Robert Mueller, FBI Director, says Keith and John are his BFFs. FBI FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, CIA Director John Brennan, and National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Keith Alexander shared the stage on August 8 at the International Conference on Cyber Security (ICCS), an event cohosted by the FBI and Fordham University in New York. The three spoke on a panel about the future of cybersecurity. Mueller spoke about the Lulzec case and how the FBI caught Hector “Sabu” Monsegur , along with how it will deal with increasingly sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. Key to the bureau’s success, he said, was “focusing on the individuals behind the keyboards”—with the help of the NSA, CIA, and private industry. “I do believe that in the future, the cyber threat will equal or even eclipse the terrorist threat, ” Mueller said in his opening remarks. “And just as partnerships have enabled us to address the terrorist threat, partnerships will enable us to address the cyber threat. But the array of partners critical to defeating the cyber threat is different. In this case, the private sector is the essential partner.” Getting into hackers’ heads “In the years to come, we will encounter new intrusion methods, hacking techniques, and other unpleasant surprises, ” Mueller said in his prepared remarks for the panel. “And in response, our nation will continue to develop—as we must—the technical skills and tools to prevent these intrusions and limit their damage.” Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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FBI director calls on private sector to man up, help with cyber threat
On Tuesday, the American mobile phone market took one step closer to looking a bit more like the European or Asian markets: free incoming calls, inexpensive outgoing calls, and a focus on data. A Canadian startup, TextNow , just launched a new mobile service in the United States. For $18.99 per month, you get 500MB of data, 750 rollover minutes, and unlimited texting and incoming calls. In the US, it’s the norm for both the sending and receiving parties to be charged for a call. But nearly everywhere else in the world, only the person who originated the call actually pays. “Incoming calls don’t really cost us that much, ” Derek Ting, the company’s CEO, told Ars. “Carriers charge you anyway because they can get away with it.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
The University of California—an enormous institution that encompasses 10 campuses and over 8, 000 faculty members— introduced an Open Access Policy late last week. This policy grants the UC a license to its faculty’s work by default, and requires them to provide the UC with copy of their peer-reviewed papers on the paper’s publication date. The UC then posts the paper online to eScholarship , its open access publishing site, where the paper will be available to anyone, free of charge. Making the open access license automatic for its faculty leverages the power of the institution—which publishes over 40, 000 scholarly papers a year—against the power of publishers who would otherwise lock content behind a paywall. “It is much harder for individuals to negotiate these rights on an individual basis than to assert them collectively, ” writes the UC. “By making a blanket policy, individual faculty benefit from membership in the policy-making group, without suffering negative consequences. Faculty retain both the individual right to determine the fate of their work, and the benefit of making a collective commitment to open access.” Faculty members will be allowed to opt out of the scheme if necessary—if they have a prior contract with a journal, for example. Academic papers published in traditional journals before the enactment of this policy will not be made available on eScholarship at this time. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
On Saturday, the Obama Administration vetoed the International Trade Commission’s potential ban on a few models of older Apple phones and tablets. Samsung opened the case against Apple with the ITC in 2011, and the commission decided in June that Apple had, in fact, infringed upon a Samsung patent, US Patent No 7, 706, 348 . The decision garnered attention because the patent is considered essential to industry standards, meaning Samsung is required to license the patent (rather than sit on it, or refuse license it to some competitors). The ITC ended up recommending a ban be placed on the infringing products brought forward in the case, which included AT&T models of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPad 3G, and iPad 2 3G. In June of 2013, Ars wrote of the ITC’s ban: ”The decision can only be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation’s top patent court. Theoretically, the President can also block an ITC-ordered import ban, but that hasn’t happened since the 1980s.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
A Bitcoin startup based in Thailand now says that it has suspended all operations because the Bank of Thailand has effectively banned bitcoins in the southeast Asian country. As Bitcoin Co. Ltd. reports: At the conclusion of the meeting, senior members of the Foreign Exchange Administration and Policy Department advised that due to lack of existing applicable laws, capital controls, and the fact that Bitcoin straddles multiple financial facets the following Bitcoin activities are illegal in Thailand: – Buying bitcoins – Selling bitcoins – Buying any goods or services in exchange for bitcoins – Selling any goods or services for bitcoins – Sending bitcoins to anyone located outside of Thailand – Receiving bitcoins from anyone located outside of Thailand This appears to be the first time that any country has outright banned the digital crypto currency . Further, it remains unclear exactly how Thailand would even enforce such a ban. Ars has been unable to confirm the ban with the Bank of Thailand , when this ban goes into effect, and how this decision came about. Bank representatives did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments