OVERNIGHT TECH: White House wades into cybersecurity debate

{mosads}Friday: FCC’s McDowell says merger reviews need an overhaul: Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell will tell an Energy and
Commerce subcommittee Friday that the commission needs to overhaul the way it reviews mergers like AT&T/T-Mobile. McDowell feels the commission shouldn’t impose conditions beyond those designed to mitigate any consumer harm and said the reviews should stick to the set 180-day time limit.

Senate Democrats say firms should have to disclose cyber-attacks to investors: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and several
colleagues wrote to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary
Schapiro on Wednesday arguing firms should be forced to disclose
cyber-attacks that could affect earnings or give competitors’ a leg-up
in the marketplace.

The lawmakers ask the commission to issue
guidance that clarifies firms must disclose any network breach that
could jeopardize the firm’s intellectual property or trade secrets in
order to provide investors with full transparency. The letter comes three weeks after a hacker attack on Sony brought
down two online gaming networks and imperiled the personal data of more
than 100 million consumers worldwide.