Featured Blogs

ICANN57 Preview: What to Expect in Hyderabad

The domain name industry descends on Hyderabad this week for ICANN's 57th annual public meeting, with a mixed sentiment of excitement and determination as ICANN stands on its own two feet absent US Government oversight. We'll have to get used some new acronyms as a result: PTI -- Public Technical Identifier; and the CSC -- Customer Standing Committee, but otherwise I don't think many of us will notice the difference. more

Africa, Let’s Embrace v6 Now!

AFRINIC is the regional Internet registry for Africa, and our core activity is to manage and distribute Internet numbers resources (IPv4, IPv6 and ASN's) to the 57 economies in Africa. IPv4 address scarcity is a very real issue worldwide, the internet keeps growing and the demand for Internet addresses will continue to grow. Africa has the lowest number of Internet users in the world. Internet's penetration in Africa jumped from very low level in 2009, to around 16% of individuals in 2013 and over 20% in 2015. more

The [Dot]Brand Tribes - Part 2

Staggering! According to the annual Interbrand Top 100 Brands report for 2009 the top 10 global brands are worth $422,901 ($m). Good leadership, innovation, protection, reach and solid products have created lasting consumer relationships and new entanglements that drive that amazing number. In this post from my original series back in March 2010, we'll discuss the high level value a dot brand could create. more

Enough’s Enough: It’s Time to Set a Deadline for the Next New gTLD Application Window

The ICANN community is currently in full congratulatory mode because the team responsible for the delivery of the Phase 1 Final Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process on gTLD Registry Data (EPDP) has managed to do so in a record-breaking seven months. The GNSO Council approved the Final Report in a special meeting on 4 March 2019, and the report will now be sent to the ICANN Board for consideration and hopefully adoption. more

Move Fast and Regulate Things

The international community is converging on one notion at least: that Facebook cannot be prosecutor, judge and jury of its own achievements and transgressions. The calls to regulate social media companies first came from various legislative bodies, then from civil society and national policymakers, then from the CEO of Facebook itself, "to preserve what is best about [the Internet]." If some scepticism followed that was natural enough – was the company sincere in calling for more regulation? more

Do You See What I See? Geotargeting in Brand Infringements

Geotargeting is a well-established online technique for delivering tailored web content based on a user's geographic location. From an internet technology point of view, this is usually based on the user's IP address, which is converted to a physical location through a standard look-up process performed by network infrastructure. Geotargeting is commonly used by websites for several legitimate reasons, including providing users with relevant advertising and other content... more

When CDA Immunity is Not CDA Immunity

Here's a question: If 47 USC 230(c) (the Good Samaritan provision of the Communications Decency Act) says that online services are not liable for third party content, then can you even sue the online service? Shouldn't the online service be immune from lawsuit? Because, after all, what would be the point of being sued for something for which you cannot be liable? more

Opinion: IP Leasing Should Become a Market Standard

The Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Asia-Pacific region (APNIC) recently held its 55th meeting in conjunction with APRICOT, from 20 February to 2 March 2023, in Manila, USA. One of the critical discussions at the conference was centered on the APNIC policy that does not accept IP leasing and has a questionable understanding of its necessity. According to the APNIC policy manual, which was referenced during the meeting, APNIC allocates and assigns resources based on need, and 'leasing is not allowed' nor does it form a basis for further need. more

Do You Know Someone Who Should Be in the Internet Hall of Fame? Nominations Now Open Until March 24

Do you know someone who deserves recognition for helping build the Internet in their region or country? Or someone who made the Internet more secure through the work they've done? Or someone who made some major technical innovation that made the Internet faster or better? more

5G Carriers Hoping for Handouts

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) published a recent report that looks at "5G policy Principles and 5G Essentials for Global Policymakers." For those who don't know ITI, they are a DC-based lobbying group that represents most of heavy-hitter tech firms, and which works to help shape policy on tax, trade, talent, security, access, and sustainability issues. I don't think I've seen another document that so clearly outlines the hopes of the big US cellular companies. more

Google Signs Memoranda of Understanding With Four Cuban Organizations

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed the first annual meeting of Cuba's IT professional society, the Unión de Informáticos de Cuba. In his talk, Díaz-Canel announced that four Cuban organizations - the Havana City Historian's Office, the University of Computer Sciences (UCI), Infomed, Cuba's medical network, and the Ministry of Culture had signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with Google. more

An Inquiry Into an Organization’s Security Priorities

In the wake of recent high-profile security incidents, I started wondering: what, generally speaking, should an organization's security priorities be? That is, given a finite budget - and everyone's budget is finite - what should you do first? More precisely, what security practices or features will give you the most protection per zorkmid? I suggested two of my own, and then asked my infosec-heavy Twitter feed for suggestions. more

Experienced a Breach? Here Are Four Tips for Incident Response

The threat level has never been higher for organizations charged with protecting valuable data. In fact, as recent headlines will attest, no company or agency is completely immune to targeted attacks by persistent, skilled adversaries. The unprecedented success of these attacks against large and well-equipped organizations around the world has led many security executives to question the efficacy of traditional layered defenses as their primary protection against targeted attacks. more

Tactics for Responding to Cyber Attacks - Squeezing Your Cyber Response-Curve: Part 1

Many cyber attacks against companies today go unreported, and more still are undetected... Timing and context are everything. The faster a company identifies a problem, and the faster and deeper it is understood and its relevance to the business, the more effectively the company can respond. We call this squeezing the cyber response curve. This two-part post will discuss the current state of cyber threats, what the cyber response curve is and its impact your organization and how you can effectively squeeze this curve to improve attack response. more

Simplifying Legalese

I attended a conference last week on Data Protection and one of the prime issues that cropped was that on the immanent complexity of legalese that prevents users from understanding the Terms & Conditions for which they're signing up when they join a social network, use an app or visit a website. This led to the Users being disinterested in understanding the T&Cs. This had a huge impact on Data Protection Policies since Users were ignorant about how their data was being used... more