News Briefs

Second Round of Initial Evaluations for New gTLDs

Mary Iqbal writes to report that ICANN has released the second round of Initial Evaluation Results on March 29. ICANN is currently reviewing new gTLD applications at a rate of 30 applications per week and has plans to increase that to 100 per week. more

U.S. CERT Issues Alert on DNS Amplification Attacks

Neil Schwartzman writes to report that U.S. Cert issued Alert TA13-088A on Friday March 29, 2013. "It is a solid how-to guide to test for, and remediate DNS configurations that can be used for Distributed Denial of Service attacks." more

A Closer Look at Recent Submarine Cable Failures

In light of the recent submarine cable failures, Doug Madory from Renesys has a detailed report on what has happened to some of the providers in four countries along the route of the cable: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India. more

ICANN Launches the Trademark Clearinghouse Amid gTLD Expansion

ICANN today launched a database to enable trademark holders register their brands for protection against the upcoming new gTLDs. The Trademark Clearinghouse, according to ICANN, is the only officially authorised solution offering brands a one-stop-foundation for the safeguarding of their trademarks in domain names across the multiple new gTLDs that will go live from summer 2013. The cost of registering a trademark ranges between $95 and $150 a year. more

ICANN Releases Initial Evaluation Results for First Set of New gTLD Applications

The first round of Initial Evaluation results has been released exactly on schedule. On March 23, ICANN announced that 27 out of 30 new gTLD applications reviewed this round passed Initial Evaluation. The remaining three applicants are still marked as in Initial Evaluation. more

Research Group Releases International Law on Cyber Warfare Manual

The newly released handbook applies the practice of international law with respect to electronic warfare. The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare -- named for the Estonian capital where it was compiled -- was created at the behest of the NATO Co-operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, a NATO think tank. It takes current rules on battlefield behaviour, such as the 1868 St Petersburg Declaration and the 1949 Geneva Convention, to the internet, occasionally in unexpected ways. more

Google Announces DNSSEC Support for Public DNS Service

Google today announced that its "Public DNS" service is now performing DNSSEC validation. Yunhong Gu, Team Lead for Google Public DNS, in post today wrote: "We launched Google Public DNS three years ago to help make the Internet faster and more secure.Today, we are taking a major step towards this security goal: we now fully support DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) validation on our Google Public DNS resolvers." more

UPDATEDNorth Korea Suffers Internet Outage, U.S. Blamed

According to reports, North Korea has accused the United States for conducting a cyberattack that has disrupted Internet connectivity in the country. "While the details of the cause of the disruption are unknown, we can confirm that in the last two days, North Korea's sole Internet provider has, in fact, suffered from disruptions in connectivity to the global Internet," reports Doug Madory from Renesys. more

ICANN Releases Guideline for Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting

ICANN has released a set of guidelines to explain its Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting. The guidelines serve two purposes, says ICANN: "They define the role ICANN will perform in circumstances where vulnerabilities are reported and ICANN determines that the security, stability or resiliency of the DNS is exploited or threatened. The guidelines also explain how a party, described as a reporter, should disclose information on a vulnerability discovered in a system or network operated by ICANN." more

Who Runs the Internet? ICANN Attempts to Clarify the Answer With This Map

ICANN has released a "living" graphic aimed to provide a high-level view of how the internet is run attuned for those less familiar with the inner workings of the internet infrastructure ecosystem. more

ICANN Planning to Set Up Hubs in Singapore and Istanbul

ICANN is looking to set up two new hubs in Singapore and Istanbul to serve the Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets. "Asia has not been well-embraced by ICANN in the past. We owe Asia a big apology," Fadi Chehade, CEO of the organization responsible for administrating the world's Web traffic, said in an interview with ZDNet. more

NTIA Asks New gTLD Applicants to Submit Public Interest Commitments

Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said today that all new gTLD applicants, even those that have not already been hit by government warnings, should submit Public Interest Commitments to ICANN. In a rare comment sent to an ICANN public forum today, the NTIA suggested that applicants should use the process to help combat counterfeiting and piracy. ... NTIA said that applicants should pay special attention in their PICs to helping out the "creative sector". more

Google.org Awards Grant to Internet Society to Advance Internet Exchange Points in Emerging Markets

The Internet Society today announced that it has been awarded a grant by Google.org to extend its Internet exchange point (IXP) activities in emerging markets. The grant will build on the Internet Society's previous efforts and will establish a methodology to assess IXPs, provide training for people to operate the IXPs, and build a more robust local Internet infrastructure in emerging markets. more

Internet Society’s President and CEO to Step Down in February 2014

Internet Society President and Chief Executive Officer Lynn St. Amour today announced that she will leave the Internet Society in February 2014 at the conclusion of her contract. St. Amour joined the Internet Society in 1998 as Executive Director of its Europe, Middle East, and Africa division. She became Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer in 1999 and was appointed President and CEO in March of 2001. more

2012 WCIT Meeting Beginning of Long Internet Cold War Between Authoritarians and Liberal Democrats

In his commentary, The Internet Yalta Alexander Klimburg, Fellow and Senior Adviser at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, argues that the December 2012 meeting of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) may be the digital equivalent of the February 1945 meeting of the Allied powers in Yalta: the beginning of a long Internet Cold War between authoritarian and liberal-democratic countries. more