News Briefs

Google Responds to Criticisms Over Proposed Net Neutrality

Responding to recent controversies over Google-Verizon deal, Richard Whitt, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel writes: "Over the past few days there's been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon. On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue, and we think it could help move the network neutrality debate forward constructively. We don't expect everyone to agree with every aspect of our proposal, but there has been a number of inaccuracies about it, and we do want to separate fact from fiction." more

Huawei Launches Its Own Operating System, Says Its Completely Different From Android and iOS

Huawei announces a new homegrown operating system called HarmonyOS. The Chinese tech giant launched the new OS during its developer conference on Friday, calling it "completely different from Android and iOS." more

Berners-Lee Warns About the Danger of Concentration Regarding Growing Dominance of Tech Giants

World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee speaking during an interview this week, warned Silicon Valley technology giants have grown so dominant they may need to be broken up. more

Oracle Announces Agreement to Acquire Sun Microsystems

Brandon Bailey reporting on Mercury News: "In a surprising twist, Sun Microsystems announced this morning that it will be acquired by Oracle in a deal worth roughly $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net after accounting for Sun's cash and debt. The news comes just a few weeks after earlier talks for IBM to buy Sun [link] collapsed..." more

Photos of Google’s Latest $600 Million Data Center

Earlier this month, Google officially opened its new data center in South Carolina which was first reported during April of 2007 when the company announced its plans to invest $600 million in the project. This data center is one of the four new data center projects announced by Google last year with other locations being Lenoir, North Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa and Pryor, Oklahoma. more

Popular RSS Reader Feedly Suffers Back to Back DDoS Attacks, Held for Ransom

Popular RSS reader Feedly has been hit by major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks beginning 2:04am PST on Wednesday causing the service to be completely down for several hours two days in a row. (Second attack still undergoing as of the time of this post.) more

Google Begins Publicly Sharing National Security Letters

In a note released this week, Google announced that it will begin publicly sharing National Security Letters (NSLs) it receives that have been freed of nondisclosure obligations either through litigation or legislation. more

Former ICANN Executive Kurt Pritz Joins Domain Name Association as Executive Director

Former ICANN executive Kurt Pritz has assumed the role of interim Executive Director for the Domain Name Association, a newly formed non-profit business association that represents the interests of the domain name industry. Kurt will be working with and representing DNA during the ICANN-48 meetings in Buenos Aires. He played a key role in the growth of ICANN and is best known as the architect of ICANN's new gTLD program. more

Vietnam Primary Source of Spam in November

Vietnam is now responsible for more than 10% of the worlds spam, according to threat analysis from managed security firm, Network Box. November saw malware threat levels remain consistently high with Vietnam taking the number one spam spot from last month’s chart topper, Brazil. more

US, Russia and China Stay Out of Paris International Cybersecurity Pact

US, China and Russia have refused to sign the French-backed agreement, Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, announced by French President at the UNESCO Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on Monday. more

One Third of Companies Employing Staff to Monitor Content of Outbound Email, According to Survey

A recent survey of US companies conducted by Proofpoint has found companies increasingly concerned over data leaks via emplyee misuse of email, blogs, social networks, multimedia channels and text messages. From the report: "[A]s more US companies reported their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information (34 percent, up from 23 percent in 2008), an increasing number say they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email (38 percent, up from 29 percent in 2008). The pain of data leakage has become so acute in 2009 that more US companies report they employ staff whose primary or exclusive job is to monitor the content of outbound email (33 percent, up from 15 percent in 2008)." more

FCC Approves Starlink for Direct-to-Cell Service in Hurricane-Stricken North Carolina

Following the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene on North Carolina, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX's Starlink to provide direct-to-cell coverage in affected regions. more

Huawei Founder in a Staff Memo Warns Company Is Facing a ‘Live-or-Die Moment’

In a memo sent to employees on Monday, Ren Zhengfei, the 74-year-old Huawei founder, has asked its employees to work aggressively towards sales targets and warned that the company is facing a "live-or-die moment." more

Global Domain Name Market Reaches 372 Million Domains, 1.5% Growth in 2024

Afnic, the French association in charge of the .fr domain and several other Internet Top Level Domains, has published the 2024 edition of its annual analysis "The Global Domain Name Market". Here is a summary of the overarching trends and key figures. more

Google Announces Project Zero to Secure the Internet

Google today revealed a new initiative, named Project Zero, with the objective to "significantly reduce the number of people harmed by targeted attacks." To carry out the project, Google is recruiting a team of experienced hackers - "practically-minded security researchers" - to contribute 100% of their time toward improving security across the Internet. more