IDG News Service — This week's news took a political slant, with a panel discussing how the new U.S. political landscape will affect IT legislation and security experts telling Congress that new threats require a more robust approach to security. This intersection of politics and technology wasn't limited to the U.S. Special interests tainted India's 2G spectrum auction, with licenses going to favored companies and resulting in the loss of billions of dollars. Finally, this week's Web 2.0 conference produced some noteworthy news, including Facebook's effort to retool Web messaging.

1. Experts: Stuxnet changed the cybersecurity landscape: The sophisticated Stuxnet worm represents a cyberthreat level that requires new security measures from the U.S. government and businesses, experts told U.S. politicians. The worm targets industrial control systems and can steal company secrets and hijack manufacturing operations. While some in the security industry speculate that a government created the worm to cripple Iran's nuclear program, one security expert said that tracing the worm's origins is impossible and efforts should focus on bolstering industrial systems against future, and inevitable, attacks.

2. Some tech issues may move forward in split Congress: While partisan gridlock seems the likely outcome after the U.S.' recent midterm elections, the divided Congress may pass technology legislation that deals with creating jobs and improving the economy, said a speaker at a policy forum. One panelist noted that Democratic President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress worked together to pass technology laws. Politicians should work on IT issues with broad support and avoid the always-controversial topic of net neutrality, he said. Hope, however, appears slim. Some lawmakers on the panel disagreed over the need for privacy legislation and a Google (GOOG) executive said IT political groups need to seek consensus instead of bickering.

3. India played favorites in 2G licenses, says auditing agency: The Indian government lost US$39 billion due to irregularities in how the country issued 2G licenses to mobile carriers in 2008, according to an audit. The country's minister of communications and IT resigned over the controversy, in which he allegedly sold the licences for prices based on their 2001 market value to favored companies and individuals. The audit found that more than half of the companies that won licenses lacked essential eligibility requirements and submitted false or incomplete information.

4. Malaysian charged with hacking Federal Reserve, others: U.S. officials charged a Malaysian man with hacking into the computer systems of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and a company that handles financial transactions. More than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card account numbers were found when the U.S. Secret Service searched his laptop.

Continue Reading