The 463: Inside Tech

Bleak Cybersecurity News Highlights Need for Action

It may be a bit dire for a Friday, but this story from Wired paints a chilling picture of the current cybersecurity landscape.

Based on a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the story details the near-constant, coordinated cyberattacks being executed against critical infrastructure around the world.

There’s plenty here to keep you up nights, including the revelation that:

“Among the more serious findings in the report is that some of the most sensitive critical infrastructure entities around the world, such as those for energy and natural-resource industries (such as water and sewage plants), are some of the least secure.”

While not the cheeriest of reads, it’s a good reminder of the need to refocus our national and global efforts to protect the technology on which we all rely. At the State of the Net Conference this week, new White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt said he had the tools he needs to begin making the necessary changes at the federal level.

That’s good news; because while the federal government does not operate most of our nation’s critical infrastructure, leadership by example may provide the spark needed for industries, governments and users to start meeting the growing threat with the resources and attention it deserves.  

The Should Have Called it the "iState of the Union"

When the dust had settled, Twitter users had slightly more to say about President Obama's second State of the Union speech than they did about Apple's new tablet computer, but the gap wasn't as wide as one might expect. 

According to Retrevo's buzzmeter, Twitter commentary on the State of the Union topped out at 9,000 tweets per minute, compared to about 7,000 for Steve Jobs' iPad announcement. There were times though, over the course of the respective events, during which Twitter users had considerably more to say the state of Apple than they did about the state of the nation.

Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising. Social networking may be ubiquitous in political, business and personal interactions, but it remains a fundamentally technological medium. For every Shaquille O'Neal making waves on Twitter, there are thousands of techies who got there first.

We may see those trends change as the user base for social networking tools continues to expand, but until then we may have to wait for the next State of the Union...and the next big thing from Apple.

A 'Moon Shot' That Might Just Work

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has a radical idea for President Obama: shift our national economic focus to fostering innovation and creating jobs.

In a brilliant article, Friedman calls on the White House to launch a “moon shot,” by making 2010 “the year of innovation, the year of making our pie bigger, the year of ‘Start-Up America.’”

Friedman further suggests that rather than simply creating make-work highway jobs, we shift our national focus to spurring the sort of innovative start-ups that create high-paying, 21st Century jobs, by enacting policies that spur entrepreneurship and education.

It’s hard to see how politicians on either side of the aisle could disagree with Friedman’s recommendations. Here’s hoping that they’re listening.

One of Friedman’s final arguments is for the launch of a national Innovation Movement to get us all moving in the right direction. Like many good ideas, it’s one that has been shared by others. Last year, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) launched the Innovation Movement with precisely the same goal.

I’m certain they’d be happy to have lawmakers on board.

Cuatro Seis Tres Honors OchoCinco

(Josh Zecher) With the NFL season dwindling down to a Super Bowl matchup between the Vikings and Jets, it seems appropriate to highlight the league's most prolific social marketer: Chad Ochocinco.

For those of you who may not know, Ochocinco is a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals.  Formerly known as Chad Johnson, he legally changed his name in 2008 to match his jersey number of 85.  We know Ochocinco isn't the number 85 but let's just keep that secret between us.

Johnson has used a Twitter account and USTREAM channel to build a brand and a persona that is only dwarfed by NFL cross-over stars Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.  Johnson has more than 750,000 Twitter followers and has up to 175,000 views per week on his USTREAM show that takes fans into Ochocinco's living room or his favorite tattoo parlor, depending on the day.

Now, Johnson is using his fame and his time off for a "Tour of Giving."  Johnson kicked off the tour this morning at a Cincinnati food bank and then will move to Atlanta and then to Miami before he plays in the NFL Pro Bowl in Miami next weekend. 

Johnson is not only using his Twitter feed to keep fans up to date on his tour and to encourage giving back to their communities.  He used Twitter to select 10 lucky fans that will travel along with him on the tour and help him support charities at every stop.

A true character, there is no denying that Ochocinco has used social media to bring himself closer to the fans, brand himself and build the foundation for a lucrative career after football.

We think that there are a lot of chief marketing officers that may be wishing Ochocinco stays on the field until he is 85 years old as he could be a definite threat to take their jobs once his football career is over. 

Is Lack of Internet Freedom a Suprise?

(Josh Zecher) Censorship in China.  Is this news?

Should anyone be surprised that governments are censoring content on the Internet the same exact way that they have been "filtering" information in newspapers, radio and television for decades?

The past week's developments show that despite all of its "tubes," the Internet is a high tech delivery vehicle of content that can be controlled and used for either building freedoms or squashing them.

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlined her five key freedoms for the Internet Age which include:

• Freedom of speech and worship online
• Freedom to connect to the Internet anywhere
• Freedom from cyber attacks

These sound awfully familiar to the same freedoms outlined more than 200 years ago by our nation's forefathers. 

Human's technological brilliance may prosper and flourish but our foundational challenges remain the same.

Chopra on Innovation

(David Mack) U.S. CTO Annesh Chopra and CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro took time during this year’s CES to discuss the federal government’s role in promoting innovation, the Obama Administration’s technology track record and the road ahead.

Shapiro also used the press conference as an opportunity to release new polling data conducted by Zogby International.  According to the research, fully 96 percent of Americans believe that innovation is important for the U.S. to remain a world economic leader in the future. 

With 68 percent of Americans stating that innovation is important to the success of their place of employment, we wish Mr. Chopra and his colleagues the best of luck in implementing their vision.  

