Month: June 2017

Corrections Group Supports Beacon Systems

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The American Correctional Association urged the FCC in a filing June 23 to convene wireless carriers “and reach a voluntary agreement within one year to implement and offer CW beacon systems on all cell phones with a phase-in period of two years from the date of the agreement” to tackle contraband cellphones in correctional institutions.

“However, if all carriers do not agree within the one-year period, we would encourage the FCC to pursue mandatory requirements in this proceeding,” ACA said in its filing in GN docket 13-111 on a further notice of proposed rulemaking adopted in March seeking comments on whether the Commission should take additional measures to address the use of contraband devices in prisons and jails (TR Daily, March 23).

Courtesy TRDaily

 

CSRIC Members Review Tasks of Three Working Groups

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The FCC’s Communications Reliability, Security, and Interoperability Council held its first meeting under its new two-year charter today and members were briefed on the tasks that the panel’s three working groups will tackle. Working group 1 will focus on the transition to next-generation 911 (NG-911), working group 2 will explore a comprehensive evaluation of emergency alerting, and working group 3 will tackle network reliability and security risk reduction.

The chairs of the three working groups are Mary Boyd, vice president-regulatory, policy, and government affairs for West Safety Services (WG1); Farrokh Khatibi, director-engineering for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (WG2); and Travis Russell, director-telecommunications cybersecurity for Oracle Communications (WG3). The chair of the CSRIC is Brian King, senior vice president-national technology service delivery and operations for T-Mobile US, Inc.

The FCC has asked WG1 to “review existing best practices and develop additional guidance regarding overall monitoring, reliability, notifications, and accountability in preventing 911 outages in transitional NG911 environments.” It also wants the working group to “study and develop recommendations for the CSRIC’s consideration on small carrier best practices for managing the transition to NG911.” WG1 is scheduled to deliver a report on the first task in March 2018 and on the second in June 2018. Continue reading →

Google Proposes Easy Data Access for Governments under Baseline Commitments

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Google, Inc., has proposed “a new framework” for law enforcement access to cloud data that would allow “countries that commit to baseline privacy, human rights, and due process principles to gather evidence more quickly and efficiently,” company Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker said in a blog post that was based on a speech he delivered June 22 at the Heritage Foundation.

Once countries make those commitments and the U.S. amends the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to authorize data disclosure by U.S. companies to foreign governments under such baseline commitments, “the next step would be for the United States and foreign governments to sign new agreements that could provide an alternative to the MLAT [mutual legal assistance treaty] process. The bilateral agreements that could be authorized by the legislation put forward by the Department of Justice provide a promising avenue to improve global privacy standards and create a pathway for foreign governments to obtain digital evidence for investigations,” Mr. Walker said.

Courtesy TRDaily

House Bill Would Ban Voice Calls on Aircraft

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Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization legislation introduced in the House June 22 would require the Department of Transportation to release regulations prohibiting airborne cellphone voice communications on scheduled passenger flights, except by on-duty flight crew members, attendants, and federal law enforcement officers. However, FAA reauthorization legislation introduced in the Senate yesterday would permit, but not require, DoT to ban such in-flight communications.

The House bill (HR 2997) is the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act – or the 21st Century AIRR Act. It is sponsored by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R., Pa.), aviation subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R., N.J.) and Vice Chair Paul Mitchell (R., Mich.), and Reps. Colleen Hanabusa (D., Hawaii), Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.), and Sam Graves (R., Mo.).

The Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2017 (S 1405) was introduced by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R., S.D.) and ranking member Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Sens. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), the respective chairman and ranking member of the aviation operations, safety, & security subcommittee. Continue reading →

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, June 22, 2017

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State Plans Being Delivered On June 19, 2017, as promised, FirstNet and AT&T delivered the state plans three months ahead of what was required in the FirstNet RFP. The delivery of these plans was via a secure web portal that will be home to the plans and only accessible by authorized personnel in each state. The rest of us can view some of what is occurring and suggested coverage maps by going to the public site FirstNet.com (.com, not .gov), a new site dedicated to FirstNet state plans.

FirstNet has already provided each of the State (single) Points of Contact (SPOCs) with the information they need for themselves and others they want to also have direct access to the state plan. The FirstNet.com site is designed to provide information for those with an interest in FirstNet, the state plans, coverage, products, and services. FirstNet.com also enables stakeholders not directly involved with the state plan to be able to learn more about what FirstNet and AT&T are offering the public safety community. Read the full version here . Today’s News from Discovery Patterns includes a number of different stories about the state plans as well as opt-out initiatives. I have included multiple stories to illustrate the differences between them and so our readers can get the best view of what is being reported. Continue reading →

S&T Snapshot: Rapid DNA technology makes verifying relationships easier, faster

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Rapid DNA technology developed by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has recently been used to identify simulated “victims” in several mass casualty exercises across the nation. The technology greatly expedites the testing of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the only biometric that can accurately verify family relationships. With results available in 90 minutes or less, S&T’s Rapid DNA technology can be used on the scene of mass fatality events, in refugee camps around the world, or at immigration offices.

