Russia export controls and sanctions

The European Commission approved Nokia's pending acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, a Nokia news release said Friday. The transaction has been cleared by antitrust review boards in several countries, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Russia, and the antitrust review period in the U.S. has expired, it said. Nokia said it expects to close the deal in the first half of 2016.

A major security breach may be beneficial to Hacking Team, said an ex-employee of the company, an Italian software provider used by governments to fight crime. Cybercriminals hacked into the company's system and posted its proprietary software on the Internet July 6, Hacking Team said in a statement last week. Monday, the former Hacking Team employee, Claudio Agosti, a self-described privacy activist, posted on Medium saying that the information exposed during the breach is more beneficial to the public than harmful to the company. Agosti, who now works at TacticalTech and co-founded the digital whistleblowing platform GlobaLeaks, said he wanted the public to focus on the most important fact gleaned from the breach: which digital weapons are being used and how they are being used. “Citizens, now aware, can pressure for proper regulation,” Agosti said. “Every state should ensure its citizens safety and not exploit technological weaknesses.” The "leak is not a weapon in the hands of criminals, because the only value of the weapon is secrecy,” Agosti said. “Hacking Team has invested high-paid expertise in finding ways to obscure their malware from antivirus software” and those investments are now “burned,” he said. Other software providers that use similar infection strategies are also “burned,” but Agosti said this is very good because many espionage attacks use the same strategy. Having this information publicly available increases awareness, Agosti said. “The only reasonable compromise is heavy regulation on when and where such powerful weapons can be used.” Hacking Team provided a “lawful surveillance system” to law enforcement for more than a decade that was critical to preventing and investigating crime and terrorism, CEO David Vincenzetti said in a statement Tuesday. “Because of the increasing encryption of data transmitted over mobile devices and the Internet, this work has never been more critical than it is today.” Due to the comprehensive and powerful surveillance capabilities of its software, the Hacking Team system was available only to government agencies, Vincenzetti said, and when circumstances changed, “we have ended relationships with clients such as Sudan, Ethiopia and Russia.” Vincenzetti said the hack was reported to Italian authorities who are investigating the breach along with authorities of other nations. Hacking Team is completely revising its system, Vincenzetti said.

Some 32 million federal employees with security clearances may have had personally identifiable information (PII) compromised in a recent breach of Standard Form 86 (SF86) background checks stored on servers operated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), said House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Wednesday during part two of a hearing on the breach. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta declined to confirm whether that number was accurate, saying the background checks contain PII for family, friends, neighbors and associates of the subject of the background check.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., defended paid prioritization deals Saturday when campaigning in California's Bay Area. “The marketplace will charge more for something that’s faster,” said Paul, who's seeking the GOP nomination in the 2016 White House race, at an event hosted by Lincoln Labs. He's leading a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to dismantle the FCC’s net neutrality order. Paul compared paid prioritization deals to FedEx's charging different amounts for sending a letter in one day versus in five. There are other options aside from "regulating the Internet,” Paul said, encouraging more broadband competition. Paul questioned polls that suggest broad support for net neutrality protections: “I would say it depends on how you ask the question.” He said if you framed net neutrality as Internet regulation, the answer would be the opposite. The net neutrality label is “wonderful,” he remarked. “Who could be against net neutrality?” He slammed the idea of government monopolies in the broadband space and encouraged deregulation to “get rid of government monopolies” in delivering the service. Paul emphasized a particular fear of getting “rid of the pricing mechanism” and cautioned of possible distortions in the marketplace that would follow, comparing it to what happened to the price of bread in early Soviet Russia. Paul also said Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor seen as vying for the GOP nomination, is “mistaken” in his defense of government surveillance powers. “I’m for the Bill of Rights,” Paul said, arguing he’s the only presidential candidate of any party who would end government surveillance on the first day of his or her presidency. “I will lead the fight against extending the Patriot Act,” Paul said, noting he's working with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and anticipates five to 10 amendments on the Senate floor regarding any relevant legislation to “limit the overreach.”

CAMBRIDGE, Maryland -- NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling doubted the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition will be done by the earliest possible date originally envisioned, Sept. 30. But he said progress is being made toward preserving a multistakeholder approach under IANA. The U.S. has made gains in beating back foreign government efforts to control Internet governance in general, but the battle isn't over, he said Saturday at the FCBA’s annual retreat.

Leaders from nine conservative groups wrote Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Friday urging passage of the Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act (Leads Act) (S-512) (see 1502270034). The legislation will “protect the privacy of American citizens, promote cross-border data flow and our global trade agenda, and provide the tools law enforcement needs,” said the letter from leaders from American Commitment, Americans for Tax Reform, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Institute for Liberty, Let Freedom Ring, Less Government, National Center for Policy Analysis, RedState and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “Until now, the U.S. Government has relied on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to reach data of foreign citizens stored abroad so long as the company storing the data had a presence on U.S. soil,” the letter said. “This practice creates distrust of American businesses and encourages foreign citizens, companies and countries to stop doing business with U.S. companies operating overseas,” it said. “If the U.S. Government can obtain emails wherever stored simply by serving a warrant on a provider subject to U.S. process, nothing stops other countries -- including China and Russia -- from seeking to obtain emails of Americans stored on servers in the United States.”

China and India will remain among the 13 countries on the U.S. Trade Representative’s priority watch list this year for copyright and other IP rights violations, the USTR office said Thursday in its annual special 301 report. China and India have improved their IP policies, but other new policies have become a cause for concern, said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Robert Holleyman on a conference call with reporters. Other nations on the priority watch list are Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela. The report placed another 24 countries on the USTR’s lower-tier watch list: Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The 2014 special 301 report included 10 countries on the priority watch list and 27 on the regular watch list (see 1405020082).

E-waste recycling is on the rise through municipal collection events and the many “computer, TV, and cellphone manufacturers, as well as electronics retailers [that] offer some kind of take-back program or sponsor recycling events,” the Environmental Protection Agency said. But some are concerned that recycled devices containing personally identifiable information increases the risk that PII will fall into the hands of malicious actors, advocates said in interviews last week.

Foreign governments continue to routinely use local content requirements for domestic telecommunications infrastructure, restricting engagement in trade and global supply chains, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a review of telecommunications provisions in free trade agreements and World Trade Organization pacts. The U.S. will continue to pressure removal of those barriers to put in place “market-oriented” commerce, said the agency in its annual review, released April 1 (here).

The satellite industry is starting to have the cybersecurity talk, which is crucial for the industry and consumers, said experts Monday at a panel at the satellite week conference in Washington. The industry will see more cyberattacks in the next few years, said SRT Group Chief Technology Officer Conrad Smith.