Even official government policy for the United States of America.

GitHub’s Ben Balter announced today that the White House drafted and released the official Open Data Policy of the United States on the service.

“Today’s news marks the first time a government entity has published law as a living, collaborative document,” Balter said. “We’re excited to see how the Open Data Policy evolves with the input of the community, and we hope this is just the first of many.”

Project Open Data is a policy that instructs government agencies to “manage their data, and information more generally, as an asset from the start.” And not just to manage it for monetary or political gain but to manage it for the public good — the document says that government data should, wherever possible, be released “to the public in a way that makes it open, discoverable, and usable.”

That’s impressive, and that’s exciting for advocates of open and collaborative government.

“This is the geekiest thing the feds have ever done,” VentureBeat’s own Dylan Tweney said.

The White House is using GitHub Pages, which GitHub hosts for free. Pages can be managed from the GitHub site, a Mac app, or the command line, and it includes features such as theme options — often responsive or optimized for mobile — as well as custom URLs.

“By choosing GitHub Pages, government employees as well as citizens are empowered to continuously propose and discuss potential improvements,” Balter says.

And, he adds, the “revolution is only just beginning.”

The White House has reportedly created the position of Chief Privacy Officer and tapped Twitter legal director Nicole Wong to fill it.

Twitter hired Wong in November 2012, only a few months after it first released its Transparency Report — a list of government take-down requests that often highlights privacy and censorship issues in the industry. The company often has to deal with these issues as its user data is often desired in court cases and other situation.

She will work alongside the current chief technology officer under the Obama Administration Todd Park. Park is rightfully focused on the security and privacy industry and user data becomes more accessible and valuable to others both in and outside of the Unisted States.

Todd succeeds the country’s first CTO Aneesh Chopra, also appointed by President Obama.

Wong is also an interesting pick because she knows the ins and outs of how big technology companies like to use that data themselves. She’ll bring what seems like a rounded experience and knowledge of U.S. law to the White House tech team.

Wong previously worked at Google, which is also known for its transparency reports. She spent time choosing between which take-own requests requests to fulfill and which to throw out.

via CNET; Nicole Wong image via Twitter

The Obama administration will announce Tom Wheeler as its pick for the next head of the Federal Communications Commission later today, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Source: Core Capital Partners

Tom Wheeler

Former FCC chairman Julius Genachowski stepped down from the position back in March after a four-year stint. It wouldn’t be a complete surprise if the WSJ report is true, as many speculated that Wheeler would be among the top candidates for consideration. The report indicates that President Barack Obama will make a formal announcement as soon as Wednesday

As for Wheeler, he’s currently a partner at Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm Core Capital Partners, which manages $350 million in investments across two different funds. Wheeler has plenty of experience working with communications companies and organizations. He’s the former CEO of trade organization former president of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), former CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), a board member of PBS, and cofounder investor relations service company SmartBrief. Wheeler also has a rather though background in crafting communications policy and serves on  Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Wheeler is not only familiar with the telecommunications world but also with the startup world, which should please the tech community. Personally, he sounds like a shoo-in for the position, but he’ll still need to gain a vote of approval from the Senate.

If you’re curious about his stances on the communications industry, he writes a column called Mobile Musings. Some of his stances are definitely forward-thinking, but not so much that I’d label him a futurist. For example, he theorizes that mobile payments startup ISIS — which you can use to pay for goods using your mobile device — could eventually use its technology to shape the way we hold elections. And as the WSJ notes, Wheeler was a fan of the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, which later fell apart after the Federal Trade Commission filed a suit to block it. His logic was that the FCC missed a huge opportunity to add further regulation to the wireless carrier industry.

We’re reaching out to both Wheeler and the FCC for comment, and will update this post with any new information.

Photo via wiredbike/Flickr

The Associated Press Twitter account was hacked moments ago. The Syrian Electronic Army, which has been on a spree of media hacks and claimed responsibility for this attack, sent out a tweet claiming that the White House had been bombed through the AP’s Twitter account. This is not the case.

“The AP Twitter account has been hacked. That tweet you saw about the White House is untrue and we’re looking into it now,” AP director of media relations Paul Colford told VentureBeat in a call.

It looks like the Syrian Electronic Army, the same hackers who hacked into CBS and NPR in the past month, has it out for American publications. The group tweeted a picture of the bogus tweet sent out on the AP’s official account. It reads:

“Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”

SEA then tweeted, “Ops! @AP get owned by Syrian Electronic Army! #SEA #Syria #ByeByeObama”

The group of hackers often attacks publications based on their coverage of the situation in Syria. The official AP twitter account is currently suspended.

It seems the Dow Jones stock exchange reacted fairly quickly to the hack as well. A chart tweeted by Owen Callan, a fixed income dealer, shows that the market fell about 1 percent for 1 to 2 minutes following the bogus tweet. You can see a similar chart in the image above.

The Syrian Electronic Army hacked into Al Jazeera’s live blog of the conflict in Syria last year, defacing the website with pro-Bashar regime imagery.

