Josh Peterson

Journalist

United States

I'm an American journalist in Washington, D.C. covering the intersection of technology and politics for The Daily Caller.

The following links showcase my coverage of various tech policy and political issues in D.C. since 2011. This is not the entire corous of my work

Please check out my About.me page at about.me/joshuadanpeterson. Also, if you like my work, please feel free to donate Bitcoins and support my research.

*Pardon my dust, this portfolio is still a work in progress.

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Portfolio

Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Bitcoin virtual currency to come to cash-strapped Cyprus via ATM

As the Cypriot financial crisis continues, some are seeing a new opportunity for the popular Internet crypto-currency Bitcoin to gain broader acceptance. Entrepreneur Jeff Berwick, founder of Canadian financial investment services company Stockhouse.com and CEO of TDV Media, announced earlier this week plans to open up an ATM in Cyprus to allow customers to exchange cash for Bitcoins, the popular decentralized Internet virtual currency.

Competition

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Texas AG sues Google for withholding documents in antitrust investigation

Texas is suing Google for witholding, according to legal documents, "a large volume of documents" requested as part of two investigations by the state into the company "to determine whether Google has violated state and federal antitrust laws." Google continues to be plagued by competitors' allegations that the company gives special preference to its own products and services in its search rankings..

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Economists tell FTC to 'buzz off' on Google antitrust investigation

Economists have had it with the forceful gaze of government regulators directed at Google. 101 economists from some of the nation's most distinguished universities, and from the National Taxpayers Union, expressed concern over the swath of scrutiny directed at Google in an open letter published Monday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Apple, book publishers

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple and several major book publishers Wednesday, alleging that the companies colluded to fix the price of ebooks. Bloomberg reports the Justice Department is expected to announced an "unspecified" antitrust settlement Wednesday with Hachette SA, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.

Broadbandbreakfast
Eshoo Introduces 4G Carrier Transparency Bill

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2011 - Wednesday Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced legislation that would require wireless 4G carriers to provide consumers with complete and accurate information about their 4G services. Consumers deserve to know exactly what they're getting for their money when they sign-up for a 4G data plan, said Rep.

Heritage
09/29/2011
Google Makes a Pitch for Free Market

Google is growing up. That was the message company representatives shared at Heritage this week on the Silicon Valley behemoth's 13th birthday. (Click here to watch video of the event.) Google is making the case for the free market -- and taking its message to conservatives.

Cybersecurity

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: HealthCare.gov project manager unaware of security risks

The project manager overseeing HealthCare.gov was unaware of an internal government memo warning of a "limitless" cybersecurity risk to the site, according to a CBS News report. Henry Chao, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) chief project manager for HealthCare.gov, recently told congressional investigators during a closed-door session that he was unaware of a Sept.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
HealthCare.gov hacker tool distributed via Facebook posts

A rudimentary hacker tool designed to crash HealthCare.gov was distributed through various online channels, including Facebook. Marc Eisenbarth, manager of research for Arbor Security Engineering and Response Team, told The Daily Caller that a denial-of-service (DoS) application was spreading through torrent sites, as well as Facebook.

Broadbandbreakfast
Pentagon Announces Buildup of Cyber Defenses

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 - The Defense Department announced late last week a plan to proactively deal with cyber intrusions through a collaborative buildup of civilian and military network defenses. The DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (DSOC) is the first unified strategy for conducting operations in cyberspace between the Defense Department's military, intelligence and business operations.

Broadbandbreakfast
Langevin Makes the Case for Establishment of White House Cyber Security Director

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2011 - Despite bipartisan agreement over the need for effective cyber security legislation, members remain divided over authority and enforcement specifics. In an opinion piece in the Saturday edition of the Washington Post, Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) critiqued another article published early July in which Sens.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Democrats' cyber bill still looms large

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following a recent anti-piracy legislative debacle with SOPA and PIPA, will lead his second effort of 2012 to push Internet-regulating legislation, this time in the form of a new cybersecurity bill. The expected bill is the latest attempt by the Democrats to broadly expand the authority of executive branch agencies over the Internet.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Stuxnet virus infected the International Space Station

The infamous computer virus, Stuxnet, has found its way onto the International Space Station, thanks to unwitting Russian cosmonauts. Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of the computer security research company Kapersky Labs, told an audience at the National Press Club of Australia last week Thursday that Russian cosmonauts carried a USB stick infected with the virus onto the space station.

