Tesla Motors’ loan repayment is a bright spot for the DOE loan program.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted it would happen, and now it’s happened. Tesla, the electric car maker, has paid off the DOE loan that allowed it to build a factory and start building and selling its Model S electric car. And it’s done so nine years ahead of schedule, according to the company (see “Musk Says Tesla Will Pay Off Its Loans in Half the Time”).
An anonymous reader writes “The Australian government has secretly censored over 1,000 web sites through a hitherto-unused internet censorship law. In April the Melbourne Free University was blocked without any explanation. Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act allows the government to close web sites without warning to “uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security”. This is open to abuse as Australians only have limited free speech rights which already make it difficult for the press to report corruption.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
GovTechGuy writes “With next year’s reverse auction of TV spectrum not expected to sate the wireless industry’s growing demand for mobile broadband, lawmakers are turning up the heat on the Obama administration to auction the 1755-1780 MHz band, which is considered especially desirable for mobile phone use. However, the Pentagon and other federal agencies are already using those airwaves for everything from flying drones and surveillance to satellites and air combat training. They say it would take ten years and $ 18 billion just to vacate the band so it can be sold.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A new system for monitoring almost everything that’s going on inside India’s telecoms network has been quietly launched. The Central Monitoring System will offer the likes of the National Investigation Agency and tax arms of the government the ability to scrutinize phone calls, emails, text messages and even your online presence. In one of the fastest-growing internet markets in the world, the Indian government has been increasing its role in watching communication channels following the Mumbai bombings in 2008, with laws amended both that year and in 2011, increasing the access of government workers for “reasonable security practices and procedures.”
In recent years, India has even intervened with both Nokia and BlackBerry, ensuring that their own monitoring systems were in place. The new country-wide system has been under construction for two years and offers investigative agencies a single point of access to all citizens’ digital exchanges as well as location data. Pavan Duggal, a specialist in cyberlaw told the Times of India that the system is “capable of tremendous abuse.” He noted that there wasn’t much clarity from the government yet on what it intends to monitor for.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Register
Source: Times of India
This morning, we reported on a study by the Texas Transporation Institute, which claimed that the hands-free techology in some vehicles that allows drivers to use their gadgets without taking their eyes off the road are still as dangerous as manually firing off a text message. Following this is a request by the federal government
judgecorp writes “Privacy groups have accused British ISPs of a ‘conspiracy of silence’ over the impact of the UK government;s proposed Communications Data Bill or ‘Snooper’s Charter.’ The letter accuses the SPs of allowing themselves to be ‘co-opted as an arm of the state’ — and of not telling their customers what they are up to. Under the bill, ISPs can be ordered to store their users’ communications data (the who when and where but not the content of emails etc) for police to search through.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Office of Fair Trading in London has announced that they are investigating free-to-play games to make sure that they are following all corners of the law. More specifically, the London-based regulators are investigating whether or not these types of games are unfairly pressuring gamers into making in-app purchases. Many game developers and publishers are
The country is taking advantage of a new law signed last year that requires major Web sites to restrict material officials find objectionable. [Read more]
CNET News
There are number of places around the world where the government blocks all sorts of Internet content to prevent citizens from accessing things deemed inappropriate. While no one would be particularly surprised that Internet content is being filtered in the Middle East or in some parts of Asia, you might be surprised to learn that
alancronin writes “Researchers have unearthed a decade-long espionage operation that used the popular TeamViewer remote-access program and proprietary malware to target high-level political and industrial figures in Eastern Europe. TeamSpy, as the shadow group has been dubbed, collected encryption keys and documents marked as ‘secret’ from a variety of high-level targets, according to a report published Wednesday by Hungary-based CrySyS Lab. Targets included a Russia-based Embassy for an undisclosed country belonging to both NATO and the European Union, an industrial manufacturer also located in Russia, multiple research and educational organizations in France and Belgium, and an electronics company located in Iran. CrySyS learned of the attacks after Hungary’s National Security Authority disclosed intelligence that TeamSpy had hit an unnamed ‘Hungarian high-profile governmental victim.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A British government security group said Wednesday said it hasn’t yet evaluated the security of BlackBerry 10 devices such as the Z10.
