Jonathan Make

FTC commissioners OK'd along party lines a recommendation for staff to focus on tech and several other areas over a decade, the agency announced about 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The eight points of focus include "Acts or Practices Affecting Children," "Bias in Algorithms and Biometrics," "Deceptive and Manipulative Conduct on the Internet," "Repair Restrictions" and "Abuse of Intellectual Property."

ASPEN, Colorado -- Even before the Technology Policy Institute conference began, this week's event stood apart on coronavirus safety precautions from others we surveyed in the communications sector. A few weeks before the annual gathering, organizers emailed attendees a list of safety mandates, including wearing masks regardless of vaccination status, social distancing and some speeches held outdoors, exceeding government mandates. Also unlike other conferences, this one had all meals but one outside.

The FCC high-cost USF fund was scrutinized at the Technology Policy Institute (TPI) conference in Aspen, Colorado. Many said more-accurate broadband maps will help to spend the government money more efficiently. And "you got to get real maps of broadband" before spending infrastructure funds, said Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen. Otherwise, "you end up with very inefficient, wasteful spending," he said Monday. Eventually, "where you have electricity, you’re going to have fiber," he said. "I think that’s the end goal and that’s probably a 20-year process." Some got FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund money for areas devoid of people, Ergen and others noted. "The FCC is doing the right thing because hopefully without penalty, they will let people turn in the money" they could have received from RDOF in places they won't build out (see 2108130061), he said. "I hope companies are responsible and do it," he said of bid withdrawals. RDOF's problem is how areas were defined, not with the auction itself, said Stanford University Director-Public Policy Greg Rosston. "The mapping problem has got to get solved," he told a later TPI panel. To assist with effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, "the good news is it is billions" of dollars in broadband aid, said National Urban League Chief Operating Officer Donald Cravins. "We’ve come a long way in a short time. But we’ve lost a lot of lives." It's "an opportunity for us in America" and "we’ve got to get it right," he said. "I don’t know that we can afford to get it wrong again." The U.S. may never get 100% to get broadband, said Duke University economics professor Michelle Connolly. Even with landline phones, the country never got to 100%, responded TPI President Scott Wallsten.

Comcast's cybersecurity strategies include assessing how the company might be affected by major breaches like those against Colonial Pipeline and T-Mobile, said Chief Product and Information Security Officer Noopur Davis. She spoke Tuesday in Aspen, Colorado, at the Technology Policy Institute conference, where the previous day, the incident at T-Mobile was discussed and disclosed; see our reports here and here. "Immediately, yesterday, I had to step out of some of these sessions" at TPI when she heard of the data hacks against T-Mobile, Davis said: "My immediate, emotional response to seeing something like T-Mobile in the news is sympathy and empathy," and "it could happen to any of us." The reported incident spurred Comcast to look at "how did these threat actors get into T-Mobile" and are there "things that could impact us," Davis said. "Our surface is enormous" for possible attacks at Comcast, she added. "You have to start looking at that entire ecosystem." T-Mobile didn't comment on her remarks, saying it had no update on the incident. Davis also spoke to TPI about her company's cybersecurity strategy (see 2108170054).

Staying flexible to respond to cybersecurity issues is part of Comcast's strategy, said Chief Product and Information Security Officer Noopur Davis. A key question is "how do I build a capability to respond to changes?" she said in Q&A at the Technology Policy Institute conference in Aspen, Colorado. "The threat landscape is literally changing multiple times a day," with many new vulnerabilities, added Davis. And each one "can be exploited numerous different ways," she told TPI Tuesday. Some 100 million devices are in Comcast customer homes, and that's increasing as IoT devices are added, Davis said. "The security of those devices is super important," she continued. "That’s where their digital lives are being conducted," she said of subscribers. In cybersecurity, "we are trying our best, but we are always a few bad luck things away from something bad happening," Davis said. She said when the novel coronavirus began to spread in the U.S. last year and schools moved to virtual learning, some distributed denial of service cyber incidents against schools followed. She called it "the fire alarm of 2020," referring to when students trigger a school alarm to get out of class. Students seeking to launch attacks now "can go buy DDoS attacks as a service," Davis said. She also spoke to TPI about her company's response to T-Mobile's data breach (see 2108170050).

