As an East Coast tech hub, Raleigh, North Carolina, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Leaders there used the knowledge gained from two reports by TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program to develop a draft Balanced Scorecard, which was then refined, approved, and implemented. Impacts on Practice: Measuring Success at Raleigh–Durham International Airport summarizes how RDU now better connects its strategic goals to its practices, tracks the right metrics, and develop...

COVID-19 has shone a very bright light on the importance of widely available, affordable broadband. Nearly 42 million Americans lack access to any broadband whatsoever--double FCC estimates. And millions more can't afford service thanks to a lack of competition among very powerful, government pampered telecom monopolies.

As usual, with political pressure mounting to "do something," DC's solution is going to be to throw more money at the problem:

"The plan unveiled Thursday would inject $80 billion over five years into expansion of broadband infrastructure into neglected rural, suburban and urban areas, with an emphasis on communities with high levels of poverty. It includes measures to promote rapid building of internet systems, such as low-interest financing for infrastructure projects."

To be clear, subsidies often do help shore up broadband availability at coverage. The problem is that the United States government, largely captured by telecom giants with a vested interest in protecting regional monopolies, utterly sucks at it.

Despite ample pretense to the contrary, nobody in the US government actually knows where broadband is currently available. Data supplied by ISPs has never been rigorously fact-checked by a government fearful of upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors (and valued NSA partners). As a result, our very expensive ($350 million at last count) FCC broadband coverage map creates a picture of availability and speed that's complete fantasy. It's theater designed to disguise the fact that US broadband is mediocre on every broadband metric that matters. Especially cost.

While there has been some effort to fix the mapping problem via recent legislation, the FCC still needs several years (and more money) to do so. And while you'd think this would be more obvious, you can't fix a problem you can't even effectively measure. There's also not much indication that the $80 billion, while potentially well intentioned, would actually get where it needs to go. Especially right now, when federal oversight is effectively nonexistent.

You may or may not have noticed this, but US telecom is a corrupt, monopolized mess. Giants like AT&T and Comcast all but own state and federal legislatures and, in many instances, literally write the law. Feckless regulators bend over backward to avoid upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors. So when subsidies are doled out, they very often don't end up where regulators and lawmakers intended. There's an endless ocean of examples where these giants took billions in taxpayer subsidies to deploy fiber networks that are never fully delivered.

If you were to do meaningful audit (which we've never done because again we're not willing to adequately track the problem or stand up to dominant incumbent corporations) you'd very likely find that American taxpayers already paid for fiber to every home several times over.

That's not to say is that there aren't things Congress could do to help the disconnected during COVID-19. Libraries for example have been begging the FCC for the ability to offer expanded WiFi hotspot access (via mobile school buses) to disconnected communities without running afoul of FCC ERate rules. But while the FCC said libraries can leave existing WiFi on without penalty, it has been mute about whether they can extend coverage outside of library property. Why? As a captured agency, the FCC doesn't like anything that could potentially result in Comcast or AT&T making less money.

None of this is to say that we shouldn't subsidize broadband deployment once we get a handle on the mapping problem. But it's a fantasy to think we're going to immediately fix a 30 year old problem with an additional $80 billion in a mad dash during a pandemic. US broadband dysfunction was built up over decades. It's the product of corruption and rot that COVID-19 is exposing at every level of the US government. The only way to fix it is to stand up to industry, initiate meaningful reform, adopt policies that drive competition to market, and jettison feckless lawmakers and regulators whose dominant motivation is in protecting AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Spectrum revenues.

Maybe the pandemic finally provides the incentive to actually do that, but until the US does, these subsidization efforts are largely theater.

In this paper (winner of the eCrime 2019 Best Paper award), we consider the types of things that can go wrong when you intend to make things better and more secure. Consider this scenario. You are browsing through Internet and see a news headline on one of the presidential candidates. You are unsure if the … Continue reading Identifying Unintended Harms of Cybersecurity Countermeasures →

Microsoft, Cisco, Google etc gang up to form Open RAN Policy Coalition

Some of America’s super-corps have remembered how the US became the dominant global technology force it is, and have vowed to use innovation over threats to counter Chinese dominance in 5G markets.…

One has the vulns, the other has the brass neck to pull off heists. Right?

Russia might begin carrying out cyber attacks against Britain's 5G networks "at the behest of China", the chairman of a Parliamentary Select Committee has ventured.…

Multinationals' UK arms pair up to take on Voda and former state-owned telco

Telcos Telefónica and Liberty Global today confirmed plans to join their O2 UK and Virgin Media subsidiaries into one combined entity in a deal analysts branded a "blockbuster merger".…

Switchzilla issues a whopping 30+ patches in time for the long UK weekend

Cisco has emitted a fresh round of software updates to address nearly three dozen security holes in its products.…

Opposition spokesman on tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill, is calling for an investigation into allegations that some employers of tourism workers have not been turning over income tax deductions to government.  The situation has resulted in...

Accept your self-improvement!