Dow Jones chart via Yahoo Finance

Remember that classic volcano you build out of papier mache or the plants you grew in light and dark spaces to prove sunshine really is a necessity? Well, the White House is having its own science fair today — with kids who are smarter than you.

This is the third year in President Obama’s administration that the White House has thrown a science fair, and this year it’s promising a display of impressive projects ranging from an “economically-viable algae biofuel” to a cancer-finding computer program.

The science fair is being hosted by two gentlemen you might recognize from the science (and science fiction) arenas: Levar Burton and Bill Nye. We were lucky enough to sit down with Burton last year to talk about his own creation: the Reading Rainbow app. He was passionate about reaching children through technology.

The two spoke with a student named Sylvia who had created a robot that can paint with watercolors. She was asked to explain a “maker,” something she considers herself.

“Well makers are people who like tinkering, they have their own hobbies,” she said. “To be a maker, you just get out there and do something, actually put something together and have fun.”

At the fair, the White House announced a new project called U.S. 2020 that involves a number of tech companies who have asked 20 percent of their workforce to commit 20 hours toward getting youth interested in STEM, or, science technology, engineering, and math. The companies involved include Cisco, Sandis, and Cognizant.

In addition, the White House is also supporting a number of other initiatives this summer.

Mozilla has also partered with the National Writing Project for a similar cause. It is launching its own STEM campaign to get “teachers, technologists, and families” involved in STEM over the summer.

Obama Science Fair image via White House Facebook

The White House announced today that it would turn down CISPA, a cyber-security bill that focuses on information-sharing, if Congress presented to the president in its current form.

“The Administration still seeks additional improvements and if the bill, as currently crafted, were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill,” the White House said in a statement today.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was recently voted through the House Intelligence Committee, bringing it one step closer to the president’s desk. The House is slated to vote on the bill tomorrow, causing activist groups to call for people to tweet their representatives and make noise about the proposed legislation. It seems the White House has the loudest voice today.

If passed, CISPA would head to the Senate next.

The Obama administration has already once turned down the bill, saying it need amendments before it can be made into law. Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) made a few amendments to the bill, including the removal of language that says the information collected through CISPA could be used for “national security” purposes.

The White House says that it’s still looking for more amendments and “should adhere to the following priorities:

1. Carefully safeguard privacy and civil liberties
2. Preserve the long-standing, respective roles and missions of civilian and intelligence agencies
3. Provide for appropriate sharing with targeted liability protections

The statement goes on to say that people shouldn’t have to fear companies having “immunity” if they share information that puts people’s civil rights in harm’s way.

“Citizens have a right to know that corporations will be held accountable – and not granted immunity – for failing to safeguard personal information adequately,” said the White House. “Specifically, even if there is no clear intent to do harm, the law should not immunize a failure to take reasonable measures, such as the sharing of information, to prevent harm when and if the entity knows that such inaction will cause damage or otherwise injure or endanger other entities or individuals.”

Dutch Ruppersberger image via RDECOM/Flickr

The White House just announced a new research initiative focused on mapping the human brain, which sadly, does not involve a magic school bus.

The initiative, officially called the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or BRAIN for short (get it!?), will receive $100 million in funding when it launches in 2014. Its long-term goal is to find out how things react to brain cells — with a eye for finding better treatment for Alzheimer’s and epilepsy and making great advancements in the field of neuroscience. Senior officials in the Obama administrations told the New York Times that the initiative was comparable to the Human Genome Project that maps human DNA.

Right now, brain researchers can only record a few hundred neurons, which is done by inserting wire into an animal or human brain to record the electrical activity as brain cells communicate with each other. The new BRAIN initiative is seeking to record thousands of neurons as well as figure out how to process all the data that comes from it — thus touching on not just Neuroscience, but also computer science and engineering.

The BRAIN initiative is also grabbing support from other government organizations, including Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation. The initiative is one of many mention President Barack Obama in his 2013 presidential address, in which he reinforced the importance of scientific research and advancement.

Check out a video from the White House below that explains the future of the BRAIN initiative embedded below.

Brain image via Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal petition has been heard loud and clear in Washington, and the Obama administration is saying yes.

“I just got off the phone with the White House,” petition creator Sina Khanifar told me this morning. “They’re in full support … they’re going to push through legislation to make the change.”

The petition is in response to a Librarian of Congress ruling in 2012 to remove unlocking of cellphones from DCMA exceptions, meaning that it would become illegal. Khanifar said — and 114,322 cosigners agreed — that this would result in customers being “forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad” and will reduce consumer choice as well as decreasing resale value of devices.

R. David Edelman of the White House staff has responded, saying that “the White House agrees with the 114,000-plus of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cellphones without risking criminal or other penalties” and that “all consumers deserve that flexibility.”

Khanifar, as you can imagine, is overjoyed with the response — and the phone call from the White House — and is hoping that this will lead to more pro-consumer legislation.

“I’m really hoping that this momentum can be used to fix a bunch of things,” he told me, citing the DMCA itself, jailbreaking of phones, and more. “I’d love to fix them all.”