Computerworld News
Hitting one of Blackberry’s key markets in the British Isles, its new smartphone platform (and the Balance software that divides work and personal profiles on the Z10) hasn’t passed the security rigors of the UK’s Communications Electronics Security Group. According to The Guardian, handset contracts with the government and NHS total in the tens of thousands, while the older BB 7.1 passed the ‘restricted’ security level — two levels below the presumably agent-friendly ‘secret’ level — at the end of last year. The Canadian phone maker said in a statement that changes in the approval process had affected the time it’s had to jump through the necessary security hoops, adding that BB10 has already passed similar US and German tests with flying colors. Blackberry added that it is “continuing to work closely with CESG on the approval of BlackBerry 10.” Maybe hiring Adele for that creative director position would have made a difference, or not.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Blackberry
Via: ZDNet
Source: The Guardian
Microsoft is under investigation by United States regulators over software bribery claims involving foreign government officials, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing “people familiar with the matter.” The piece says both the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into the Redmond, Washington-based software giant, investigating allegations of kickbacks in China, and its “relationship with certain resellers and consultants in Romania and Italy.” Though neither the Justice Department nor the SEC would confirm the investigation, Microsoft told the WSJ, “We sometimes receive allegations about potential misconduct by employees or business partners. We cooperate fully in any government inquiries,” without confirming the situation.
Developing …
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: The Wall Street Journal
An anonymous reader writes “A piece attacking Apple’s treatment of Chinese consumers that aired on official government TV last week was followed by a wave of anti-Apple posts on Weibo (China’s equivalent of Twitter) by Chinese celebrities. On the China-watching site Tea Leaf Nation, Liz Carter reports that sharp-eyed Weibo users noticed something funny about one such post from an actor and singer named Peter Ho: ‘Cannot believe Apple is playing so many dirty tricks in customer service. As an Apple fan, I feel hurt…Need to post around 8:20 pm.’ What was this ‘need to post at 8:20 pm’ business? After Weibo lit up with sarcastic tags such as #PostAround820, Ho claimed (rather unconvincingly) that someone must have hacked his account and posted the anti-Apple ‘Weibo’. Mike Elgan at CultOfMac notes a parallel with the Chinese government’s rough handling of Google in 2009, which led to Google’s closing of its mainland operations. Google claimed that government commissioned hackers had apparently stolen search engine source code, Gmail messages and other user data. An earlier article by Elgan on Datamation notes the uneasy business relationship between Apple and China.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
dstates writes “SAM (Systems for Awards Management) is a financial management system that the US government requires all contractors and grantees to use. This system has recently been rolled out to replace the older CCR system. Friday night, thousands of SAM users received the following message: ‘Dear SAM user, The General Services Administration (GSA) recently has identified a security vulnerability in the System for Award Management (SAM), which is part of the cross-government Integrated Award Environment (IAE) managed by GSA. Registered SAM users with entity administrator rights and delegated entity registration rights had the ability to view any entity’s registration information, including both public and non-public data at all sensitivity levels.’ From March 8 to 10, any registered user who searched the system could view confidential information including account and social security numbers for any other user of the system. Oops! The Government Services administration says that they have fixed the problem.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes “ComputerWeekly reports that the U.K. government ‘has, for the first time, mandated a preference for using open source software for future developments.’ This comes from the newly released version of the Government Service Design Manual, which has a section about when government agencies should use open source. It says: ‘Use open source software in preference to proprietary or closed source alternatives, in particular for operating systems, networking software, web servers, databases and programming languages.’ The document also warns against vendor lock-in. This policy shift comes under the direction of government CTO Liam Maxwell, who said, ‘In digital public services, open source software is clearly the way forward.’ He added, ‘We’re not dogmatic about this – we’ll always use the best tool for the job – but open source has major advantages for the public sector.’”
