Telecom regulators will vote on petitions in February from two cities that want more flexibility to build and operate their own Internet service, a FCC official confirmed. The petitions from Chattanooga, Tenn. and Wilson, N.C. request federal help in preempting state laws that make it difficult for city governments to set up government-run competitors to large Internet providers such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T.
European Union antitrust regulators will publish details of their investigation into online retailer Amazon's tax-minimizing arrangements with Luxembourg. The European Commission opened its investigation in October, making the U.S. company the latest global firm to have its tax practices assessed by the EU.
David Cameron is to urge Barack Obama to pressure Internet firms such as Twitter and Facebook to do more to cooperate with Britain’s intelligence agencies as they seek to track the online activities of Islamist extremists. As he becomes the first European leader to meet the president after the multiple shootings in Paris, the prime minister will seek to win Obama’s support for his plans to secure a new legal framework to deny terrorists a "safe space."
States probing last summer's massive hack at JPMorgan Chase & Co have asked for detailed data on the company's security practices and want to know whether the bank is certain that no sensitive account data was stolen. "Critical facts about the intrusion remain unclear, including details concerning the cause of the breach and the nature of any procedures adopted or contemplated to prevent further breaches," more than a dozen states said in a letter sent to the bank.
After a legal and public relations battle, Marriott issued a statement to Inc. saying, in effect, that it had given up its quest to be allowed to block guests' personal hot spots. "Marriott International listens to its customers, and we will not block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of our managed hotels," a spokesman said in an email.
President Obama will ask the Federal Communications Commission to pre-empt state laws that restrict communities’ ability to expand high-speed Internet access to underserved areas. Mr. Obama planned to make the announcement in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which has its own cable and high-speed data networks, including a one-gigabit broadband network that is 100 times as fast as the national average.
A revised settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit alleging Apple and Google conspired with other Silicon Valley companies to block more than 60,000 high-tech employees from getting better job offers. The terms of the new agreement weren't disclosed in a letter filed with an appeals court in San Francisco.
Apple Inc. sued Ericsson alleging that the Swedish company's LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry cellular standards and that it is demanding excessive royalties for these patents. The iPhone maker said it has not infringed on the patents and does not owe royalties for them.
President Obama unveiled new proposals to protect businesses and the government from cyberattacks, including increasing the prosecution of crimes conducted through computer networks and toughening penalties for them. Under the steps outlined by Mr. Obama, companies that share information about cyberthreats with the government would be shielded from liability.
Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind the online drug marketplace known as Silk Road, headed to Manhattan federal court to face seven criminal charges, in a key test of law enforcement’s ability to crack down on the shadowy world of Internet crime. Federal prosecutors will try to prove that the 30-year-old was the owner and operator of Silk Road, an online bazaar that they have described as a sprawling $1.2 billion criminal enterprise.
Saudi Arabian rights activist Raif Badawi has been publicly flogged for insulting Islam despite international outcry over the sentence handed down by a court in the conservative kingdom, Amnesty International and his wife said. He was arrested after creating an online forum in 2008 that his wife says was meant to encourage discussion about faith.
China has closed 50 websites and social media accounts for violations ranging from pornography to "publishing political news without a permit", Beijing's cyberspace watchdog said. Authorities shut 17 public pages on the mobile social messaging app Weixin, also known as WeChat in English, as well as 24 websites and 9 channels or columns on websites, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on its website.
Popular messaging services like Snapchat and WhatsApp are in the cross hairs in Britain. That was the message delivered by Prime Minister David Cameron, who said he would pursue banning encrypted messaging services if Britain’s intelligence services were not given access to the communications.
European leaders have targeted the Internet as a key arena in the battle against violent radicalization, after the mass shootings at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the death of four hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris. A joint statement released by EU leaders placed the onus on major Internet providers to report terror-related material online.
President Obama announced a package of legislative proposals aimed at safeguarding privacy across sectors including education, energy, and tech. The education bill, the Student Digital Privacy Act, would bar tech companies that manage and analyze student data from selling it to third parties that use it for anything other than educational purposes, and from engaging in targeted advertising to kids.
The Supreme Court asked the U.S. government to weigh in on whether the justices should hear a closely watched copyright dispute between Google Inc. and Oracle Corp. over software used to design Google’s Android smartphone operating system. Oracle sued Google in 2010, claiming Google had improperly incorporated parts of its Java software into Android.
Unknown hackers took control of the Crayola social media webpage and posted dozens of links to R-rated sites and sexual jokes. The Facebook page has almost 2.5 million followers and typical posts are about crayons and gift sets.
IBM said it topped the list of patent recipients in 2014 with a total of 7,534 patents, 34 percent more than second-place Samsung, which had 4,952, according to data from IFI Claims Patent Services. It marked the 22nd consecutive year that IBM took first place.
The Twitter account of the U.S. Central Command was compromised with messages purporting to be from Islamic State, days after 17 people were killed in connected terrorist attacks in Paris. Central Command confirmed that its Twitter and YouTube accounts had been hacked.
President Obama will announce new initiatives designed to bolster online security and improve access to cyberspace, White House officials said. In a series of speeches, Mr. Obama will call for better safeguards against identity theft, improved privacy protection, enhanced cybersecurity for the government and private companies, and increased access to high-speed broadband connections across the country.
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