Government

The Federal Trade Commission last week charged DirecTV with deceptive advertising practices in a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. DirecTV, which has been in discussions over a potential merger with AT&T, currentl...

The ACLU earlier this week filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the NSA from indiscriminately snooping on U.S. Internet traffic. Using a technique called "upstream" surveillance, the NSA does a spinal tap of the Internet's U.S. backbone, which carries the communications of millions of Americans, the ACLU...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has released the final version of its controversial open Internet rules. In the introduction to the some 400 pages of new rules, which cover both wired and wireless broadband, the commission stated its "carefully tailored rules" would prevent specific pract...

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency for years has been working to break iOS security, according to a report published Tuesday. The allegations are based on documents provided by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Researchers working with the CIA have presented their tactics and achievemen...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in hot water over her use of a private email server to handle emails for official business. The practice was very risky cybersecurity behavior for everyone involved, critics have alleged. In taking her mail outside the State Department's systems, Clinton ...

The U.S. government will increase IT spending for the third year in a row, if the Obama administration's proposed 2016 fiscal year budget passes. The 2016 budget request includes civilian agency IT spending at $49.1 billion and defense IT expenditures at $37.3 billion. The 2016 total of $86.4 billio...

The United States Federal Aviation Administration should implement cybersecurity upgrades recommended by the U.S. Government Accountability Office immediately, or risk hackers taking over its computer systems, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned. The GAO last week released a report that found s...

Social media firms should team up with the United States government to work out appropriate responses to extremism on their sites, recommends a Brookings Institution report released last week. The Institution's J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan last year launched a study to define and describe the pop...

The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has made great strides in carrying out its mission, which is to ensure consumers are fairly treated in the financial marketplace, Director Richard Cordray said Tuesday in delivering the bureau's semiannual report at a House Financial Services he...

China should change its tune on new rules for purchases from American high-tech companies if it wants to do business with the U.S., President Obama has warned. China reportedly is planning to ask U.S. high-tech firms to hand over their encryption keys and install security backdoors to allow surveill...