Data

Dailycaller
12/08/2013
Harvard Google search study suggests racism had profound effect on 2008 election

A recent study by a Harvard Ph.D. student using insights gleaned from Google searches suggests that racism had a profound impact on the 2008 election. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate, analyzed Google searches from 2004-2007, charting the frequency of racially charged search terms by region and media market.

Dailycaller
12/08/2013
Under assault for liberal bias, Politico's traffic dives

Internet traffic and Web search measurement tools from several sources indicate that despite massive promotion efforts on MSNBC and in other venues, Politico.com is rapidly losing readers, especially outside of Washington, D.C. Measurements of U.S. Web traffic provided to The Daily Caller by Compete, Inc.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Project ORCA linked to mysterious now-nonexistent company

A mysterious company associated with Project ORCA, the failed election reporting tool meant to aide the Romney campaign's Election Day "get out the vote" efforts, disappeared from the Internet shortly after November 6th. An Oct.

Dailycaller
12/08/2013
Media Matters matters even less on the Internet

Despite having the ear of Obama administration officials and generating research that has had a major influence in driving the agenda of establishment media, direct interest in Media Matters For America on the Internet has been on a downward spiral for years. Publicly available Web traffic data from Compete, Inc.

Immigration

Intellectual property

Broadbandbreakfast
New America Foundation and Creative Commons Hold Copyright Talk

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2011 - The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative along with Creative Commons co-sponsored an event Wednesday evening to discuss the challenges of copyright laws in a digital age. Catherine Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons, delivered the keynote speech in which she presented the mission of Creative Commons, its growth beyond early adopters into the mainstream and the organization's new book, The Power of Open.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
White House unmasks patent trolls via executive action

Companies engaged in patent lawsuits before the Patent and Trade Office (PTO) can no longer hide their identities behind shell companies, the White House announced Wednesday, inspiring the praise of DC-based technology groups representing Silicon Valley.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
GOP staffer who authored copyright-reform paper loses job

The copyright-reform debate within the Republican party has now cost someone his job. Republican staffer Derek Khanna, who authored a report on copyright reform that appeared on the Republican Study Committee's website in mid-November, was fired after the committee disowned the report and pulled it from its website.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Hilary Rosen supported SOPA

Adding to the list of unpopular things Hilary Rosen has said in the past 24 hours, in the past, the Democratic strategist also openly supported the highly unpopular Stop Online Piracy Act.

Internet freedom

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
'Father of the Internet' to testify on UN Web regulations

Vint Cerf, widely regarded as one of the fathers of the Internet, is scheduled to testify before a House panel on Thursday to discuss its future. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will discuss international proposals to regulate the Internet through the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a little-known U.N.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
UN Internet agenda tied to George Soros

Frank La Rue, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression who made summer headlines when he proclaimed Internet access as a basic human right, conducted his research and delivered his conclusions with the support of organizations funded by liberal financier George Soros, The Daily Caller has learned.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Grover Norquist to Senate: Net neutrality vote will be considered in congressional ratings

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) President Grover Norquist sent a letter to senators on Tuesday, informing them that their vote on net neutrality may be considered in ATR's yearly congressional scorecards, which rate congressmen based on their votes. The Senate floor debate to overturn the Federal Communication Commission's Internet regulation took place on Wednesday in preparation for a vote expected Thursday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC net neutrality rules take effect, experts doubt longevity

The Federal Communications Commission's "Open Internet" rules - also known as net neutrality - took effect Sunday, after a year-long battle in Congress. Some market-based technology experts, however, have expressed doubt that the rules will be upheld when the case comes before the federal appellate court in 2012.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Democrats rally support against Republican bid to overturn FCC net neutrality rules

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry sent a letter Friday to colleagues in the Senate rallying support against the Republican-sponsored Resolution of Disapproval to overturn the FCC's net neutrality regulations. "The Senate will consider a Congressional Review Act proposal to overturn the Open Internet protections that the Federal Communications Commission put into place last year," wrote Kerry.

