Roy Mark

Hoping to bridge the gap between the call for national IT health care systems and privacy concerns, two lawmakers are promoting new legislation that would mandate user opt-in programs, encryption and breach notification. The Technologies for Restoring Users’ Security and Trust (TRUST) in Health Information Act (H.R. 5442) would establish a public-private partnership to recommend […]

Network management techniques for handling peer-to-peer applications don’t violate the Federal Communications Commision’s network neutrality principles, Comcast said this week in its first extended response to charges that the cable giant is engaging in discriminatory traffic practices. According to a complaint filed with the FCC by P2P developer Vuze, Comcast “is attempting deliberately to degrade […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an open-source interactive Web site Feb. 15 that allows users to generate customized data from SEC financial reports. With an XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) viewer, the site can give investors nearly real-time access to the complete and actual data companies report to the SEC. The XBRL format allows […]

For the second time in two days, President Bush publicly rebuked the U.S. House for insisting on no retroactive immunity for telecom carriers who participated in the president’s warrantless spy program. The Senate on Feb. 13 approved a renewal of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) that includes immunity for the carriers. Later that day, the […]

Network neutrality re-emerged on Capitol Hill Feb. 13 as a political issue, although it is playing in the shallow end of the telecom reform pool. Call it network neutrality lite. Under legislation introduced by Democrat Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Mississippi Republican Chip Pickering, the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality principles would be “enshrined” into […]

The Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality principles would become law under legislation introduced Feb. 13 by Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Chip Pickering, R-Miss. The bill would also require the FCC to hold eight public “summits” about network neutrality and to report back to Congress with its findings and recommendations. In August 2005, the FCC […]

President Bush praised the Senate for approving retroactive immunity for telecommunications carriers that participated in the White House’s warrantless spying program and urged the House to follow suit. The immunity issue was part of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), approved by the Senate late on Feb. 12. The carriers allegedly provided customer telephone and e-mail […]

Hoping to salvage its $2.2 billion bid to acquire 3Com, Bain Capitol and China’s Huawei Technologies are reportedly prepared to spin off 3Com’s TippingPoint to satisfy the government’s national security concerns about Huawei’s involvement in the deal. Huawei has a 16.5 percent stake in the proposed merger. TippingPoint, acquired by 3Com in January 2005, develops […]

Research In Motion pointed the finger Feb. 12 at a recent upgrade to an internal data routing system as the culprit for the 3-hour service outage that hit U.S. BlackBerry users the previous day. RIM said in a statement, “The upgrade was part of RIM’s routine and ongoing efforts to increase overall capacity for longer-term […]

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion resumed its wireless service about 3 hours after an outage swept the United States Feb. 11. It was the second service outage for RIM in less than a year. In a statement issued by RIM Feb. 12, the company stressed that only e-mail was affected by the outage and no […]