 16, 2018)
  • Blog post on data privacy: President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue argued that “policymakers and regulators should exercise caution to avoid inflicting lasting damage on our economy and America’s global competitiveness brought about by the ever-evolving tech sector.” He added, “Tackling these [privacy] challenges won’t be easy, especially given the accelerated rate of innovation in the tech sector. But smart and appropriate action is possible if all the relevant parties work together to thoughtfully evaluate our current challenges and depend on data and evidence to guide those conversations.” (U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BLOG – Techlash Raises Questions, Carries Risks, By Thomas J. Donohue, April 16, 2018)

American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

  • Video on data privacy: “Following the Facebook scandal, many people expressed concerns about how big tech companies take advantage of their users’ data to drive service consumption.” In a 60 second video series, visiting scholar Mark Jamison “advise[d] big tech companies to be transparent about their real business models.” (AEI VIDEO – Big tech using your data | In 60 Seconds, By Mark Jamison, April 16, 2018)
  • Op-ed on Facebook privacy hearings: Fellow Jonah Goldberg wrote, “I don’t know what the regulation of Facebook will look like. But I suspect one reason Zuckerberg wants AI to be essential is that Facebook can afford to make AI essential while potential competitors can’t.” He added, “Regardless, I have confidence that when all is said and done, Facebook will look more like the 21st-century AT&T of social media.” (NATIONAL REVIEW – Facebook’s convenient desire to be regulated, By Jonah Goldberg, April 13, 2018)

Information Technology Industry Council (ITI)

  • Press release on EU E-Evidence proposal: Senior vice president Josh Kallmer wrote, “As we continue to examine the proposal, we are encouraged that the European Commission is looking to simplify this extremely complicated issue in a thoughtful way within the EU.” He added, “Data knows no borders, as economies around the globe become increasingly digital. We look forward to working with the Commission to help facilitate coordination between governments and companies to protect individuals’ privacy and provide law enforcement with legal mechanisms to access data for time-sensitive investigations.” (ITI PRESS RELEASE – ITI Encouraged by EU E-Evidence Proposal, April 18, 2018)

Brookings Institution

  • Blog post on the political consequences of automation: Vice president Darrell M. West wrote, “With some workforce disruption virtually guaranteed by trends already underway, it is safe to predict American politics will be chaotic and turbulent during the coming decades.” Moreover, “As innovation accelerates and public anxiety intensifies, right-wing and left-wing populists will jockey for voter support. Government control could gyrate between very conservative and very liberal leaders as each side blames a different set of scapegoats for economic outcomes voters don’t like.” (BROOKINGS BLOG – Will robots and AI take your job? The economic and political consequences of automation, By Darrell M. West, April 18, 2018)

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)

  • Op-ed: “In the event data is misused, as it was in the Cambridge Analytica case, regulatory sanctions and other disciplinary responses are wholly warranted for the parties at fault,” argued policy analyst Joshua New. “However, to hold up any one violation as justification for preventing Facebook or others from sharing data with third parties for scientific research would be akin to halting all clinical trials because one was managed inappropriately.” (MORNING CONSULT – The Backlash Against Sharing Social Media Data Is Bad for Science, By Joshua New, April 18, 2018)
  • Blog postVice president Daniel Castro highlighted “eight key areas of how members of Congress misunderstood the reality of the technology, business model, and actions of Facebook” during the privacy hearings last week. He argued that “Members of Congress shouldn’t feel too bad, if for no other reason that many misunderstand or misrepresent how social networks and the digital economy work. Regardless, bad data lead to bad decisions.” (ITIF BLOG – Eight Things Congress Doesn’t Get About Facebook, By Daniel Castro, April 16, 2018)

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