Roy Mark

Spectrum once held by NextWave Telecom went on sale this morning with 35 wireless companies bidding for the 242 licenses. With more than 2400 MHz up for bids, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expects to reap billions from cell phone companies. The auction covers spectrum in Los Angeles and Denver as well as smaller markets […]

WASHINGTON — The 109th Congress renewed its efforts to pass a federal anti-spyware bill by targeting the malware menace in the very first meeting of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In October, the House passed anti-spyware legislation on a 399-1 vote, but the measure never came up in the Senate. “By getting a much […]

The entertainment industry urged the U.S. Supreme Court Monday afternoon not to give the companies developing peer-to-peer (P2P) music file swapping software a “perpetual free pass” to engage in “mind-boggling” copyright infringement. In a 67-page brief filed in advance of the March 29 Supreme Court oral arguments in MGM vs. Grokster, attorneys for the music […]

UPDATED: Although President George W. Bush has not announced a replacement for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael K. Powell, who announced his resignation last week, four names emerged over the weekend as the leading candidates: FCC Commissioners Kevin Martin and Kathleen Abernathy; Assistant Commerce Secretary Michael Gallagher; and former Texas Public Utility Commission Chairwoman […]

A week after the FBI announced it is dumping a custom-built case management application in favor of off-the-shelf software, new documents reveal the agency has apparently also abandoned its controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance program. According to reports obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the FBI did […]

UPDATED: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael K. Powell announced today he is leaving the powerful independent agency in March. In his resignation letter to President Bush, Powell said he was stepping down with a “mixture of pride and regret.” “Having completed a bold and aggressive agenda, it is time for me to pursue other […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) bagged its first-ever criminal convictions for peer-to-peer (P2P) copyright theft Tuesday when two men arrested in last summer’s Operation Digital Gridlock pleaded guilty. William R. Towbridge, 50, of Johnson City, N.Y., and Michael Chicoine, 47, of San Antonio each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony […]

UPDATED: Three months after resigning from the nation’s highest cyber security post, Amit Yoran rejoined the private sector Tuesday as a board member of Cyota, a New York-based security firm for financial institutions. Yoran served as the first director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division (NCSD), a position he abruptly quit […]

With government officials facing a March deadline for implementing a prototype electronic passport, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) this week awarded four more contracts for sample RFID computer chips to be used in the project. Although the State Department is charged with the electronic passport initiative, the GPO will actually design and print the […]

Texas became the latest state or federal entity to take a swipe at spammers Thursday when it sued a University of Texas student and a California resident over what spam watchdog SpamHaus calls the world’s fourth largest illegal e-mail operation. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott called Ryan Samuel Pitylak of Austin and Mark Stephen Trotter […]

WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell said today that states appealing the FCC’s November decision ruling Voice over IP an interstate service “pretty much makes zero sense to me.” Minnesota, California, Ohio and New York have all announced they are heading to court to challenge the FCC ruling, which preempts state and […]

The revolving door at the federal government’s highest cyber security level took another turn Tuesday with the resignation of Robert Liscouski, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. The resignation comes just four months after Amit Yoran resigned from his post as director of the DHS’ National Cyber Security Division (NCSD). Yoran […]