Intro

On Wednesday, March 30, 2016 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) started a three-year process of making our mobile internet even faster and better. The government is buying underused TV airwaves and selling it to mobile carriers for billions of dollars. These radio waves—also known as spectrum—will shape mobile US connectivity as streaming video continues to swallow up bandwidth across the country and as we inch closer to 5G internet speeds. In this podcast, we discuss the auction process.

Updates

Ransomware Evolution is Really Bad News ­ - Angela Alcorn

Recently, 10 hospitals in Maryland operated without access to their central network because their domain servers were locked by a ransomware known as Samsam

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ransomware-evolution-is-really-bad-news-microsoft-edge-will-intelligently-pause-flash-tech-news-digest/

Victims paid more than $24 million to ransomware criminals in 2015 — and that's just the beginning – Dan Turkel

The DOJ revealed that the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) had received nearly 7,700 public complaints regarding ransomware since 2005, totaling $57.6 million in damages. Those damages include ransoms paid — generally $200 to $10,000, according to the FBI — as well as costs incurred in dealing with the attack and estimated value of data lost. In 2015 alone, victims paid over $24 million across nearly 2,500 cases reported to the IC3.

http://www.businessinsider.com/doj-and-dhs-ransomware-attacks-government-2016-4 

Adobe issues emergency update to Flash after ransomware attacks – Jim Finkle

Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) issued an emergency update on Thursday to its widely used Flash software for Internet browsers after researchers discovered a security flaw that was being exploited to deliver ransomware to Windows PCs.

The software maker urged the more than 1 billion users of Flash on Windows, Mac, Chrome and Linux computers to update the product as quickly as possible after security researchers said the bug was being exploited in "drive-by" attacks that infect computers with ransomware when tainted websites are visited.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-adobe-systems-cyber-ransomware-idUSKCN0X502K

Spectrum

How about the auction, What’s spectrum?

The way it is being used here, by the FCC - Spectrum is really just a fancy term for radio waves, a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

What’s going on with T-Mobile?

T-Mobile wants to stop that from happening, saying AT&T and Verizon already control three-fourths of low-band frequencies.

Who else is interested in spectrum?

Comcast, Charter, and Dish Network, Google (?)

How is this auction being setup?

TV broadcasters by Tuesday April 5 must have made official their intentions to accept the FCC's opening price for the rights to the spectrum they currently use for digital TV broadcasts. 

Who is bidding and how much money are we talking about?

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast, Dish Network, etc

Can you describe the spectrum being auctioned and what will be done with it?

The FCC expects that bidders will provide new wireless services using that spectrum, which is in the 600 MHz band and currently used for UHF TV channels. The characteristics of UHF that make it good for TV also work well for wireless communications and data delivery -- the waves can travel great distances and pass through buildings.

So what happens if a TV station sells its spectrum?

TV broadcasters have the choice of moving to a lowe