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Apple CEO Tim Cook will be required to testify for 4 hours on the eBook price-fixing scandal the company was accused of. Apple is the last company, out of 6, to be testifying in this case. The other companies, which include Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan have all reached a settlement with
An anonymous reader writes “We recently discussed what appeared to be a positive response from the Obama administration on the legality of cell phone unlocking. Unfortunately, the Obama administration may not be able to do anything about it. It has already signed away our rights under a trade agreement with South Korea. Lawyer Jonathan Band, who works for the Association of Research Libraries, wrote, ‘The White House position, however, may be inconsistent with the U.S. proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and existing obligations in the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) and other free trade agreements to which the United States is a party. This demonstrates the danger of including in international agreements rigid provisions that do not accommodate technological development.’You can read more about this issue in a short eight page legal primer by Jonathan Band (PDF). An interesting, related note that the U.S.-KOREA FTA is possibly inconsistent with our domestic patent/drug law in the Hatch-Waxman Act as well. The trade agreement requires us to grant injunctions until the patent is invalidated as opposed to thirty months under current domestic law.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes “A Court of Appeal judgement released today has ruled in favor of Kim Dotcom and will let him sue the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) alongside New Zealand Police. During the High Court case, it emerged that the GCSB had been illegally spying on Dotcom prior to the raid on his Coatesville mansion, on behalf of the FBI, who now wants the Megaupload millionaire extradited to face trial in the US over copyright infringements.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
At the IBM Pulse conference here this week City of Boston CIO Bill Oates showed off a new city-made app that piqued the interest of attendees like Gary Gilot, an engineer who heads the public works board in South Bend, Ind.
Computerworld News
Editor’s note: Dave Chase is the CEO of Avado.com, a patient portal and relationship management company that was a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist.
For the first time, the federal government has provided large financial incentives to share one’s health data between authorized healthcare providers and with patient themselves to facilitate patient engagement. In the past, there was a disincentive for providers to share information outside of their silo. This has been a central reason why healthcare has been a technology backwater.
TechCrunch
You’ll have to be living under a rock to have missed the hoopla this year about alleged Chinese hackers attacking – and sometimes infiltrating – American media companies and other such businesses. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal have all stated this year that they were the target of attacks that
On his current visit to San Francisco, today former United States Vice President Al Gore swung through local PBS radio affiliate KQED for an hour-long appearance on the program Forum With Michael Krasny.
It was a very interesting wide-ranging conversation, as Krasny’s interviews often tend to be. But one part in particular caught my attention, when Gore was asked about the environment of corruption and bribery that seems to be as strong as ever in today’s U.S. government.
Gore says that this is indeed a growing issue that will need to be addressed on several levels. He also pointed to the Internet as being one of the most important tools that can help reverse this trend (I’ve embedded the entire audio at the bottom of this post, and this particular bit starts at minute 33:55.) He said:
TechCrunch
dakohli writes “The Conservative Goverment of Canada is scrapping the controversial bill C-30 They will instead make ‘modest’ changes to the existing Warrantless Wiretap bill. This bill was widely panned by Privacy Critics and members of the opposition. Another victory for online privacy!”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A government-led competition brings 20 of Britain’s most innovative mobile technology companies to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. [Read more]
CNET News
Hackers working under the name of the Anonymous hacktivist collective hit a U.S. government website on Saturday, replacing its home page with a 1,340 word text detailing its frustrations with the way the American legal system works and a threat to release "secrets" gathered from U.S. government websites.
Computerworld News
This isn’t the first time that the French have gotten involved with shenanigans on Twitter, but today the French government has announced that they’re getting rid of the hashtag and replacing it with what they’re calling the “mot-dièse,” or “sharp-word.” However, citizens of France won’t be required to adopt the new style, but the government
Governments continue to ask Google for more data about its users, with more than two-thirds of requests in the U.S. made through a subpoena, which usually doesn't require asking a judge for a search warrant.
Computerworld News
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) plans to establish a center that will deal with disputes over intellectual property (IP) and online copyright issues, reports Sina Tech (link via Google Translate).
