The Internet Security Alliance Tuesday gave its annual cyber security vision award to the Obama administration's former acting cybersecurity chief Melissa Hathaway. Hathaway has won praise for her work in guiding the administration's 60-day review of the federal government's cyber security programs, which was released in May.

"That effort was in our opinion the most sophisticated effort to date of a government entity analyzing the uniquely 21st century problem of cybersecurity and outlining a path forward," ISA President Larry Clinton said in a statement. "It is primarily for this groundbreaking work that the Internet Security Alliance has decided to honor Melissa today." As part of the review, the administration announced it would tap a White House official to coordinate the federal government's cybersecurity efforts and in December named Howard Schmidt to the post.

Hathaway, who also served under former President George W. Bush, left the administration in August. While noting the work done in recent months, Hathaway said in a statement Tuesday that "I feel like we have lost the sense of urgency of this situation. A full-spectrum threat requires a full-spectrum response, and it requires a mobilization of all of the resources that this country can bring to bear and it requires strength, leadership and bold steps moving forward."

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday that would update the E-Rate program, which provides subsidies to schools and libraries for Internet access.

Markey's bill (H.R. 4619) would require the FCC to create three pilot programs aimed at expanding Internet access and narrowing the digital divide. The first pilot program would require the distribution of vouchers to low-income students to purchase residential broadband service. The second would use a competitive grant program to extend funding for broadband equipment and services to some community colleges and Head Start facilities that can show the need and an ability to incorporate broadband use into their educational programs. And the third pilot called for in the bill project would enable some E-Rate applicants servicing low-income students to apply for discounted services and technology for the use of e-books.

The bill also would adjust the cap on the current E-Rate program to increase with inflation and also make changes to the application process. Markey, who authored the original E-Rate legislation included in the 1996 telecommunications act, said the program has helped to boost Internet access in schools. The number of elementary and high schools with Internet access has gone from only 14 percent when the bill was enacted in 1996 to more than 95 percent today, he said.

"This critical bill will help narrow the digital divide by increasing the range of the latest telecommunication services and devices accessible to low-income students, including residential broadband services and e-books incorporated into students' classroom lessons," Markey said in a statement.

The federal government's chief technology officer unveiled a new Open Government Dashboard Tuesday aimed at providing the public with more information about the progress of agencies in complying with the Obama administration's open government initiatives.

"It makes it easy for the American people to visually track progress on the deadlines to date," Aneesh Chopra said in post on the White House blog. "The dashboard also links to each agency's Open Government Web page, where the public can find more details on the steps taken to implement the [open-government] directive."

After launching Version 1.0 of the dashboard after "just 60 days," Chopra said "the next big step" will be to evaluate each agencies' open government plans, which are due April 7th. He said after agencies meet the deadlines set out for the first 120 days of the initiative, Version 2.0 of the dashboard will "deploy a more holistic set of metrics, informed by agency [open-government] plans. Identifying the right set of metrics will help steer agencies toward high-impact efforts in the years to come."

The European Commission Tuesday urged social networking sites to improve their child safety policies. As part of Safer Internet Day, the commission released a report that found that half of European teens give out personal information on the Web and urged teens to "think before you post."

The commission, the European Union's regulatory arm, praised the steps taken by the 20 Web sites that signed on to the "Safer Social Networking Principles" proposed by the commission last year but said more needs to be done to protect teens online. In particular, the commission is urging social networking sites to make profiles of minors visible only to their friends by default.

"Last year the European Commission urged companies to act, and I am glad that many have heeded this call," EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding said in a statement. "However, I expect all companies to do more. Minors' profiles need to be set to private by default and questions or abuse reports have to receive quick and appropriate responses."

Continue reading EU Urges Sites To Improve Child Safety Policies

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "Google Inc. is taking a swipe at Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. with a new feature that makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports.

Two weeks after the FCC sought information from wireless providers about early termination fees, Google has lowered the fee it charges customers for breaking a two-year contract for its new Nexus One mobile phone on the T-Mobile USA network, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Google has dropped its "equipment recovery fee" on the Nexus One to $150 from $350 for customers who cancel or downgrade their wireless service contracts within 120 days, while those who break the contract after that time will not have to pay any fee. However, customers will still have to pay a separate early termination fee of $200 to T-Mobile, according to the AP.

Last month, the FCC sent letters to several wireless phone providers including Google, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless seeking information to determine whether consumers are adequately informed about early termination fees. "We're glad Google has lowered their fee as a direct response to [the] FCC inquiry," Free Press Policy Counsel M. Chris Riley said in a statement. "This is clear evidence that the wireless industry needs an active cop on the beat to look out for consumers."

