Tag archive: Department

The U.S. Commerce Department has always had its thumb on ICANN, the organization that controls Internet governance, regulates domain registrars, and has final say over top-level domains like .com, .org, and the didn't-get-approved .xxx. ICANN's supervision by the Commerce Department theoretically ends in September, and Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for Internet and information technology issues, is calling for the… Read More

The U.S. Justice Department has cleared the way for satellite radio operators Sirius and XM to merge into a single company. It might be tough to see how allowing a market to drop from two providers to one somehow is a good thing for consumer competition, but the Justice Department has found that a combined Sirius-XM would face plenty of competition from everything from mobile phone providers to Internet-based services. “After a… Read More

A U.S. Department of Defense spokseperson has announced that an intruder managed to gain access to one of the Pentagon's email systems, resulting in the department taking up to 1,500 email accounts offline. According to the Pentagon, the system was not used to transfer classified information. “Elements of the [..] unclassified email system were taken offline yesterday afternoon due to a detected penetration,” said U.S.… Read More

The United States Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to graphics developer Nvidia and chipmaker AMD—which just completed its acquisition of graphics powerhouse ATI—as part of an investigation into possible antitrust violations in the graphics card and graphics processing markets. No specific charges have been made against either developer, and both companies (AMD; Nvidia) have pledged to cooperate with the DOJ's… Read More

In a move sure to spark controversy, the U.S. State Department has issued regulations on electronic passports, mandating that all U.S. passports be embedded with 64K RFID chips bearing the passport holder's photo and personal data. The technology will begin appearing in passports issued to government employees in a pilot program beginning in December 2005, then be issued to American travelers in early 2006. By October 2006, virtually… Read More

The U.S. Commerce Department's assistant secretary for communications and information Michael Gallagher yesterday made explicit a policy reversal which, though not unexpected, disappoints many experts and international observers: the U.S. does not intend to turn over administration of the Internet's top level country codes