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'Net Insider

By Scott Bradner

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Bradner is Harvard University's Technology Security Officer. Reach him at sob@sobco.com.

Apple as an obsessive-compulsive case study: 11/09/09; Apple's take-it-like-we-serve-it attitude hits close to home for columnist Scott Bradner in light of a friend's medical product research
Is a neutral net within the power of the FCC?: 10/28/09; Questioning whether new FCC network neutrality rulemaking process produces a legally supportable set of rules
Danger, Inc: living up to its name: 10/14/09; Let's say that you wanted to warn people that there are real risks in cloud computing - what would you do? You could tell them that a feature of the cloud is that you cannot be sure of the reliability of other cloud participants, or maybe even know who they are. But who would pay attention to a Chicken Little crying that there is nothing holding the clouds up in the sky?
Legally arrived at principles for ISPs?: 09/28/09; About a year ago I lamented that the FCC supported neutrality on the Internet. Not that I thought carriers should be able to treat customers' traffic unfairly, but the FCC had acted without proper authority. The issue of a lack of authority may be about to be fixed, and if that happens the FCC will be faced with another question: If it can act, when should it do so?
Do Internet micropayments emit enough of a siren song?: 09/15/09; Google is offering a new micropayment scheme that purportedly will help newspapers. But will it really?
An Internet civics lesson?: 09/08/09; The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just published the latest of its explorations on how the Internet is affecting us. The latest study confirms what many observers have assumed -- the Internet, or at least social Web sites, get more people involved in things political.
Human and computer viruses are both security risks: 08/31/09; In any case there is likely to be a lot of additional employees wanting to, or needing to, work from home. Are you ready?
Apple App Store and Google Voice: move may not be as capricious as it seemed: 08/24/09; A few weeks ago I wrote about the first round of fallout that resulted from the press reports that Apple had rejected a Google Voice application after Google tried to add it to the App Store.
U.S. broadband program - too much like old times?: 08/17/09; If I sounded a bit positive in my last column about the state of part of the U.S. government bureaucracy, I will make up for that this week.
The birth of an activist FCC?: 08/03/09; The latest news out of the normally sluggish FCC is quite a change of pace. Just three days after The New York Times ran a story on Apple refusing to carry Google Voice in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone the FCC started asking questions about it. Yes, the FCC was looking to dance without even waiting to be asked. I'm a bit worried for the toes of its reluctant dancing partners.
Amazon fails to remember the physical: 07/21/09; This column is not really about Amazon violating its own terms of service by deleting e-books that its Kindle customers had purchased. Most commentators are painting Amazon's actions as some sort of isolated brain fart, but I think it's not actually an Amazon-specific problem.
Guessable SSNs -- but is that the real problem?: 07/16/09; Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University report that they can sometimes guess a person's Social Security number and the press goes nuts. This is actually a good thing (the press going nuts that is).
Broadband subsidy: too much money, but mostly well targeted: 07/06/09; A few weeks ago I aired my worries about how the broadband funding in the Federal stimulus package was going to be spent. The government has now released documentation on that part of the package, and so far things look mostly OK.
How cellular handset exclusivity fails: 06/29/09; I suppose that some people did buy iPhones because the phones worked on the AT&T cellular network. This is supposition on my part because I have not seen any articles claiming this to be the case nor have I read any blogs commentaries that support the concept.
The Internet and revolution: 06/25/09; It is too early to know if what is now going on in Iran is actually the start of a revolution in that country. Much of the western media and many commentators seem to think (or, maybe, hope) that is the case.
It's the Internet, stupid: 06/17/09; Response to FCC Notice of Inquiry: Spending government money on broadband is not all that good unless broadband's synonymous for "Internet".
Apple announcements good but incremental: 06/10/09; Apple's upgrades to its laptop and iPhone product lines this week were no game changers but strengthened already strong offerings. I do wonder if Apple still has something up its sleeve, but it's clear from what also happened this week that AT&T does not.
Cybersecurity: What will the attention span be this time?: 06/02/09; The idea that the White House would be interested in cybersecurity is not new. At least since former President Bush appointed Richard Clarke as National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counterterrorism there has been some level of attention to this topic. But this attention has seemed to fade quite quickly after someone is appointed to a high-level cybersecurity czar-like role. Most people who have taken on that role have quickly quit in frustration.
Verizon: incompetent training or corporate indifference?: 05/26/09; The news story sounded awful. A Verizon operator had refused to help police find a subscriber who was missing and likely in need of medical assistance because he was behind on his bill. One of many headlines said it all: "Verizon willing to let 62-year-old man die unless cops pay $20 of his overdue bill." I have no idea what actually happened, but what interests me is that it is entirely believable that someone working for Verizon would do something like this.
Sony: wishing to be in a different world?: 05/19/09; Clearly there are many places that are essentially Internet-free, but the Internet is a major factor in most of the developed world. Not everyone is all that happy with the impact. Dictators are threatened by the Internet as an information channel, moralists decry the availability of porn, regulators are scared of the unpredictability of innovation and some businesses have trouble understanding or dealing with the shifting technology.
Are your Web site's terms of service illusory and unenforceable?: 05/11/09; You may have noticed that the terms of service agreements for many Web sites are a bit one-sided. The user gets to use the service but only at the deference of the Web site operator. In addition, operators reserve the right to change terms whenever they want to and users agree to abide by future versions even if they do not know there has been any change.
The good cyberattack: 05/05/09; NRC report deals with policy issues of the United States mounting cyberattacks on bad guys, other countries.
Cloud computing security: Who knew?: 04/27/09; Security has not been much of a consideration in cloud computing --but that may be about to change.
The FBI as an ethical hacker?: 04/21/09; More details are emerging about how the FBI engages in hacking and the planting of spyware.
Third annual scare story about the national power system: 04/17/09; As far as the headline writers at the Wall Street Journal were concerned the battle was over and the U.S. electricity grid was under control by the enemy -- "Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies."