The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board expects its next report, focusing on the electronic surveillance authorized by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, to come out “in the next couple of months,” PCLOB Chairman David Medine said at a George Washington University event Wednesday. “There'll be some challenging issues,” he said. PCLOB released its report and recommendations on phone surveillance last week, the majority of the five-member board judging the practice illegal. Medine is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday at a 10 a.m. hearing in 2141 Rayburn. Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has asserted his committee’s role over surveillance. “I look forward to hearing the different perspectives of the witnesses next week so that we are fully informed as we move forward with legislative action,” he said in a statement Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1dQCpVN). PCLOB is still figuring out what its future role might be, Medine said, citing an increase in staffing and eventually the possibility that PCLOB may be able to focus on multiple reports at once. PCLOB now is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security on a report DHS is developing, according to Medine. He said there are complications in where to put the metadata, saying “having this information makes it a target.” He backs having the phone companies rather than the government possess the metadata, without placing additional data retention mandates on industry. There should be “case-by-case requests” of providers, which already have certain retention mandates, he said. Medine defended the legal and constitutional analysis of the Patriot Act Section 215 report, which some observers and PCLOB members have criticized. Congress instructed such legal focus, he said. Many factors need to be considered when evaluating the programs, Medine said, saying government needs to consider what happens if activities are discovered: “You need the ‘oh my god’ factor.”

The NSA hired its first privacy officer, it said in a news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1b7IEEM). Rebecca Richards’ full title is the NSA civil liberties and privacy officer. She had worked for the Department of Homeland Security as senior director for privacy compliance. Richards reports directly to NSA Director Keith Alexander, said that agency. He said he expects “Richards will work closely with civil liberties and privacy experts outside of government to bring additional innovative practices to our existing civil liberties and privacy programs.” President Barack Obama announced a desire to hire such an officer during a news conference last summer.

A 10-year extension of a “global patent cross-license agreement” was agreed to by Samsung Electronics and Google, said a Samsung news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1lfMkxO). The agreement gives the companies access to one another’s patent portfolios, it said. The deal “can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation,” said Allen Lo, Google’s deputy general counsel for patents.

The NATO Special Operations Headquarters and state agencies in Maryland, New York and West Virginia are among the entities that became National Network and Cyber Awareness Coalition partners during Q4, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the New York Power Authority and the State of West Virginia were the state entities. Several local governments and organizations also joined: the Chicago Police Department, the city government for Miramar, Fla., the Genessee County Drain Commission in Michigan, the North Smithfield Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency in Rhode Island and the village government for Westmont, Ill.

Verizon is buying the assets of Intel Media from Intel for an unspecified price, the companies said Tuesday. Intel Media develops OnCue Cloud TV products and services, and the purchase will “accelerate the availability of next-generation video services, both integrated with Verizon FiOS fiber-optic networks and delivered ‘over the top’ to any device,” they said in a news release. Verizon is making employment offers to “substantially all” of the 350 or so employees at Intel Media, which they said will continue to be based in Santa Clara and be led by its current management team. The purchase is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions and is expected to close early in Q1 this year, the companies said. Speaking about the deal in an earnings call Tuesday, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Francis Shammo said “the focus” was to “accelerate the availability of next-generation IP video service which integrate into” the FiOS video service. “What we're really trying to do is differentiate this even more so, with fiber to the home,” which will also reduce the cost, he said. Intel said Friday that it will slash about 5 percent of its workforce in the fiscal year that started Dec. 29, not saying how many jobs that is or in what areas of the company the cuts would be made in. Intel ended 2013 with 107,600 employees, spokesman Chris Kraeuter told us Tuesday. Its business groups are “developing plans to reduce spending and this will include some reduction in headcount,” he said. Intel is “realigning and refocusing our resources to meet the needs of the business,” he said. The cuts could be made through redeployments, voluntary programs, retirements and attrition, he said. Intel’s “usual rate of attrition is close to 4 percent” globally, he said. Intel took a charge of $85 million in Q3 ended Sept. 28 related to severance and benefit arrangements for about 1,900 employees as part of a restructuring plan, it said in a 10-Q SEC filing.

Alcatel-Lucent and BT said a recent field test of flexible grid infrastructure technology on a BT fiber link between London and Suffolk produced a speed of 1.4 terabytes per second at a spectral efficiency of 5.7 bits per second per hertz. The test was one of several done in October and November, Alcatel-Lucent said. The flexible grid technology can “vary the gaps between transmission channels, usually set at 50” gigahertz, the company said. The increased channel density allowed a 42.5 percent increase in spectrum channel density on the fiber, Alcatel-Lucent said. The trial “demonstrated that use of the Flexgrid approach can increase BT’s core network capacity using existing optical fibers, potentially reducing the expense of laying more fiber as bandwidth demands grow,” Alcatel-Lucent said. That would allow BT to more easily scale its core network capacity while also more efficiently using its existing infrastructure, the company said (http://bit.ly/LMCzI7).

The Telecommunications Industry Association told the Department of Defense any changes made to federal procurement procedures shouldn’t create additional uncertainty for vendors that sell equipment and technology used in national security systems (NSS). TIA asked for further clarity of rules proposed by DOD as proposed amendments to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement implementing Section 806 of the National Defense Authorization Act. “TIA believes that, in its current form, the Interim Rule adds uncertainty to the NSS vendors regarding the DoD’s assessment of supply chain risk,” TIA said (http://bit.ly/1dRE1mw). “DoD is strongly encouraged to ensure that new supply chain risk rules do not alter the healthy environment ... that assures supply chain security, as well avoids the creation of unneeded duplication of certifications of these important assurance efforts, by affirming that the Interim Rule shall not impact the duties of contactors and vendors in assessing relevant procurements related to NSS.”

The Patent and Trademark Office allowed an extra week for comments, to Feb. 4, on PTO’s proposed regulatory changes to implement an international design patent recognition system, said the office in a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1b4oHSJ). Under the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Design, owners of industrial designs can apply for protection in multiple member countries using a single application. The treaty won’t come into force in the U.S. until a number of steps, including finalizing PTO’s regulatory changes, are completed.

Demand Progress said it would not easily accept “cosmetic reforms" to surveillance practices from President Barack Obama, who’s expected to deliver a speech on his plans Friday. “Real reform requires not just more transparency, but an end to mass collection of so-called ‘meta-data,’ an adversarial process in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and additional constraints on the collection of communications of Americans’ and citizens of other countries,” said Executive Director David Segal in a statement. “Neither Demand Progress’s members, nor millions of other Americans, will be placated by a whitewash that revamps the image of the global spying regime but does not offer serious reforms.” Demand Progress is helping to arrange a day of protest against mass surveillance, slated for Feb. 11 and in conjunction with groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Mozilla.

Two information industry groups released “global principles” to govern private sector data collection by governments (http://bit.ly/K6WfFw). The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) tied the release to President Barack Obama’s anticipated remarks on reforms to the government’s surveillance programs, said a release. The principles urge governments to focus on establishing a lawful basis for collection, limiting access to private sector data, creating transparency and oversight in the collection process, engaging internationally and avoiding overlap with conflicting jurisdictions. “This call for action is aimed at constructively widening the lens to include important additional considerations, and as well, other countries,” said ITI President Dean Garfield. SIIA President Ken Wasch said, “With these principles, the tech industry is providing constructive solutions for achieving both security and privacy."