News Briefs

November 2016 U.S. Elections and the Fate of Internet Privatization

The currently ongoing process of privatizing the Internet technical functions under the IANA Contract -- outside the direct control of the U.S. government -- will not happen before March 2017, predicts Sophia Bekele in an op-ed published in The Hill. more

Global Re-Distribution of IPv4 Addresses Requires Greater Trading Transparency and Security

He warns millions of IPv4 numbers are impacted by inaccurate records, and as a consequence, ARIN’s registry cannot, in many cases, be relied upon as the definitive single source for establishing the rightful holders of IPv4 address space. more

ARIN Issues Final IPv4 Addresses in Its Free Pool

Marking an important milestone in the evolution of the Internet, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the nonprofit association that manages the distribution of Internet number resources for its region, announced today that it has issued the final IPv4 addresses in its free pool. The attention now shifts to IPv4's successor, IPv6. more

Xi Insists on China’s Right to Regulate Its Own Internet

Chinese President, Xi Jinping, in response to concerns about China's new Internet regulations and restrictions, says "rule of law also applies to the Internet, with the need to safeguard a country's sovereignty, security and development interests as relevant as in the real world." more

Apple Uses the .NEWS TLD for Its News Platform

Apple has elected to use the .NEWS top-level domain for its new app on iOS 9. The 'apple.news' domain will also be used within the app for shortening news links. more

UN Broadband Commission: Global Broadband Growth in Decline, 4 Billion Still Offline

Broadband Internet is failing to reach those who could benefit most, with Internet access reaching near-saturation in the world's rich nations but not advancing fast enough to benefit the billions of people living in the developing world, according to the 2015 edition of the State of Broadband report. more

Lufthansa to Offer High-Speed Internet Access on Board Short and Medium-Haul Flights

Lufthansa will start offering broadband on board its short and medium-haul flights beginning early summer 2016, according to an announcement made today. more

Rio Becomes First Latin American City to Offer Its Own TLD

Rio de Janeiro has become the first Latin American city with its own dedicated top-level domain (.rio), allowing individuals and entities who want to identify themselves with the Brazilian city to register their desired domain names with the new extension. more

ICANN Turning into a FIFA-Like Organization, Says the Guardian

A story published today in the Guardian warns that the US government's plan to give up control of ICANN may create the web's answer to Fifa. more

U.S. and China Negotiating Cyeberwarfare Control Deal

United States and China are in negotiation to establish a cyberattack agreement, according to reports. If successful, it "could become the first arms control accord for cyberspace, embracing a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyberweapons to cripple the other's critical infrastructure during peacetime," reports David Sanger in the New York Times. more

ICANN Announces Results of New gTLD Universal Acceptance Analysis

ICANN, in conjunction with the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) announced this week the availability of a new report: An Analysis of New gTLD Universal Acceptance. The study focuses on the concept of removing all technical barriers that might hinder a user from accessing any name in any top-level domain (TLD) from any web browser, email client, or other Internet application on any computer or electronic device. more

Senior U.S. and Chinese Officials Conclude Four-Day Meeting on Cyber Security

Senior U.S. and Chinese officials concluded a four day meeting on Saturday discussing cyber security issues ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington later this month. more

ICANN Assigns Tor’s .Onion TLD as Special-Use Domain Name

The Internet Engineering Task Force has approved a Draft RFC for "The .onion Special-Use Domain Name" by the Tor Project, the provider of online anonymity and privacy services. more

ICANN Must Make User Privacy a Central Tenet for New Registrations, Says EFF

In a statement released today, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has criticized ICANN for not being proactive on privacy matters, saying the organization "can't seem to wrap its head around" the issue. more

Hacking Increasingly Becoming a Physical Concern

If this past quarter's stories are any indication, we could very well be seeing the rise of a new wave of threats that will affect people in a more pronounced and physical level, reports Trend Micro in its Q2 Security Roundup Report. more