Open government

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Media Matters matters even less on the Internet

Despite having the ear of Obama administration officials and generating research that has had a major influence in driving the agenda of establishment media, direct interest in Media Matters For America on the Internet has been on a downward spiral for years. Publicly available Web traffic data from Compete, Inc.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC helps pro-net neutrality groups, rebuffs transparency requests by conservative groups

Numerous Freedom of Information Act requests made by conservative groups pertaining to the influence of lobbyists on net neutrality policy were continually rebuffed by the FCC throughout 2011, The Daily Caller has learned. Net neutrality, a regulatory policy passed by the FCC in December 2010, governs the traffic management policies of Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
CMS unveils another healthcare-related website

The agency in charge of the Healthcare.gov debacle announced on Tuesday that it has rolled out yet another healthcare-related website. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled at a White House event on Tuesday the CMS Virtual Research Data Center (VDRC), a website for researchers to access Medicare and Medicaid program data.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Group sues FBI for records after Michael Hastings' mysterious death

A journalist and a researcher have sued the Justice Department for access to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's records on the late journalist Michael Hastings. The lawsuit follows the FBI's failure to respond to separate Freedom of Information Act requests for records on Hastings submitted by journalist Jason Leopold of al-Jazeera and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Ryan Shapiro.

Yahoo
04/12/2012
Hilary Rosen supported SOPA

Adding to the list of unpopular things Hilary Rosen has said in the past 24 hours, in the past, the Democratic strategist also openly supported the highly unpopular Stop Online Piracy Act.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Obama's NSA review panel lacking tech industry reps

President Obama's new intelligence review panel has no representatives from the U.S. tech and telecom industries. Despite being directly and negatively impacted by the allegations made against U.S. technology and telecommunications companies via former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's surveillance disclosures, the two industries lack representation on Obama's new review panel.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
DHS has a month to release 'Internet kill switch' plans

A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security has 30 days to disclose its plans for an "Internet kill switch," The Washington Free Beacon reports. In order to prevent terrorists from using cell phones to remotely detonate bombs, DHS developed secret protocols, called Standard Operating Procedure 303, to govern how the agency would direct the shutdown of wireless networks in the event of an emergency.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
ABC News scrambles to downplay Obama's attendance at VP debate moderator's wedding

President Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: NSA broke privacy laws 'thousands of times' since 2008

An internal National Security Agency audit found that the agency violated the privacy of Americans thousands of times since 2008 when its powers were expanded by Congress, the Washington Post reports. "The NSA audit obtained by The Post, dated May 2012, counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications," reported the Washington Post."Most were unintended.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Google: The government has been rifling through Internet data A LOT more lately

Google's latest transparency report reveals a major uptick in U.S. law enforcement user data requests over the past four years, illustrating a grave concern of civil liberties groups fighting to modernize a 1980s-era electronic surveillance law. On Thursday, Google released its biannual government transparency report, highlighting a 203 percent increase since 2009 in law enforcement requests in the U.S.

Privacy

Broadbandbreakfast
ValidSoft CEO Talks Privacy Technology

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2011 - U.S. customers may soon begin seeing data security technology involving ATMs and cell phones that would work without tracking people thanks to the efforts of a European security software company. Patrick Carroll, CEO of ValidSoft Limited, discussed the company's real-time fraud detection software VALid-POS last week.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: Federal wiretaps foiled by encryption methods

The U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts (AO) acknowledged that encryption methods, for the first time ever, foiled law enforcement wiretaps in 2012, Wired reported Friday. "Encryption was reported for 15 wiretaps in 2012 and for 7 wiretaps conducted during previous years.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
The Patriot Act's author wants to dismantle the NSA's phone and internet data collection

The author of the Patriot Act announced his latest plans to work to defund the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone and Internet records to an audience in Washington on Wednesday. After months of gaining steam, the U.S. government shutdown appears to have stalled surveillance reform efforts on the Hill and in the executive branch.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Obama announces creation of unit to investigate online piracy

President Barack Obama announced during the State of the Union address Tuesday evening the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit to address trade problems, including the online piracy of intellectual property. "It's not right when another country lets our movies, music, and software be pirated.

Protests

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Trayvon supporters take to the streets of DC in response to verdict [VIDEO]

WASHINGTON - Demonstrators took to the streets of D.C. to show their support for Trayvon Martin following the announcement of the not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman. A multiracial group of male and female demonstrators of varied ages marched through the streets of Washington, D.C.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Occupy Wall Street organizer shipped to Rikers Island

NEW YORK - Occupy Wall Street organizer Aaron Minter was sentenced to 10 days in New York City's notorious jail, Rikers Island, on Friday. Gideon Oliver, a New York City-based lawyer and president of the National Lawyers Guild-New York City Chapter, said on Twitter Friday that Minter took a plea on a case arising from a Metropolitan Transportation Authority action for vandalizing subways in early April.

Relief Work / Humanitarian Aide

Heritage
10/10/2011
Charities, Businesses Lead Recovery Efforts After Pennsylvania Flooding

Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee may have ravaged northeastern Pennsylvania with floodwaters, but displaced people have found aid and comfort in the relief provided by private charities and businesses. A recent New York Times story described affected people's disillusionment with the federal government's ability to dispense disaster relief aid through FEMA.