How long will it take?

Khanifar, while overjoyed with the current result, was realistic about the realities of our political system.

“God knows,” he said.

Here is the full text of the White House response to the cellphone unlocking petition:

Thank you for sharing your views on cell phone unlocking with us through your petition on our We the People platform. Last week the White House brought together experts from across government who work on telecommunications, technology, and copyright policy, and we’re pleased to offer our response.

The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren’t bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network. It’s common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers’ needs.

This is particularly important for secondhand or other mobile devices that you might buy or receive as a gift, and want to activate on the wireless network that meets your needs — even if it isn’t the one on which the device was first activated. All consumers deserve that flexibility.

The White House’s position detailed in this response builds on some critical thinking done by the President’s chief advisory Agency on these matters: the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). For more context and information on the technical aspects of the issue, you can review the NTIA’s letter to the Library of Congress’ Register of Copyrights (.pdf), voicing strong support for maintaining the previous exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for cell phone carrier unlocking.

Contrary to the NTIA’s recommendation, the Librarian of Congress ruled that phones purchased after January of this year would no longer be exempted from the DMCA. The law gives the Librarian the authority to establish or eliminate exceptions — and we respect that process. But it is also worth noting the statement the Library of Congress released today on the broader public policy concerns of the issue. Clearly the White House and Library of Congress agree that the DMCA exception process is a rigid and imperfect fit for this telecommunications issue, and we want to ensure this particular challenge for mobile competition is solved.

So where do we go from here?

The Obama Administration would support a range of approaches to addressing this issue, including narrow legislative fixes in the telecommunications space that make it clear: neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.

We also believe the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with its responsibility for promoting mobile competition and innovation, has an important role to play here. FCC Chairman Genachowski today voiced his concern about mobile phone unlocking (.pdf), and to complement his efforts, NTIA will be formally engaging with the FCC as it addresses this urgent issue.

Finally, we would encourage mobile providers to consider what steps they as businesses can take to ensure that their customers can fully reap the benefits and features they expect when purchasing their devices.

We look forward to continuing to work with Congress, the wireless and mobile phone industries, and most importantly you — the everyday consumers who stand to benefit from this greater flexibility — to ensure our laws keep pace with changing technology, protect the economic competitiveness that has led to such innovation in this space, and offer consumers the flexibility and freedoms they deserve.

photo credit: dcJohn via photopin cc

The White House just posted this video from its recent We the People API hackathon. The group that gathered — twenty-one souls, all told — wasn’t the crowd we’re used to seeing at some hackathon events. Still, these folks were there to support a great cause: increasing access to the White House petitions system.

We the People is based on the First Amendment principle that every citizen has the right to petition the federal government “for a redress of grievances.” The We the People website and API attempt to bring that principle and promise into the current and future centuries by digitizing tools for submitting and circulating petitions.

From the White House’s official blog post:

By the time the sun set over Washington on the 22nd, sixteen people got up to share their projects with a room packed with other hackers and guests from around the White House. Among them was Mick Thompson, who created Where the People, a time-lapse visualization of zip codes where petitions are being signed, weighted for signatures by percentage of population. Douglas Back built Widget the People, a tool that lets you create an embeddable thermometer showing how many signatures your petition needs before it reaches the response threshold. Catherine D’Ignazio developed an embeddable map that shows where signatures came from, right down to the zip code level. Yoni Ben-Meshulam’s R We the People is a package for the R statistics environment that allows users to generate word clouds and visualize the issues that petitions are created about over time. Other projects included a dashboard that predicts when petitions will cross the 100,000 signature threshold, documentation and step-by-step primers on using the API, email alert systems that inform you when a petition on an issue you care about has been created, and more. …

By letting this group of smart people work with an early version of the API, by helping them come up with their own ideas and bring them to life, we found ways to make both We the People and its API better. Some of the projects from the hackathon will be released as open source code, or incorporated into We the People itself, but all of them helped the team from the White House find ways to make the API more flexible, better documented, and easier to use when it’s officially released.

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President Barack Obama’s administration has done some tremendously geeky things to help identify with the general populace, such as giving a very thoughtful response to a White House petition to build the Death Star.

However, at a press conference today, Obama may have proved that, while he can hire a bunch of Star Wars fanboys to help run the country, he himself is not one.

Speaking to the press about forging a bipartisan agreement on budget reform, Obama told reporters that he can’t perform a “Jedi mind meld” with Republican leaders to make them agree to his spending cuts.

What the president probably meant was to reference either the “Jedi Mind Trick” from Star Wars or the “Vulcan Mind Meld” from Star Trek that often used by U.S.S. Enterprise first officer Spock.

Sigh.

Update:

My response to all the ppl trying to tell me Obama was actually referencing a "Force Meld" in his press conference: http://t.co/WwirnVo6Nq—
Tom Cheredar (@TChed) March 01, 2013

Also, someone created a parody account called ObamaVulcanJedi. (I love the Internet.)

