Featured Blogs

Domain Registrations Associated with New TLD Launches

One of the central goals of a brand protection program is detecting infringing third-party activity that falls outside the firewall - that is, external to a brand owner's portfolio of official core and tactical domains. Brand threats occur across a range of internet channels, but domain name abuse is one of the most significant areas for concern, both in terms of the visibility and potential for confusion of branded domain names by potential customers, and the enforcement options available. For this reason, domain monitoring is considered a core component of a brand protection service. more

Telecom Heroics in Somalia

Internet service in and around Mogadishu, Somalia suffered a crippling blow recently as the East African Submarine System (EASSy) cable, which provides service to the area, was cut by the anchor of a passing ship. The government of Somalia estimated that the impact of the submarine cable cut was US$10 million per day and detained the MSC Alice, the cargo vessel that reportedly caused the damage. more

Human Rights and the Digital Domain Primer - Part 4

The digital domain encompasses the different spaces and spheres we use to relate and interact with the people and things that surround us using digital technologies. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, as the globally accepted standard, should serve us as the guiding light when it comes to striking the delicate balance between our rights and responsibilities on and off-line. more

Predicting Future Broadband Prices

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the long-term trajectory of broadband prices. This is something that should be considered by anybody who is thinking about competing in a market against a big cable company. It's not an easy question to get your hands around since many factors might affect future rates. The following are some of the major trends that I think must be considered. First is pressure on the big ISPs from Wall Street. more

Do-It-Yourself Rural Fiber

I doubt that any elementary school in the US has fiber to the premises, but, in 2013, an elementary school in rural Bhutan was connected to the Internet using optical fiber in the "last mile." They were able to connect the school because the cabling they used, metal-packed armored cable (M-PAC), which is modeled on undersea cables, does not have to be in a protective duct. It is 4mm in diameter, light and flexible, so it can be installed by supervised volunteers or unskilled workers.
 more

Once Begun is ONLY Half Done

In the brief history of Internet governance, few initiatives have been greeted with wider support than the recently signed Affirmation of Commitments between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The praise is well deserved, but now it's time to remind ICANN of the problems that the AOC did not solve, most importantly ICANN's ongoing accountability gap. more

Wall Street Bailout: Could Learn a Thing or Two From Botnets

Well, at this point, the government is well on its way to bailing out Wall Street from its own incompetence, putting taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion. The worst part is that as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson puts it, "You're worried about taxpayers being on the hook? Well, guess what? They're already on the hook!" I read that and said "Aw, crap..." Anyhow, Wall Street should maybe learn something from botnet operators. For you see, botnets are not just for sending spam anymore. The bots have diversified their holdings... more

Does the Internet Need “Governance”?

It's remarkable to me that there are now two powerful agencies fighting to "govern" the Internet -- the ITU and the FCC. On any given day, it's hard to tell whether they are on the same side or different sides. The ITU process apparently began in earnest with the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) meetings, where the concept of "Internet Governance" became an urgent goal. The FCC process began when incumbent Internet Access Providers (IAPs) argued that "Net Neutrality" was a stalking horse for government control... more

In a Networked World Knowing the Right Time Is Essential but How Accurate Are the Computer Clocks?

Computers have always had clocks. Well maybe not clocks as you might think, but digital computers have always had oscillators, and if you hook the oscillator to a simple counter then you have a clock. The clock is not just there to tell the time, although it can do that, nor is it there just to record the time when data files are created or modified, though it does that too. Knowing the time is important to many functions, and one of those is security. more

The Incredible Leakyness of Commercial Mailers (Cont’d)

Last week I blogged about the way that lots of otherwise legitimate companies leak e-mail addresses to spammers. Here's a few more thoughts. One person asked how I knew that these were leaks, and not dictionary attacks, since the addresses I use are fairly obvious, the name of an often well known company @ my domain. It's a reasonable question, but the answer is simple... more

White Space in the Great White North

There is growing interest in the US for the FCC to look at White Space to enable more options for broadband wireless in rural areas. What is White Space? Last weekend, the Sunday NY Times published an article about wireless services that included this description: "In many areas, not all broadcast [television] channels are in use. The unused channels are "white spaces" of high-quality spectrum that could be made available to local Internet service providers. Unlike the much higher frequency of Wi-Fi, television broadcast frequencies can travel for miles and penetrate walls, providing a much broader range for Internet service." There is a coalition of eight technology companies driving the discussion in the US... more

FTC Comment Period Emphasizes the Need for a Better WHOIS System

Late last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission - the governmental arm responsible for protecting Americans from unfair trade practices -- opened a comment period on a proposed "Trade Regulation Rule on Impersonation of Governments and Businesses." It's no surprise that those who are victims of or are battling online impersonation saw this as an opportunity to highlight the importance of a working domain name registration data system ("WHOIS") ... more

Tackling Cyber Security: Should We Trust the Libertarians? Part 2

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post posing the question of whether or not more government regulation is required in order to secure the Internet. On the one hand, anonymity is viewed in the west as a forum for freedom of speech. The anonymity of the Internet allows dissidents to speak up against unpopular governments. However, the anonymity afforded by the Internet is not so much by design as it is byproduct of its original designers not seeing how widespread it would eventually become. more

Why Getting Awards Wrong Undermines the Integrity of the UDRP

The integrity of any legal system depends on the quality of mind of those appointed to administer it. There are expectations that the one judging the facts and applying the law knows what the facts are and what law to apply. Panels appointed to adjudicate disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) are not held to any lower standard than the judges of courts of competent jurisdiction. more

Why R&E Networks Should Be Aware of the CDN Interconnect Initiative (CDNI)

At the recent IETF meeting there has been considerable discussion about interconnection of Content Delivery Networks. A lot of this is being driven unfortunately by the incumbent telco/cableco's who never understood CDN in the first place, and now want to assert control over this critical new Internet architecture, much in the same way that they want to take control over open WiFi hot spots as part of an integration strategy with their 3G/4G networks. more