Featured Blogs

A Deluge is Underway; is Email Waterproof?

What's that we see, waving through the raindrops? Isn't email supposed to be dead? You already know I'm going to say no; as usual, once you see past the refraction and the rainbows, reality is somewhat more complicated. The recent, ongoing launch of Google Wave has almost everything we've come to expect. It begins with a slow roll-out, with people begging for invitations. Then comes the headlines proclaiming the death of email, often based on nothing more than a short preview video and someone else's interview with Wave's creators. more

Registerfly Victims Are Really Stuck Now

Last week I noted here that cutting off collapsed domain Registerfly will leave a huge problem for registrants. ICANN is supposed to have escrowed copies of each registrar's registrant data, but has never got around to setting that up. This means that unless Registerfly can supply the data, there may be no record of the actual owner of their domains. more

The State of the Internet During the Anti-Government Protests in Cuba

On Sunday, July 11, thousands of Cubans, took to the streets in anti-government protests triggered by COVID, the faltering economy, and an overwhelmed healthcare system. In three days, 110 protests took place across the island. The following is a snapshot of an interactive, crowd-sourced map showing the locations of 118 large and small demonstrations (94 reported on the 11th, 14 on the 12th, seven on the 13th and three on the 17th). more

Thoughts on the Open Internet - Part 5: Security

Any form of public communications network necessarily exposes some information about the identity and activity of the user's of its services. The extent to which such exposure of information can be subverted and used in ways that are in stark opposition to the users' individual interests forms part of the motivation on the part of many users to reduce such open exposure to an absolute minimum. The tensions between a desire to protect the user through increasing the level of opacity of network transactions to third party surveillance, and the need to expose some level of basic information to support the functions of a network lies at the heart of many of the security issues in today's Internet. more

Updates on the Georgian Cyber Attacks

This is an update of my previous post on the subject. To be honest here, no one truly knows what's going on in Georgia's Internet except for what can be glimpsed from outside, and what has been written by the Georgians on their blog (outside their country). They are probably a bit busy avoiding kinetic bombing... more

Questions on the Debate on ‘Closed Generic’ gTLD Applications

ICANN is currently seeking public comment on the subject of "closed generic" gTLD applications. It asks "whether specific requirements should be adopted corresponding to this type of application". It invites comments on what it defines as an "issue". In particular, ICANN wonders how an applied-for domain can be deemed a "closed generic" TLD, and whether there should be rules governing the way this TLD will be operated. more

Current ICANN Policy Precludes the ITU Becoming an IP Address Registry

Lost in all the discussion around the recent ITU meeting (TIES account required of course) is any discussion of the current policy regarding the formation of new RIRs. You may recall that one of the reports that the ITU commissioned on this subject suggests that it would be possible, even desirable for the ITU to be allocated a /12 of IPv6 from the IANA to be further allocated to Country Internet Registries. more

The Story of Conficker and the Industry Response

On November 2, 2009, Microsoft released its seventh edition of the Security and Intelligence Report (SIR). The SIR provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted software. Using data derived from hundreds of millions of Windows computers, and some of the busiest online services on the Internet, this report also provides a detailed analysis of the threat landscape and the changing face of threats and countermeasures and includes updated data on privacy and breach notifications. The following is an excerpt from the SIR, pp 29-32, about the Conficker worm and the industry response that showed an incredible amount of collaboration across vendors. more

Some Considerations for New TLD Operators from a Registrar Perspective

The "hot topic" at the upcoming ICANN meeting in Singapore will, of course, be whether or not the new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) will actually launch or not. Sure, they'll launch at some point, but ICANN has been pushing to make the big announcement at Singapore. There has been a lot written over the last couple of years about new TLDs over the last couple of years. We are now coming into what might be called the "end game". more

Request to Extend the 24-Day Comment Period on the Proposed VeriSign Agreement

Bruce Tonkin (MIT) wrote in the Registrars mailing list yesterday with this: "We the undersigned registrars, request that the public comment period on the proposed agreement with Verisign be extended until Sunday 4 Dec 2005 so as to allow opportunities for in-person public discussions during the upcoming ICANN meeting in Vancouver..." In terms of process, the Registrar Constituency (RC) by-laws prevent the RC from balloting on anything in less than 24 days, and ICANN could require the interest groups it recognizes to have decision making processes that are capable of responding to the Board of Director's decision making process, in a better administrative law world. more

Mergers and Acquisitions in Domain Industry Increasing at an Impressive Rate

As the year progresses the number of mergers and acquisitions in the domain industry is increasing at an impressive rate. Hot on the heels of GoDaddy's acquisition (saving?) of RegisterFly another media company acquires a domain company. Is anyone beginning to see a pattern emerging? Oversee.net has acquired SnapNames... It's an interesting acquisition for Oversee.net which already owns DomainSponsor as well as a very interesting portfolio of domains. more

The Chinese Domain Name Bubble Bursts

Nearly one year ago, I asked Will .CN become the next .COM? And perhaps I was right in more ways than one. Because now it appears that .CN is experiencing its very own .COM bust. Just a year ago Chinese domain registrations were booming, so quickly in fact that .CN had surpassed .DE to become the most-registered ccTLD. more

ICANN: Do Not Allow Closed New gTLDs With Generic Strings

Within the next year, the ICANN Board may well face a decision that will help determine whether ICANN is capable of serving the global public interest or whether it is degenerating into an industry-controlled self-regulatory association. The issue can be framed quite simply: will ICANN approve a process for the creation of a new wave of new generic top level domains that will include "closed generic" gTLDs? more

IPv6 in China

Much has been written about the progress of the adoption of IPv6 over the years. I know I've been guilty of adding my writings into the pool, and this article is a further contribution to that pool of observations and measurements. In this case, I want to look in some detail at the deployment of IPv6 in China. Why is China so important in this story of IPv6 deployment? more

Was the ClimateGate Hacker Justified? Join the Debate!

A few days ago a story broke where someone hacked into a global warming research institute and stole all emails from the past 10 years, proving a conspiracy. In the vast amount of emails stolen, some emails were also found with clear-cut lies, showing how some scientists conspired to deceive in scientific research about data that did not fit their agenda of proving global warming. I am opening the subject for debate... more