Real estate developer Reed Cordish, joining the Trump administration as assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives (see the Jan. 18 edition of this publication), will focus on priority projects and work with private sector forums, spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday. He said Cordish, partner with Cordish Cos., will be responsible for initiatives requiring multiagency collaboration and will "focus on technological innovation and modernization." During the transition, Cordish directed agency beachhead teams, which "are individuals that go in on day one in the various agencies to make sure that we are ready in the various areas of the departments and agencies," noted Spicer. He also said Chris Liddell, a former Microsoft chief financial officer, will become assistant to the president and director-strategic initiative. Liddell, CFO for talent agency WME-IMG, will focus on priority projects and work with private sector forums, said Spicer. During the transition, Liddell, who also was CFO and vice chairman of General Motors, was special adviser on presidential appointments, the spokesman said.

PwC will host a webinar Wednesday on the local number portability administrator transition from Neustar to Telcordia/iconectiv, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice in docket 09-109 listed in Friday's Daily Digest. Interested parties can register for the 3-4 p.m. EST webinar here. PwC is the transition oversight manager of North American Portability Management, the industry consortium charged by the commission with carrying out the LNPA transition. FCC bureau chiefs recently endorsed a NAPM draft nondisclosure agreement for resolving a confidentiality dispute with Neustar (see 1701060065). They asked the parties to finalize by Tuesday that agreement or one that precisely mirrors existing nondisclosure provisions in the current LNPA contract that Neustar accepted. A Neustar legal challenge to the FCC decision choosing Telcordia is also becoming ripe for a decision any Tuesday or Friday, based on the track record of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Four months ago, D.C. Circuit judges sparred with both sides in oral argument (see 1609130031).

The federal government can reduce its operational costs by more than $1 trillion over the next decade by adopting cognitive computing systems and cloud technologies to improve efficiency, the Technology CEO Council said Thursday in a report aimed at the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump. TCC's paper aims to demonstrate that agencies' adoption of current technologies will improve government cybersecurity, efficiency and responsiveness to citizens. “We are living through a period of profound change, where cognitive computing systems and the efficiency of the cloud are transforming entire industries,” said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty in a TCC news release. “Advanced information technologies are providing dramatic competitive advantages to businesses in virtually every industry imaginable,” said TCC Chairman Mark Durcan, CEO of Micron Technology. “We see clear and proven implementation paths where our federal government can take advantage of these same efficiencies. Modernizing our infrastructure is critical to our future as a nation.”

The FCC warned consumers to be on guard against credit card calling scams involving false offers of lower payments or interest rates, debt relief or improved credit scores. The scammers are active after the holidays when consumers carry more debt, said the commission, noting it received increasing consumer complaints about parties offering debt relief or refinancing opportunities to reduce account balances or interest rates. "Some of these callers falsely claim to be monitoring the consumer’s credit or loan payment history," said an agency alert Tuesday. "The victim is illegally asked for credit card numbers or personally identifiable information in false attempts to 'help,' then is threatened, harassed, or intimidated if they refuse to comply with the scammer’s demands. These scammers then attempt to use the account information to make unauthorized purchases or access funds for fraudulent purposes." The alert offered various tips, including to take down the phone numbers of scam calls, join the Do Not Call registry to block telemarketing calls, pursue robocall-blocking solutions, and file complaints with the FCC, FTC, local police and other authorities.

The FCC Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC) scheduled its first 2017 meeting for March 16-17 at commission headquarters, said a Tuesday public notice. Chairman Tom Wheeler named Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) chair of the 2017-2019 IAC, with Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz his representative. Wheeler named Lenexa, Kansas, City Council Member Andy Huckaba vice chair. The FCC reauthorized the committee for another two years in September (see 1609290069). IAC meetings are closed to the public.

Federal appellate judges reversed and remanded a lower court ruling that granted a Verizon arbitration motion in a contract dispute with a customer over an early termination fee. "The district court erred by failing to fully apply Virginia law as per the parties’ clear intent reflected in the contractual choice of law provision in [a] 2010 Agreement," said the per curiam opinion Thursday of a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Jason Klein v. Verizon, No. 14-1660). Klein in 2010 contracted with Verizon and subsidiaries to receive internet and phone services, agreeing to initial terms of service, including a "choice of law" provision saying Virginia law governed any contractual dispute, said the opinion. They agreed to new terms of service in 2011 with the same "choice of law" provision, but first Klein terminated the 2010 agreement, leading Verizon to charge him a $135 early termination fee (ETF). The company in 2012 emailed Klein to notify him of term changes, including a new provision to arbitrate disputes. Klein then filed a class-action complaint alleging Verizon's ETF violated Virginia law, and the carrier moved to compel arbitration under the 2012 notification. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria granted the telco motion, saying the 2012 notification terms controlled the dispute. "We take issue with the path the district court took to reach this conclusion," the 4th Circuit panel wrote. "It failed to abide by the choice of law provision in the 2010 Agreement and apply Virginia law to the question of whether the 2010 Agreement was, in fact, modified by the 2012 Notification. Therefore, we remand with instructions that the district court apply Virginia law, pursuant to the 2010 Agreement, to determine whether that agreement was effectively modified." The opinion was listed as "unpublished," meaning it doesn't set binding precedent in the circuit.

Columbia University, Intuitive Research and Technology and Abside Networks joined the National Spectrum Consortium, while Expression Networks, Hughes Network Systems, Disney-ABC TV Group, Constellation Data Systems, Shenandoah Research and Technology, Ideal Innovations, Arizona State University, Haigh-Farr, RWC and Metric Systems have left, said a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register. Broadcom left the DVD Copy Control Association, said a separate notice.

The FCC tentatively set March 21 for its Disability Advisory Committee's next meeting, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the commission meeting room, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Thursday. Subsequent meetings are tentatively targeted for mid-June and mid-October.

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson's “exit memo” to mark the impending close of President Barack Obama's administration noted “tangible improvements” to the DHS' record on cybersecurity during the Obama administration and said “more work remains.” DHS was one of several federal agencies that touted cybersecurity progress in their exit memos. The Department of Commerce noted the success of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated Cybersecurity Framework (see 1701050012). DHS' cyber progress includes the establishment and growth of the department's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, Johnson said in his memo. NCCIC's mission expanded last year after the 2015 Cybersecurity Act mandated that the center become the main civilian hub for cyber information sharing. Seventy-four entities, including 12 federal agencies, were connected to NCCIC's automated indicator sharing platform as of October, Johnson said. DHS established an “aggressive timetable” for improving federal agencies' cybersecurity under Obama's Cybersecurity National Action Plan, including work on agencies' adoption of the Einstein 3A cyber monitoring program, Johnson said. DHS also successfully established the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team and is an active participant in international cybersecurity partnerships, Johnson said.

President-elect Donald Trump has said little about cryptography directly, but he made it "very clear" he was on the side of the FBI during its court battle to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by a mass shooter (see 1607260037), wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Nate Cardozo in blog post reviewing crypto law activity in 2016. He quoted Trump as saying, “'To think that Apple won't allow us to get into [the shooter's] cellphone? . . . Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it up.' He also called for a boycott of Apple until Apple caved. But like so much else, Trump has offered no specifics." Cardozo said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump's pick for attorney general, "is widely speculated to be anti-crypto," although the senator has offered no specifics. On the FBI vs. Apple fight, Cardozo wrote Monday that if the law enforcement agency had won, the U.S. government could have gotten legal authority to order American tech companies to create back doors into their products (see 1612210005). "Indeed, the FBI’s demand was never about 'just that one phone' and was all about creating legal precedent," he said.