ASPEN, Colorado -- The Facebook oversight board may gradually expand its membership and could theoretically double from 20, the Technology Policy Institute was told Monday. More members could handle additional cases, TPI heard. Though there's no current plan to vastly increase its size, some members probably will be added, including later this year, the Facebook panel's representatives told us on the event's sidelines.

ASPEN, Colorado -- Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen hopes to settle with T-Mobile over the satellite-TV company's concerns that the wireless carrier plans to turn off an older 3G network that serves Dish prepaid customers. Ergen told a Technology Policy Institute event he thinks something could be worked out. It's a message he repeated in a brief encounter with a T-Mobile representative who approached him afterward. Ergen also noted he hadn't heard of any T-Mobile data breach (see 2108160056).

States having passed new, bipartisan laws on cybersecurity, privacy and other issues gives Colorado’s attorney general optimism that Congress can do similar. Opening the Technology Policy Institute conference in Aspen, Colorado AG Phil Weiser (D) noted there haven't been recent new U.S. laws on such areas, despite “strong bipartisan support“ on data privacy legislation in states, including here in Colorado, and cybersecurity “wake-up calls“ with breaches of Colonial Pipeline and others. “We cannot give up hope“ on getting such federal laws, he said Sunday night. Political polarization “makes it harder for people to work together to solve problems,“ he noted. “We worry about this hyper-extreme“ divide. He hopes historic norms return in terms of “collaboration“ and “problem-solving." Weiser called the U.S. Senate-approved $1 trillion infrastructure bill with broadband money “a very modest step forward.“ Asked by an audience member about big tech scrutiny, he said it's “a moment that feels a lot like" circa 1900, when there were public worries about corporate control. “Why shouldn’t we have requirements for transparency” with online political ad disclosure, akin to what broadcast stations must do, Weiser asked. Answering a question about robocalls, Weiser said, “We have had bipartisan collaboration," as “everybody hates robocalls." He noted the Trace Act means big carriers have now implemented Stir/Shaken and he hopes smaller carriers do so quickly. The month-over-month decline in robocalls is encouraging, but fraudulent texting has increased, Weisser told TPI: “You’ve got to continue to have what they call constant” vigilance.

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen hadn't heard from T-Mobile about any data breach, he told the Technology Policy Institute Monday. At around that same time, T-Mobile said it's investigating such claims and suggested a hack may have occurred. “We take the protection of our customers very seriously and we are conducting an extensive analysis alongside digital forensic experts to understand the validity of these claims, and we are coordinating with law enforcement,” the carrier emailed. “We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred, however we have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved. We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed.” T-Mobile didn't immediately say if it subsequently communicated with Dish, which has prepaid wireless customers divested as part of T-Mobile's buying Sprint on the T-Mobile network. Speaking in Aspen, Colorado, Ergen noted there are about 9 million such customers. In general, such hacks “are too common” an occurrence, he said. Telecom networks are “particularly susceptible” to intrusions, Ergen said. “It's why the government is properly looking at Chinese vendors.” With Dish's wireless network construction, it's “trying to build [security] in on the front end,” Ergen said. “To the extent” a data break-in took place, he said, “we’ll have to deal with it.” Ergen also hopes to settle a 3G network phaseout issue with T-Mobile, he told TPI (see 2108160057). “The key is to work together” with government on cybersecurity, Ergen said. “We’ve asked for it. We’re open to help.” He likes “the partnership with government when it comes to security. We’re open to it, and we’re happy to share what we’re doing.”

Lumen agreed to sell its incumbent LEC business in 20 states to Apollo Global Management for $7.5 billion including debt assumption, the telco announced about 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The carrier would retain its ILEC assets in 16 states, plus its national fiber routes and competitive LEC networks.