Rightside is a name you may only have heard of very recently. It is a relative newcomer in the new gTLD industry. It is important to note that there is a difference between "Rightside" and "Rightside Registry". One is the Trademark and also the name of this new group to which eNom (a Registrar), Namejet (a platform to buy/sell domain names and Premium domains) and Name.com (another Registrar) belong. As for "Rightside Registry", it is the new name of the platform to operate new gTLD applications. more
There have been quite a few news stories released over the last 24 hours regarding a wide-scale compromise of 300,00 Internet gateway devices. Here's the executive summary of what happened, how to check if you are vulnerable, and what you can do to fix it... If you use any of these devices, you should check it to ensure your device has not been compromised. more
After interacting with over 1000 network engineers during training sessions about what they think could help drive IPv6 deployment in Africa, I have come to the realisation that a three prong approach is required... Many training courses focus on the first issue, and quite logically, that's where the real work lies. I've developed such a course that has been delivered in over 45 countries, and there are lots of other great training available, both free and paid. more
I'm delighted to announce that the name collisions workshop this weekend will include Jeff Schmidt, CEO of JAS Global Advisors, presenting the Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework that his firm just released for public review. Jeff's presentation is one of several on the program announced by the program committee for the Workshop and Prize on Root Causes and Mitigations of Name Collisions (WPNC). more
Cloud computing has experienced exponential growth over the last few years. As of December 2013, almost 60 percent of current small-to-medium businesses (SMB) use cloud services, and 72 percent of these businesses virtualize substantial portions of their servers. The growth is only expected to increase over the next few years. Here are just a few of the major current trends in the industry today. more
In an increasingly global environment, the Internet infrastructure industry faces a diverse set of serious issues that we as an industry need to address together. To look at these concerns, an area of focus for the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) has been best practices for our industry. Our approach to developing best practices encapsulates three areas, always with the goal of striking the right balance between security, safety and privacy: working with experts and industry professionals; identifying like-minded partners; and fostering the growth of the Internet economy. more
On Feb. 7, 2014 Dr. Stephen Crocker, the Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors, wrote to Asia Green IT System (AGIT), a Turkish company which applied for .Islam and .Halal, conveying ICANN's latest position on these two applications. The letter is deeply flawed, and shows how ICANN's handling of the .Islam and .Halal applications is at once an egregious assault on the new gTLD program rules, and a betrayal of whatever trust Muslims around the world might have had in ICANN. more
Are you interested in learning more about Bitcoin, cybercurrencies and Internet payment systems? On Monday, March 3, 2014, at 5:50pm UTC (London, UK) the Technical Plenary of the 89th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) will be streamed live. The presentations during the "technical topic" part of the plenary will include... more
With so many new gTLDs moving into their respective general availability periods, and incidents of cybersquatting beginning to appear, many companies are now looking towards the URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension) as a possible solution for quickly remediating abuse. As a reminder, domains that are the subject of a successful URS ruling are suspended for the remainder of the registration term, or can be renewed for an additional year at the current registrar. more
There are quite a lot of NTP-amplified denial of service attacks going around at the moment targeting tech and ecommerce companies, including some in the email space. What does NTP-amplifed mean? NTP is "Network Time Protocol" - it allows computers to set their clocks based on an accurate source, and keep them accurate. It's very widely used - OS X and Windows desktops typically use it by default, and most servers should have it running. more
A concrete plinth was lain at the foundation of durable Enhanced Cooperation this week when ISOC unveiled its IXP toolkit and portal. In simple English (which no doubt will be expanded to other languages) the soft launch modestly seeks feedback, corrections, and further input to the already pithy and instructive content. More to the point, this resource responds to one of the principle demands of those who do not recognize themselves in the multistakeholder model: how do we get our own IXP? more
After the successful conclusion of our fifth auction last week, the Applicant Auction has now resolved contention for a total of 28 strings. More than 20 gTLD applicants have participated in our auctions, ranging from many smaller companies with only one gTLD application in contention to large, publicly traded portfolio applicants like TLDH and Demand Media. more
Want to read a wide range of views on how to strengthen the security and privacy of the Internet? Interested to hear how some of the leaders of the open standards world think we can make the Internet more secure? As I wrote about previously here on CircleID, the W3C and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) are jointly sponsoring a workshop on "Strengthening The Internet" (STRINT) on February 28 and March 1 in London just prior to the IETF 89 meeting happening all next week. more
The Mitigating the Risk of DNS Namespace Collisions report, just published by JAS Global Advisors, under contract to ICANN, centers on the technique of "controlled interruption," initially described in a public preview shared by Jeff Schmidt last month. With that technique, domain names that are currently on one of ICANN's second-level domain (SLD) block lists can be registered and delegated for regular use, provided that they first go through a trial period where they're mapped to a designated "test" address. more
Donuts is an applicant that threw the entire domain name industry into uproar due to the number of applications it submitted: 307 in total. It is hardly surprising that whenever new gTLDs are mentioned in the media that Donuts are mentioned alongside due to shear number of applications that they have submitted. There are dozens of articles in the media mixing information and opinions about Donuts. Often, they address the benefits to those registrants who are excited about the possibility of acquiring a new domain name and the threats to those who have an existing .COM domain name portfolio. more
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