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02-02-12
Phishing and Spam – Should you be concerned?
By Dev Joshi
Definitely! According to Brett McDowell, Senior Manager of Customer Security Initiatives at PayPal, “E-mail phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in e-mail and the Internet as a whole.”
Connected Nation research backs this up, with surveys showing that 4% of adults who don’t have broadband at home cite concerns about fraud or identity theft as their reason for not subscribing – that represents more than three-quarters of a million residents in Connected Nation states (many of whom are elderly) who don’t subscribe to broadband due to fears about online security.
Earlier this week, fifteen leading e-mail providers, financial institutions, social media organizations, and e-mail security firms announced the creation of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance), a new specification designed to improve e-mail authentication standards. DMARC targets “...
02-01-12
Happy Digital Learning Day!
By Connected Nation
February 1, 2012, marks the first Digital Learning Day, which celebrates the synergy that can occur when educators incorporate technology into their lesson plans. According to Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, “Digital learning gives teachers more opportunities to personalize education, utilize data and content more efficiently, and be more innovative in their teaching to ensure all students meet today’s challenging standards.”
Broadband provides a powerful tool for educators, providing opportunities to virtually bring experts from around the globe into the classroom. And home broadband service has an impact on education as well, with a recent report showing that students with home broadband service have graduation rates that are 6-8% higher than similar students without broadband at home.
Yet not all students are benefitting from the opportunities that broadband affords. According to research conducted by Connected Nation...
01-31-12
Connected Nation Statement on FCC's Plans to include Broadband Services in Lifeline Program
By Tom Koutsky
From Tom Koutsky, Chief Policy Counsel, Connected Nation
"Only thirty-seven percent of low-income households adopt and use broadband -- a rate barely half the national average. Every day, this broadband adoption gap limits economic opportunity, education, and healthcare for low-income Americans. This broadband adoption gap needs to be closed, and closed quickly before it becomes a perpetual chasm.
As an organization working to increase broadband adoption for the past ten years, Connected Nation supports the migration of existing voice subsidy programs to broadband and welcomes the Federal Communications Commission's adoption of a broadband low-income pilot program targeted at studying this problem. Our research led us early on to work directly with disadvantaged communities and key digital literacy partners like public libraries. We look forward to working with our government and provider partners to develop unique and innovative programs that are effective, actionable, and...
01-30-12
FCC Ready to Vote on Changes to Lifeline and Link-Up
By Dev Joshi and T...
At its open meeting tomorrow, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on its plan to overhaul the Universal Service Fund’s (USF) Lifeline and Link Up programs that currently help low-income Americans pay for home telephone service. In 2010, approximately $1.2 billion was distributed through the program, comprising a significant portion of the overall USF program of $8.4 billion. This “USF Redux” will include three elements. First, it will create a national database to reduce waste and abuse of Lifeline funds. Second, this new framework will let residents use Lifeline funds to pay for phone service bundled with high-speed Internet service. Third, it will establish a “Broadband Adoption Pilot Program” to test new ways for the Lifeline program to increase broadband adoption among low-income Americans. These pilot programs are expected to be launched later this year, and tomorrow’s vote will shed further light...