Erowid Exp108047

On the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur quotes passages from Bob Woodward's book, "The Price of Politics", quoting statements made by President Obama proving that he intends to cut entitlements like social security, medicare, and medicaid. Continue reading →

A year ago this month the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the banking giant JPMorgan Chase would avoid criminal charges by agreeing to pay $13 billion to settle claims that it had routinely overstated the quality of mortgages it … Continue reading →

SANDERS: ... there is more coverage about the political gossip of a campaign, about raising money, about polling, about somebody saying something dumb, or some kid works for a campaign sends out something stupid on Facebook, right? We can expect that to be a major story. But what your job is, what the media's job is, is to say, look, these are the major issues facing the country. We're a democracy. People have different points of view. Let's argue it. Continue reading →

My kids have solved some easy treasure hunts, but when my oldest daughter turned eleven, I figured she was ready for something a bit more challenging.

The perfect post-slumber-party party activity

IBM Security today announced the results of a global study exploring the factors and challenges of being a Cyber Resilient organization. The study was conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM Resilient and found that 77 percent of respondents admit they do not have a formal cyber security incident response plan (CSIRP) applied consistently across their organization. Nearly half of the 2800 respondents reported that their incident response plan is either informal/ad hoc or completely non-existent.

IBM anunció hoy que un 40% de los principales bancos e instituciones financieras en el país cuentan con protección de fraudes en línea que se sustentan en la solución Trusteer de IBM, con la cual la seguridad de los clientes está respaldada al realizar transacciones electrónicas.

El 67% de los usuarios en todo el mundo se siente actualmente cómodo utilizando tecnologías biométricas (lectura de huella dactilar, escaneado de retina y reconocimiento facial o de voz) para acceder a sus aplicaciones, según el estudio IBM Security Future of Identity elaborado por IBM.

IBM Security anunció los resultados de un estudio global que explora los factores y desafíos de ser una organización ciberresiliente. El estudio encontró que el 77% de los encuestados admiten no tener un plan formal de respuesta a incidentes de seguridad cibernética (CSIRP) aplicado sistemáticamente en toda su organización. Casi la mitad de los encuestados informaron que su plan de respuesta a incidentes es informal o completamente inexistente.

IBM Security anunció hoy los resultados de un estudio global que examina el impacto financiero de una violación de datos en los resultados de una empresa. El estudio descubrió que los costos ocultos en las brechas de datos, como la pérdida de negocios, el impacto negativo en la reputación y el tiempo empleado en la recuperación, son difíciles y costosos de administrar. Por ejemplo, encontró que un tercio del costo de las mega infracciones (más de 1 millón de registros perdidos) se derivan del negocio perdido.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) a annoncé aujourd'hui une nouvelle plateforme communautaire basée sur le Cloud pour les applications de cybersécurité. IBM Security Connect est la première plateforme Cloud de sécurité reposant sur des technologies fédérées ouvertes, avec l'IA en son centre, pour analyser les données de sécurité sur des outils et des environnements non connectés auparavant.

L’entité sécurité d’IBM a annoncé aujourd'hui les résultats d'une étude mondiale sondant le niveau de préparation des organisations en matière de résistance à une cyberattaque et de récupération ensuite. L'étude, menée par le Ponemon Institute et sponsorisée par IBM Resilient, a révélé qu'une grande majorité des organisations interrogées ne sont toujours pas prêtes à répondre de façon adéquate aux incidents de cybersécurité, 77% des personne interrogées indiquant qu'ils n'ont pas de plan de réponse aux incidents de cybersécurité appliqué de manière cohérente dans l’ensemble de l'organisation.

Des avancées technologiques qui permettent d'accroître encore le leadership du mainframe et en font le système incontournable pour traiter les données critiques des entreprises

aufeminin.com a choisi la solution de Bouygues Telecom Entreprises pour sa simplicité d’utilisation et sa sécurité

IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) warns against a new wave of security threats during the holidays and provides guidance on how consumers and businesses can protect themselves.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the launch of the IBM Institute for Advanced Security in Asia-Pacific, an expansion of its company-wide initiative to provide governments, businesses and other key organisations with a forum to collaborate with IBM’s global network of security research, services, software and technology experts.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the IBM National Cyber Security Centre in Canberra (NCSC). The NCSC aims to foster greater collaboration with government and business aligned to Australia’s new national Cyber Security Strategy. IBM has appointed Kevin Zuccato, one of Australia’s most experienced cyber security experts to lead the NCSC, where he will oversee a team of cyber security specialists. The team will work within Australia’s cyber security eco-system to ensure a strategic and proactive approach to cyber resilience.

IBM Security today announced a new capability from IBM Trusteer that helps banks identify fraudulent accounts before they are opened. The technology also protects consumers even if they are not a customer of the bank being targeted with the fake account.