Trade

Heritage
09/16/2011
Sen. Mike Lee Outlines Objections to Law of the Sea Treaty

Ratification of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) would jeopardize American security, rule of law, and prosperity, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said yesterday at Heritage. The junior senator from Utah -- who is a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations -- addressed a packed auditorium on how specific articles of the UNCLOS are at odds with the U.S.

Heritage
10/05/2011
Free Trade Proposals Solutions to Tech Sector Job Losses

The House Rules Committee advanced three proposals Wednesday that may help curb a growing problem for the nation's economy: stagnant job growth in the technology sector. The three pending free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and Korea are up for full House approval next week.

Wireless / Spectrum / Broadband Access

Broadbandbreakfast
New Tools to Measure Home Broadband Connections Now Available

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2011 - Consumers now have a new way to capture and record actual data about the speeds and quality of their broadband service. Representatives from New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI), Google and Georgia Institute of Technology proclaimed the arrival Tuesday of Broadband Internet Service BenchMark (BISMark).

Broadbandbreakfast
New Zealand Broadband Plan Sheds Light on U.S. Plan

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2011 - Broadband experts examined whether New Zealand's 'Ultra-Fast Broadband Initiative' contained lessons that could be applied to the U.S.' own broadband situation Tuesday at a New America Foundation Panel (NAF). Panelist Blair Levin, Communications and Society Fellow at the Aspen Institute and one of the primary authors of the National Broadband Plan, exhibited confidence in America's broadband future.

Broadbandbreakfast
Rural Telecom Associations Raise Concerns Over USF Reform

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2011 - The FCC should consider costs and service areas of rural broadband customers as it reforms the Universal Service Fund (USF) to include broadband expansion, urged members of congress and rural telecom associations Thursday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC establishes fund to extend high-speed Internet to rural areas

Rural communications just got a boost from the Federal Communications Commission with a bipartisan vote by four commissioners setting into action the Connect America Fund - a modernization plan to help extend high-speed Internet to rural areas.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Deadline approaches for Russia and China-led U.N. Internet takeover

The State Department is expected to finally name a lead negotiator next month for high level international talks with the U.N. in December that would decide the fate of the Internet, a senior U.S. official told Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio last week.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Man gets ridiculously friggin' rich because of Bitcoin

While many people dream of becoming rich with bitcoins, a Norwegian man recently discovered he did so by accident, reports. Kristoffer Koch purchased 5,000 bitcoins in 2009 for 150 kroner, or $26.60. He forgot about his purchase until April 2013, when media coverage of the digital currency "jogged his memory."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Trayvon supporters take to the streets of DC in response to verdict [VIDEO]

WASHINGTON - Demonstrators took to the streets of D.C. to show their support for Trayvon Martin following the announcement of the not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman. A multiracial group of male and female demonstrators of varied ages marched through the streets of Washington, D.C.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: NSA site down in suspected cyberattack

On the eve of a major anti-surveillance protest against the National Security Agency in Washington, D.C., hacktivists are claiming to have engaged in their own digital protest against the agency. The NSA's website, NSA.gov, was the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Friday that took the site offline for several hours, RT reports.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Issa: Piracy bill would give Holder 'broad new powers to police the Internet'

In a statement released Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa criticized an amendment proposed by Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, saying it does not fix anything and would give "Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice broad new powers to police the Internet."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Reid's $3.5 million SOPA incentive

Sen, Harry Reid, who is expected to bring Protect IP to the Senate floor on January 24, might have a $3.5 million financial incentive to see to the passage of at least one anti-piracy bill. Protect IP is a controversial piece of anti-piracy legislation decried by opponents as Internet censorship.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Michelle Obama has nearly 2 million fake Twitter followers

Nearly 2 million of First Lady Michelle Obama's Twitter followers are not real. According to the Twitter analytics application Status People, 37 percent of Michelle Obama's 5,290, 506 Twitter followers - or approximately 1,957,487 followers - are considered fake. Thirty-five percent of her followers are inactive, and 28 percent are considered "good," or real.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Norquist, conservative groups petition FCC in favor of latest Verizon deal

Conservative organizations sprung to the defense of Verizon Wireless' latest deal to acquire unused spectrum from several leading cable providers pending before the Federal Communications Commission Friday. Among the players involved was Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Sources: Koch Industries not buying LA Times, Chicago Tribune