TechCrunch
Agencies — like NASA, Department of Labor, and the Census Bureau — will give hackers access to data for a weekend in June in an effort to help the country’s communities. [Read more]
CNET News
hypnosec writes “The Indian Government has decided it won’t be using telecom equipment from international vendors, and has barred all such foreign companies from participating in the US$ 3.8 billion National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) project — a project aimed at bringing high-speed Internet connectivity to the rural areas of India. The DoT has decided that it will be going ahead with a 100 per cent domestic sourcing and has released a list of certified GPON suppliers. This decision comes after the research wing of the ministry C-DoT advised the telecom department to bar Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei keeping in line with a similar decision by the U.S.. In an internal memo, the research body advised the department that both these Chinese companies are a security threat to the telecom world”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Editor’s note: Rachel Haot is the first Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York, where she leads NYC Digital and is focused on the city’s digital media strategy.
From hackathons to social media, open government is transforming the way that Mayor Bloomberg’s administration and New York City government serve the public. And there has been no greater testament to open government’s potential than the strategy and innovation in action during Hurricane Sandy.
TechCrunch
Speaking to reporters in Beijing airport after his trip to Pyongyang, Google’s Eric Schmidt has expressed bewilderment at the fact that North Korean citizens still aren’t hooked up to the web. He pointed out that the government could retool its 3G mobile network to provide access to the outside world and that it “would be very easy for them to switch that on.” Then he flew home.
Source: Bloomberg
ezabi writes “After announcing a 43 Million USD license agreement with Microsoft, the Egyptian government was faced with a protest from FOSS enthusiasts staging a stand before the cabinet http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/activists-protest-microsoft-deal Later, representatives from the community had a meeting with the minister of communications and information technology, such a meeting led to the ministry issuing a press release (in Arabic) stating its commitment to gradually move to open source (Google Translate to English) as a strategic option for future projects. It’s worth mentioning that all governmental websites used in the elections and constitution referendum were all based on open source solutions.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes “Jobseekers will be offered the chance to look for work through the new Universal Jobmatch website, which automatically pairs them up with opportunities that suit their skills after scanning their CVs. It will also allow employers to search for new workers among the unemployed and send messages inviting them to interviews. However, their activities may also be tracked using cookies, so their Job Centre advisers know how many searches they have been doing and whether they are turning down viable opportunities. Iain Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said the scheme would ‘revolutionize’ the process of looking for work. He said anyone without a job after signing up to the scheme would be lacking ‘imagination.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader writes in with a story about speculation that Japan might restart its nuclear power program. “Japan’s newly-elected Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a strong supporter of atomic energy use in the past, should restart plants shut after the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, said the CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd . The LDP, headed by Japan’s next prime minister Shinzo Abe, won a landslide victory on Sunday, fueling speculation that the new coalition government would take a softer stance on nuclear power. Public opinion remains divided on the role of atomic energy after natural disasters last year triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A former NSA employee says the government collects all e-mails you write. But the government says it’s impossible. Who do you believe?
The role government plays in surveillance has long been a topic of debate. For years, we’ve heard stories of the U.S. government accessing data from citizens unbeknownst to them or those with whom they’re communicating. And time and again, privacy advocates argue that our rights are being violated.
Despite bailing them out (and practically owning some of them), the UK government seems unable to force high street banks to begin lending to small businesses again and this is causing a big problem for the economy — the wheels of capitalism won’t grease themselves. The latest solution coming out of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills is to board the P2P lending train.
The UK government has pledged £110 million of tax payer’s money to lend to SMEs through ‘alternative finance’ schemes and today we’ve learned that two P2P lending sites, Funding Circle and Zopa, stand to benefit, with each receiving £20m and £10m respectively.
TechCrunch
The U.S. government needs a comprehensive doctrine addressing cybersecurity instead of the current patchwork of policies and agencies dealing with cyberthreats, according to a group of experts.
Computerworld News
Online hacktivist group blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the Internet blackout blanketing the country and vows retaliation. [Read more]
CNET News
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