Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and six other Republican senators urged President Donald Trump to impose sanctions against Iranian government officials responsible for blocking the country’s internet access for several days this month after anti-regime protests, and work to fully restore that access. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Iran Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi last week for the blackout. Iranian “officials have also shut down access to the Internet across Iran to hide the extent and scope of their brutal crackdown from the Iranian people and the world,” Cruz et al. wrote Monday. “The White House has clearly and strongly condemned ‘the lethal force and severe communications restrictions used against demonstrators,’ and we call on you to use the full array of tools available to the administration to build on that condemnation.” Others signing were Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso of Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Cornyn of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

The U.S. is 24 years “behind on technology” because the Office of Technology Assessment was shuttered, candidate Andrew Yang said during Wednesday evening’s Democratic presidential primary debate, citing China as a threat. The U.S. is in the “process of potentially losing the [artificial intelligence] arms race to China right now, because they have more access to more data than we do,” he said, noting the billions China has spent subsidizing AI development. It was the only mention of tech and telecom policy issues. OTA closed in 1995.

The Commerce Department hopes to release proposed controls on emerging technology exports “in the next couple weeks,” said Matt Borman, deputy undersecretary for export administration. “We’ve got a set that we’re working on in internal review,” he told a Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday. “So we’re hoping to get those through interagency [review] and out for public comment in the next couple weeks.” Officials have said for months the controls would be released soon, and companies and trade groups are growing concerned (see 1911070026). Also at the meeting, Borman said decisions on Huawei license applications are coming (see 1911210027).

Federal investment in artificial intelligence has “generated impactful breakthroughs” across 23 federal agencies, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Wednesday in its 2016-2019 Progress Report on Advancing Artificial Intelligence Research and Development. The Trump administration requested nearly $1 billion in nondefense spending on artificial intelligence R&D for FY 2020 (see 1909100032). Agencies include the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation and National Institute of Standards and Technology. “We are proud of the breadth and depth of Federal AI investments to ensure increased prosperity, safety, security, and quality of life for the American people for decades to come,” said Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios.

The biggest threat to securing data stored in the cloud “is the cloud itself,” reported Sophos Tuesday. “Some businesses have found that pouring all their most precious information into a virtualized data store led to inadvertent, gigantic breaches of that data, sometimes in the most public and damaging ways possible,” said the cybersecurity company. The “threat model” of protecting data stored in the cloud is “quite different” from that of physical workstations or servers, and requires “a very different" tool set, it said. “The very thing that makes the cloud a great platform for computing and business operations also creates some of its greatest challenges.” Identifying and controlling threats to cloud data “becomes exponentially more difficult,” it said. “Flexibility” is key with cloud computing, but it can “come back to bite you later,” said Sophos. “One false step can lead to an administrator inadvertently opening up their entire customer database to exposure.”

That “tech topics” will be “front and center” in the U.S. elections is one of 10 “trends to watch” for 2020, reported CompTIA Tuesday. “There are challenges posed as a result of tech’s larger impact on the economy and deeper integration with society,” and the 2020 U.S. election “cycle” will “put a spotlight” on many of these issues, it said. “Despite the overwhelming consumer and business benefits” that the information technology industry enables, CompTIA data shows seven of 10 firms in the business of selling technology “fear that a negative perception of the tech industry is gaining momentum across the country and becoming more of an issue in general,” it said. Increased worries over privacy “and how information is being collected and used could impact voters’ decisions,” it said. “Other issues might also join the discussion this election cycle, including cybersecurity, automation, artificial intelligence, net neutrality, and technology’s role in mitigating climate change.” CompTIA also predicts 2020 will be the year when “hype meets reality with emerging technology,” it said. “Even amid all the hype, companies in the business of technology are starting to pull back on adopting new technology as part of their portfolio,” it said. “This slight tap on the brakes suggests that classic situation where companies move too quickly into a new technology discipline or business model only to have a reality check in year two or three.”

New Mexico urged the FCC to develop interoperability standards for the national public safety network. “FirstNet/AT&T coverage is insufficient in many parts of this rural State,” so "public safety personnel in different geographic regions within New Mexico may well elect to operate on other public safety networks,” New Mexico Chief Information Officer Vincent Martinez wrote the commission, posted Friday in docket 19-254. “The level of priority and preemption between users on FirstNet/AT&T and other networks must be standardized to avoid a situation in which a high priority public safety user on one network is treated as a commercial user on another network.”

The government should prioritize computing hardware, software infrastructure and developing new “real-world” applications, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said Thursday in an update to the national strategic computing initiative. The document, an update to the 2016 Strategic Computing Plan, emphasizes a computing hardware focus on the “10-year horizon and beyond.” Software infrastructure should enable “effective and sustainable use of new computing.” Agencies should also promote overall infrastructure related to “data usage and management to cybersecurity, foundries, and prototypes.” OSTP recommended integration with “emerging data-driven applications.”

The Internet Society sold the Public Interest Registry to investment firm Ethos Capital, the organizations said Wednesday. ISOC set up PIR to run the .org top-level domain, and the transaction will benefit them both by ensuring PIR's long-term financial security and providing more diversified funding "to support the Internet Society's vision that the Internet is for everyone." Several initiatives will promote the .org community, including a stewardship council to uphold PIR's core values and expansion of a program that awards .org prizes for touting the success and positive impact of nonprofit organizations, they said.

U.S. government searches of international travelers’ phones and laptops without warrant or probable cause violate the Fourth Amendment, U.S. District Court in Boston ruled Tuesday. Alasaad v. McAleenan involved controversial airport searches by Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU of Massachusetts filed the lawsuit. “This is a great day for travelers who now can cross the international border without fear that the government will, in the absence of any suspicion, ransack the extraordinarily sensitive information we all carry in our electronic devices," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Sophia Cope. The Department of Homeland Security didn't comment.