Koch Industries will not be buying the Tribune Company's eight newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times, The Daily Caller has learned. Sources with knowledge of the business proceedings told The Daily Caller that Koch Industries, after conducting its due diligence, has not been interested in buying the newspapers for "a couple months."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: Utilities focused on regulatory compliance instead of cybersecurity

A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that utilities companies' attention has been diverted from effective cybersecurity in order to focus on compliance with federal and state regulators. "The existing federal and state regulatory environment creates a culture within the utility industry of focusing on compliance with cybersecurity requirements, instead of a culture focused on achieving comprehensive and effective cybersecurity," the July 17 GAO report said.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Cybersecurity bill: Recruit federal employees using 9th grade talent competition

In order to defend against a looming cyber 9/11, the federal government may soon hold talent contests to foster the cybersecurity skills of 9th graders, and hold cybersecurity summer camps for kindergartners. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012, in addition to allowing the federal government to regulate the security standards of private infrastructure networks, contains within it provisions to develop the cybersecurity skills of America's youth.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Cybersecyruty firm founder wants companies to be able to 'hack back' against hackers

The founder of a U.S. cybersecurity firm petitioned lawmakers earlier this week to allow U.S. companies to hack back against hackers. Chris Rouland, founder of the U.S. cybersecurity firm Endgame Systems, called on U.S. lawmakers during a panel at the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affair on Wednesday to allow U.S.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Obama scares the hell out of everybody with cybersecurity op-ed

In a Thursday Wall Street Journal Opinion piece, President Barack Obama evoked images of mass disaster should a cyber attack wreak havoc on the nation's transportation and water systems. Fear of a deadly cyber-attack by a state or terrorist group loom heavy over the heads of lawmakers, as well as current and former high-ranking national security officials.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Obama to talk cybersecurity with CEOs behind closed doors

President Obama is scheduled to meet with CEOs in a closed door meeting to discuss cybersecurity, said the White House Monday evening. "Later in the morning, the President will meet with CEOs to discuss the importance of cybersecurity, the joint efforts by the Administration and industry to develop the Cybersecurity Framework, and ongoing work to implement the Executive Order to enhance the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure," according to the White House's daily guidance for Tuesday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
ACLU: IRS docs on warrantless email search show why we need reform

Recently revealed IRS documents suggesting the agency's criminal division engages in warrantless email surveillance show that the country's 27-year-old privacy law need to be updated, says the American Civil Liberties Union. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) - first passed in 1986 - originally defined what federal agents could and could not do in order to access electronic communications necessary for an investigation.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
DHS hopes to get same cyber-spying powers as NSA

Domestic spying capabilities used by the National Security Agency to collect massive amounts of data on American citizens could soon be available to the Department of Homeland Security - a bureaucracy with the power to arrest citizens that is not subject to limitations imposed on the NSA.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Strange bedfellows come together on electronic privacy

The effort to modernize the nation's electronic privacy laws has brought together a coalition of strange bedfellows from the right and the left. Reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) has been an objective of civil liberties advocates for over a decade, but the fast-changing nature of technology is increasing pressure to update the law.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
US manufacturers urge Obama to get tough on cybersecurity with China

Just days ahead of a highly anticipated two-day summit between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, American manufacturers urged Obama to stand up for American companies against Chinese cyber espionage. During a conference call with reporters on Monday, Scott Paul - president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing - said he was concerned that Chinese involvement in the supply chain of U.S.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
GOP candidates rush to mention cybersecurity in debate closing

Several GOP presidential candidates rushed in the last minutes of Tuesday evening's CNN-sponsored national security debate to address an issue not otherwise mentioned: cybersecurity. During closing remarks Texas Governor Rick Perry, Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rounded out the evening - which largely focused on Iran, Pakistan and the Patriot Act - by telling debate watchers that they believed cyber attacks were an emerging threat.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Former FCC official takes stance against FCC's possible 4G LTE technology mandate

A former FCC official has opposed a potential technology mandate by the FCC for technology interoperability in the 4G LTE deployment by mobile operators Friday. Fred Campbell, director of the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project - a new project by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute - filed comments Friday opposing a potential technology mandate in the 700 MHz band of spectrum.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Senate cybersecurity bill mirrors Russian Internet agenda

Language within the embattled Cybersecurity Act of 2012 parallels that of a proposal made by Russia and China to the U.N. in 2011, which argued for international regulation of the Internet to fight cybercrime. In September 2011, Russia, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan urged U.N.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: $91 million spent on secret NSA tests probing domestic computer systems

