Mozilla faulted the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday for not including a broader discussion of cybersecurity issues during Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings. Sessions committed during a hearing Tuesday to follow the USA Freedom Act, which restricts NSA from the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, despite his voting against the bill in 2015 (see 1701090038). Surveillance continued to occasionally emerge as an issue during Sessions' hearing Wednesday (see 1701110069). Senate Judiciary almost exclusively mentioned cybersecurity in the context of government-sponsored cyberattacks like Russia’s hacking of IT systems associated with the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, said Mozilla Chief Legal and Business Officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer in a blog post. “Discussion about robust cybersecurity for everyday Internet users -- through practices like strong encryption -- was largely absent,” she said. “It would have been helpful if the Senate asked Sessions to clarify his position, and even better if they asked him to clarify that privacy and security are important for all Americans and a healthy Internet.”

Updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, enhancing cybersecurity, opening new global markets for U.S. technology products and services, and promoting broadband investment and spectrum availability are some priorities the Information Technology Industry Council says the new Congress should concentrate on. In a Wednesday blog post outlining its blueprint, Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Andy Halataei wrote that lawmakers, the incoming Trump administration and tech industry need to collaborate to implement "smart policies" that spur U.S. economic growth across all industries. Other priorities listed include advancing changes to the patent system to help curb "abusive and costly patent litigation."

Ixia and K2 are collaborating on a solution targeting appliance manufacturers, giving them an on-ramp to the IoT, they announced Monday. Integration of two platforms, scheduled for availability this quarter, will enable K2’s OEM customers to cost effectively add Wi-Fi to mainstream products, said the companies.

Uber will be introducing a website with "anonymized and aggregated" trip data from the 450 cities it serves to better help transportation planners deal with infrastructure needs, wrote Jordan Gilbertson, product manager, and Andrew Salzberg, head of transportation policy, in a Sunday blog post. By analyzing trips over time, the firm can provide estimates for how long it takes to get from one place to another, they wrote. "We can compare travel conditions across different times of day, days of the week, or months of the year -- and how travel times are impacted by big events, road closures or other things happening in a city." The company will work with planning agencies and researchers over the next several weeks to access the data on the website called "Movement," they said. The website will soon be available to the public, they added.

Holiday season retail spending grew 12 percent online and 1.6 percent in stores over 2015, said a Monday First Data report tracking sales for the 66-day period through Jan. 2. Electronics posted some of the highest gains, at 13.2 percent in e-commerce and 7.1 percent in stores during the holiday season, said First Data, attributing the higher in-store growth for electronics to consumers’ preference for wanting to try products before they buy. Average retail ticket size inched up 1.1 percent for the holiday season, with electronics tickets flat, increasing 5 cents over 2015, it said. Electronics and appliance retail sales advanced 1.8 percent for the period from January through October and an average 8.5 percent (brick and mortar and online) during the holiday season, it said. Same-store sales data were based on point-of-sale activity at 942,155 merchants.

ICANN and NTIA formally terminated their joint affirmation of commitments, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Friday in a letter to ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker. That follows months after the completion of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority oversight transition (see 1609300065 and 1610030042). ICANN has fully incorporated the agreement’s provisions into its governing documents, said Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah in a blog post. “ICANN's commitment to remain a not-for-profit corporation, headquartered in the United States of America is embedded into ICANN's Articles of Incorporation, and in the Bylaws, which specify that ICANN's California office is its principal place of business.” Strickling emphasized the need for stakeholders to provide “opportunities for all interested parties to have a voice in decision making, not just those most directly involved or impacted by ICANN.” Decisions should “be done in a transparent manner that affords the opportunity to participate for those not directly engaged in ICANN’s supporting organizations and advisory committees,” Strickling said.

The new FCC should adopt an "objective, activity-based" broadband speed definition, said Daniel Lyons, a Boston College law professor and American Enterprise Institute scholar. Otherwise, the commission "is vulnerable to allegations that it may manipulate the benchmark for policy purposes," he wrote in a Friday blog post. He noted the agency in early 2015 raised its advanced telecom capability download benchmark from 4 Mbps to 25 Mbps, with Chairman Tom Wheeler calling it "table stakes" and citing the need to support multiple devices and 4K video. Dissenting Commissioner Ajit Pai said the standard was arbitrary and intended to help justify net neutrality rules, Lyons recounted. The minimum standard should be based on an assessment of what consumers need for "core activities" on a broadband network, Lyons said. "This list might include access to email, news, job boards, or digital voice service for easy access to public safety officials," he wrote. "Consistent with former Commissioner [Jessica] Rosenworcel’s work on the 'homework gap,' it might also include access to educational resources such as school intranets and associated multimedia applications." The FCC should calculate the speed needed to accomplish the activities, the professor said: An activity-based standard could change over time and facilitate broadband competition.

Total U.S. e-commerce spending from computers for the November-December holiday season reached $63.1 billion, said a Thursday comScore report. Online sales via PC grew 12 percent over 2015, it said. For the third straight year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest spending day of the year, with more than $2 billion in desktop buying, and it was the first day ever to eclipse $1 billion in mobile commerce, comScore said.

The IoT provides many benefits, but there are "existential dangers" such as erosion of privacy, wrote Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Mark Surman in a Thursday blog post. "Legions of connected microphones and cameras unknowingly track our movements and conversations," he wrote. "Governments surveil citizens en masse, and profit-minded businesses horde personal data. IoT also means more vulnerabilities, from the recent Dyn attack (see 1610210056) to the hacking of elections" (see 1612290040). Surman said there's "an opportunity to head off future dangers proactively" and "IoT will be the first big battle of 2017." He co-wrote a paper, issued in October by the NetGain Partnership, a coalition of philanthropic organizations, including the Ford, Knight, MacArthur and Open Society foundations and Mozilla. The paper outlines six principles, from an open and free internet to digital security. The partnership will issue several papers and host discussions over the next year on how it can address IoT challenges.

To help address security vulnerabilities from outdated software in consumer IoT devices, the FTC is offering a $25,000 cash prize for the best technical solution, said the agency in a Wednesday news release. Contestants can develop a physical device, which consumers can plug into their home networks to check for and install updates, or an app or cloud-based service, dashboard or other interface, the commission said. Contestants can also add features that "address hard-coded, factory default or easy-to-guess passwords," it added. “Consumers want these devices to be secure, so we’re asking for creativity from the public -- the tinkerers, thinkers and entrepreneurs -- to help them keep device software up-to-date,” said Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich. Submissions are due May 22. Winners will be announced around July 27. An NTIA multistakeholder group is also addressing the issue of IoT security upgrades and patching (see 1610190051).