Incoming White House aides of President-elect Donald Trump’s pending administration attempted Sunday and Monday to redirect the focus on U.S. intelligence agencies’ report on Russia’s hacking of IT systems associated with the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The office of the Director of National Intelligence Friday released an unclassified version of the agencies' report, which said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacks as part of “an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at” the U.S. presidential election that “aspired to help” Trump’s electoral chances (see 1701060060). Trump “is not denying that entities in Russia were behind this particular hacking campaign,” but similar incidents happen “every election period,” said incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Fox News Sunday. “We also have a problem when [the DNC] allows foreign governments into their system with hardly any defenses or training. That's a huge story, and that's what people aren’t talking about as well.” Incoming Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told USA Today Monday it’s “curious and a bit humorous” that congressional Democrats are pushing for an independent bipartisan joint House-Senate commission to do an 18-month investigation into Russia’s election-related hacks. There’s already a “great deal of information out there” on the hacks and it’s “very ironic that the uptick in and the hue-and-cry of 'investigation' and 'information' has occurred after the election results are in,” Conway said. Trump will attempt to “make sure that our actions are proportionate to what occurred, based on what we know” about the hacks, Conway said. President Barack Obama’s announced retaliatory actions against Russia (see 1612290040) were a “disproportionate response,” she said.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., queried the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority about the security of WMATA's online communication systems, after a November ransomware attack on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “While early reports indicate that the attack on SFMTA may have been opportunistic rather than targeted, I am concerned that WMATA may represent a particularly enticing target for more advanced threats, given its importance to the region and the number of federal agencies that rely on the system to transport their workforces each day,” Warner wrote in a Monday letter to WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld. Warner also asked WMATA to update him on efforts to deploy wireless communication systems including a public Wi-Fi network, and first-responder interoperability concerns raised by a fatal smoke incident near the L’Enfant Plaza rail station in January 2015. "We have received the senator's letter and will provide a timely response," a WMATA spokeswoman said.

The FCC's tentative agenda for the Jan. 31 commissioners' meeting is due out Tuesday and it could be relatively modest, industry contacts told us. Chairmen generally don't load up the January meeting with major actions unless there's some compelling reason, some said Monday. "Because of the timing, it’s customary for votes at the January meeting to be light and for reports to dominate the agenda. And now you have the transition complexity," said Wilkinson Barker communications lawyer Rosemary Harold. The meeting will be the first under Republican control, following the swearing-in of Donald Trump as president Jan. 20, and with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler planning to depart by then, GOP Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly will constitute the majority. "I think it’s going to be tough for them to put out a very aggressive [tentative] agenda for the 31st because who’s going to be chairman?" said another industry representative. "I don’t think Pai or O’Rielly want to look like they’ve been entrusted with the job. I think it’s going to be Pai, but I think he has to be careful about that.” Pai is expected to be named at least interim chairman, but Trump could nominate somebody else for permanent chairman. The industry representative said Trump shouldn't feel pressured to name the permanent chairman, given the 2-1 majority, unless he's eager to name somebody else to the commission, perhaps paired with recently departed Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who has the backing of key senators for re-appointment.

D-Link is pushing back against an FTC complaint that the company's wireless routers and internet cameras were vulnerable to hackers, putting privacy at risk. In a Thursday news release, D-Link Chief Information Security Officer William Brown called the complaint "unwarranted" and said the company "will vigorously defend the security and integrity of our routers and IP cameras." In a Q&A on its website, the company said it has "a robust range of procedures to address potential security issues" in IoT devices. The company said "the complaint does not allege any breach of a D-Link Systems device. Instead, the FTC speculates that consumers were placed 'at risk' to be hacked, but fails to allege, as it must, that actual consumers suffered or are likely to suffer actual substantial injuries." The FTC voted 2-1 -- with Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen voting no -- to file the complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said an agency news release. The FTC said the California-based subsidiary of D-Link, which is headquartered in Taiwan, "failed to take steps to address well-known and easily preventable security flaws," including: "hard-coded" login credentials; a software flaw called "command injection" that could be exploited by hackers; "mishandling" a private key code; and leaving user logins unsecured on mobile devices. An FTC spokesman said Friday that Ohlhausen didn't provide further comment on her no vote.

The FCC Wireless Bureau OK’d two wireless spectrum assignments Friday. In one order, the bureau greenlighted an AT&T and North Dakota Network application to assign one lower 700MHz C-Block license covering part of a North Dakota local market. In another order, the bureau approved an application by Bluesky and Club 42 to assign to Bluesky a lower 700 MHz B-Block license and a lower 700 MHz E-Block license covering American Samoa. The bureau said both applications serve the public interest with low risk of competitive harm. Also Friday, the Wireline Bureau OK’d Crown Castle’s plan to buy assets including FPL FiberNet from NextEra Energy, said a public notice. Crown Castle last month sought approval for the $1.5 billion fiber-services provider takeover (see 1611220043). Granting the application serves the public interest, the bureau said.

A Google-backed proposal to leave a channel vacant for unlicensed use is “really about turning away existing [low-power] LPTV stations to make room for unlicensed Google devices,” said NAB Vice President-Spectrum Policy Alison Neplokh in a blog post Friday. Google and Microsoft's arguments that there's enough spectrum to go around are false, Neplokh said. “If that were actually true, Google and Microsoft wouldn’t need a policy change; they could simply use the available space under the FCC’s existing TV white spaces rules,” she wrote. “They know, however, that the incentive auction will send many LPTVs scrambling for new homes and that some markets are going to have such scarce spectrum availability." Google's claims that white space uses are more important than TV are also false, she said: “While unlicensed devices have other neighborhoods -- 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz, now 3.5 GHz -- the spectrum at issue is television’s only home.” Google and Microsoft didn't comment.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will speak Jan. 13 at The Aspen Institute in Washington, the commission announced Friday. Wheeler "will reflect on lessons learned during his FCC tenure and discuss the path ahead for U.S. broadband policy," said an agency advisory. The speech at 1 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700, is scheduled for 11 a.m. and open to the public, with RSVP required. It will also be live-streamed.

FCC bureau chiefs endorsed a North American Portability Management (NAPM) draft nondisclosure agreement (NDA) for resolving a dispute with local number portability administrator Neustar over the treatment of confidential information in the LNPA transition to iconectiv (see 1611210039 and 1611300026). Wireline Bureau Chief Matt DelNero and Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Simpson said they carefully reviewed numerous NDAs proposed by the parties, along with related correspondence. "It is our opinion that the draft NDA submitted by the NAPM to Neustar on November 22, 2016, presents a workable solution that appropriately balances and protects the interests of all parties, and effectively holds confidential information that clearly is such, including information of a national security nature," their letter Friday said in docket 09-109. "We believe that the NAPM proposal sets forth a reasonable definition of confidential information and a reasonable agreement for protecting that information. Should the parties not agree by January 17, 2017, to utilize the last NDA offered by the NAPM, we strongly suggest that the parties execute an NDA that precisely mirrors the definitions of confidentiality in Article 15 of the Master Services Agreement (MSA) for the current LNPA contract. As Neustar has previously agreed to the confidentiality provisions in Article 15, we would logically question its refusal to be bound by those same provisions now."

Public interest advocates fired back at ITS America, which argued Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas that the FCC should make changes to its full allocation in the 5.9 GHz band for anti-crash, dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems (see 1701040044). “Wi-Fi advocates have consistently argued that the best way to protect safety-related DSRC applications is to give safety exclusive channels at the top of the band,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “The rest of the band should be shared equally for commercial purposes, or even for safety-related but not time-critical uses. Sharing the band is a win-win for consumers, especially now that even safety-related DSRC is in doubt. The Trump administration may not agree to go ahead with [the Department of Transportation's] proposed mandate, as it will cost consumers $30 billion, take 15 to 20 years to implement, and be duplicative of other more general purpose 5G networks and autonomous vehicle technologies.” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said the debate in the incoming Trump administration over DSRC versus Wi-Fi “is still a long way from settled.”

Executive Vice President Marni Walden said Verizon hasn't decided if it will proceed with the $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo, which disclosed two breaches over the past three months that compromised a combined 1.5 billion user accounts in 2013 and 2014 (see 1609220046 and 1612150010). "Unfortunately, I can’t sit here today and say, you know, with confidence, one way or the other, because we still don’t know," she said during a Thursday webcast session of a Citigroup investor conference in Las Vegas, home to the ongoing CES. Investigations need to be completed, she said, and Verizon needs to ensure it's being responsible to shareholders and getting value out of Yahoo. In response to a question from an audience member about when Verizon will make a decision, Walden said she's "not going to put a time frame on it because I honestly don't have a time frame," but "it will take weeks at least. We'll take as long as we need but our goal is not to drag it out. But I have to have certain facts to be able to make a good decision." During a CNBC interview earlier in the day, Verizon's AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he was hopeful the deal would close though he cautioned the investigation is ongoing. Asked if Verizon would ask for a discount on the deal, he declined to comment but said the focus is to ensure the culture and teams from both companies work well in terms of a potential integration. A Yahoo spokeswoman emailed, "We are confident in Yahoo’s value and we continue to work towards integration with Verizon."