“Rapid DNA dramatically reduces the time it takes to reunify families and mass-casualty victims. What took days to several weeks (due to delays caused by shipping DNA samples to regional laboratories for testing) can now be accomplished in hours, onsite,” explained Christopher Miles, S&T’s Deputy Director for Standards Integration and Application. Continue reading →

FCC Proposes Creating Blue Alert EAS Code

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The FCC unanimously adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking today proposing to amend its Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules to add the event code “BLU” for Blue Alerts. The new alert would enable the dissemination of information when law enforcement officers have been killed or seriously injured, are in imminent danger, or are missing. A fact sheet on the item, which was adopted in PS docket 15-94, noted that it would (1) “[s]eek comment on whether the EAS is an effective means of delivering Blue Alerts”; (2) “[s]eek comment on whether a dedicated Blue Alert EAS event code would facilitate the implementation of Blue Alerts in a compatible and uniform manner nationwide”; (3) “[s]eek comment on whether existing EAS event codes are sufficient to convey Blue Alert information”; (4) “[s]eek comment on whether, and if so how, adopting a Blue Alert EAS event code would impact Wireless Emergency Alerts”; and (5) “[s]eek comment on whether a dedicated Blue Alert EAS event code would increase public recognition of Blue Alerts.”

The text of the NPRM was released late this afternoon. Comments are due 30 days after “Federal Register” publication and replies are due 30 days after that. Last month, the Justice Department announced the launch of the National Blue Alert Network, which implements legislation signed into law in 2015 (TR Daily, May 19). Twenty-seven states currently have their own Blue Alert plans. Continue reading →

FCC Proposes Caller ID Rule Changes to Address Threatening Calls

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The FCC today unanimously proposed changes to its caller ID rules to enable called parties and law enforcement to obtain blocked caller ID information for calls that involve threats “of a serious and imminent nature.” The Common Carrier docket 91-281 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) would leave in place an emergency, temporary waiver granted earlier this year by the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to Jewish community centers (JCCs) and carriers that serve them from the Commission’s prohibition on terminating carriers’ providing the called party with the number from which an interstate call originated if the caller has invoked caller ID blocking for the call or the line (TR Daily, March 3).

The NPRM says that the waivers will remain in place “until the Commission determines whether to amend its rules. … The record provides good cause to maintain that waiver because of the large number of recent threatening calls targeting these facilities, as well as the substantial disruption and fear caused as a result.” Comments on the NPRM will be due 30 days after publication in the “Federal Register.”  Reply comments will be due 30 days after initial comments. Continue reading →

FCC Adopts Order Establishing Procedures to Consider Alternative FirstNet Plans

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The FCC June 22 unanimously adopted a report and order establishing procedures for reviewing alternative plans filed by states that want to “opt out” and contract to build their own radio access networks (RANs) rather than have the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet) partner, AT&T, Inc., build them. “Today’s decision is intended to provide states with a fair and meaningful opportunity to pursue their own network plans without causing undue delay and while still ensuring the integrity of the nationwide network,” the FCC said in a news release on the item. In recent weeks, FirstNet, AT&T, and others sought changes to the draft version of the order circulated earlier this month (TR Daily, June 1). The text of the item was released late this afternoon.

Under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which established FirstNet, governors have 90 days after receiving the FirstNet state plan to notify the government that they want to opt out of having FirstNet’s partner build a radio access network in their states. The law said that within 180 days after that, states must complete a request for proposals (RFP) and submit an alternative plan for approval by the FCC, which is charged with reviewing whether plans would comply with minimum technical interoperability requirements. If the FCC approves a state plan, the state has to apply to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for authority to secure a spectrum capacity lease agreement with FirstNet. States seeking to build their own RANs may also apply to NTIA for grant funds to help cover those costs.

The order adopted today in PS docket 16-269 is “essentially the same” as the draft version circulated earlier this month, Lisa Fowlkes, chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, told reporters after today’s FCC meeting. However, the order as adopted does not instruct the bureau to issue a public notice seeking comments on FirstNet’s network policies to enable the Commission to identify elements of FirstNet’s network policies that it will consider as part of its interoperability review, as the original draft order did. That provision drew complaints from FirstNet, which argued that the Commission has no “oversight authority  over FirstNet’s network policies” (TR Daily, June 21). Continue reading →

DHS Officials Won’t Name States Affected by 2016 Election Hackers

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Officials from the Department of Homeland Security today disclosed that hackers spied on the election networks of 21 states in 2016 but, to the frustration of some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, they refused to name the states. “When an entity is a victim of a cyber intrusion, we believe very strongly in protecting the information around that victim,” Jeanette Manfra, acting DHS deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications, told the committee. “We believe it is important to protect the confidentiality that we have and the trust that we have with that community,” Ms. Manfra said.

Samuel Liles, acting director of the cyber division in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, described the activity of the hackers as “scanning for vulnerabilities.” In a smaller number of states, the potential intruders tried to penetrate systems.  In an even smaller number, data was exfiltrated, he said.

Only two states, Arizona and Illinois, have been identified as victims of an intrusion during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, have sought additional information. Continue reading →