The Copyright Office is asking for zero-cost, or “exceptionally low-cost,” contractors to modernize the department in exchange for visibility that comes with building a digital platform, Program Manager George Thuronyi said Thursday. The work will support the CO’s new web-based, cloud-hosted Enterprise Copyright System. The Copyright Modernization Office issued a request for information May 4 and is soliciting feedback until July 16, with a request for proposal to follow. “Instead of the government soliciting and then paying a vendor, the vendor will volunteer and craft a solution for the government,” Thuronyi said, adding the work allows the vendor a “large, highly visible platform upon which to build a cutting-edge, fully functioning, high-profile, symbiotic solution.”
A lawsuit challenging searches of electronic devices at the U.S. border can proceed, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said Thursday. Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Massachusetts sued the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 11 travelers. The individuals’ smartphones and laptops were searched without warrants, the groups said. “EFF and ACLU can move ahead to prove that our plaintiffs’ Fourth and First Amendment rights were violated when their devices were seized and searched without a warrant,” EFF Staff Attorney Sophia Cope said.
Amazon Alexa leads in consumer awareness of smart home platforms at 28 percent, but “consumers want robust user experiences,” said Parks Associates analyst Dina Abdelrazik. “They are not going out to buy platforms but products." She said interoperability is key to enabling a working ecosystem of devices. Citing a Parks survey of U.S. broadband households, Abdelrazik said 75 percent of U.S. broadband households planning to buy a smart home product consider interoperability to be important.
Individual privacy, specifically protection for personally identifiable information, is emphasized in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s updated draft cybersecurity Risk Management Framework (RMF). The update integrates the RMF with NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework. It “provides cross-references so that organizations using the RMF can see where and how the CSF aligns with the current steps in the RMF,” NIST Computer Scientist Ron Ross said. “Conversely, if you’re using the CSF, you can bring in the RMF and give your organization a robust methodology to manage security and privacy risks.”
The White House is right to explore “constraints that may unnecessarily limit [artificial intelligence] research and innovation,” the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Wednesday. Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, Intel and Nvidia are among some 40 companies expected to meet Thursday with White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios to discuss AI. Cabinet officials and academics also are expected to participate in the discussion concerning government support for AI innovation.
Though the Consumer Product Safety Commission inquiry into the “potential safety issues” of IoT devices ruled out plans to address “personal data security and privacy issues” as part of its review (see 1803290032), the Cybersecurity Coalition believes “safety and security standards for IoT devices are inextricably linked and should be addressed in tandem,” said May 2 comments (document ID CPSC-2018-0007-0031) posted Monday in docket CPSC-2018-0007 and "withdrawn" on Wednesday because it was deemed a "duplicate of material" previously submitted. “A common feature across all IoT devices is their ability to communicate across information networks and to act on the physical world, which makes securing these communications and controlling access to device functionality central to maintaining both the safety and security of the device, said the coalition, whose members include AT&T, Cisco, Intel, McAfee, Microsoft, Mozilla and Symantec. For example, shipping an IoT device to consumers with a factory-default password or other “known vulnerabilities” is both a security risk, “as this could give attackers access to consumers’ information,” and a safety risk “if attackers are able to gain control of device functionality,” it said. The coalition has a long history of “using a voluntary, consensus-based, industry-led approach to setting security standards,” and encourages CPSC to “use this approach to set safety standards for IoT devices,” it said. Comments in CPSC's review are due June 15, and a hearing is planned for Wednesday. The agency said it will use the feedback to better “inform future Commission risk management work.”
LG said its 2018 AI TVs are activated with Google Assistant voice control. Artificial intelligence features are available through the TVs’ remote control, no smart speaker required, it said Tuesday.
While 76 percent of people “are very concerned about the safety of their personal information online,” only 24 percent reported altering their Facebook accounts after the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, Mozilla said, releasing a survey Tuesday. Of the 47,000 participants, 65 percent said individuals, not government or platforms, are most responsible for protecting their digital data, and 12 percent expressed a willingness to pay for a Facebook not reliant on data collection and sales.
Photos of more than 56,000 American driver's licenses, social security cards, passports and other government-issued IDs were compromised in Equifax’s 2017 data breach (see 1803010033), the company announced Monday. Details were released in an Equifax SEC filing in response to questions from Congress. The report shows the breach affected at least 146.6 million American consumers. “The additional detail provided in the statement," the company said, doesn't "identify additional stolen data or newly impacted consumers, and does not require additional consumer notifications.”
Google could carry about 40 percent of all local digital advertising across all markets in 2018, with its local search advertising and YouTube’s local advertising exceeding $19 billion in revenue nationwide, said BIA Advisory Services Monday. BIA expects local Google revenue to exceed $27 billion in the U.S. by 2022. “By comparison, local radio and television advertising revenues are projected to be relatively flat over time, while print media advertising continues its decline,” said BIA Advisory Services Chief Economist Mark Fratrik.