The National Security Agency is conducting secret tests on the computer systems of U.S. private sector entities, including public utilities, a CNET report revealed this week. The secret program, dubbed Perfect Citizen, is part of an effort by the government to improve security systems in the private sector and test offensive operations against enemies' computer systems. Targets reportedly include power grids and gas pipelines.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Immigration bill calls for federal employment photo database

Hidden within the 867-page Senate immigration reform bill is a mandate for the creation of a federal biometric database under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, Wired reported Friday. The bill would mandate the development and maintenance of a federal photo database "that enables employers to match the photo on a covered identity document provided to the employer" to a photo in that database.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Controversial cybersecurity bill passes House despite Obama veto threat

Despite a veto threat from the White House, the House of Representatives voted to pass the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) on Thursday by a 248-168 margin. CISPA would encourage cyber-threat information sharing between private companies and government agencies Facebook and other tech companies, and various business groups support the bill.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: Internal analytics gave Obama campaign edge over Romney campaign

President Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign was the most sophisticated political organization on the planet, concludes a report by the right-leaning D.C.-based digital strategy firm Engage. In order to understand the Obama campaign's technology strategy, GOP strategist and Engage President Patrick Ruffini explained in a company blog post that the firm "set about gathering insights, data, and anecdotes from hundreds of news articles, blog posts, interviews, podcasts, and presentations."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Activists urge Skype, Microsoft to publish government transparency report

Activists are urging Skype and its parent company, Microsoft, to publish government transparency reports similar to the kind that Google, Twitter and Sonic.net release twice a year. In an open letter to Skype, privacy advocates, Internet activists, journalists and other organizations detailed the type of data they would like the company to release, as well as retention policies.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC promises to free up spectrum for 35 percent faster WiFi

WiFi speeds of up to 35 percent faster than current speeds may soon be available, a top Obama official announced Wednesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the FCC would soon be leading a government-wide effort to increase nationwide WiFi speeds by allocating 195MHz of the 5Hz band currently already in use by federal and non-federal workers.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC approval of AT&T, Qualcomm deal shows spectrum screen change again

The FCC yesterday approved AT&T's acquisition of spectrum from Qualcomm. The positive outcome is bittersweet for the wireless carrier, coming only a few days after the company was forced to throw in the towel on its acquisition of spectrum from T-Mobile USA. The published order, however, offers troubling new evidence that the agency has dangerously lost its way.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FCC shows pattern of stonewalling transparency requests

The Federal Communications Commission has shown under the Obama administration a pattern of opacity and bias in handling public records requests despite its claims that it is "committed to increasing openness and transparency."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Obama praises press freedom, mum on transparency issues

President Obama praised the role of a free press at home and abroad in a statement Thursday, but failed to address his administration's entangled alliances with special interest groups devoted to the destruction of Fox News. He also made no mention of the apparent decline of press freedom in the U.S.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Support continues to mount for government surveillance transparency

Companies and lawmakers are continuing their opposition to the secret surveillance of Americans. Two more organizations have added their support to the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013. The bill, introduced by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken on Aug. 1, would require the federal government to annually report information about the types of surveillance requests it makes to private companies.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
DOJ emails show feds kept judges in the dark about cellphone tracking device

Department of Justice documents obtained by the ACLU reveal that the department has not been "forthright" with California judges about its use of a controversial and sophisticated cellphone tracking device, according to the ACLU. Federal investigators, according to the ACLU's analysis of Justice Department emails, have "routinely" used a portable technology called a "stingray," which masquerades as a cellphone tower by emitting a powerful signal.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Support continues to mount for government surveillance transparency

Companies and lawmakers are continuing their opposition to the secret surveillance of Americans. Two more organizations have added their support to the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013. The bill, introduced by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken on Aug. 1, would require the federal government to annually report information about the types of surveillance requests it makes to private companies.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
FISA court renews collection of phone metadata records

The nation's lead intelligence agency announced on Friday that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorized the renewal of the controversial phone records collection program first made public by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the agency that heads up the U.S.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Tech companies leapt into the immigration reform fray

As Congress prepares for budget battles and a vote over military intervention in Syria, a coalition of technology associations has been working to sell immigration reform, arguing it will boost the U.S. economy. The Technology CEO Council, an advocacy organization representing major U.S.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: Apple adds more products to Samsung patent lawsuit