The last time this many nerds cared about politics was when Palpatine was named chancellor of the federation. #jedimindmeld—
Obama, Vulcan Jedi (@0bamaVulcanJedi) March 01, 2013

Update #2:

Well at least the president seems to have a sense of humor about the whole situation. (See The White House’s tweet below.)

We must bring balance to the Force. #Sequester #JediMindMeld http://t.co/lIZlgavhuR—
The White House (@whitehouse) March 01, 2013

Via Washington Post

Photo credit: That Daily Deal

The White House has raised its requirements to make it more difficult to get a response on user-generated petitions today.

The White House’s “We The People” tool allows U.S. citizens to create their own petition to the government. Previously, President Barack Obama’s administration promised a response to any petition that gained 25,000 signatures (up from just 5,000 when the tool debuted) within 30 days of creation. Now, petitions need at least 100,000 signatures in the same time frame.

“When we first raised the threshold — from 5,000 to 25,000 — we called it ‘a good problem to have.’ Turns out that ‘good problem’ is only getting better, so we’re making another adjustment to ensure we’re able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve,” wrote White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips in a blog post.

The decision comes just days after the White House responded to a petition asking the government to build its own Death Star, the planet destroying mega-ship from Star Wars. That particular petition brought in 34,435, which was enough to get a response, but far short of the new requirement.

The White House also released lots of statistics about the “We The People” tool as evidence of why the signature threshold had to be increased. For instance, the administration said it took successful petitions an average of 18 days to hit the 25,000 mark during the first 10 months of 2012. However, it only took nine days to reach the threshold for petitions during November and December, the White House said. (For more statistics about the We The People tool, check out the White House’s infographic below.)

But increasing the signature threshold isn’t the only thing the White House plans to do with the tool. It also announced plans for an open API, released the source code for the petitioning tool, and invited engineers to reach out to them if they wanted to help.

Via The Verge

When a petition to secure resources, funding, and begin construction of a Death Star — the planet destroying mega ship commissioned by the Empire in Star Wars — gained the necessary signatures for a formal response from the White House, most people probably figured the Obama administration would offer up a simple “nope”.

But as the administration sees it, a ridiculous request deserves an equally ridiculous response.

In a letter titled “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For” (a play on words from a classic Star Wars quote), the White House proceeded to lay out a rough cost for building a Death Star, state its position on the destruction of planets, and pose questions about the project’s worth to American tax payers:

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

The response to the petition is not only littered with references to the classic movies, but it also takes care to highlight the administration’s support for the International Space Station — saying this is already sort of the project that’s been requested, minus the massive scale, world-shattering weapons, and armada of TIE fighters. If you have a moment to check it out, it’s actually very clever.

And if you’re wondering why our elected officials are devoting resources to this type of silliness, then you’ve probably not checked out the White House’s official website. The site allows citizens to petition the government about anything (obviously, anything), and promises a response to any petition that reaches over 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

People are reaching out to the President this week, asking the White House to recognize distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks as a form of protest rather than a punishable offense.

DDoS attacks are used to overwhelm a website and knock it offline. They do this by sending lots of traffic to a website’s server, effectively overloading it. The method is often used by “hactivist groups” such as Anonymous, who focus their hacking efforts not on financial gain, but rather on political protest.

The petition states that:

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), is not any form of hacking in any way. It is the equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a webpage. It is, in that way, no different than any “occupy” protest. Instead of a group of people standing outside a building to occupy the area, they are having their computer occupy a website to slow (or deny) service of that particular website for a short time.

Not everyone will agree, however. While picket lines and sit-ins discourage people from entering a retailer or business, they doesn’t deny them access wholesale. If a website is knocked offline, then any potential revenue is completely lost, not just scared away.

At the time of writing this post, the petition has 1,438 signatures, and needs 23,562 more in order to reach the necessary 25,000 signature limit to be considered by the White House.

The petition also requests that anyone who has been punished or jailed for DDoS attacks should be “immediately released” and have their records wiped clean of the related offenses.

via Ars Technica; Protester image via Shutterstock

A special White House investigation couldn’t find any evidence of Chinese spying through Huawei telecommunications systems, according to Reuters‘ sources, though the U.S. recently warned businesses using the vendor that it “cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence.”

This comes after the White House investigated Chinese telecommunications vendors Huawei and ZTE last week, saying American companies should look for other partners for their communications needs. It seems the government issued this warning not based on evidence that the companies were spying for the Chinese government, but rather for the security vulnerabilities that already exist in their products.

The U.S. government fears that these vulnerabilities may open doors for hackers (likely from any nation state) to come in and siphon off data from Huawei’s customers.

Soon after the report was initially released, Huawei responded, calling the claims “baseless suggestions” that “recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation, do nothing to protect national security, and should be exposed as dangerous political distractions.”

The Chinese Commerce Ministry also stepped in, saying the government was playing with “suggestive guesswork.” It seems, however, that while the U.S. can’t prove Huawei is guilty of spying on Americans, the security issues are enough of a threat when a seemingly increasing number of cyber attacks in the U.S. are traced back to Chinese IP addresses.

