Featured Blogs

The 5 Stages of gTLD Shock

PCWorld lists new gTLDs among the 5 major changes facing the Internet in 2012. No doubt the sudden introduction of hundreds of new gTLDs will have a significant impact on the Internet. I postulate that users will react to new gTLDs by going through the following stages... more

.APP gTLD Signs of Life Web Usage Survey

When a new TLD goes into General Availability or Land Rush, the first few days are filled with registrations that reflect how the market perceives the TLD. Registrants may register domain names to develop or for speculative purposes. Others register to protect their brand. The first major web usage survey for a new TLD is generally a Signs of Life survey where the early stages of development can be detected. These surveys were based on the May 19th, 2018 .APP zone file. more

Why ICANN Doesn’t Need to Go Back to the GAC Over Dot-XXX

This Friday, it looks as though the ICANN Board will follow the clear conclusions drawn by its independent review and approve dot-xxx. Given the importance of the first use of the review process, the importance of the Board being seen to be accountable and the fact that the community was pretty unanimous in recent public comment, it is pretty much the only reasonable course of action. The question then is: how do things move forward? more

Caribbean Businesses Can Make Good Use of Free DNS Security

IBM Security, Packet Clearing House (PCH) and Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) unveiled a free Domain Name System (DNS) service designed to protect all Internet users from a wide range of common cyber threats. Launched on November 16 with simultaneous press events in London, Maputo and New York, the public DNS resolver has strong privacy and security features built-in and can be enabled with a few changes to network settings, as outlined on the organisation's website. more

IPv6… The Dangers of Prolonged Inter AS Tunnel Vision

Tunnel vision is a rather serious medical condition and the Internet or at least a number of service providers could be at risk if not treated soon enough. Symptoms of inter AS (Autonomous System) tunnel vision are many slower connections with IPv6 compared to IPv4 with some failing all together. Reason is that tunnels, especially inter-AS tunnels, can lead to long paths and non-optimal routing. more

Limitations, Delays, and Laches as Defenses in Cybersquatting Claims

In passing the baton for combating cybersquatting to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recommended that "claims under the administrative procedure [should not] be subject to a time limitation" (Final Report, Paragraph 199). ICANN agreed and the UDRP contains no limitation period for making a claim. The absence of a limitation period does not necessarily forego applying equitable defenses for delay, but the consensus of Panels appointed to decide disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is that they are not applicable in countering cybersquatting claims. more

Provoking National Boundaries on the Internet? A chilling thought…

The impact of the recently revealed US government data collection practices may go well beyond the privacy ramifications outlined in the Internet Society's statement: expect a chilling effect on global, resilient network architecture. As governments of other countries realize how much of their citizens' traffic flows through the US, whether or not it is destined for any user or service there, expect to see moves to curtail connections to and through the US. more

The Future of Religions on the Internet

Internet is facing the biggest change in its history. New brands, ideas, groups, communities,... have now found the chance to apply for their own specific space on internet naming system through ICANN's new gTLD program. One of the most interesting points of this courageous program was the motivation it created among communities to try to represent their specific webspace on the internet by applying for their own TLD; and among them were the religious communities as well. more

High Performance DNS Needs High Performance Security

There's been a lot of emphasis on DNS performance lately because faster DNS contributes directly to a better user experience. There's an interesting flipside to DNS performance though, higher performance DNS servers may be better targets for cache poisoning attacks. Faster servers give attackers more opportunities to insert fake entries into the DNS - speed can kill (or at least inflict a nasty wound!) so it's important to understand the security implications if you're looking to upgrade DNS performance. more

Public Sharing and a New Strategy in Fighting Cyber Crime

A couple of years ago I started a mailing list where folks not necessarily involved with the vetted, trusted, closed and snobbish circles of cyber crime fighting (some founded by me) could share information and be informed of threats. In this post I explore some of the history behind information sharing online, and explain the concept behind the botnets mailing list... we may not be able to always share our resources, but it is time to change the tide of the cyber crime war, and strategize. One of the strategies we need to use, or at least try, is public information sharing of "lesser evils" already in the public domain. more

Is Starlink the Tesla of Broadband Access? I Have a Chance to Find Out

Starlink is satellite internet access from SpaceX, one of Elon Musk's other companies. If it lives up to its hype, it will cure the problem of broadband availability in rural areas, although affordability will still be an issue. Most satellite-based Internet access sucks (that's a technical term). If based on geostationary satellites (ones you can point a dish at), the distance to the satellite is so great that the round-trip time for data is forever; this problem is called latency. more

DNSSEC Taking Center Stage at 2010 Black Hat

On July 28th DNSSEC took center stage at the 2010 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas. Two years ago, at the same conference, Dan Kaminsky unveiled the infamous DNS bug that many believe became a major catalyst for DNSSEC implementation. To kick things off, Jeff Moss -- founder of Black Hat -- in his opening speech called out the fact that "we have not solved any fundamental problems" and noted that the technical community must catch up. more

Watch the 2014 Internet Governance Forum (#IGF2014) Live All This Week from Istanbul

The Ninth Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Meeting is taking place all this week, September 2-5, 2014, in Istanbul, Turkey and live video streams are available for all the sessions... I watched the opening session live stream today from my home office in New Hampshire, USA, and the quality was excellent. There was also a live text transcription. more

Back from RightsCon Manila: Trading Freedoms for Security?

In Asia -- a region that at various points in its recent history has been a hotbed for civil unrest, secessionist movements and political instability -- the line between national security and public interest can be difficult to draw. A session organised by the Internet Society at the recently held RightsCon Southeast Asia in Manila shed some light on the perceived trade-offs between national security objectives and digital rights, in particular freedom of expression and privacy. more

NTIA Seeks Nominations to Serve on the Online Safety and Technology Working Group

In the midst of the election season, Congress passed a plethora of Internet related laws. Most involved child protection. One involved webcaster protection. Wasting no time, the impact of the new laws is already being felt through federal agency implementation. On Friday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Department of Commerce released the following notice... more