Featured Blogs

CAICT Holds ICANN 58 China Internet Community Readout Session

In the afternoon of March 29, the CAICT held the ICANN 58 China Internet Community Readout Session in the CAICT together with the ICANN Beijing Engagement Center. Mr.Li Xiangning, Deputy Director General of Information and Communication Administration under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), attended the event and gave a speech on the meeting. Over 60 representatives from related governmental agencies including the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Beijing Communications Administration, domain name registries and registrars, industrial organizations, institutes and universities participated in the seminar. more

M3AAWG Offers Some Sensible Password Advice

M3AAWG is a trade association that brings together ISPs, hosting providers, bulk mailers, and a lot of infrastructure vendors to discuss messaging abuse, malware, and mobile abuse. (Those comprise the M3.) One of the things they do is publish best practice documents for network and mail operators, including two recently published, one on Password Recommendations for Account Providers, and another on Password Managers Usage Recommendations. more

Dot Brand Trends and Recent Launches

Our latest research shows that dot brand domains continue their qualitative and quantitative growth. We carried out a complete cycle of analysis in April 2017, and found that brands had registered 6,505 domains in their Top Level Domains, which represents a progression of 3% compared to February 2017. 761 actual websites are published on these domains, which represents an increase of 6% form February 2017. more

Understand More, Fear Less: Will G20 Be Able to Contribute to an Internet Future with a Human Face?

Last week, the G20's ministers responsible for the digital economy met in Düsseldorf to prepare this year's G20 summit, scheduled for Hamburg, July 2017. Building on important strides initiated two years ago during the G20 summit in Antalya and based on the G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative (DEDCI), which was adopted last year under the Chinese G20 presidency, the Düsseldorf meeting adopted a "G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Declaration" which also includes a "Roadmap for Digitalisation". One day before the ministerial meeting, non-state actors were invited to discuss "Policies for a Digital Future" within a so-called Multistakeholder Conference. more

How to Get a Domain Name Transferred Under the URS

The Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) is designed to get a domain name suspended, but in some cases this dispute policy can be used to help get a domain name transferred. It's an uncommon result but one that trademark owners may want to keep in mind. The suspension remedy is often viewed as the greatest limitation of the URS. Trademark owners that want to have a domain name transferred typically file a complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) instead of the URS - but, the UDRP is more expensive and time-consuming. more

While Cyberspace Is Entering an Era of Warring States, There Remains a Chance to Make a Difference

For the non-state actors who are making efforts to approach cybersecurity issue in a different and creative way, the state actors, however, have given clear signs that they have exhausted their patience and insisted on doing things alone by bringing traditional old tricks back into cyberspace. This is exemplified in the bilateral meeting of two cyber sovereigntists - the Chinese and U.S. presidents on April 6-7, and in the multilateral G7 Declaration on Responsible States Behavior in Cyberspace on April 11. more

Mend, Don’t End, the IETF

Is it time for the IETF to give up? Martin Geddes makes a case that it is, in fact, time for the IETF to "fade out." The case he lays out is compelling -- first, the IETF is not really an engineering organization. There is a lot of running after "success modes," but very little consideration of failure modes and how they can and should be guarded against. Second, the IETF "the IETF takes on problems for which it lacks an ontological and epistemological framework to resolve." In essence, in Martin's view, the IETF is not about engineering, and hasn't ever really been. more

Inter-Process Communication - Building Block for the New Internet

The blog on the need for a new internet received quite a bit of (international) attention, and with the assistance of colleague John Day, we would like to elaborate a bit further on this. I mentioned RINA as a good example that can be used to have a look at how such a new internet should look like. Interestingly the basics are not all that new. Already in the 1970s, but certainly two decades later, there were plenty of telecoms and computer engineers who started to understand that the future telecommunications work would have more to do with computing than with telecoms. more

Encryption and Securing Our Digital Economy

As G20 leaders from around the world gather this week, Germany wants them to agree to a concrete plan -- one that includes affordable Internet access across the world by 2025, common technical standards and a focus on digital learning. Today, the G20 economies, like so many other economies around the world, are digital and interconnected. Digital services have opened up new avenues for sustainable economic growth. more

New Products, Old Regulations: The Example of HTS

Every day, new technologies bring us closer to ubiquitous connectivity. If the capabilities of technology is advancing at a fast pace, the same is not always true of regulations; when creating or marketing a new technology, regulation is likely to act as a bottleneck. Understanding regulatory challenges is therefore the foundation that your next move rest on. Although the target may be a global or regional market, it's essential that strategies are designed both well in advance and target each jurisdiction individually. more

Kelly’s Case Updated: A Need for Further DNS Registrar Industry (Self-)Regulation

After ten hectic days, the young Clemson civil engineer turned MBA entrepreneur -- who turned a passion for helping equestrians care for their horses into a website enterprise -- had the HorseDVM.com domain, and its IPR returned to HorseDVM LLC. Ultimately, however, it was the registrant who realized the registrar had wrongfully sold him the domain and the unfairness of what had occurred, who facilitated the return. The culpable registrar ultimately did nothing but unfailingly support its auction subsidiary's sale... more

Gaining Better Network Edge Visibility with Automated IPAM

Large Communication Service Providers (CSPs) that provide transit to their customers need to pay special attention to those network segments to ensure that the IPs associated to them are actually being used. What happens should that customer move on or require more (or less) IP real estate? What do communication and management processes look like to ensure that all the various departments are aligned for rapid and seamless network configuration changes with no downtime? more

Dissecting the (Likely) Forthcoming Repeal of the FCC’s Privacy Rulemaking

Last week, the House and Senate both passed a joint resolution that prevent's the new privacy rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from taking effect; the rules were released by the FCC last November, and would have bound Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States to a set of practices concerning the collection and sharing of data about consumers. The rules were widely heralded by consumer advocates, and several researchers in the computer science community, including myself, played a role in helping to shape aspects of the rules. more

Passive Holding of Domain Names and the Argument for Bad Faith or Forfeiture

There is a misconception among some trademark owners and their counsel that passive holding of domain names alone or combined with lack of rights or legitimate interests supports abusive registration. Thus, Respondent's inactive use of the disputed domain name demonstrates bad faith. Respondent also had actual knowledge of Complainant's YOU ASKED FOR IT mark as Complainant has attempted to buy the domain from Respondent... more

Human Rights and Regular Internet Users

Human rights are a topic that came up several times at the IETF meeting that just ended. There's a Human Rights Research Group that had a session with a bunch of short presentations, and the featured two talks at the plenary asking, 'Can Internet Protocols Affect Human Rights?' The second one, by David Clark of MIT, was particularly good, talking about "tussle" and how one has to design for it or else people will work around you. more