The Week in Internet News: Community Broadband Offers Fastest Speeds in U.S. Thumbnail
Technology 22 July 2019

The Week in Internet News: Community Broadband Offers Fastest Speeds in U.S.

Grant Gross
By Grant GrossGuest AuthorTechnology Reporter

Super fast: ISPs run by local communities or run through a partnership with a local community offer some of the fastest broadband in the U.S., a story at Vice.com says. Six of the 10 fastest ISPs in the country are either operated by local communities or are partnerships between the public and private sectors, according to a PCMag review.

Conflicting laws: Australia’s recently-passed encryption law, which mandates law enforcement access to encrypted communications, may conflict with the EU’s GDPR and the U.S. CLOUD Act, according to a story at ZDNet. Australian law enforcement agencies may have trouble requiring U.S. and EU companies to decrypt data, the Law Council of Australia has said.

Tweeting is back: The government of Chad has restored access to social media after a 16-month shutdown, QZ.com reports. That’s a lot of missed likes. The government had restricted access to electronic communications for “security reasons” and in “a context of terrorist threats.”

It steals your face: Mobile phone apps that allow you to edit pictures of your face may introduce security vulnerabilities, Forbes notes. One app may upload faces to a database without users’ permission, and another app that looks like the popular FaceApp installs malware on users’ devices.

Hair hacks: Does your hair-straightening device needs Bluetooth access? Apparently so, at least according to one device maker. And apparently, that access leaves the devices open to hacking, Naked Security says. With the device able to heat up to over 450 degrees Fahrenheit, that means a hacked hair straightener could cause a fire.

Please RSVP to our data breach: Evite, the popular invitation service, has experienced a data breach affecting more than 100 million users, Bleeping Computer says. In May, Evite In May 2019, Evite posted a data breach notice saying an unauthorized third-party had gained access to its servers in February. No financial information or Social Security numbers were involved, but names, email addresses, passwords, dates of birth, and mailing address may have been.

A safer world means strong, secure communication. It’s up to all of us to take action to protect encryption, protect our data, and protect one another.

Disclaimer: Viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author and may or may not reflect official Internet Society positions.

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