News Briefs

India Seeks Alternatives to NSO Group Spyware Amid Global Snooping Scandals

The Indian government is seeking to acquire new spyware in an effort to replace the controversial Pegasus system, which has been blacklisted by the US government. more

PIR, the Operator of .ORG Announces Jonathan Nevett as the New President and CEO

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit operator of the .ORG domain has announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously selected Jonathon Nevett as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective December 17, 2018. more

Afilias Announces Plan to Raise $100 Million via London AIM Exchange

Afilias, headquartered in Dublin, is set to float on AIM with new shares issued by the company expected to raise approximately $100m. Hal Lubsen, Chief Executive Officer of Afilias says: "Today's announcement is an important step in the next phase of our growth, as we look to be a key player in the new programme of TLDs, and make selective acquisitions to increase the breadth and depth of our services and reach." more

Russia to Disconnect Entirely From the Internet as Part of Cyber-Defense Measure

According to various news outlets, Russia is reported to be planning a complete Internet shut down, as part of a test of its cyber-defenses. more

Google Spent $7.3 Billion on Data Centers in 2013, Double Its 2012 Spending

Rich Miller reporting in Data Center Knowledge: "Google continues to pump big bucks into its data center operations, investing a massive $7.35 billion in capital expenditures in its Internet infrastructure during 2013. The spending is driven by a massive expansion of Google's global data center network, which represents perhaps the largest construction effort in the history of the data center industry." According to company's reported capital expenditure, total spending adds up to $7.35 billion - more than double the $3.27 billion in CapEx the company reported in 2012. more

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Says FCC’s Roll Back Plan on Net Neutrality Makes No Sense

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday told reporters that President Donald Trump's plan to roll back net neutrality protections for the internet "does not make sense". more

How IT and Internet Saved Lives in Haiti

Stéphane Bruno writes: "In the first few hours that followed the earthquake, mobile service was completely disrupted. It was almost impossible to place a call, due to the combination of the damages on the cellular networks and the spike in phone calls. However, on some networks, SMS service was still available. People stuck under rubbles started texting to their friends and family (in Haiti and abroad) to tell them they were still alive and needed help. Those friends and family, not knowing what to do, started posting these SOS messages on their social networks, mainly on Facebook." more

Massive Cyber Assault on X: Musk Hints at Foreign Involvement

Elon Musk has attributed a series of major disruptions on X, the social media platform he owns, to a large-scale cyberattack. The outages, which persisted for several hours today (and are still ongoing), left users unable to access the service, triggering a flurry of speculation. more

For the First Time in Recent Internet History a Subsea Cable Across South Atlantic Activated

For the first time in recent Internet history, a new submarine cable carrying live traffic across the South Atlantic was activated, directly connecting South America to Sub-Saharan Africa. more

New Analysis by Web Foundation Shows Dramatic Decline in Internet Access Growth

A striking trend revealed in a report to be released next week by the Web Foundation, an organization set up by the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, indicates that the rate at which the world is getting online has fallen sharply since 2015. more

EU launches Future Internet Public Private Partnership

Wout de Natris writes to report: "EU Commissioner for the Information Society Neelie Kroes today launched the EU co-funded project for the Internet of the future in which everything will be connected to everyone in the cloud. Here's the link to Mrs. Kroes' speech." more

SpaceX Launching Two Experimental Internet Satellites This Weekend

On Saturday, SpaceX will be launching two experimental mini-satellites that will pave the path for the first batch of what is planned to be a 4,000-satellite constellation providing low-cost internet around the earth. more

DomainsBot Integrates Twitter Handles, Facebook Identity Check to Domain Name Suggestion Tool

DomainsBot, the provider of domain name suggestion tool used by various companies such as GoDaddy, Tucows, 1and1, and eNom has just announced an update to its platform offering social networking identity search integration. The company update also includes B2B services for domain registrars, registries and new TLD applicants. more

DNS Server Hijacking Results in Funds Being Stolen from Popular Crypto Website, MyEtherWallet

Close to 1300 IP addresses were hijacked this morning resulting in Amazon losing control of a number of its highly used cloud services. more

IANA Transition Confirmed: US Governement to Handover IANA Contract to ICANN at Midnight

United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Galveston Division has denied plaintiffs motion for a temporary restraining order thus allowing IANA transition to proceed as planned. more