Featured Blogs

geoTLDs - Small but Perfectly Formed?

I always geek out a little when I see something ICANN-related breaking out into the real world, like when the bus-stop display has borked, and its LAN is vainly searching for an IP number so it can reboot. Or the ICANN Paris meeting back in 2008 when the board gave the thumbs up to the GNSO policy to launch new gTLDs. One day we were an obscure Californian organisation doing something technical-seeming most people had never heard of, and the next we were working two phones each, giving journalists quotes and information for dozens of front-page news stories around the world. more

The Latest on GDPR and WHOIS

GDPR. It's the four-letter "word" everyone is talking about, and there are lots of questions still swirling around the topic. We wanted to provide a summary of where we are and what we believe the next ten days will bring... GDPR enforcement will begin May 25, 2018. After this date, those found in violation of the regulation can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover or 20 Million Euros, whichever is greater. more

The Security Problem with HTML Email

Purists have long objected to HTML email on aesthetic grounds. On functional grounds, it tempts too many sites to put essential content in embedded (or worse yet, remote) images, thus making the messages not findable via search. For these reasons, among others, Matt Blaze remarked that "I've long thought HTML email is the work of the devil". But there are inherent security problems, too (and that, of course, is some of what Matt was referring to). Why? more

Human Rights in the Digital Age, Online Pharmacies, and the “Brussels Principles”

"Human Rights in a Digital Age" is the theme of this year's RightsCon conference in Toronto. An essential human right is access to safe, affordable prescription medications. The Internet makes this possible, our organization has proven it's achievable and sustainable over an extended period of time, and our proposed "Brussels Principles" provide the framework to take our proven success internationally. Across the Globe, to people everywhere. more

Making a Strategic Decision: URS or UDRP?

A discussion is presently underway about the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) (and in Phase 2 next year of the Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP)), whether it is performing as intended. The URS is less than five years old, and there are not an overwhelming number of decisions. Since 2013, rights holders have filed less than one thousand complaints (with three providers, the Forum being the most active), which translates into less than 170 decisions annually... more

Blockchain’s Two-Flavored Appeal

A recent story in Medium describes yet again quite well why blockchains don't solve any real problems: Blockchain is not only crappy technology but a bad vision for the future. So what is their irresistible appeal? Bitcoins remind me of a story from the late chair of the Princeton University astronomy department. In 1950 Immanuel Velikovsky published Worlds in Collision, a controversial best-selling book that claimed that 3500 years ago Venus and Mars swooped near the earth... more

ARIN and Antigua & Barbuda Government to Hold Workshop on Internet Resilience

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is collaborating with the government of Antigua and Barbuda to strengthen the technical capacity of local network operators. ARIN is one of five registries responsible for coordinating Internet number resources worldwide. Its service area includes Canada, the United States, and several Caribbean countries. The collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda government comes as part of a broader thrust by ARIN to support the development of the Internet across the region. more

Belize to Host Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum

Belize will host the fourth Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum, known as CarPIF, on June 13 and 14. Since its inception in 2015, CarPIF has brought together regional and international technology experts and telecommunications industry execs to discuss a range of topics related to Internet peering and interconnection trends, and their relevance to the Caribbean region. more

Choosing Internationalized Email Addresses

Recently I've been working on Email Address Internationalization (EAI), looking at what software is available (Gmail and Outlook/Hotmail both handle it now) and what work remains to be done. A surprisingly tricky part is assigning EAI addresses to users. In traditional ASCII mail, the local part of the address, what goes before the @ sign, can be any printable ASCII characters. more

Policymakers to Discuss Data Privacy at Caribbean Internet Governance Forum

Data privacy will be among the items topping the agenda at an upcoming Caribbean Internet Governance Forum to be held by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in Suriname this month. The meeting is part of an effort by several Caribbean countries to establish and strengthen policies to ensure that Internet users' personal information is collected, shared and used in appropriate ways. more

The Spontaneous Development of the Domain Name Market

If we traveled back in time, we would discover that unauthorized squatting on someone else's property is an ancient tort, but in cyberspace, it dates from the mid-1990s. Its emergence brought together governments and intellectual property stakeholders to demand a rights protection mechanism devised to deal with this new form of squatting. In 1999 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) completed its work on a proposal for an online rights protection mechanism which ICANN crafted into the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). more

Cyber Scorecarding Services

Ample evidence exists to underline that shortcomings in a third-parties cybersecurity posture can have an extremely negative effect on the security integrity of the businesses they connect or partner with. Consequently, there's been a continuous and frustrated desire for a couple of decades for some kind of independent verification or scorecard mechanism that can help primary organizations validate and quantify the overall security posture of the businesses they must electronically engage with. more

April 22, 1993 - A Day The Internet Fundamentally Changed

25 years ago, on April 22, 1993, a software release happened that fundamentally changed the user experience of the Internet. On that day, version 1.0 of "NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System" was released. You could now have (gasp!) text MIXED WITH IMAGES on the same page! Reading the Mosaic 1.0 release notes from Marc Andreessen is a bit of fun, as it includes gems like "Fixed mysterious stupid coredump that only hits Suns." more

It Is All About Trust

Trust is the lifeblood of the Internet and central to everything that is done here. In order for the current 3.5 billion users to continue using the Internet and its services, and for the next billion users to connect to the Internet, trust is required. The importance of trust is seen even more in Africa where, though there is a high growth of Internet users, the e-commerce uptake rate is very low. Users are very reluctant to carry out financial transactions over the Internet because of fear of being attacked by cybercriminals. more

Digital Transformation in Five Minutes: What, Why and How

Digital Transformation (DX) is picking up speed. According to a recent announcement by IDC, the market is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.9% to reach a whopping 321 billion dollars by 2021. In 2018 alone, IDC expects that 326 billion will be spent on transforming how people and things communicate. Based on these numbers, it looks like Digital Transformation has become the real deal. more