News Briefs

US, India Sign Cybersecurity Agreement

The United States and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to promote closer cooperation and the timely exchange of information between the organizations of their respective governments responsible for cybersecurity, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "The MOU was signed in New Delhi by Jane Holl Lute, Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary, India Department of Information Technology." more

ICM Registry to Provide Free Malware Scanning for .XXX Domains

ICM Registry announced this week it has struck a deal with McAfee for a free malware scan for every .XXX domain. The deal would include McAfee's "trustmark" and date stamp, ICM said. Every .XXX domain will be scanned for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, browser exploits and phishing sites, reputational analysis and malware, Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, said in a statement. more

ICANN Names Steve Crocker as Chair of the Board

ICANN has named, Internet pioneer, Steve Crocker as new Chair of the Board. Dr. Crocker whose involvement with ICANN dates back to 2002, has also served as chair of ICANN's Security, Stability, and Advisory Committee (SSAC) until 2010. He was the SSAC liaison to the Board from 2003 to 2008, a voting member of the Board since 2008, and vice-chair of the Board since December 2010. Crocker succeeds Peter Dengate Thrush, who was Chair since 2007. Also board member Bruce Tonkin, an Australian, was named Vice Chair. He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer for Melbourne IT Limited. more

Researchers Use Social Graphs to Detect Spammers, Attackers

A project named S-GPS or Spammer Global Positioning System, by Microsoft researchers uses spammer identification rather than spam identification to identify zombie-based spammers. more

Internet Groups Inaugurate First of Three Cyber Security Facilities

ICANN and internet exchange firm Packet Clearing House (PCH) have joined forces with Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) to launch the first of three facilities designed to boost the adoption of Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) among country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs). The three new facilities, located in Singapore; Zurich, Switzerland (still under construction) and San Jose, California, provide cryptographic security using the recently deployed DNSSEC protocol. more

New Top-Level Domains Approved by ICANN

The Board of ICANN today gave final approval to the most dramatic change to the Internet in four decades -- allowing the expansion of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). This monumental decision will allow companies and organizations to turn their own brands into Internet domain extensions (that is .brand) or to create broad generic strings such as .CAR, .SPORTS or .BANK. ICANN's TLD expansion plan was first announced three years ago on June 26, 2008 at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris. more

CAUCE Director Neil Schwartzman Wins Prestigious MAAWG Award

CAUCE Executive Director Neil Schwartzman won the prestigious Mary Litynski award on June 08, 2011 for his contributions to Internet anti-abuse efforts, including the passage of Canada's Anti-Spam Law. more

World IPv6 Day a Success, Demonstrated Global Readiness for IPv6, Says ISOC

"Top websites and Internet service providers around the world, including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Akamai, and Limelight Networks, joined together with more than 1000 other participating websites in World IPv6 Day for a successful global-scale trial of the new Internet Protocol, IPv6," reports Internet Society (ISOC) in its day after news release on World IPv6 Day held on Wednesday, Jun 8. more

A Closer Look at World IPv6 Day

In observance of World IPv6 Day being held today, Earl Zmijewski of Renesys takes a closer look at the state of the IPv6 today. Zmijewski writes: "Today is World IPv6 Day, a day when major content providers have agreed to furnish service over IPv6 for a 24-hour test period. Hopefully, you didn't notice anything different about your Internet experience today, but providers will have gained valuable experience with the technology and any technical hurdles that remain to be overcome..." more

Internet Three Strikes Laws Violate International Law, Says UN Report

Michael Geist reporting in his blog: "The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has released an important new report that examines freedom of expression on the Internet. The report is very critical of rules such as graduated response/three strikes, arguing that such laws may violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Moreover, the report expresses concerns with notice-and-takedown systems, noting that it is subject to abuse by both governments and private actors." more

Syrian Internet Shutdown

James Cowie from Renesys reports: "Starting at 3:35 UTC today (6:35am local time), approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet. Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table." more

Global Internet Traffic to Quadruple by 2015, Reaching 966 Exabytes Per Year

Cisco predicts that the number of network-connected devices will be more than 15 billion, twice the world's population, by 2015. In its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015) report released today, the company also predicts the total amount of global Internet traffic to quadruple by 2015 and reach 966 exabytes per year. more

RIPE NCC to Conduct Live Measurements for World IPv6 Day

RIPE NCC has announced plans to conduct live measurements for World IPv6 Day on 8th June 2011. The not-for-profit organization has set to measure connectivity to World IPv6 Day participants; "the IPv6 Eye Chart tests visibility of all World IPv6 Day participants and other sites that are already dual-stacked on a single web page." RIPE NCC says the process will help to find out if there are problems accessing these websites, both before and during World IPv6 Day. more

Domain Name Registrations Reach 209.8 Million, 2.2 Percent Increase over 2010 Q4

The latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign reports 4.5 million domain names were added to the Internet in the first three months of 2011. According to the report, the first quarter of 2011 closed with a base of more than 209.8 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), or a 2.2 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2010. Registrations grew by 15.3 million, or 7.9 percent year over year. more

UPDATEDExperts Urge Congress to Reject DNS Filtering from PROTECT IP Act, Serious Technical Concerns Raised

A group of leading DNS experts have released a paper detailing serious concerns over the proposed DNS filtering requirements included as part of the bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate named Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 ("PROTECT IP Act"). The group who is urging lawmakers to reconsider enacting such a mandate into law, includes leading DNS designers, operators, and researchers, responsible for numerous RFCs for DNS, publication of many peer-reviewed academic studies related to architecture and security of the DNS, and responsible for the operation of important DNS infrastructure on the Internet. more