Tech policy issues were a key focus at Friday’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES), with three Senate Democrats laying out their priorities for the coming year.
Meanwhile, ransomware attacks against the U.S. healthcare sector have doubled over the past few years, new research shows.
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Lawmakers tout tech proposals at CES
LAS VEGAS — As with the ongoing political turmoil in the US House of Representatives, policy took center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Friday.
Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-Nevada) addresses the audience in her home state, along with Sen. Ben Ray Luhan (DN.M.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) , talked about the priorities of the new year’s technology challenges. .
- Democrats said the United States needs to invest more in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced engineering, and synthetic biology to become more competitive on a global scale.
- Warner said investments should follow the path Congress passed the Chip and Science Act last year.
- The senator also said expanding fast and affordable broadband access should be a priority for Congress.
The hard way: Three key areas of technology policy have consistently been addressed throughout CES programming. Data Privacy, Content Moderation, and Antitrust Law.
Warner said federal data privacy legislation, the “long-standing debate” over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and laws about dominant platforms self-prioritizing their own products and services are also among priorities this year. rice field.
But lawmakers are facing a tough Congress this year, with control split between the Democratic Senate and the Republican House.
Antitrust laws can be the toughest battle for advocates seeking to change the law. Even when Democrats dominated both houses of Congress and had the backing of the Biden White House, two key proposals — one about self-priority — failed to cross the finish line last year.
Charlotte Suleiman, competition policy director at Public Knowledge, said she was optimistic about the future course of antitrust reform, especially given the energy built by the coalition of supporters over the past few years.
But Tyler Grimm, lead attorney for Republican policy and strategy on the House Judiciary Committee, said the Republican-controlled committee was primarily focused on content moderation concerns around the antitrust battle. He said he would.
But he said that given the lack of consensus on who the Speaker of the House would be after more than a dozen votes failed to gain enough support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Committee provided a caveat that it is difficult to tell what the range of
Outside of Congress, the world of tech policy will also turn to the Supreme Court and two cases that could change the fate of Section 230.
Ransomware surges in healthcare
The annual number of ransomware attacks against US hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers more than doubled from 43 to 91 between 2016 and 2021, according to a new study. A security breach exposed the personal health information of an estimated 42 million patients.
- The findings were published at the JAMA Health Forum and include data on 374 attacks nationwide.
- Over the five years studied, researchers found that attacks exposed large amounts of personal health data over time, making them more likely to target large organizations with multiple facilities. .
Ransomware locks users out of their electronic systems while perpetrators demand a ransom to regain access. Unlike other data breaches, the aim of the attack is not to steal data, but to disrupt operations, writes the authors.
The software is a major cybersecurity threat and could jeopardize patient outcomes if healthcare organizations are targeted.
Please check this out for details.
EVs confirm increased sales this year
U.S. electric vehicle sales will rise by two-thirds in 2022 as sales across the auto industry fell, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The popularity of all-electric vehicles soared last year, accounting for 5.8% of all vehicles sold in 2022, up from 3.2% in 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The new data the publication has gathered from market research firm Motor Intelligence comes after the overall U.S. auto industry had its worst sales year in over a decade, with sales dropping 8% in 2022.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Tesla accounted for 65% of the electric car industry’s sales last year, down from 72% in 2021. Ford Motor Company occupies his second spot with 7.6% of U.S. electric vehicle sales, while Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors rank his third with 7.1% of electric vehicle sales. occupied the second spot, the report said.
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Solar power in space?
Among the many space-bound satellites on board the SpaceX rocket that launched earlier this week was a small prototype designed to harness the power of the sun.
Scientists want to show that space-based solar power is more than a futuristic concept and could be the next big thing in clean energy.
The prototype satellite, called the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), weighs just 110 pounds and is part of a larger effort to test space-based solar power called the Space Solar Power Project (SSPP).
A demonstration mission built by Caltech engineers launched into space on Tuesday morning. The team will see if the technology can work in the harsh environment of space, launching a constellation of solar panels that will eventually form an orbital power plant, sending energy harvested from the sun back to Earth. I want to
Please check this out for details.
bit & piece
Articles for chewing: CHIP Act’s next-generation ambitions require a modern workforce
Notable links on the web:
World Wide Web inventor wants data back from tech giant (CNN/Daniel Renjifo)
US National Cyber Strategy Highlights Biden’s Tougher Regulations (The Washington Post / Ellen Nakashima and Tim Starks)
Twitter promised them retirement. They Got Nothing (Wired / Vittoria Elliott and Chris Stokel-Walker)
One More: Court Blocks Psaki’s Testimony
A federal appeals court on Thursday accepted the testimony of former White House press secretary Jen Saki in a lawsuit in which two Republican-led states allege that the Biden administration illegally pressured social media companies to remove content. An attempt to secure it has been thwarted.
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling authorizing Psaki’s deposition in the case, and her testimony was used to advance depositions of current or former government officials. decided that it did not deserve the “special circumstances” necessary for
A group of Attorneys General and individuals from Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit in May, urging the Biden administration to pressure social media companies to effectively release content related to the pandemic, the election, and Hunter Biden’s laptop story. accused of censoring the
Please check this out for details.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading. For the latest news and coverage, visit The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages. see you on monday.