Next quarter, starting March 30, I will be teaching “Math 247B: Classical Fourier Analysis” here at UCLA.  (The course should more accurately be named “Modern real-variable harmonic analysis”, but we have not gotten around to implementing such a name change.) This class (a continuation of Math 247A from previous quarter, taught by my colleague, Monica […]

Event cancellations at local bodies due to COVID-19 will reduce revenue, but not rent and other fixed expenses. Many local bodies already operate on extremely tight margins and struggle to pay their bills even during normal times. All members are encouraged to continue to financially support their local bodies, even if there are no events …

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In an emergency having clean drinking water is vital to your survival. If your emergency supply runs out you need to know how to purify water. To do that you have three options 1. Boiling 2. Distillation 3. Chlorination

Living Room Lifesavers brings lifesaving skills to the home during social isolation  Great Lakes Advocate

1. Jackie Trad to stand aside from ministerial duties  Courier Mail
2. Queensland Deputy Premier to stand aside from ministerial duties over corruption probe | ABC News  ABC News (Australia)
3. Queensland Treasurer Jackie Trad stands aside as CCC investigates  NEWS.com.au
4. Editorial: Premier, Queensland needs a new treasurer now  Courier Mail
5. Analysis: Latest investigation not a good look for Jackie Trad  Courier Mail
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Josh Kelly suffered from epilepsy, a brain disorder that forced him to drop out of high school nine days before graduation. For nearly a decade, Kelly attended Idaho State University working toward a degree in geology, with his service dog, a black pit bull named Cletus, by his side. The pair would dutifully walk two miles both ways to catch the bus to campus.

Unfortunately, Kelly passed away in February just two classes shy of his degree. Nonetheless, ISU granted him a posthumous degree on May 10. In the young man's place, Kelly's tearful father, Terrell, walked across the stage with Cletus by his side and accepted the diploma.

Social Security Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government that is tasked with managing a number of devolved benefits to improve the lives of Scottish people.

These benefits include pregnancy and baby payment, Carers' Allowance, disability benefit and housing and heating support.

Michael McEwan spoke to Rachael McKechnie about Social Security Scotland's work to date and its ambitions for the future.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

Thousands of strangers working together, almost entirely online, to effectively solve an urgent, global challenge is remarkable—and it’s happening, right now. Recently, we published a post titled, “Open-Source Medical Hardware: What You Should Know and What You Can Do” examining the collaborative efforts by volunteer groups, universities, and research centers to solve the medical supply … Read More "Just One Giant Lab Co-Founder Leo Blondel on the Power of Community and Open Source During COVID-19"

The post Just One Giant Lab Co-Founder Leo Blondel on the Power of Community and Open Source During COVID-19 appeared first on Creative Commons.

Meet the Shadow team in charge of developing an app meant to help tally the votes from the Iowa caucus on Monday night. The purpose of the app was to help the process run more smoothly, but in the end it proved to be a complete and utter disaster, as precinct chairs supposedly couldn't get the app to actually work, in turn causing a delay in reporting.

The delay was blamed on "inconsistencies" in reporting, but honestly, who really knows what the truth is.

The team is reportedly run by people who worked on Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. Additionally, 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg's campaign paid the tech firm over $40,000 in 2019 leading many to suspect foul play.

But this is America, and we can't possibly have problems with corruption, right?

As of right now, we still don't have all the results from the caucus, so while you continue to anxiously refresh the New York Times page, have some hot Twitter takes on the people (rats) behind Shadow, Inc.

Pottercast is back for conclumdrum conjuration as they attempt to answer your burning questions from the Wizarding World!

Episode 268 — Conjuring Conclumdrums

Pottercast is hosted by Melissa Anelli, John Noe, Frankie Franco, and Zack Luye.

Find the latest episode and explore Pottercast interviews, discussions and more at Pottercast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizarding World.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, a call came from the Community Outreach Coordinator in my town seeking volunteers to assist with a newly implemented meal share program. To ensure no residents would be hungry while stay-at-home orders are in

The overused understatement of the decade is, “This is an unprecedented time.” While the coronavirus outbreak has turned our lives into something none of us likely ever imagined, one fundamental life safety truth remains: THERE IS NO

  COVID-19 is having an immediate and drastic impact on the construction industry with job sites being abandoned and workers being furloughed. A byproduct of these unprecedented pandemic-related changes has been the demobilization of

The number of vulnerable adults reported to protection agencies in Dundee by police doubled to more than 2,300 in just two years.

Increasing demand “may impact negatively” on Angus social work services unless it is matched by greater resources. That’s the warning sounded by Angus Council’s chief social work officer Tim Armstrong.

If we do some digging into the revision archives of the National Electrical Code (NEC), we can pretty much trace every requirement to one thing: saving lives! That is why the NEC exists; its purpose, the practical safeguarding of persons and property

We find 3 new hires for every 10 layoffs caused by the shock and estimate that 42 percent of recent layoffs will result in permanent job loss. That is from a new paper by Jose Maria Barrero, Nick Bloom, and Steven J. Davis, top experts on this and related topics.  As for policy: Unemployment benefit […]

The post Labor market restructuring and its possible permanence appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.