GAO is making recommendations to agencies about better compliance with 2015's Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act. A report Thursday said the 30 recommendations would lead to full implementation of the act's requirements on procedures for assigning codes to cybersecurity positions and for completing baseline assessments of cybersecurity workforces. The recommendations were to 13 agencies, including DOD, the Department of Commerce and NASA.
About 67 percent of global consumers surveyed have streamed live video, and more than half prefer free, ad-supported streams over subscription services, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported Wednesday. Smartphones are the most popular streaming device, with smart TVs second, said the survey of 4,200 adults in 21 countries.
In Tyson Tuttle’s six years as Silicon Labs CEO, “I think we’ve done seven acquisitions, all around IoT,” he told a Stifel investment conference Wednesday. The Z-Wave buy from Sigma Designs that Silicon Labs completed in April for $240 million in cash (see 1804180064) “was the largest one that we’ve done,” said Tuttle. Like the six previous acquisitions under his watch, Silicon Labs pursued Z-Wave with the purpose of “building up this core platform around IoT,” he said. “That’s been, I think, a very successful set of acquisitions, and we’re starting to see the results of that in the growth of the IoT business.” After the Z-Wave buy, “we have about $525 million in the bank” and about $300 million in available credit, “and so we have the ability to continue to be active on the M&A front,” said Tuttle. In any new acquisition targets, “we’ll continue to focus on the IoT area, and if there’s something that makes sense there, we certainly have the ability to go for it,” he said. “But it has to be culturally aligned, strategically aligned, and it needs to be accretive to the bottom line at the same time.”
Homes with subscriptions to over-the-top video services will exceed 265 million globally by 2022, said Parks Associates Wednesday. Fifty-three percent of U.S. broadband homes own a smart TV, “and both smart TVs and streaming media players are continually improving the user experience to accommodate the shifting habits of consumers, including integration with voice-based digital assistant ecosystems,” said Parks. Consumers own an average of 8.6 connected CE products in their homes, up 87 percent since 2010, said Parks. More than 70 percent of U.S. broadband homes have an internet-connected entertainment device, it said: "With IoT expansion comes added expectations of interoperability. Consumers prioritize general device interoperability over staying within a specific brand ecosystem when considering a purchase.” Parks estimates three in every four consumers “find it important to consider any smart home product brand that will work with other products in their home,” and said 49 percent “find this very important.”
Samsung Electronics expanded to a global membership with the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which said it added Zebra Technologies.
Virtual-private-network usage likely will double during the World Cup, said service provider NordVPN Tuesday. Many who have never before used a VPN “will turn to one” for watching a World Cip match online, it said. A VPN service links a user’s computer to a server “in a country of their choice via an encrypted tunnel,” it said. NordVPN has seen increases in VPN usage “during any big sporting event,” it said. During the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil, NordVPN sales grew 105 percent, “showing a growing digital awareness of viewers,” it said.
The Fitbit Ace, billed as the first wearable expressly for kids 8 and older, is available, with parental controls allowing management of “who their children connect with and what information they see in the Fitbit app that will motivate them," said the company Monday.
Federal authorities arrested 74 and uncovered $16.4 million in fraudulent wire transfers as part of a business email compromise investigation, said DOJ Monday. Such crimes are aimed at intercepting wire transfers from businesses and individuals. DOJ collaborated with the Homeland Security Department, Treasury Department and Postal Inspection Service for six months. Of the 74 arrests, 42 were in the U.S., 29 in Nigeria and one each in Canada, Mauritius and Poland.
Sixty percent of American teens and parents of teens have heard only “a little” or “nothing at all” about the recent Facebook-Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, said a survey from Common Sense and SurveyMonkey Monday (see 1806060067). About 38 percent of each group said they heard “a lot” about the controversy. The poll was of 19,063 adults and 985 teens online May 5-22. Seventy-seven percent of parents and 69 percent of teens said it’s “extremely important” that social media sites ask for permission before sharing or selling personal data.
Chief information officers across federal agencies met with senior administration officials at the White House Monday to discuss efforts to modernize government technology, said a White House official. CIOs on the CIO Council gathered in the Roosevelt Room with Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent, Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director-Management Margaret Weichert, White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, White House Deputy Chief of Staff-Policy Coordination Chris Liddell and Special Assistant to the President-Innovation Policy Matt Lira. The meeting was a follow-up to President Donald Trump’s executive order on enhancing effectiveness of agency CIOs.