Featured Blogs

“ICANN Urged to Rule on .LLP ‘Breach’”

There is probably no worldwide community without at least one member located in the US. But does this qualify the closing of a community to only US based members and, by extension, to exclude all other eligible entities from around the world solely because of arbitrary geographical circumstances based upon company whims? more

Wine Applications: Results of the New gTLD Prioritization Draw

There are 4 applications related to the wine business in the new gTLD program. Yesterday the new gTLD prioritization draw took place where each application was assigned a randomly-drawn priority number. These priority numbers are used to determine the order in which initial evaluation results are released. In the 1917 applications, 4 applications are related to wine. more

MicroID: A Microformat for Claiming Ownership

This morning I learned about MicroIDs from Doc Searls. Jeremy Miller has proposed MicroIDs as a microformat that "allows anyone to simply claim verifiable ownership over their own pages and content hosted anywhere." A MicroID is a hash of two hashed values. The first is a verified communication ID. The second is the URI of the site that the content will be published on. You end up with a unique, long string of gibberish that can be put in the header of a Web page or even wrapped around one part of a page... more

Costly Domain Name Price Comparison Sites

Price comparison sites, including those for domain registrations, are supposed to benefit buyers. Do they? Recent theory and practice suggest a friend-and-foe relationship. Comparison sites introduce an entire layer of costs, notably including the sites' marketing costs. more

2nd Round gTLDs: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This post outlines the advantages (good) and threats (bad) that can make or break a gTLD, and the eternal fact that some applications will doom themselves to failure (ugly). The Good... Waiting until the second round to apply for a gTLD may end up being a virtue for the following reasons... more

The Great ITU Internet Heist

There was a meeting in Geneva a few weeks ago dealing with Internet names and addresses. Known as the Second Informal Expert Group Meeting of the Fifth World Telecommunication / Information and Communication Technologies Policy Forum, it was yet another of the endless blathering bodies on this subject that have met for the past fourteen years. more

com.google April Fools’ Is No Laughing Matter: What .google Could Mean for Other .brands

When April Fools' Day rolls around each year, Google is generally one of the front runners for jokes -- often making headlines for its quirky gimmicks. This year was no exception. On April 1st, Google launched its first domain name under the recently delegated .google Top-Level Domain (TLD), a massive milestone for all .brand TLD owners. Google is encouraging millions of people around the world to visit: www.com.google. more

EoWhy?

I have come to acceptance that the community proposal for Expressions of Interest in new gTLDs (EoI) was removed from consideration during ICANN's March 12th Board Meeting in Nairobi. It should have passed, but it got lobbied into oblivion by some in attendance at the Nairobi meeting. They deserve their say, those who oppose it, but quite frequently the arguments used fail logic once one reflects upon them, or contrast them against the facts. more

Dear Industry Canada, Is Now a Good Time to Replace CIRA?

Today we have sent following to the Minister of Industry Canada, James Moore, as well as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Board of Directors. This is in response to the revelation that CIRA is positioning to enter the managed DNS space. As we outline in the letter, we are fine with more competition (in fact Google just entered the domain and DNS space too... No, competition is a fact of life, what we want is more of it, not less. Here's what we wrote to The Honourable James Moore. more

Private Cyber Investigators

This post was prompted by questions I was asked to address when I participated in a panel discussion of cybersecurity. Here are the relevant questions: "Should we reconsider the notion that companies under attack are prohibited from investigating the attackers and trying to locate them? We allow private investigators to conduct some activities that usually only the police are allowed to do; should we accredit private cyber investigators?" ...The one I found more interesting is the second question: whether we should accredit private cyber investigators. more

DNS, Domain Names, and Certificates: The Missing Links in Most Cybersecurity Risk Postures

In 2019, we've seen a surge in domain name system (DNS) hijacking attempts and have relayed warnings from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, U.K.'s Cybersecurity Centre, ICANN, and other notable security experts. Although the topic has gained popularity amongst CIOs and CISOs, most companies are still overlooking important security blind spots when it comes to securing their digital assets outside the enterprise firewalls -- domains, DNS, digital certificates. more

ICANN Board Meetings Should be Webcast Live

ICANN has just announced that, starting with the June meeting in Prague, the ICANN Board will no longer meet and cast votes on the final day of its three annual public meetings. We think this is an ill-advised step backwards from ICANN's commitment to transparency and the accountability that accompanies it. We also believe that ICANN should have told "the community" it was considering this major change and asked for public comment before making such a decision. more

The Blackout: Preventing Network Domino Effects

After a widespread blackout hit the United States and Canada, the so-called network domino effect attracted high public attention. Modern physicists have paid attention to the effect of network dominos. Especially, scientists who have studied complex systems have warned that a network domino effect, if it occurs, will bring chaos to a society that is well connected through the Internet. The cause of the blackout in the United States and Canada was not traced down quickly. But it apparently shows a typical network domino effect.  more

Recalibrating the DoH Debate

At the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) it is time we accept the wide range of drivers behind (and implications of) standards and for stakeholders to start listening to each other. A protocol recently released by the IETF, DNS over HTTPS (DoH), is at the centre of an increasingly polarised debate. This is because DoH uses encryption in the name of security and privacy and re-locates DNS resolution to the application layer of the Internet. more

Verizon and Skype: Who’s the Winner?

Until only recently, has it been remotely plausible to consider such different companies joining forces. I've written about Skype often, and for the most part, they've been a threat for incumbents of all stripes. To hear about this from Verizon during such a public event makes it very clear that the sands are shifting once more, and yet again, VoIP is the culprit. more