News of Note — FCC Issues Preliminary VoIP and Broadband Outage Reporting Rules

Steve Coran points out that the FCC is serious about outage reporting requirements for broadband and VoIP. It has posted the schedule for comments on its proposed rulemaking as well as the proposed rules.

Business

Smartphone users now average 435 MB of data usage per month. Will the cellcos wilt under the pressure? Will they finally stop thwarting the use of Wi-Fi networks for data?

Singapore’s SingTel will prioritize data used by its premium tier customers.

Technology and equipment

Arris demonstrated 4.5 Gbps bandwidth cable connections at the NCTA show, but commentators noted that in order to achieve that speed, the company had to use bandwidth usually reserved for TV channels.

Butch Evans noted that much of the coverage of IPv6 day was filled with ignorance and hysteria, and pointed to an article from The Register that made fun of the foolishness.

Politics, regulation, and the law

Karl Bode says that AT&T has purchased the support of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association who now say that ranchers need its cellular service.

The Federal government’s DIB Cyber Pilot program seeks to enlist ISPs in the fight against cyber security threats (h/t Slashdot). The DIB is a long-running program seeking to protect vendors who deliver services to sensitive parts of the U.S. government.

The Senate wants to make unauthorized streaming a felony.

FCC Chair Genachowski says he may delete the fairness doctrine that has required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints, just in time for 2012.

A Federal court ruled that public schools may punish students for speech that occurs off campus.

Congress has proposed laws that would require the government to obtain warrants in order to access GPS data.

The FTC approved the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft.

Japan’s parliament made it a crime to create a computer virus.

Crime and security

The US Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team says that some SCADA software made in China is not secure.

New malware tries to steal Bitcoin, a virtual currency.

An intrusion at Citi netted 200,000 credit cards.

Beware of ACH theft. A Federal judge ruled that a bank was not liable when thieves stole $300,000 from a business in Maine. “Ultimately, he determined that Patco was responsible for the loss, because it had not better secured its account credentials.”

The school-issued laptop webcam scandal continues.

Sophos’ bloggers regularly use stories like this one to ask people to update their anti-virus software. Under the headline Please update your anti-virus…at least once every five years (h/t Slashdot), Graham Cluley writes that the MyDoom worm, first released in 2004, is still spreading, likely due to out of date security software or due to completely unsecured PCs. “Clearly there will always be computers out there which aren’t running any anti-virus protection, or which haven’t been updated since the 1990s. Don’t forget, we see approximately 100,000 new pieces of malware every single day. If you haven’t updated your anti-virus since 2004 then…well, I don’t even like to think about it.”

Medicine

Many WISPs are working with electronic medical initiatives such as EMRs and databases. Now comes news that the overuse and misuse of antibiotics (perhaps in soaps) means that disease may be a killer in the future as it was in the past before the discovery of antibiotics.