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In the waning days of the current session of Congress, patent reform is one issue that's very much alive. Major IT companies and business associations are making sure their voices are heard in what has become a typical end-of-year legislative scramble. Their efforts may not result in passage of a bi...

Mobile device users' privacy will be safeguarded under a new transparency code of conduct created in an effort involving 40 groups ranging from businesses to advocacy groups and led by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling hailed ...

Both the White House and Congress have asserted that protecting the nation's resources from cyberattacks is a top priority. Yet enacting legislation designed to enhance security for critical infrastructure components such as water, power, telecom and transport facilities that is acceptable to both p...

The Business Software Alliance reportedly is pushing to overturn the U.S. International Trade Commission's ban against older iPhones and iPads, maintaining that it would set a dangerous precedent. When the ITC makes a decision to ban a particular product for import into the U.S., it is fast and usua...

If Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray ever imagined that House of Representatives Republicans would eventually warm up to the bureau, that hope has surely been dashed by now. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, on Monday sent a...

The White House agreed Monday with consumers who want to be able to legally unlock their mobile phones and tablets and move them to the carrier of their choice. The Obama administration's statement was in response to a petition on the White House's We The People forum that disagreed with the Library...

One of the classic items on the agenda for all presidential candidates, including incumbent Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, is to cut federal government waste. In fact, the Obama administration has been campaigning for nearly the past two years to reduce waste and improve the efficiency of ...

The debate in the U.S. Congress over a comprehensive national cybersecurity program is wearing on, largely because of differences over the roles of government and business in protecting information technology. Elsewhere, however, cybersecurity awareness and research projects are being launched throu...

Google's chief legal officer went on the offensive Wednesday, posting a company blog entry that attacked Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and other tech companies for securing patents and undertaking legal activity that would block the development of the Android platform. The post, penned by David Drummond,...

The mushrooming use of wireless devices by the general public has spilled over to the federal government as agencies try to match their employees' personal use of mobile equipment with similar devices for use on the job. An emerging issue in federal mobile media use is that there is no overall gover...

Vendors competing for federal information technology contracts are required to meet a broad array of standards reflected in much of industry jargon, such as cybersecurity, interoperability and scalability. Technical factors are critical, of course. At a Senate hearing last week, however, it became c...

In a move that confirms the U.S. government's recent emphasis on seeking cloud-based information technology solutions, the United States General Services Administration has awarded a contract for converting the agency's email system to a cloud platform. GSA gave the $6.7 million, five-year task orde...

Consumer privacy advocates are outraged that the FTC has decided to stop investigating why Google was collecting personal information transmitted by users over private WiFi networks. Google has admitted to collecting such data -- which in some cases included individual emails and user passwords -- ...

eBay has been slammed with a lawsuit alleging that the e-commerce giant infringes on six patents with its PayPal, Bill Me Later, Shopping.com and StubHub services. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware by XPRT Ventures, veers from the typical pattern of patent disputes. For starters...

The email addresses and device IDs of more than 100,000 owners of 3G-enabled iPads have been exposed in a security breach, according to wireless provider AT&T. Victims apparently include at least one member of the U.S. President Barack Obama's cabinet, heads of large corporations and other promi...

The email addresses and device IDs of more than 100,000 owners of 3G-enabled iPads have been exposed in a security breach, according to wireless provider AT&T. Victims apparently include at least one member of the U.S. President Barack Obama's cabinet, heads of large corporations and other promi...

The email addresses and device IDs of more than 100,000 owners of 3G-enabled iPads have been exposed in a security breach, according to wireless provider AT&T. Victims apparently include at least one member of the U.S. President Barack Obama's cabinet, heads of large corporations and other promi...

Once again, Americans are hearing that the United States is a cybersecurity wimp, vulnerable to major damage should it ever suffer a large, organized cyberattack. The latest testimony underscoring that notion came from Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence, who spoke to the...

As the U.S. federal government moves ahead with its cloud computing strategy, it may find that the real bugbear won't be technology but politics. What else would expect on the Hill? Other problems could pop up in the government's approach to security and a lack of adequately qualified staff. Can the...

It is surprising -- albeit perhaps inevitable -- that the Obama Administration, which so ably navigated the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies during its presidential campaign, has stumbled using those same tools now that it is in office. The White House has received a large number of complaints from...