The Department of Commerce should delay implementing an interim final rule on securing the information and communications technology and services (ICTS) supply chain, the Information Technology Industry Council commented Monday in docket 210113-0009. The rule is meant to address foreign adversaries’ exploitation of software and hardware sales and intellectual property theft. Its “breadth coupled with the broad discretion the rule grants to the Secretary continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty over almost all ICTS transactions and could undermine the national security objectives it purports to address, while also hindering U.S. competitiveness,” ITI said. Microsoft recommended an approach that “incentivizes adoption of technology-based best practices to better protect supply chain security and maintain tech leadership.” These incentives, rather than imposing “undue and unpredictable regulatory burdens,” will “better protect supply chain security and help the United States and other democracies maintain tech leadership,” wrote Associate General Counsel-Global Trade Sarah O’Hare.

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security plans to issue another set of emerging technology controls this year and hopes to propose them for multilateral control in 2022, said Matt Borman, BIS acting assistant secretary-export administration. Borman said he hopes BIS can fall into a more predictable “sequence” for its emerging and foundational technology control effort and move past last year’s pandemic disruptions. The “ideal scenario” is to seek comment “during the course of this year, so that we can tee them up early next year” for a Wassenaar Arrangement meeting, Borman told the department's Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “That's the sequencing I'd like to get us into.” BIS plans to share the proposals with advisory committees “relatively soon,” he said Friday. “We want to make sure that the regime discussions are as informed as possible."

SoftBank launched its 5G millimeter-wave service in Japan using devices based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms and modem, Qualcomm said Friday. All initial 5G mmWave-compatible mobile devices in SoftBank’s lineup, including soon-to-be-announced 5G smartphones, are expected to be Qualcomm-powered, along with a pocket Wi-Fi 5G mmWave mobile hot spot.

The U.S. should form a strong global technology alliance and promote better interagency cooperation on technology policies to more effectively compete with China, former government officials said. They said this must start with the White House and Congress embracing industrial policy and pouring resources into protecting critical tech. “There are people in the tech world who understand that China is catching up,” said WestExec Advisors co-founder Michele Flournoy at a Center for a New American Security event Tuesday. “If we don't do something different, they're going to surpass us." CNAS national security expert Loren DeJonge Schulman said the Biden administration recognizes the importance of international standards setting bodies for critical tech, where the U.S. has ceded leadership roles to China. Although the U.S. tried to become more involved in those bodies, including issuing a rule last year that let companies more easily participate in bodies in which Huawei is a member, Schulman wants more action. Form a stronger technology partnership with like-minded allies, advised Sue Gordon, Pallas Advisors senior adviser. The Biden administration can learn from some mistakes made by the Trump administration, including its failure to form a strong coalition against Huawei, she said. “Huawei is a great example where it was really hard for our partners to catch up to where we wanted to go once they had already made a bunch of decisions on their own.” The White House and China's embassy didn’t comment Wednesday.

The Telecommunications Industry Association is developing a standard to ensure information and communications technology supply chain security. “The SCS 9001 standard will provide the means for service providers and manufacturers to demonstrate and ensure that their supply chains meet the critical benchmarks needed,” TIA said Monday: “This will ultimately increase trust in the ICT supply chain, while preventing exposure to cyberattacks.”

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on how the Biden administration can help boost U.S. semiconductor industry competitiveness and capacity amid global chip shortages, says Monday’s Federal Register. The comments, due April 5 in docket BIS-2021-0011, will help shape Commerce’s policy recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve bottlenecks in the semiconductor supply chain.

New Honda and Acura vehicles in Canada come equipped with built-in Wi-Fi hot spots that enable drivers and their passengers to stay fully connected hands-free, Bell Canada and Honda announced Thursday. Targeted to mobile workers, commuters and families, this capability “will seamlessly support browsing, streaming and sharing” on up to seven devices, leveraging 4G LTE. Devices can stay connected up to 50 feet away from the vehicle, said the companies.

The FCC alerted China Unicom (Americas) Wednesday that it’s reclaiming three international signaling point codes (ISPCs) held by the company. Two ISPCs (3-194-2 and 3-195-0) haven't been used since May 1, 2020, and the third (3-199-2) since 2009, said an International Bureau letter. The company “simply cannot on its own decide to ‘reserve’ unused ISPCs for possible service that may never be offered and would similarly be considered warehousing of ISPC codes,” the bureau said. The company didn’t comment. Also Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that “due to ongoing concerns from the U.S. government about direct communications links,” a Facebook-led consortium withdrew its bid to build a California-Hong Kong fiber cable to provide internet connection. Facebook didn’t comment.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security must fully complete Congress-mandated organizational planning to effectively “identify and respond to cybersecurity incidents” like the Russia-linked SolarWinds hack (see 2012170050), GAO reported Wednesday. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and others are drafting a cyber hack reporting measure (see 2103040066). CISA “completed the first two of three phases of its organizational transformation initiative” before Congress’ December deadline but had completed only “about a third of the tasks planned for the final phase” by then, GAO said. Tasks not completed include “finalizing the mission-essential functions of CISA's divisions and issuing a memorandum defining incident management roles and responsibilities across CISA. Tasks such as these appear to be critical to CISA's transformation initiative and accordingly its ability to effectively and efficiently carry out its cyber protection mission.” DHS agreed with GAO’s assessment of CISA’s progress but didn’t fully specify its plans for completing its organizational efforts, the office said.

ICANN should halt work on a policy for access to Whois data, its Intellectual Property Constituency wrote board Chairman Maarten Botterman. The IPC stressed it's committed to using the multistakeholder process to develop a "workable system" for accessing domain name registration data but current recommendations for a system for standardized access/disclosure (SSAD) "are not yet fit for purpose." The most important SSAD recommendations lack community consensus, potentially making them "difficult or impossible to enforce" (see 2010210001). A European Commission proposal to update its cybersecurity directive (NIS2) takes "important steps" toward addressing shortfalls in the domain name system, including access to accurate registration data, it would be inadvisable for the board to permit further work on recommendations that may run counter to EC guidance. "Given that ICANN has repeatedly sought guidance from EU institutions as to how the [general data protection regulation] should be applied to the DNS and domain name registration data, we encourage ICANN to embrace NIS2 as a valuable source of such guidance," the IPC wrote. Congress has been urged to intervene on Whois (see 2102160001). ICANN didn't comment Tuesday.