The ongoing worldwide patent war between Samsung and Apple has taken a new turn: Apple has asked a federal court to add six more products to its lawsuit against the South Korean consumer electronics giant. The filing follows a federal judge's November 15 ruling that allowed Samsung "to pursue claims the iPhone5 also infringes its patents," Reuters reported Sunday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Who's responsible for Project ORCA? Romney campaign silent

As of Friday, 10 days have passed since the Romney campaign lost the presidential election for Republicans, and the makers of the campaign's over-hyped and extremely secretive Project ORCA election reporting tool are still nowhere to be found. Senior campaign staff members are either hiding in silence, claiming ignorance about the project, or claiming they were not involved with it.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Anonymous declares cyberwar on Israel, targets conservative blog [VIDEO]

As rockets rain down on Gaza, Anonymous' hacking spree against Israeli websites has turned into a declared cyberwar. In response to threats by the Israeli government to cut off the inhabitants of Gaza from the Internet, the 'hacktivist' collective began taking down Israeli websites Thursday.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Opposition mounts against DOE-funded battery company's sale to Chinese firm

The federal government's review period concerning the sale of a bankrupt taxpayer-subsized battery company to a Chinese firm ends this month, and opposition to the deal from industry experts and competitors continues to mount. A123 Systems, a battery manufacturer and supplier for the automobile company Fisker, went bankrupt in October 2012.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown indicted for a third time by feds

Barrett Brown, the sometime public face of hacktivist group Anonymous, was indicted Wednesday for a third time by federal authorities with an additional two counts of obstruction of justice. The Dallas Observer reported Brown's latest indictment Thursday, noting that Brown has "already been charged with a laundry list of crimes."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Nonprofit says letter from hacker group corroborates Anonymous video

A nonprofit devoted to election reform says a video released by hacktivist collective Anonymous days prior to the election corroborates claims from a mysterious hacktivist group that it is behind the Election Day failures of the Romney campaign's Project ORCA.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Zuckerberg's lobby group announces hackathon with illegal immigrants

Tech-savvy illegal immigrants are being given a chance to prove their mettle alongside renown American technology entrepreneurs in an upcoming contest in Silicon Valley, where they will code and create projects to promote comprehensive immigration reform.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Ex-Anonymous activist under federal indictment, potentially faces 20 years in prison

Barrett Brown, the occasional face of the leaderless hacker group Anonymous, is now under federal indictment for threatening and conspiring against an FBI agent. Brown was indicted on three accounts: Internet threats, conspiracy to make publicly available restricted personal information of an employee of the United States and retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Energy Dept. defends $118M grant to bankrupt battery maker

The Department of Energy, which issued a $118.5 million grant to the now bankrupt battery company Ener1, is describing a fresh infusion of $80 million in private capital as a sign that the company's technology "has merit."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Julian Assange calls for release of Barrett Brown

Gagged and jailed journalist Barrett Brown received a supportive boost on Monday from WikiLeaks and its exiled editor-in-chief, Julian Assange. WikiLeaks and Assange condemned the U.S. government's prosecution of Brown, who is most notably recognized for his role as the occasional public face of the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Biden praised stimulus-backed Ener1 one year before company went bankrupt

Vice President Joe Biden praised electric car battery manufacturer Ener1 - the highest Indiana recipient of federal stimulus money for the development of green automobile technology - for the expansion of its workforce on January 26, 2011. Ener1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, exactly one year later.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Anonymous gives Philadelphia the middle finger

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently caught the attention of the hacktivist collective Anonymous when the city government targeted a businessman's attempt to clean up downtown trash. The city owns a vacant lot overrun with weeds and debris, adjacent to Ori Feibush's coffeeshop. After years of battling with the city over the eyesore, Feibush took it upon himself to clean it up.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Microsoft CEO, tech groups praise Senate passage of immigration bill

The Senate's passage of its immigration reform bill Thursday received the praises of DC tech groups connected to Facebook and Google, along with Microsoft. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act passed through the Senate with a 68-32 vote.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
House committee passes resolution opposing UN Internet regulation

A resolution opposing proposals for international Internet governance was unanimously approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday. The resolution, sponsored by California Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack, currently has 58 co-sponsors. The legislation expresses "the sense of Congress regarding actions to preserve and advance the multistakeholder governance model under which the Internet has thrived."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Barrett Brown ruled mentally 'competent', pleads not guilty

A federal judge ruled Wednesday Barrett Brown, the occasional public face of Anonymous, to be mentally competent to stand trail for three criminal cases. Brown, arrested during an FBI raid in September 2012, was indicted for public threats made against an FBI agent, and again in December 2012 for an alleged connection with the December 2011 Anonymous hack against private intelligence firm Stratfor.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Lawmakers reintroduce bill to protect tech companies from 'patent trolls'

