PORTLAND — Gov. Paul LePage’s latest budget proposal seeks to expand Maine’s sales tax to a range of in-person services from haircuts to movie tickets. It’s also extending the state’s ongoing tax fight into the digital realm. In a move that mirrors past efforts to apply Maine’s sales tax to online retailers such as Amazon, […]
Internet
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
What happened to the internet Friday morning
Dyn Inc., a significant Domain Name Server that facilitates the loading of web pages, said service was restored at 9:20 a.m. New York time after a DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attack that left people without access to Twitter, Spotify, Reddit and the New York Times, among other sites. Separately, Amazon Web Services said […]
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Posted inBusiness
Wireless home Internet service launches in Auburn
AUBURN — A Camden-based company focused on bringing household Internet to most of Maine within three years expanded into Auburn on Thursday. “Today, we will cover 25 percent of Maine households and that’s just this year alone,” Redzone Wireless President and Chief Executive Officer Jim McKenna said. “We really just started our effort in May […]
Posted inBusiness
SCORE column: Be prepared for Internet threats
It seems as though every day brings another headline story of Internet hacking into businesses, large and small. Many business owners assume that firewalls and antivirus software are enough to protect their computers and valuable data, causing them to overlook their Internet security and putting their business at risk. The fact is that as the […]
Posted inFranklin
Franklin County discusses communications, dead-zones, Internet access
FARMINGTON — Emergency responders using radios or cellphones to communicate with dispatchers or others in the field are hitting dead zones in Franklin County, officials at Wednesday’s communications meeting said. Other problems cited included visitors leaving the area early because they cannot work with the slow Internet, limited broadband and associated services, and the owner […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Froma Harrop: Be aware; the Internet knows you
Federal Trade Commission head Edith Ramirez put the matter plainly: “If I’m wearing a fitness band that tracks how many calories I consume, I wouldn’t want to share that data with an insurance company.” In a study last year, the FTC found that 12 mobile fitness apps shared information with 76 enterprises. Face it; personal […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Lawmakers dial-in to Internet needs for fast Internet speed
PORTLAND — At Maine’s State House and in pioneering communities around the state, 2015 could be the year of broadband. President Barack Obama has thrown support behind expanding broadband and regulators are considering treating it as a utility like electricity. Lawmakers in Maine submitted 35 bills that the state’s broadband development agency identified as dealing […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Democrats hope to push FCC to ban fast lanes online
WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers unveiled bicameral legislation Tuesday that would force the Federal Communications Commission to ban fast lanes on the Internet. The proposal, put forward by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., requires the FCC to use whatever authority it sees fit to make sure that Internet providers […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Maine looks to municipal leadership for increasing broadband Internet access
BIDDEFORD — Lee Ulrichsen, who operates a pottery business from her home on Nokomis Road in St. Albans, has spent hours fruitlessly uploading photos of her work to clients, only to have the files lost somewhere in the ether. “I have to follow up every email with an attachment with a phone call to make […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
NSA said to have used Heartbleed bug and left consumers exposed
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency knew for at least two years about a flaw in the way that many websites send sensitive information, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, and regularly used it to gather critical intelligence, two people familiar with the matter said. The NSA’s decision to keep the bug secret in pursuit of […]