Featured Blogs

Network Requirements for the Metaverse

I've often joked that I don't play computer games because I'm holding out for a holodeck. While that may sound ridiculously far-future, we're on the verge of seeing the web-based virtual reality that will be a major step towards a holodeck. There is already some awesome virtual reality software and games where a person can get immersed in another world using a headset. more

New gTLDs Will Create Tens of Thousands of New Jobs

Anyone paying attention to ICANN's public meetings in Cartagena last month would have quickly become aware of a powerful recurring theme -- fear. Despite all the substantial progress that was made on the new generic top-level domains program, and despite the generally optimistic, up-beat tone of the debate, it was ultimately fear that ruled. Specifically, the fear of governments, and their lobbyists in the intellectual property community, that the program may have an overall adverse economic impact. more

DNS RPZ, Malicious Domains… Bring Your Own Policy. Dress Casual.

Paul observed that most new domain names are malicious. Are they? Since the "dawn of tasting", some 30 million domain names have been created for the purposes of interposition on existing name to resource mappings. That is a third of the .COM historical growth, and mostly in the last five years. ... It is difficult not to conclude that interposition on persistent, public referents is without malice, and that the malicious parties are advertisers seeking to transform public referents into private property, as promotional devices... more

A Voting System for Internet by Domain Name Owners - Part II

This is the second part of a 2-part series article describing a method for voting among owners of domain names. To read the first part of this article click here.

After a ballot closes, each registrar will send the summary results to at least two vote counting entities. These organizations will tally summary results obtained from each registrar. The totals of the summary results will be cross-checked against totals from the other vote counting entities. more

Chinese Space Situational Awareness and Traffic Management Regulations and Procedures

In a recent issue of the Dongfang Hour Newsletter, Blaine Curcio pointed out that China's powerful State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) had published a notice intended to promote the orderly development of microsatellites and strengthen safety management. The notice defines microsatellites as being below 1,000 kilograms, which would include those making up China's planned GwoWang/SatNet broadband constellation. more

Project 2025: The Internet and Cybersecurity

As the saying goes, elections have consequences. The consequences are underscored in the recent U.S. Presidential election and the potential impact on the Internet, infrastructure and cybersecurity. In the context of the CircleID global community, it seems worth asking where things are headed? It does beg for an analysis of what is actually proposed in Presidential Transition Project 2025 related to things internet and cybersecurity. more

The Internet Community Says Thank You to ICANN for New TLDs

After more than six years of consultation and negotiation regarding the New Top-Level Domain Program, the ICANN Board this week approved the program to the pleasure of many within the Internet community. For this, we say thank you to ICANN on a job well done! The New Top-Level Domain (TLD) Program has been controversial at times and has fuelled many passionate debates within the Internet community. more

New gTLD Program to Be Finalized After June ICANN Meeting

Today, in a presentation made to attendees of the McCarthy Institute Symposium, Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN Chair, announced that the Final New generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Applicant Guidebook would be completed after the ICANN Meeting in Amman, Jordan which is scheduled for June 19 - 24, 2011. more

Israel’s Brutal Gaza ICT Infrastructure Demolition Derby

Over two years of war, Israel has decimated Gaza's ICT infrastructure, crippling connectivity, impeding emergency response, and isolating civilians from the digital world, while cementing long-standing control over telecommunications under the guise of national security. more

The Death of IP Based Reputation

Back in the dark ages of email delivery the only thing that really mattered to get your email into the inbox was having a good IP reputation. If your IP sent good mail most of the time, then that mail got into the inbox and all was well with the world. All that mattered was that good IP reputation. Even better for the people who wanted to game the system and get their spam into the inbox, there were many ways to get around IP reputation. more

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 7)

It was a great year for the goat! 2016 marked the 50th anniversary for the Christmas Goat and there was a grand opening ceremony along with music and fireworks. But only a few hours after the opening, a pyromaniac set the goat on fire. The only track the police have is a cap above that they hope to find DNA in and a crappy picture of the pyromaniac's back. more

How a Plaintiff Was Undeceived and Lost at Spam Litigation - What Nobody Told You About!

Back in 2003, there was a race to pass spam legislation. California was on the verge of passing legislation that marketers disdained. Thus marketers pressed for federal spam legislation which would preempt state spam legislation. The Can Spam Act of 2003 did just that... mostly. "Mostly" is where litigation lives. According to the Can Spam Act preemption-exception... more

The Real Threat to the Single Root of the Internet Seems to Come from ICANN Itself, of All Places

The proposed final Guidebook for the New generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) and Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) gTLDs contains elements that raise grave risks to the ICANN single root of the Internet caused by none other than ICANN itself. Below is my intervention at the ICANN Cartagena Public Forum today. ICANN President and CEO Mr. Rod Beckstrom was prompt to reply and acknowledge the validity of my statement adding that ICANN is fully aware of the problem. more

The Path to Combatting Domain Abuse

Completely eradicating malware, botnets, phishing, pharming, and spam from the Domain Name System is not possible. That may be an odd statement from someone who just took the leadership position at the DNS Abuse Institute, but it's meant to underscore the scope of the work ahead of us. There will always be bad actors exploiting the DNS for their own criminal purposes, but working together, we can mitigate their impact. more

Intelligence Exchange in a Free Market Economy

The U.S. Government is causing a huge disservice to protection and defense in the private sector (80%+ of CIKR) by creating an ECS that contains monetary incentive for a few large players to exert undue control over the availability, distribution, and cost of security threat indicators. While there may be a legitimate need for the federal government to share classified indicators to entities for protecting critical infrastructure, the over-classification of indicator data is a widely recognized issue that presents real problems for the private sector. ECS as currently construed creates monetary incentives for continued or even expanded over-classification. more