Huawei image via HuaweiPress/Flickr

Cybercriminals hacked into computers of the White House Military Office, the White House told Politico today. The breach is said to come from attackers in China.

The White House confirmed the hack on Sunday after conservative publication The Washington Free Beacon posted rumors of the incident.

According to Politico, a web site that covers politics and based in Washington, D.C., a White House spokesperson said the systems attacked were unclassified and that the White House does not believe any data was stolen from the machines. The spokesperson went on to say that the hackers did not attempt to breach any classified systems and that the original attack was “isolated.”

So, how do you get inside the White House’s computer systems? The same way many high-profile attacks happen: human error. The hackers used a phishing technique to dupe a White House employee into believing an e-mail or some other form of communication was legitimate. From there, phishers lure unsuspecting people through malicious links or to download attachments, which then open the door for hackers to install malware, steal personal information, or otherwise gain access to the system.

“The recently reported spear-phishing attack on the White House underscores the vulnerability factor of employees, even at the highest level of the U.S. government, to fall for these types of targeted attacks,” said Aaron Higbee, cofounder of spear-phishing avoidance training program PhishMe, in an e-mail to VentureBeat. “But as we have seen time and time again, these attacks use the social engineering tactics of fear, curiosity, and urgency to lure users to open attachments, click URL’s or provide sensitive data to criminals – truly, they are geared to help criminals establish an undetected presence within the White House network.”

Whether the attackers set up backdoors or other ways to reenter the system is unknown.

White House image via Tom Lohdan/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

We the people, in order to form a more mobile union, do establish that iPhones, iPads, and Androids are our preferred devices for accessing timely information. Thankfully, the White House has taken notice of our preamble.

Tuesday, the White House announced a complete overhaul to its mobile tactics; it released a new mobile web version of WhiteHouse.gov alongside enhanced apps for iPhone and Android that are also now compatible with tablet devices. The White House also published the source code behind its apps to GitHub so that developers can remix the apps for their own purposes.

“Over the past two years the number of mobile visits to the site has tripled, reaching 15.17% of total traffic,” director of digital strategy Peter Welsch wrote in a blog post on WhiteHouse.gov. “In order to meet this growing demand, we’ve relaunched the entire White House mobile program, making it even easier to see what’s going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”

The fresh applications feature live video streams of White House events, photo and video archives, search tools, notifications for breaking news, and Facebook and Twitter sharing options. The new mobile code published to GitHub adds to the growing repository released by the White House.

The updates come just ahead of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, and continue to push forward the message that President Barack Obama is totally with it and hip.

The Internet loves that the PODUS took to Reddit to answer ask-me-anything questions. The people also seem to adore Obama for establishing a mini brewery in the White House kitchen. The recipes for White House Honey Porter and White House Honey Ale were released to the public last week after much demand. The President even got a ton of retweet love for his photo response to Clint Eastwood’s quirky back-and-forth with an empty chair.

Photo credit: WhiteHouse.gov

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “botnet,” then perhaps your computer wasn’t one of the 5 million systems infected worldwide between January and March of this year. Botnets are collections of infected computers used maliciously to create spam, flood traffic to websites and even steal private information.

In an earlier story from VentureBeat, it was reported that the United States fell into the “top five vulnerable countries with 19.32 percent of computers at risk.” Bottom line: it isn’t always in your best interest to click on every link someone sends you.

“The issue of botnets is larger than any one industry or country,” Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, said in an e-mailed statement. “This is why partnership is so important.”

According to Schmidt, the voluntary principles announced are intended for partnership with the government in regards to malware, while working together to confront cyberattacks globally.

“IBG has also developed a framework for shared responsibility across the botnet mitigation lifecycle from prevention to recovery that reflects the need for ongoing education efforts, innovative technologies, and a feedback loop throughout all phases,” IBG said on their website.

In all of this, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that was passed by the House in April — an act that would allow the government and other companies to voluntarily share information on cyber threats — was opposed by President Obama due to his belief the act would invade the public’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Senator Joe Lieberman recently created a bill (S. 2105) that would put the Department of Homeland Security in the front lines of regulating cybersecurity through transportation networks and power grids. The bill has yet to move to the Senate floor.

Via Bloomberg; Photo via hyperproteinus

The White House is losing its cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt to retirement this year after a tumultuous 2011, often referred to a the year of the hack.

Schmidt served the White House in this role for two and a half years, and has acted as a pivotal liaison between the National Security Agency and Homeland Security, as noted by the Washington Post. He was instrumental in passing the first cyber security legislative proposal, and watched as “hacktivist” groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec grew to become the household names they are today. He leaves his office in a time where tensions on the Internet security front are high.

Security firm Symantec claims that it stopped 5.5 billion attacks from happening last year, and that due to new automated processes for creating malware, that number is only due to grow. And it’s not just the private sector that’s on red alert. State-sponsored attacks are also popping up much more frequently, and fear is growing around the idea of attacking “connected devices.” An example of this was the 2010 attack on Iranian nuclear power plants using the malware named Stuxnet.