Walking in Other People's Shoes (Haiti)

Social media lets you experience first hand the experiences of individuals -- not just perspectives filtered through traditional media organizations. While there is nothing good about the terrible earthquake in Haiti, perhaps it is at least comforting that it occurred in an era where an average person in Portland can see what an average person in Port au Prince is experiencing and with a few flicks of the wrist make a donation to help them.

Indeed, this AP story below tells of how the reaction to Haiti is dramatically different than the reaction to the big China quake just a year and half ago thanks to Facebook and Twitter...

Twitter, itself, blogged today about how to help:

• The American Red Cross allows anyone in the US to text HAITI to 90999 as an easy way to donate $10 to the recovery effort. The money is billed to your mobile phone account.
• Musician Wyclef Jean's Haiti-focused organization, Yele is also accepting text-message donations. To donate $5, text Yele to 501501 or visit the foundation's web site.
• Oxfam International has also set up an earthquake response fund. You can visit their web site to make a donation to this fund.

To follow each of these recovery efforts as they progress, we can follow @redcross, @wyclef, and @oxfam. The Huffington Post, CNN, and The New York Times have spent time curating special lists to track events related to Haiti.

The FCC is Getting Headlines; but Don't Forget About the FTC

(Sean Garrett) FCC chair Julius Genachowski and his commission comrades are the It tech policy policy body in DC these days. Check out Julius at CES here. Or watch him give an interview in front of a handful of tech execs at the high cred San Francisco blog network GigaOm HQ last week...

All the attention toward the FCC is for good reason. From net neutrality to mobile spectrum to nettlesome questions of content restriction in a converged world, the commission is front and center on issues that impact a broad swath of Internet companies, telecom firms, cable entities, mobile operators and device manufacturers and, oh, consumers. Indeed, I think one of the smartest things Google did in the last few years was invest so relatively heavily in their FCC activities and relationships, The launch of the Nexus One now makes it so much clearer why I saw both founders and Eric Schmidt at a very small and casual Palo Alto industry reception of FCC commissioners two summers ago.
Yet in reading today a NYT blog post about their interview with FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz and Bureau of Consumer Protection chief David Vladeck, I was reminded that much of the Internet market also needs to keep their eyes on the FTC ball. In the piece, some serious hints are dropped that the times are a changing when it comes to consumer privacy on the Web. There have been plenty of hints before from Leibowitz, but these are some of the strongest. Excerpts:

Previous commissions had looked at privacy under the framework of whether consumers were harmed, and with the basis that companies must advise consumers about what they’re doing and obtain their consent, Mr. Leibowitz said. But companies “haven’t given consumers effective notice, so they can make effective choices,” he said.

Advise-and-consent “depended on the fiction that people were meaningfully giving consent,” Mr. Vladeck said. “The literature is clear” that few people read privacy policies, he said.

While first-party uses of data were generally within consumers’ reasonable expectations, he said, more questions arose around data brokers, data aggregators, social network, cloud computing and mobile marketing.

And...

“Philosophically, we wonder if we’re moving to a post-disclosure era and what that would look like,” Mr. Vladeck said. “What’s the substitute for it?”

He said the commission was still looking into the issue, but it hoped to have an answer by June or July, when it plans to publish a report on the subject. Mr. Leibowitz gave a hint as to what might be included: “I have a sense, and it’s still amorphous, that we might head toward opt-in,” Mr. Leibowitz said.

Oh, and by the way, as the piece notes, the FTC is holding one of their series of roundtable that "explores privacy" in Berkeley on January 28. It's description...

The Federal Trade Commission will host a series of day-long public roundtable discussions to explore the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data. Such practices include social networking, cloud computing, online behavioral advertising, mobile marketing, and the collection and use of information by retailers, data brokers, third-party applications, and other diverse businesses. The goal of the roundtables is to determine how best to protect consumer privacy while supporting beneficial uses of the information and technological innovation.

Pay attention folks.

Message from CES -- Innovation Matters

(Jim Hock) We at 463 have had the pleasure this week of attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  Thousands of cool innovations, lots of talk about 3D TV (which is pretty cool, but not sure we want to have tons of pairs of those dorky glasses in our homes).

We also helped coordinate a media briefing with CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro and White House CTO Aneesh Chopra.  The message was clear from CES: Innovation matters and we need to do everything we can to make sure the U.S. and its policies are thoughtful when it comes to cutting edge discovery.  Check out this story from the LA Times.

White House to America: Help Wanted in Math and Science

(Jim Hock) "There is a sense of urgency."  Those are the words of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan when it comes to the issue of making sure America's kids are getting the right skills in STEM (science and math education).

Today the White House announced a $250 million public-private campaign to improve U.S. instruction and teacher training in these disciplines.  Why? Because our nation's economic future depends on our young people coming up with home-grown, cutting edge ideas that one day will create jobs. 

Coming from a liberal artsy writer type who was also a former teacher, the country desperately needs our kids on a wider basis to develop a stronger love of math, science, engineering and technology studies. This Educate to Innovate effort is important because with today's announcement, we are effectively doubling to $500 million efforts to improve STEM education.  That's enough for 10,000 new math and science teachers and training for 100,000 more teachers.

From the Washington Post, among many of initiatives, companies like Intel are stepping up to the plate by "committing $200 million in cash and in-kind support over 10 years for expanded teacher training and other measures. For instance, the company will offer nationwide an intensive 80-hour math course to help U.S. elementary school teachers, who are usually generalists, develop expertise. About 1,200 teachers from California, Arizona, Massachusetts and New Jersey have taken the course since 2007.”