U.S. employers posted 285,681 cybersecurity job openings during the 12-month period that ended in September, according to CyberSeek, a career resource developed jointly by CompTIA and labor analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies. Washington, New York and Chicago have the most job openings, the firms reported Tuesday.

Slightly more than four in 10 U.S. broadband homes plan to buy a smart home product in the next 12 months, including 27 percent with high purchase intentions, said Parks Associates Tuesday. The most popular devices are smart smoke and carbon dioxide detectors, thermostats and light bulbs, it said.

President Donald Trump’s blocking of Twitter followers is unconstitutional, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in an amicus brief filed Monday supporting the Knight First Amendment Institute’s July 11 suit against Trump and his communications team in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit complains that Trump and his team violated the First Amendment rights of seven followers of @realDonaldTrump who posted criticisms. Denying certain users access to policy announcements and debates that are widely disseminated on social media hinders the public’s ability to monitor the performance of government officials, EFF said.

Massachusetts, California, Washington, Virginia and Delaware lead states in a globalized economy, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said. The lowest-scoring was Mississippi, preceded by Arkansas, West Virginia, Wyoming and Louisiana. Massachusetts ranked first in every ITIF index since 1999; Mississippi got last place in every one except 2007 when it was 49th. Nebraska and Tennessee each climbed eight places -- to 28th and 32nd -- since the last ranking in 2014, while Alaska dropped 10 to 42. States should invest in big firms that invest heavily in research and development, while rolling back policies that “stack preferences in favor of small businesses,” ITIF President Robert Atkinson said Monday.

Twitter said Thursday it's doing a “full internal review” after a customer service employee deactivated President Donald Trump's account on the social media platform “on the employee's last day.” Trump's account “was down for 11 minutes” Thursday before being restored, Twitter said. The company is “taking steps to prevent this from happening again.” Trump tweeted Friday that a “rogue employee” at Twitter caused the deactivation. “I guess the word must finally be getting out and having an impact,” he said.

Eighty-four percent of adults say they will be less willing to shop this holiday season at retailers that experienced past data breaches than at those that didn't, said a Thursday survey from Generali Global Assistance. It canvassed 1,016 people in early October and found 38 percent were unsure if businesses were doing enough to safeguard their personal information. Data breaches “weigh much more heavily on holiday shoppers’ minds” than being pickpocketed (11 percent), or having their cars broken into (10 percent) “when it comes to identity theft,” said the ID protection division of an insurer.

A communications law firm reminded those with websites to renew domain names and register valuable ones to those companies and not their vendors, saying it finds these "recurring problems striking regularly." Microsoft, Jeb Bush, the Dallas Cowboys and, recently, Sorenson Communications let domains lapse, blogged ICANN expert Kathy Kleiman of Fletcher Heald. Sorenson's goof meant its site was inaccessible, so "customers could not receive or place video relay service, 911, and other calls," she wrote Tuesday, in a post emailed the next day. For a “preventable, internal operational failure,” a September FCC Enforcement Bureau order (see 1709290056) said the company agreed to reimburse the Telecom Relay Service Fund $2.7 million and pay a $252,000 settlement, Kleiman noted. She recommended automatic domain renewal. Sorenson didn't comment.

"Algorithms got us into this situation. Algorithms must get us out," blogged Brookings visiting fellow and former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The internet, once considered a democratizing tool, is under fire for delivering "a decidedly undemocratic outcome," said Wheeler: The "questionable ads" under scrutiny in congressional hearings this week (see 1710310061) are a result of algorithms that "prioritize revenue over veracity." Algorithms have become sophisticated tools creating an internet that's "become the antithesis of the community necessary for democratic processes to succeed," he said. Wheeler plugged work by Harvard researcher Wael Ghonim that proposes opening the input/output information to allow third-party access to information, a practice that wouldn't violate users' privacy but would provide more information on how algorithms operate. Ghonim calls for an open application programming interface that could be applied to monitor and report on effects of social media algorithms to help independently verify information delivered to users.

The FTC said its complaint against 1-800 Contacts for anticompetitive practices with rival online contact lens sellers was upheld by Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell. FTC alleged 1-800 Contacts restricted online ads for contact lenses by prohibiting competitors from displaying paid ads on search engine results for 1-800 Contacts’ trademarks. Chappell said the FTC demonstrated that the ad restraints caused harm to consumers and limited marketplace competition. "1-800 Contacts is disappointed," the company said in a statement Monday. The company said it appealed the decision and "expects any court that examines the facts will agree with our position," vowing to fight "as long and as far as necessary."

At updated IoT standards draft for federal agencies is expected in early 2018 and could impact the tech sector, in ongoing work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, blogged Wiley Rein attorney Kathleen Scott. NIST launched its IoT cybersecurity program in November 2016. While the work is focused on federal agencies, the tech sector is providing input in developing standards that could ultimately affect the industry, NIST said. NIST held a meeting earlier this month on security approaches for IoT devices to ensure suppliers and vendors are aligned in their security approaches. It's "clear that the debate regarding IoT cyber standards is still nascent and that NIST is still working to define the scope of IoT," Scott said. On Thursday, NIST said its current IoT guidelines draft is 200 pages and could be released for public comment early next year, Scott said.