Michael Daniel, who has served the Office of Management and Budget for 17 years, succeeds Schmidt. He too has had experience with cyber security matters, devoting 10 of those 17 years to the matter. He is the current Chief of the White House Budget Office’s Intelligence Branch.

via the Washington Post; Howard Schmidt photo via veni markovski

A piece of legislation designed to make crowdfunding a legal option for startups will be passed into law as President Barack Obama plans to sign the JOBS Act Thursday, VentureBeat has confirmed.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act has already successfully made its way through the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, with some modifications, and will allow startups raising $1 million or less to let regular Joes and Janes (read: non-accredited investors) purchase a limited amount of equity in their nascent businesses via approved portals.

The legislation also eliminates the 500-sharehoulder rule, meaning that startups can wait longer before needing to publicly report financial data to the SEC and hold off on forced public offerings.

“On Thursday, the President will sign the Jobs Act,” press deputy secretary Josh Earnest said in a press gaggle on Friday.

News of the JOBS Act imminent approval started spreading on Twitter Saturday afternoon when Aol co-founder, Revolution CEO, and JOBS Act proponent Steve Case tweeted the revelation.

The entrepreneur-friendly initiative flew through the Senate with a 73 to 26 passing vote, and the revised law passed in the House with a 380 to 41 overwhelming majority. The legislation, popular with Democratic and Republican political parties alike, was already known to be supported by the White House and President Obama.

“The JOBS Act will help revitalize an IPO market that has suffered in recent years under the weight of market volatility and one-size-fits-all regulation,” Highland Capital general partner and National Venture Capital Association chair Paul Maeder said in a previous statement. “The passage of this legislation sends a strong and welcome signal to our most promising companies that the U.S. capital markets system is open for business.”

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Positing that data analysis on a grand scale can solve the nation’s most critical challenges, the Obama Administration has kicked off a big data initiative with $200 million in commitments from six federal agencies.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is collaborating with the Department of Defense (DoD), National Science Foundation (NSF), Nation Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DoE), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to better organize and understand massive volumes of digital data for the nation’s well-being, the Administration announced Thursday.

“In the same way that past Federal investments in information-technology R&D led to dramatic advances in supercomputing and the creation of the Internet, the initiative we are launching today promises to transform our ability to use Big Data for scientific discovery, environmental and biomedical research, education, and national security,” assistant to the President and OSTP director Dr. John P. Holdren said.

Each of the agencies involved are committing resources to developing technologies for big data insight and discovery. DARPA and the DoD, for instance, are specifically focusing on analytics, tools, and algorithms for improving national security and optimizing warfare tactics.

The government is the latest investor in the big-data movement, which has taken off in the technology sector as service providers raise large rounds or get snatched up for tools that dive deep into corporate data pools.

Photo credit: Yampyank/Flickr

President Obama photo: Dave Brenner/Flickr

A day after showing his techno savvy with an appearance in a Google+ hangout, President Obama is calling on Congress to pass new legislation that would aid startups, and put them at the center of an agenda, “Startup America,” focused on creating new jobs.

“The president has made small businesses and particularly start-ups a key aspect of his economic growth agenda because he understands how much the newest and fastest-growing small businesses drive job growth in our economy,” Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council, told the AP.

Talk is cheap, so let’s get down to the brass tacks. The new bill would help stimulate the startup economy by cutting tax rates on capital gains for investments in small businesses. Ok, so that means more venture capital, but what about the basics of running a business? The new law would also extend for a year the ability of all businesses to deduct immediately all of the costs of equipment and software purchases. Microsoft Office for everyone!

“Our small business agenda has a specific focus on removing the barriers that have for too long blocked start-ups and entrepreneurs from getting the financing they need to accelerate their growth and hiring,” Sperling said.

The trade in private shares have been a great source of capital for startups like Facebook and Twitter that are growing but not ready to go public. As Venturebeat reported earlier this month, SecondMarket is hoping to provide access to this kind of capital to lots of companies, not just the stars of the social web.

It seems like the White House is following suit. Obama is proposing to increase the amount companies can raise through small public offerings without the expense of a lengthy and complex registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission registration process. The limit for such “mini public offerings,” according to the AP, would increase from $5 million a year to $50 million. Everyone gets an IPO!

The new law is controversial among state officials and investor advocates who worry that less regulation will lead to ordinary investors getting bilked on bogus stock offerings. Raising tens of millions of dollars without having to provide an audited financial statement…what could go wrong?

The legislative package also includes a $1 billion dollar early-stage innovation fund, which basically matches private investment in high growth startups dollar for dollar, targeting the series A squeeze between $1-4 million.

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Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Cloud services leader Salesforce has hired former U.S. chief information officer Vivek Kundra as its executive vice president of emerging markets, the company announced today.

Kundra made headlines as the federal government’s first-ever CIO when he was hired by the Obama administration in March 2009. While in his job, Kundra managed $80 billion in technology investments and instituted a 25-point plan to reform and restructure the government’s IT management. Kundra left his job in August to become a joint fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

The move to Salesforce as an EVP for emerging markets makes sense for Kundra. Ideally, his time with the federal government will have prepared him to talk up Salesforce’s cloud initiatives throughout the world.