Lawmakers are looking to find a way to deter frivolous lawsuits against U.S. tech companies by imposing a monetary cost on plaintiffs who lose patent suits. Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio and Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced the Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act on Wednesday as part of an effort to combat so-called "patent trolls."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
AOL sells patents to Microsoft for $1.056 billion

AOL announced a $1.056 billion patent sale to Microsoft on Monday. In a statement the companies said AOL would sell 800 patents, continuing to hold what the companies called a "significant patent portfolio of over 300 patents and patent applications spanning core and strategic technologies, including advertising, search, content generation/management, social networking, mapping, multimedia/streaming, and security among others."

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: US tech companies lose business following PRISM revelations

Tech companies alleged to be partnering with the U.S. government in a mass Internet surveillance program are losing business, AFP reports. "The Cloud Security Alliance said 10 percent of its non-US members have cancelled a contract with a US-based cloud provider, and 56 percent said they were less likely to use an American company," said the publication.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Facebook's social energy app now operational

Facebook announced Tuesday the release of its long awaited social energy app, which allows users to more easily measure and share information about home energy consumption. The social network first announced the development of the social energy app in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Opower, an energy management software company, in October 2011.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: Snowden didn't need to 'hack' the NSA to get files

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden did not need to deploy sophisticated hacking techniques to access the estimated 20,000 files he stole from the agency. Snowden's privileges as a systems administrator allowed him the ability to inconspicuously access and extract classified information not even available to NSA analysts, reports NBC News.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Not sci-fi: European Union building worldwide knowledgebase to train robots

The European Union is building an Internet for robots, and a robot version of Wikipedia - called RoboEarth - in order to help robots collectively operate and learn in the unstructured environments outside of the lab. The project, which first began in late 2009, is being built by the Seventh Framework Programme - the E.U.'s research arm.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Illinois state senator pushes anti-anonymity bill

A recently introduced bill in the Illinois state Senate would require anonymous website comment posters to reveal their identities if they want to keep their comments online. The bill, called the Internet Posting Removal Act, is sponsored by Illinois state Sen. Ira Silverstein.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Report: US tech companies lose business following PRISM revelations

Tech companies alleged to be partnering with the U.S. government in a mass Internet surveillance program are losing business, AFP reports. "The Cloud Security Alliance said 10 percent of its non-US members have cancelled a contract with a US-based cloud provider, and 56 percent said they were less likely to use an American company," said the publication.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Greenwald invited to appear before Brazilian Senate committee

Glenn Greenwald was invited to testify before a Brazilian Senate committee on Tuesday over details about the National Security Agency's clandestine surveillance in South America. Greenwald, a columnist for the Guardian and a lawyer who lives in Brazil, was invited to testify before the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense, a committee of the Senado Federal - a chamber of the National Congress of Brazil - over the activities of the agency in Brazil.

Yahoo
06/10/2012
Van Jones: Left-wingers no longer 'in love' with Obama

Americans on the political left are no longer "in love" with President Barack Obama, says former Obama administration "green jobs czar" Van Jones. Jones made the comments Saturday during his keynote speech at the liberal Netroots Nation 2012 Conference in Providence, R.I.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Twitter: 'Over a million tweets sent' about Rand Paul filibuster

Twitter reported Thursday afternoon on its blog that more than a million tweets were sent during Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul's near-13 hour filibuster on the Senate floor Wednesday, placing the conversation almost on par with the 1.36 million tweets sent about President Barack Obama's most recent State of the Union address.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Verizon security chief used to be high level official at FBI

The current chief of security of Verizon, a company embroiled in controversy over the recent revelation of a secret government domestic spy program, is a former high level official in the FBI. Michael Mason, Verizon's chief security officer, began working with the company in 2008.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Cyberattack cripples government agency network 12 weeks and counting

Federal law makers are currently considering multiple cybersecurity bills, but are still incapable of adequately protecting their own networks. The Washington Post reported Monday that 80 days ago, an email virus struck the Economic Development Administration (EDA) - a small bureau within the Department of Commerce.

Dailycaller
11/27/2013
Federal agency smashes computers to defeat malware

A federal agency, fearing that its computer systems were widely affected by a computer virus in 2011, spent $2.7 million cutting off its email from the outside world and physically destroying computers, keyboards and computer mice to remedy the problem.