After coming under criticism last month by Senate appropriators for not moving fast enough to distribute broadband funding, the Commerce Department is picking up the pace. Virginia is the latest recipient, scoring two broadband grants totaling $21.5 million, the department said Monday.

The grants, being funded from the $7.2 billion in broadband money included in last year's economic stimulus package, will help fund the construction of 575 miles of new high-speed Internet infrastructure in southern Virginia, the department said. "Building-out the broadband capacity in Southwest and Southside Virginia is a critical piece of our effort to expand economic and educational opportunities in rural parts of our state," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a news release.

One grant worth $16 million, which will be enhanced by $4 million in matching funds from the applicant, will go to the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative to add 465 miles of new fiber-optic lines to an existing 800-mile fiber-optic, high-speed network. The new lines will connect 121 elementary and high schools to the existing network, allowing for new distance learning and virtual classroom opportunities, Commerce said. The other $5.5 million grant, matched by $1.4 million from the applicant, was awarded to the Virginia Tech Foundation to add 110 miles of open-access, fiber optic lines between Blacksburg, Va., and Beford City, Va., which will connect Virginia Tech University's main campus to its medical school near Roanoke, Va.

While some economists and the Obama administration say the economy is slowly on the upswing, the Great Recession is still claiming its victims -- the latest being the Supercomm trade show. The Telecommunications Industry Association and the U.S. Telecom Association announced Monday that they are canceling this year's Supercomm convention for broadband communications providers. The convention's planner, Expocomm, told the groups it would not manage Supercomm, which was set to take place this October in Chicago, "due to financial projections" for the event, TIA and USTA said in a joint news release.

Ask and they shall receive? Just two weeks ago, Democratic Sen. Jack Reed questioned National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Lawrence Strickling about whether states with high unemployment such as Reed's home state of Rhode Island would get priority when the agency doles out broadband grants funded by the economic stimulus package enacted last year.

During the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the broadband funding, Strickling indicated that one of the seven criteria the agency will use in the second round will be whether a proposed project is in an "economically depressed area." Rhode Island's unemployment rate hovered at 12.9 percent in December, the third worst in the country, according to the Providence Business Journal. The NTIA must be listening because it announced Friday that Rhode Island has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to expand broadband Internet access to 71 public libraries in the state.

"This funding comes as libraries are playing an increasingly important role in our communities by offering such assistance as help with writing resumes and searching and applying for jobs online," Reed said in a statement issued by NTIA. Strickling also noted the importance of Internet access to job seekers, adding that the broadband stimulus grant will "open up more opportunities for Rhode Islanders to participate in distance learning, online training and other online applications."

At the same hearing, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told the subcommittee that he expects every state will receive at least one broadband grant, as stipulated by the economic stimulus package legislation. NTIA also announced Friday a $5.9 million grant to expand broadband access at South Carolina technical colleges. The grant will expand broadband capacity at 51 public computer centers and "create 19 new computer labs at the South Carolina Technical College System's 16 member colleges."

Following two congressional hearings Thursday on Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal, Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen said in a blog post Friday that "we feel that we took an important step forward" in the firms' efforts to gain approval of their deal from federal regulators. In his blog post, Cohen offered a point-by-point recap of the hearings, saying that "we think that Brian [Roberts] and Jeff [Zucker] were able to articulate why this transaction is pro-consumer and strongly in the public interest."

The House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee held a morning hearing on the Comcast-NBC deal, while the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee held an afternoon session examining the proposed merger. Comcast Chairman CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker appeared at both hearings.

During the House hearing, lawmakers appeared generally split along party lines over the proposed union of Comcast, the nation's largest video service provider, and NBC Universal, the country's fourth-largest entertainment company, CongressDaily reported. Despite this, several Republicans called for approval, while the worst thing Democrats could say was that the transaction should be closely scrutinized and heavily conditioned.

At the Senate Hearing, Zucker and Roberts received a tongue-lashing over the consequences of their proposed merger from Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who worked as a writer and performer in years past for NBC's "Saturday Night Live" show. Franken questioned whether the companies would live up to the public-interest commitments they've made to federal regulators to win approval of the merger, according to CongressDaily.

In his recap of the hearings, Harold Feld of Public Knowledge claimed Zucker had "told a little fib" when he told House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., that the management of the free, online programming site Hulu, owned partially by NBC, decided to block access last year to users of the online site Boxee because it was illegally taking Hulu content. Feld argued in a blog post that Zucker acknowledged in a May news interview that he had a hand in Hulu's decision because he was concerned about NBC content being streamed via Hulu to television sets.