“Vivek Kundra is an amazing technology visionary who opened the eyes of millions to the transformational power of cloud computing,” said Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, in a statement. “His disruptive leadership is just what the industry needs to accelerate the social enterprise.”

Before serving as federal CIO, Kundra was the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia and the assistant secretary of commerce and technology for the state of Virginia.

Vivek Kundra photo via Dell’s Flickr page

The Obama administration issued a statement earlier today saying that it supports a serious legislative response to piracy problems but will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines “the dynamic innovative global Internet.”

While the statement did not mention the much debated Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by name, it was clearly intended to respond to the furious debate around it – and to take a sensible middle road. The move suggests the White House is trying to forge a delicate balance between large media interests (think Hollywood) and innovative companies that are trying to aggregate or otherwise point to information in a useful, progressive way (think Silicon Valley).

[Update: Indeed, three of the main industry supporters behind SOPA issued a response to the White House statement, saying it points the way to compromise. "So now it is time to stop the obstruction and move forward on legislation," said the statement, issued by the Motion Picture Association (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The group sent the statement to VentureBeat. The statement also cited moves by Rep. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) in the House, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in the Senate to remove some of the most austere provisions from the legislation (see more on this below), as evidence that a compromise had been been reached, and that it "clears the way  for action on these important bills."]

Written by three senior Obama Administration officials, the White House statement is actually a response to two petitions generated by the Obama administration’s online tool that facilitates public input, “We the People.” The petitions asked the administration to respond to SOPA. And this morning’s statement is the first stance the White House has taken on the issue.

However, the statement comes after SOPA’s biggest backers, Rep. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) in the House, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in the Senate (which is debating SOPA’s sister bill, the Protect IP Act), already have backed away from one of the most controversial measures from their legislation. This measure centered around Domain Name System (DNS) and basically would give any party a particularly powerful way to seek court orders to block websites associated with infringing, pirating or counterfeiting intellectual property. Under this method of blocking a website under SOPA — which Smith and Leahy apparently intend to remove — the bill would have called for Internet service providers (like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon FiOS) to block any offending site’s DNS record, which would prevent people from visiting the site. That’s considered by opponents to be particularly draconian, considering copyright and fair use are often contested issues, and a Web site can sometimes be a company’s main means for survival (think Google). Short of the DNS blocking, there are other tough ways to punish web sites (de-indexing sites from search results, etc), and these are apparently still not ruled out.

The DNS issue was one of the main points targeted for criticism by the White House statement: “Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security,” the statement says. “Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online.”

The White House officials behind the statement included IP enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel, CTO Aneesh Chopra, and cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt.

The White House statement continued beyond the DNS issue, however. It said it is also opposed to “overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.” It said it would support legislation that is “narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity.”

In other words, the White House seems intent on striking a balance between two competing constituencies, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Both of them have supported Obama, and they have very opposed interests. Big media companies, including big record companies and Hollywood film studios, want a hardline to protect copyright, so that they can make more money from their content, and have supported both the House and the Senate Bills. Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others, however, oppose SOPA legislation, warning in a Nov. 15 letter that it would force new burdensome mandates on law-abiding technology companies: “We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity,” the letter stated. One example of a typical Silicon Valley screed is found in this interview with tech publisher Tim O’Reilly.

Without the DNS provision, SOPA now looks a great deal more like the OPEN Act, a bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), according to CNET. That bill was designed to be an alternative to SOPA. OPEN may get more support now, given that Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised not to bring the bill to the floor without consensus. And also yesterday, six Republican senators have asked Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone a vote on Pro IP, also known as PIPA, CNET and others reported.

[Image Credit: Flickr, Tambako the Jaguar]

Here’s the text of the White House statement:

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TOStop the E-PARASITE Act. and 1 other petition

Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet

By Victoria Espinel, Aneesh Chopra, and Howard Schmidt

Thanks for taking the time to sign this petition. Both your words and actions illustrate the importance of maintaining an open and democratic Internet.

Right now, Congress is debating a few pieces of legislation concerning the very real issue of online piracy, including the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN). We want to take this opportunity to tell you what the Administration will support—and what we will not support. Any effective legislation should reflect a wide range of stakeholders, including everyone from content creators to the engineers that build and maintain the infrastructure of the Internet.

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.

Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. Across the globe, the openness of the Internet is increasingly central to innovation in business, government, and society and it must be protected. To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.

We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.

Let us be clear—online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, and threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation’s most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs.  It harms everyone from struggling artists to production crews, and from startup social media companies to large movie studios. While we are strongly committed to the vigorous enforcement of intellectual property rights, existing tools are not strong enough to root out the worst online pirates beyond our borders. That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response.  We should never let criminals hide behind a hollow embrace of legitimate American values.

This is not just a matter for legislation. We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.

So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many of members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the Administration. The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions. Details on that will follow in the coming days.

