CircleID

A study conducted by the Verizon Business RISK team in cooperation with the United States Secret Service has found that breaches of electronic records in 2009 involved more insider threats, greater use of social engineering and the continued strong involvement of organized criminal groups. ›››

BBC – Chuck Kisselburg writes: Responsible for safe-guarding a share of the ROOT Zone's DNSSEC Recovery Key, Paul Kane, CEO of CommunityDNS, is one of 7 TCRs (Trusted Community Representative) selected from around the globe by ICANN. "In the event of a security breach -- such as a terrorist attack -- Mr Kane may be required to travel to a secure location in the US." ›››

Andrew McLaughlin reporting in the White House website: "Last week marked a significant advance in the security of the Internet. After years of intensive design, testing, and implementation work, the Internet's domain name system now has a new security upgrade that allows Internet service providers and end users alike to protect against an important online vulnerability: the clandestine redirecting of online communications to unwanted destinations." ›››

Reuters – Grant McCool reporting in Reuters: "China's leading search engine, Baidu Inc, can sue its U.S.-based domain name service provider, Register.com Inc, for breach of contract, gross negligence and recklessness related to an attack by hackers, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday. The January 11 attack prevented Internet users around the world from gaining access to Baidu for five hours and disrupted its operations for two days..." ›››

A new study has been released by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th President that looks into cybersecurity manpower challenges in the United States. The report titled, "A Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity," is produced by CSIS - a bipartisan public and foreign policy think tank in Washington. ›››

PC World – John Ribeiro from IDG News reports: "India will start using IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) from March 2012, according to a new roadmap released by the Indian government. All telecom and ISPs will have to be IPv6-compliant by the end of next year and offer IPv6 services thereafter, the government said in a statement issued on Wednesday by the country's Press Information Bureau." ›››

PC World – Grant Gross of IDG News reports: "Between 14 million and 24 million U.S. residents don't have access to broadband service, and deployment isn't happening fast enough, a report from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission concluded. Broadband isn't being rolled out to unserved areas in a timely manner, and immediate prospects for deployment to U.S. residents without service are 'bleak,' the FCC said in the broadband deployment report, released Tuesday..." ›››

J. Nicholas Hoover reporting in InformationWeek: "The White House on Wednesday issued an update of the Obama administration's ongoing cybersecurity work, detailing some of the steps being taken in an effort to secure the nation's networks against cyber attacks and in the process offering some new insight into the administration's future plans. The progress report, issued immediately after a meeting held by White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt with agency secretaries, cybersecurity experts..." ›››

M86 Security today released it's bi-annual security report for the first half of 2010, highlighting the evolution of obfuscation through combined attacks. From the report: "This threat trend is the latest to emerge as cybercriminals seek new ways to limit the effectiveness of many proactive security controls. Because existing techniques for 'covering their tracks' are becoming less effective, cybercriminals have begun using combined attacks, which are more complex and difficult to detect. By splitting the malicious code between Adobe ActionScript language - built into Adobe flash - and JavaScript components on the webpage, they limit the effectiveness of many of the the proactive security detection mechanisms in place today." ›››

Google Inc. today announced via its official blog that the Chinese government has renewed its license and that it will continue to operate in China. Google further notes: "We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google. However, it's clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable -- and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed (it's up for renewal on June 30). Without an ICP license, we can't operate a commercial website like Google.cn -- so Google would effectively go dark in China." ›››

Wall Street Journal – Siobhan Gorman reporting in the Wall Street Journal: "The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program. The surveillance by the National Security Agency, the government's chief eavesdropping agency, would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks..."
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Security expert Bruce Schneier in a blog post today writes: "It's about who is in charge of cyber security, and how much control the government will exert over civilian networks. And by beating the drums of war, the military is coming out on top. ... General Keith Alexander, the current commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, hypes it every chance he gets. This isn't just rhetoric of a few over-eager government officials and headline writers; the entire national debate on cyberwar is plagued with exaggerations and hyperbole." ›››

ICANN – Leo Vegoda, ICANN's Manager of Number Resources writes: "Last year, ICANN staff worked with the staff at APNIC and the RIPE NCC to produce a single sheet that identified the key address groups, explained what they were and gave IPv4 examples of IPv4 equivalents where they existed. This year we have updated the sheet and you can grab a copy of the updated reference from here. ›››

CNN – CNN reports: Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband internet access a legal right for all citizens. The legislation, which came into effect Thursday, forces telecom operators to provide a reasonably priced broadband connection with a downstream rate of at least one megabit per second (mbs) to every permanent residence and office, the Finnish government said in a statement... ›››

Washington Post – Cecilia Kang reporting in the Washington Post: "The Obama administration announced Monday that it will double the amount of airwaves available for mobile broadband to meet the demands of smartphones and other wireless gadgets expected to explode in popularity. Over the next decade, President Obama pledged to make available 500 megahertz of radiowaves for high-speed wireless carriers..." ›››

Google's internet browser Chrome has overtaken Apple's Safari in the US for the first time on a weekly basis according to website analytics service provider, StatCounter. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that for the week beginning 21 June Chrome overtook Safari to claim third place in the US browser market. "Chrome with 8.97% took third place in the US browser market ahead of Safari with 8.88%. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the US Internet browser market with 52%, followed by Firefox (28.5%)." ›››

A directive known as "Written Declaration 29," adopted last week by the European Parliament, calls for legislation that would require search engines to make a record of all search queries, as reported today by Startpage and Ixquick, anonymous search engine providers. "Framed as a measure to crack down on paedophiles, the controversial Declaration calls on the EU to require that search engines store all search traffic for up to two years for possible analysis by authorities." ›››

ICANN's Board of Directors on Friday approved a set of Chinese language internationalized domain names which will allow millions of Chinese language users to access the internet using their native script. The new Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) and the associated organizations approved by the ICANN board include three different organizations: CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited), and TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Center). ›››

The board of ICANN on Friday gave initial approval for the addition of .xxx Top-Level Domain... Dot-XXX domains won't start appearing right away. ICANN must first conduct a "due diligence" study of ICM's business plan for the domain, and then the board will review the contract proposed for the operation of the domain. That may involve referring the matter to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, which is next scheduled to meet in December in Colombia, said board member Bruce Tonkin. "There is a potential that this is a prolonged process,"... ›››

External Source – Adam Smith reporting in World Trademark Review: For years, trademark owners have been stuck in the doghouse when it came to policy development at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), especially with regard to new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). But at the current ICANN meeting in Brussels, brand owners decided to focus their policy development strategy on brands, rather than the legal intricacies of trademarks - which the rest of the ICANN community has ignored for so long.
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