government Archive

  • The U.S. Federal Government wants to take control of the Internet during ‘imminent cyber threat’

    The U.S. Federal Government wants to take control of the Internet during ‘imminent cyber threat’

    Posted on June 3, 2010 | No Comments
    The federal government wants to take control of the Internet in the event of an "imminent cyber threat," as declared by the president. What constitutes an "imminent cyber threat"? You'd need two things: a known, pretty darn big flaw in the network and knowledge that someone was planning on exploiting that flaw. So, if you received a tip that, say, hackers working for the government of Rival Country were planning to exploit some Internet flaw in the next few hours, you'd call the president and say, "Hola. We have an imminent cyber threat on our hands. You need to give is the signal to protocol into place." And the president does, and the federal government is now all up in your Internet, connecting your tubes, etc.

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  • FCC task force seeks to squash ‘bill shock,’ give you the 411 on impending overages

    FCC task force seeks to squash ‘bill shock,’ give you the 411 on impending overages

    Posted on May 11, 2010 | No Comments
    Call us crazy, but it seems as if the FCC has been earning its keep of late, and the toiling continues today with an effort meant to address "bill shock." For those unaware, bill shock is a phenomena on par with bitter beer face in terms of significance, and it typically occurs when you accidentally roam internationally, text well beyond your monthly limit or burn through your minutes within the first week of your billing period. 'Course, some would argue that you -- as a functioning human being -- should keep tabs on how often you use your own mobile, but we wouldn't kvetch with a heads-up here and there so long as these alerts are cheap and easy to implement. As of today, the Consumer Task Force is listening for solutions, and while some carriers already ping you when you leave the country and are about to incur severe roaming charges, that practice is far from uniform. Too bad such a service would essentially nix your ability to play the ignorance card when you get back from that jaunt to Mexico, eh?

    Continue reading FCC task force seeks to squash 'bill shock,' give you the 411 on impending overages

    FCC task force seeks to squash 'bill shock,' give you the 411 on impending overages originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Government Accountability Office: Don’t believe piracy studies because they’re wicked flawed

    Government Accountability Office: Don’t believe piracy studies because they’re wicked flawed

    Posted on April 14, 2010 | No Comments
    You know how you read stories that say the U.S. loses X-amount of jobs per year due to piracy, or that this or that industry loses zillions of dollars per year because of piracy? The Government Accountability Office just released a new report that says that all of those reports are flawed and are completely worthless. In other words, the next time you hear the MPAA say “Downloading that DVD rip will ruin the movie industry” you can safely say, “Really? Where's the proof

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  • Tim Berners-Lee advocates for open data

    Tim Berners-Lee advocates for open data

    Posted on March 9, 2010 | No Comments
    Sir Tim Berners-Lee speaks at TED2010 about the value of open data.

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  • US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video)

    US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video)

    Posted on January 1, 2010 | No Comments
    European countries may have long ago banished the use of cellphones while driving to the dark side of the law, but many of the United States persist in allowing their citizens to talk while driving. One reason for their reluctance may be that outlawing something that has become second nature to most people would be both unproductive and tough to enforce. So what do you do? The natural alternative to forcing people to drive attentively is educating them of the reasons why. Never mind the fact that we all kinda, sorta know the risks we undertake while operating a Droid and a Dodge concurrently. The newly minted Distraction.gov is chockfull of scaremongering statistics, topped by a truly epic video which we've handily stashed for you just after the break. Go get it while it's hot.

    Continue reading US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video)

    US government launches Distraction.gov, wants to scare you straight (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Germany ousts BlackBerry for government VIPs

    Germany ousts BlackBerry for government VIPs

    Posted on November 30, 2009 | No Comments
    RIM may have recently opened a facility in Bochum, but that apparently wasn't enough Bavarian love to save it from being canned as the German government's platform of choice for its high-security needs. Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems has been selected to lead up an effort to procure "several thousand" customized handsets with mega-uncrackable encryption, winning the deal over the old BlackBerry standby thanks to concerns that state secrets are being transmitted overseas -- to Canada, specifically. Canada has always struck us as a pretty trustworthy bunch of good, hard-workingfolks, but then again, it's all fun and games until Canadian Motor Works, Canadawagen, Canada-Benz, and Canadorsche all come out of nowhere.

    [Thanks, Toby]

    Germany ousts BlackBerry for government VIPs originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Shocking: the NSA helped make Windows 7!!

    Shocking: the NSA helped make Windows 7!!

    Posted on November 19, 2009 | No Comments
    Okay, so I intentionally used a salacious headline to get your attention. It's Thursday. The NSA didn't really help make Windows 7. Rather, using their "unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities" the National Security Agency helped shape "Microsoft's operating system security guide", according to Richard Sharffer, Information Assurance Director at the NSA. The NSA works with other companies, like Red Hat, Apple, and Sun, too. The NSA started the Security Enhanced Linux initiative in 2003, so it should come as no surprise that they've been working to help secure Windows, too.

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  • Shock: TV association complaining about possible new California green regulations

    Shock: TV association complaining about possible new California green regulations

    Posted on October 19, 2009 | No Comments
    This California TV regulation thing isn't going to happen without a fight, no sir. Even though a bunch of LCD makers have said that they wouldn't have too much of a problem complying with whatever the California commission comes up with, the LCD TV Association has just applied the brakes, saying that any such regulation will ultimately result in “TVs that have fewer features.”

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  • Free laptops sent to government offices spurs FBI case

    Free laptops sent to government offices spurs FBI case

    Posted on August 28, 2009 | No Comments
    free laptopApparently it's not okay to send West Virginia's governor five free laptops. What a world! Governor Joe Manchin's office got a nice four-pack of Compaq laptops earlier this month, followed a week later by a fifth machine from HP. The only problem was that nobody in his office ordered them or paid for them.

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  • Guess why the big ISPs have refused broadband stimulus money

    Guess why the big ISPs have refused broadband stimulus money

    Posted on August 14, 2009 | No Comments
    There's two ways to look at the story that many of the country's biggest ISPs have refused government stimulus money for broadband infrastructure investment. One, the ISPs patently don't need the money, and are more than capable of delivering broadband to as many Americans as possible with their own capital. Two, the ISPs could use the money, but they'd prefer not to accept it lest they be beholden to all sorts of government-imposed restrictions, one of which relates to net neutrality.

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