The FCC Wireline Bureau approved a transition oversight plan for the anticipated shift from Neustar to Telcordia (iconectiv) as the local number portability administrator. A bureau public notice released in docket 07-149 Wednesday also announced a Dec. 9 transition outreach webcast, the first of its kind.

The FCC seeks comment by Dec. 24 on proposed changes to two forms used by telcos and other providers to report telecom revenue, the Wireline Bureau said in a public notice in docket 06-122 Tuesday. The bureau proposed changes to a Form 499-A worksheet and instructions for reporting 2015 revenue in 2016, and to a Form 499-Q worksheet and instructions for reporting in 2016 projected collected revenue on a quarterly basis. The proposed changes were summarized in the PN and detailed in attachments.

A Dec. 7 joint FCC-University of Colorado-Boulder summit in Boulder will focus on cybersecurity issues the telecom and public safety sectors face, the agency said Tuesday in a public notice included in the next day's Daily Digest. The summit will include panels on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in telecom infrastructure, public safety network security, cyber risk analysis and enhancing cybersecurity awareness among corporate executives, the PN said. Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson and Public Safety Bureau Associate Chief-Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Jeff Goldthorp are to speak, along with AT&T Assistant Vice President-Global Public Policy Christopher Boyer and CenturyLink Director-National Security Kathryn Condello, chairwoman of the Communications Sector Coordinating Council. The summit is to run 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Discovery Learning Center Bechtel Collaboratory.

The FTC plans a one-day conference Feb. 9 in Seattle as part of its ongoing initiative to help companies, especially startups and early stage businesses, build security into their products, services and culture. Commissioner Julie Brill will keynote the third "Start with Security" event, which is to be at the University of Washington School of Law. The agency, which had previous events in Austin and San Francisco, has materials to help businesses understand data protection and cybersecurity (see 1506300049).

A 26-member Federal Aviation Administration-chartered task force recommended that owners of drones weighing between 0.55 pounds and 55 pounds register before operating their aircraft in the national air space. Owners as young as 13 years old would be required to enter their names and street addresses into a Web- or app-based system, recommended the report released Saturday. It said email addresses, phone numbers and serial numbers would be optional, but an owner's U.S. citizenship or residency status wouldn't be required. The process should be free for owners, the report said. Once owners fill out an electronic registration form, they would get an electronic certificate of registration and a personal universal registration number that they can use on all small drones they own. They must mark the registration number (or a registered serial number) on their drones in a readable and legible way before operating them outside. The FAA wanted the recommendations due to safety concerns as drones proliferate. About 400,000 consumer drones are expected to be sold this holiday season, the Consumer Technology Association said in a statement applauding the task force action. The FAA is expected (see 1511200055) to use the recommendations and other public comments to draft a rule, but hasn't said when it would be released. The task force -- which included representatives from companies like Amazon and Google, airline, pilots and hobbyist associations, and drone manufacturers -- decided it was beyond its scope to address or debate whether the Transportation Department had the legal authority to implement such a registration requirement for small drones. Michael Drobac, senior counsel at Akin Gump, which represents the Small UAV Coalition, said Monday the recommendations are a good step, though work remains before a final rule is issued. "While there is plenty here to cheer or quibble with, one thing in particular worth noting is that the task force’s recommendations represent a good example of government and industry coming together to try to develop solutions that are practical and thoughtful yet don’t constrain an industry that is poised for a great deal of success,” he said in a statement.

Warning of an uptick in cyberscams during the holiday season, Intel issued alerts in a blog post last week by Gary Davis, Intel Security chief consumer security evangelist. In addition to website and email security problems, he said cybercriminals can leverage weaknesses in Bluetooth to steal data. Some devices use default pairing passwords for Bluetooth, such as 0000 or 1234, allowing cybercriminals to pair and gain access to a device. Cybercriminals accessing a person’s user name and email address may use the data to launch spear-phishing attacks in which they pose as a familiar entity to try to steal sensitive data -- or even identities, Davis said. Using common Bluetooth passwords can make it easier for a criminal to pair with and gain access to a device, he said Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security and other sector-specific agencies (SSAs) “are acting to address sector cyber risk, but additional monitoring actions could enhance their respective sectors’ cybersecurity posture,” said a GAO report. Only three departments -- Defense, Energy and Health and Human Services -- have “established performance metrics” that effectively measure progress, GAO said Thursday. DHS, which is the SSA for the communications sector and eight other critical infrastructure sectors, hasn’t developed performance metrics for any of its sectors, “although according to agency officials, such efforts are under way,” GAO said. DHS officials have said they’ve proposed performance metrics for the communications and information technology sector that should be implemented through 2018. DHS also collaborated in cross-sector cybersecurity work, including via the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, GAO said.

A Federal Aviation Administration task force was expected to have released a report Saturday on how owners and operators of small drones can register their aircraft, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced in a blog post Friday. "Registration will instill a sense of accountability and responsibility among [unmanned aircraft systems] pilots and also will prompt them to become educated about safe flying in the national airspace system," he wrote. "For those who choose to ignore the rules and fly unsafely, registration is a tool that will assist us and our law enforcement partners in finding them." Huerta said the agency would consider the task force's recommendations and public comments as it develops an interim final rule on registration that "will likely be released next month."

The FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets Dec. 3, the agency said in Friday’s Federal Register. The meeting will be CSRIC’s third as part of its fifth charter. CSRIC working groups are examining the emergency alert system, emergency alerting platforms, evolving 911 services and security by design (see 1509210049). The FCC failed to publish the CSRIC meeting notice within the 15-day threshold but said it couldn’t find an acceptable alternate date for the meeting because “a significant number of CSRIC members have made business and travel plans to attend” the Dec. 3 meeting and there's no other date within one month of Dec. 3 “that will accommodate CSRIC members’ schedules.” Delaying the CSRIC meeting “will also cause undue financial burdens on many of the CSRIC members who have made travel arrangements,” the FCC said. CSRIC’s meeting is set to begin at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC headquarters.

More than 222 million numbers were registered with the national Do Not Call registry as of Oct. 1, the FTC said in a blog post Thursday. Bridget Small, a consumer education specialist with the agency, wrote that nearly 5.5 million new cellphone and landline numbers were added to the list over the past year, while the FTC received more than 3.6 million complaints about companies making robocalls or telemarketing calls after they were told to stop. The FTC has brought 105 enforcement actions against companies for violations, including actions against Dish Network for making tens of millions of calls and Caribbean Cruise Line and seven other companies involved in a telemarketing campaign in the past year, she wrote. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois on Dec. 12 found Dish liable for violating the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule. The agency alleged Dish or its telemarketer made outbound phone calls to phone numbers on the Do Not Call list. A Dish spokesman at the time told us the company disagreed with most of the court's decision and the FTC "outsourced the management of the National Do Not Call Registry to contractors, with minimal oversight, resulting in a Registry that is inaccurate" (see 1501210040). A Dish spokesman Thursday referred us to statements the company made in January.