Washington needs to hear your best ideas about how to clamp down on rogue websites and other criminals who make money off the creative efforts of American artists and rights holders. We should all be committed to working with all interested constituencies to develop new legal tools to protect global intellectual property rights without jeopardizing the openness of the Internet. Our hope is that you will bring enthusiasm and know-how to this important challenge.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation. Again, thank you for taking the time to participate in this important process. We hope you’ll continue to be part of it.

Victoria Espinel is Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget

Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

Howard Schmidt is Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff

Google previously indicated that the hackers were attempting to hijack accounts using “phishing” scams, where users are tricked into giving up their passwords. The attacks were also aimed at Chinese political activists, South Korean officials, and journalists, and aimed to monitor the accounts and change email forwarding settings.

The Obama administration said no official messages were compromised, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the allegations at hand were “very serious.” The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are working with Google to investigate the attempted breach, and U.S. officials indicated they would not talk directly to the Chinese government about the incident until more facts are collected.

The attack suggests White House employees are using private email exchanges to conduct official business, even if there are rules against it, according to Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who was quoted in the Wall Street Journal story. “Presumably, the Chinese wouldn’t have done this if they weren’t getting something,” she told the Journal.

“If all White House officials were following rules prohibiting the use of personal email for official business, there would simply be no sensitive information to find,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told the Journal.

We reported yesterday that while China is in the spotlight here, the attacks may have came from more than just China. Mila Parkour, the Washington-based IT specialist who first spotted the attacks three months ago, said similar attacks appeared to come from New York and Korea. Google said it based its China findings on security intelligence gathered on its own, but it did not reveal how this was done.

As the case gets bigger and the U.S. government takes a larger role, we’d love to see Google release more information on why exactly it thinks China is the only country of origin in these wide-ranging attacks.

IBM has announced that it will invest 150$ million in 2011 to fund programs that promote entrepreneurs and new business opportunities in the United States. Intel Capital will commit $200 million of new investment to U.S. companies. Startup accelerator Techstars will launch national startup accelerator network which aims to create 25,000 new jobs by 2015.

Recent research concluded that new companies like high-tech startups create the greatest number of jobs so it’s not surprising that the White House wants to encourage startups.

IBM launched an extensive global entrepreneur program in 2010 providing startups with mentoring and access to IBM research, software and customers. This included the IBM smartcamp competition, won by the San Francisco-based Streetline. IBM will spend $150 million in total on the entrepreneur program in the U.S. this year.

I talked to Mike Riegel, vice president of ISV and developer relations at IBM, about the program. He told me about some new additions to IBM’s entrepreneur program such as establishing centers of excellence on college campuses which produce employees with the skills startups need. IBM  is also launching a  Skills Tour that will visit 15 universities and bring together students, professors, venture capital and non-profit leaders to discuss the skills needed for leadership jobs in the 21st century. Three local smartcamp competitions are scheduled in the U.S. in 2011.

Startup accelerator and seed investor TechStars launched the Techstars network to connect independently owned and operated startup accelerator programs from dozens of cities across the United States, from Miami to Seattle and Nashville to New Orleans. The network aims to create 25,000 jobs by 2015 with the involvement of 5,000 experienced business leaders and investors as mentors to 6,000 entrepreneurs. Currently there are 16 TechStars Network member organizations across the United States and around the world.

TechStars previously announced an international expansion of its accelerator program from the  first location outside the US –  Copenhagen – to Madrid, London and Berlin in 2011.

Automakers may be required to boost fleet fuel efficiency to 62 miles per gallon by 2025, according to one scenario offered by a government report today. Electric hybrids and electric cars would play a crucial role in meeting the top range targets.

The White House announced today it is going solar. Solar panels will be installed atop the living quarters of the residence for the first time by spring 2011 and will be used to heat water and supply electricity as part of a Department of Energy demonstration project. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush incorporated solar into White House operations in the past.

Portland solar technology startup Azuray announced today it has teamed up with Chinese solar panel maker Suntech to research smart solar panels, drawing from Azuray’s solar technology. The technology promises to extract up to 25 percent more energy from underperforming solar panels. Azuray has also teamed with junction box maker Renhe to integrate the technology into a box that is part of the solar panel.

Energy management startup Hara released today its biggest software product to date, a supply-chain module that can evaluate energy efficiency among a client’s suppliers – vendors, transportation services, warehouses and the like. The Hara Value Chain module marks the company’s seventh release in 21 months. Hara has enjoyed some nice momentum as of late, recently signing the city of Philadelphia as its 40th customer, and counts Hasbro and Coca-Cola among its customers.

Are you a green executive or entrepreneur? If so, sign up now for GreenBeat 2010 — the year’s seminal conference on the smart grid — November 3-4 at Stanford University. World leaders in smart grid initiatives will debate how the new “Super Grid” is creating huge opportunities in cars, energy storage, and renewables. GreenBeat 2010 is hosted by VentureBeat and SSE Labs of Stanford University. Go here for full conference details and to apply for the 2010 Innovation Competition. Early-bird tickets are available until October 15th.