The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency needs to beef up its Joint Cyber Planning Office for wider communication routes between government and industry and Congress “needs to put CISA on a path to being a $5 billion agency,” House Homeland Security ranking member John Katko, R-N.Y., told a Wednesday Cybersecurity Subcommittee ransomware hearing. The past 18 months brought an increased frequency of cyberattacks, plus growing sophistication of threat actors, and larger amounts being demanded of victims, experts said at a Chamber of Commerce webinar, also Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called ransomware one DHS' "most-significant priorities."

Manufacturer repair restrictions have “diluted the effectiveness” of consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA), steering consumers into manufacturers’ repair networks “or to replace products before the end of their useful lives,” said the FTC’s long-awaited report to Congress on manufacturers’ efforts to inhibit third-party independent repairs. The “Nixing the Fix” report, in which the agency said it will consider “reinvigorated regulatory and law enforcement options” to address the problem, comes just under two years after the agency convened a workshop under the name (see 1907160058). The report was released Thursday with unanimous support from all four commissioners. See our news bulletin here.

Facebook's Oversight Board backed the Jan. 7 decision to restrict then-President Donald Trump's access to the social media website and Instagram account, but said Wednesday it wasn't "appropriate" to impose an indefinite and standardless suspension. Facebook responded that the suspension stands.

A Dual-Cell ULED TV and 8K Roku TV highlighted Hisense’s 2021 TV launch Wednesday. The flagship U9DG, which uses quantum dot technology, is the first Dual-Cell TV in the U.S., giving 40 times the contrast of a conventional LED TV, said a spokesperson. The design layers a luminance control panel behind a 4K panel to manage grayscale and color more precisely, said the company.

As movie theaters begin to reopen after a year of being shuttered for COVID-19, the box office is skewing more heavily toward premium experiences, said Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman on the company’s fiscal Q2 earnings call Tuesday: “We continue to believe that when people do go back to the movies," they will want to experience theaters "in the best possible way,” he said.

Expect the FTC's new rulemaking group to actively work to fill gaps left in its authority by a recent Supreme Court decision (see 2104270086), former officials said in interviews. Some anticipate more administrative litigation over consumer protection cases.

The music entertainment industry will “emerge from the pandemic with a renewed spirit of inventiveness and collaboration,” said Warner Music Group CEO Steve Cooper on a Tuesday earnings call. WMG fiscal Q2 revenue grew 17% on double-digit growth in its Recorded Music and Music Publishing units and “impressive growth” in emerging streaming platforms, said Chief Financial Officer Eric Levin.

Harmonic signed seven new streaming customers in Q1, most of them new to the Harmonic software-as-a-service platform, said CEO Patrick Harshman on a quarterly earnings call Monday. The new signings brought to 97 the number of media companies using Harmonic’s streaming platform, up 72% from the 2020 quarter, he said.

Connecticut and Massachusetts are among states weighing digital ad taxes, after Maryland enacted one and despite industry lawsuits against that state. A proposed 5% Massachusetts tax on businesses making at least $25 million annually in digital ad revenue there is meant to remedy a “market failure right now with large data companies making billions of dollars off of people’s personal data” without appropriate compensation, Rep. Dylan Fernandes (D). He like others spoke in recent interviews. Tech and advertising industry groups say such state taxes are illegal and bad policy.

IRobot raised 2021 guidance from $1.67 billion to $1.71 billion Tuesday, but CEO Colin Angle cautioned on a Q1 earnings call that it's "still early in the year." The COVID-19 pandemic “continues to weigh heavily on the macroeconomic landscape and limit our visibility," he said.