government News of 04/02/20

FCC Mandates Strict Caller ID Authentication To Beat Back Robocalls

The FCC unanimously passed a new set of rules today that will require wireless carriers to implement an tech framework to combat robocalls. Called STIR/SHAKEN, and dithered over for years by the carriers, the protocol will be required to be put ...

Bay Area Effort To Feed Hospital Workers Partners With Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen

An effort I’ve been following in the Bay Area to deliver meals to front-line hospital clinicians dealing with the results of COVID-19 is announcing a big new partnership today that should give it a national stage. Frontline Foods is partnering up ...

Facebook Deletes Brazil President’S Coronavirus Misinfo Post

Facebook has diverted from its policy of not fact-checking politicians in order to prevent the spread of potentially harmful coronavirus misinformation from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Facebook made the decisive choice to remove a video ...

We Must Consider Secure Online Voting

Amelia Powers-Gardner Contributor Share on Twitter Amelia Powers-Gardner is county clerk of Utah County in Utah and was sworn into office in January 2019. Chris Walker ...

Saudi Spies Tracked Phones Using Flaws The FCC Failed To Fix For Years

Lawmakers and security experts have long warned of security flaws in the underbelly of the world’s cell networks. Now a whistleblower says the Saudi government is exploiting those flaws to track its citizens across the U.S. as part of a ...

White House Extends Social Distancing Guidelines To April 30

Only a few days after saying that he would like to see the country “opened up and raring to go by Easter” and maybe relax rules for at least some parts of the U.S. sooner than later, President Trump today announced that he is extending the ...

Fauci: US Can Expect More Than 100,000 COVID-19 Deaths, Millions Of Cases

On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday , the leading U.S. authority on the COVID-19 pandemic made some grim predictions about the course of the novel coronavirus as it rages through communities within the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the ...

Elizabeth Warren For President Open-Sources Its 2020 Campaign Tech

Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren may have ended her 2020 presidential run, but the tech used to drive her campaign will live on. Members of her staff announced they would make public the top apps and digital tools developed in Warren’s bid ...

How Huawei Is Dividing Western Nations

The relationship between the United Kingdom and Australia is not usually a flashpoint in international relations. After all, the two allies share a common language, ancestry, and monarch. So what caused a dustup recently that saw a senior Australian ...

Rocket Startup Skyrora Shifts Production To Hand Sanitizer And Face Masks For Coronavirus Response

One of the newer companies attempting to join the rarified group of private space launch startups actually flying payloads to orbit has redirected its entire UK-based manufacturing capacity towards COVID-19 response. Skyrora , which is based in ...

House Passes Historic $2 Trillion Coronavirus Economic Rescue Bill

A massive bipartisan effort to provide relief to a U.S. economy on ice just leapt over its last major hurdle. On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a historic stimulus package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or ...

Stocks Shoot Upward As ‘Phase Three’ Stimulus Passes Senate And Unemployment Skyrockets

Stocks soared on Thursday even as the U.S. reported its worst unemployment numbers in 50 years of tracking data. The pain felt on main street was offset for investors by the federal government opening its wallet to Wall Street, businesses and (at ...

Facebook Appoints Treasury’S Kimmitt As Lead Independent Board Director

Facebook has filled the lead independent board director role with former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Robert M. Kimmitt. His job will be to serve as the go-between connecting Facebook CEO and controlling shareholder ...

Medical And Military Contractor Kimchuk Hit By Data-Stealing Ransomware

Kimchuk, a medical and military electronics maker, has been hit by data-stealing ransomware, TechCrunch has learned. The Danbury, Conn.-based manufacturer, which builds electronics for medical equipment, telecoms systems and energy grids, also makes ...

Dyson And Gtech Answer UK Call For Ventilator Design And Production To Support COVID-19 Response

Companies around the world are shifting production lines and business models to address the needs of governments and healthcare agencies in their efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. Two companies answering that call are Dyson and Gtech, both of ...

Gig Workers Could Get Unemployment Benefits Under $2 Trillion Senate Stimulus Bill

The Senate’s historic $2 trillion stimulus package will make history in one more way: by providing some financial assistance to gig workers. Late last night, the Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ...

UK Turns To WhatsApp To Share Coronavirus Information

Three years ago, the U.K. government chastised WhatsApp for using enabling end-to-end encryption by default. Today, it’s relying on the encrypted messaging app as a vital service for sharing information about the coronavirus pandemic. The ...

Coordinated Response Required To Optimize Telehealth During COVID-19 Pandemic

Eric Perakslis Contributor Share on Twitter Eric Perakslis, PhD is a Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University, Lecturer, Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and Innovation ...

Ford, 3m, GE And The UAW To Build Respirators, Ventilators And Faceshields For Coronavirus Fight

Ford announced the details of its current manufacturing efforts around building much-needed medical supplies for front-line healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients on Tuesday. Its efforts include building Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) ...

EU Parliament Moves To Email Voting During COVID-19

The European Parliament will temporarily allow electronic voting by email as MEPs are forced to work remotely during the coronavirus crisis. A spokeswoman for the parliament confirmed today that an “alternative electronic voting ...