Featured Blogs

Update on Assigning 32-bit ASNs

As mentioned in Assigning 32-bit ASNs published one year ago, 16-bit Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) are becoming a scarce resource just like 32-bit IP addresses. In 2007, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) addressed this scarcity by developing a new format: 32-bit AS Numbers (RFC 4893), which increased the supply of ASNs to four billion. more

India - The Internet’s Next Billion

Everyone seems to be talking about how the big boom is set to happen in India for domain names, and there are significant factors to ensure that this growth happens. The internet spends and E-commerce usage is fast becoming the face of modern India, a part of everyday lifestyle. Although awareness is still the biggest barrier domain name Registrars face with consumers, there are signs of significant improvement in trust, usability and the adoption of web services. more

Co-Operation to Make the Domain Business More Secure

In order to provide more security for the Domain Name System (DNS), a group of large domain-name registries and registrars has got together with IT security providers and government agencies to launch a new workgroup: the "Registry Internet Safety Group" (RISG). The announcement was made by the Public Internet Registry, which operates the .org domain, and its backend provider Afilias. more

Project Explosion in the Email Industry Today…

Funny as it may seem, today there's big news in the email industry -- 2 large internet bodies, 2 projects... Projects Phoenix and Titan, by AOL and Facebook respectively. What are key things to note about each project? Let's look at each in brief detail... more

Evolving Network Business Models

AT&T got critics' keyboards activated by announcing plans for a Sponsored Data service, enabling websites to pay for their end-users data consumption. The service has been characterized as a type of toll-free or "1-800? style service for mobile data. Does this contravene network neutrality principles? AT&T says the traffic from the sponsoring sites will be treated the same as other traffic on the network. A US public interest group, Public Knowledge, claims this is precisely what a net neutrality violation looks like. more

Defending the Network Several Times Over

Modern networks can be attacked in a variety of ways, meaning that companies need different types of protection. This article explains some of the risks involved, and provides some easy ways to deal with them. more

Keeping Track of Satellites

The topic of satellite broadband has been heating up lately. Elon Musk's StarLink now has over 540 broadband satellites in the sky and is talking about starting a few beta tests of the technology with customers. OneWeb went into bankruptcy, but it is being bought out by a team consisting of the British government and Bharti Airtel, the largest cellular company in India. Jeff Bezos has continued to move forward with Project Kuiper, and the FCC recently gave the nod for the company to move ahead. more

Will Legacy TLDs Have a Long Legacy?

We all live in a world where the rapid pace of innovation can be both exciting and challenging. From keeping up with the latest consumer technologies, such as new mobile apps, social media platforms, and digital assistants like Alexa to business-driven innovations like Things (IoT) to Artificial Intelligence, the one certain thing we all face is change. In the Top-Level Domain (TLD) arena, can the same be said about legacy TLDs? more

The ICANN Accountability and Transparency Review Team Recommendations: To Implementation, And Beyond

Buzz Lightyear, the astronaut character from the movie Toy Story, is known for his tagline, "To infinity, and beyond!" ICANN can take a lesson from the ebullient Buzz with respect to accountability and transparency. Just as Buzz believed he could fly beyond infinity, ICANN should view full implementation of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT) recommendations not as the last stop, but as the next stop on its important journey of accountability and transparency. more

Cyber Scorecarding Services

Ample evidence exists to underline that shortcomings in a third-parties cybersecurity posture can have an extremely negative effect on the security integrity of the businesses they connect or partner with. Consequently, there's been a continuous and frustrated desire for a couple of decades for some kind of independent verification or scorecard mechanism that can help primary organizations validate and quantify the overall security posture of the businesses they must electronically engage with. more

The ICANN Accountability End Game

It was predictable, and inevitable, I suppose, that the end game of a search for a more accountable ICANN would devolve to a lawyer's contest. When there is money on the table, and when global politics are invoked to one degree or another, it is the lawyers who are tasked to translate lofty goals into precise words on paper that will survive the inspection of judges and courts. And ambitious politicians as well. more

The Christmas Goat and IPv6 (Year 14)

A new year and a new goat with new conditions, the goat was slowly eaten by jackdaws, and in the end, almost only the frame remained. This was really slow TV for the devastation… You can read more on Wikipedia about the devastating jackdaws and the straw... 36% IPv6 is equal to last year, and I had high hopes as Telia (AS3301) has made great progress in IPv6 and that Sweden should be the dominant country.  more

Domain Name Security Gains Prominence in German-Speaking World

The 2010 Domain Pulse, hosted by SWITCH (the .CH registry) was held in the snowy Swiss city of Luzern. Domain Name Security (DNS) was of particular importance in this year's meeting with DNSSEC being implemented in the root zone in 2010 by ICANN, and by many registries in the next few years. ICANN plan to have all root servers signed with DNSSEC by mid-2010 Kim Davies, Manager, Root Zone Services at ICANN told the meeting, starting with the L root server, then A root server with the last being the J root server as all are gradually signed. more

Looking at Centrality in the DNS

The Internet's Domain Name System undertakes a vitally important role in today's Internet. Originally conceived as a human-friendly way of specifying the location of the other end of an Internet transaction, it became the name of a service point during the transition to a client/server architecture. A domain name was still associated with an IP address, but that 1:1 association was weakened when we started adjusting to IPv4 address exhaustion. more

When to Consider ‘Both Sides of the Dot’ in a Domain Name Dispute

In the case, filed by Michelin, the panel found the domain name 'tyre.plus' confusingly similar to the trademark TYREPLUS. Specifically, the panel wrote: "If one ignores the 'dot' between the Second-Level Domain ('tyre') and the Top-Level Domain ('plus'), the mark and the Domain Name are identical..." It's an issue that's arising with increasing frequency -- just as I had predicted. more