News Briefs

Fadi Chehadé Named as ICANN’s New President and CEO

Fadi Chehadé has been named as the next President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehadé, age 50, is a citizen of Lebanon, Egypt and the United States. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Egyptian parents and left the then war-torn country in 1980 at the age of 18. He speaks fluent Arabic English, French and Italian. Chehadé succeeds current President and CEO Rod Beckstrom, who announced last August that he would leave ICANN at the end of his contract, which expires on 1 July. Chehadé will join ICANN on October 1 or earlier. Between July 1 and when Chehadé begins, Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah will be the CEO. more

Government-Directed Internet Shutdowns and Fiber Cuts Continue in 2019 Impacting Various Countries

Internet disruptions observed in 2018 as a result of government shutdowns, cable problems, power outages, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have already seeped into 2019. more

Bangladesh Faces Total Internet Shutdown Amid Violent Student Protests

Bangladesh is experiencing a complete internet shutdown and severe mobile service disruptions due to escalating student protests that began earlier this week. more

AFNIC Publishes New Issue Paper on “the Secondary Market in Domain Names”

Loic Damilaville writes to report: Today AFNIC is publishing its new issue paper on the secondary market in domain names. The paper -- written to inform individuals as well as businesses -- gives a detailed account of the concept of "secondary market", the valuation mechanisms used, and the main players involved. The secondary market covers over-the-counter sales of already registered domain names, as well as the market in "second-hand domain names" and the ecosystem made up of the various players involved in these matters. more

Complete Internet Shutdown Reported in Syria

While Syria's Internet disruptions in the recent past have been linked to Government's efforts to prevent cheating during national high school exams, today's complete Internet shutdown reported by Dyn Research is unknown and does not appear to be exam-related. more

Dot-Sucks TLD Accused of Predatory, Exploitative and Coercive Practices

Kieren McCarthy reporting in the Register: "The intellectual property constituency (IPC) of domain overseer ICANN has formally asked the organization to halt the rollout of the controversial .sucks top-level domain, due to start on Monday." more

Google Not the Only Company Testing Wireless Access by High-Altitude Balloons

Oceus Networks Inc., a mobile 4G LTE broadband networking provider, recently demonstrated the efficacy of a deployable 4G LTE solution on a high-altitude balloon platform, which can be used to rapidly provide broadband coverage and communications services to first responders within the first 72 hours following an emergency or natural disaster. more

U.N. Cybercrime Convention Enters Critical Stage

Negotiations for a U.N. cybercrime convention have reached a critical stage at the fourth round of discussions in Vienna. Delegates from over 150 states have met for over 100 hours to discuss the proposed convention, which has been met with skepticism from some states, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders more

Google Shutting Down Engineering Office in Russia Amid Tighter Data Law

Google is closing its engineering office in Russia as a result of new law coming into force next year requiring foreign firms to store Russian users' personal data on servers located in Russia. more

New Analysis Suggests Recent Cyberattacks Against US and South Korea Originated from UK Not N. Korea

Nguyen Minh Duc, senior security director at Bach Khoa Internetwork Security (Bkis), says that the source of recent cyberattack against US and South Korean government websites was not North Korea -- as widely reported -- but UK. Based on Bkis analysis, a report today by Nguyen Minh Duc says that a master server located in UK was found to control the 8 Command and Control servers responsible for the series of cyberattacks last week.
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There are Reports of Widespread Post-Election Spear Phishing Campaigns Targeting Think Tanks, NGOs

In the wake of the 2016 United States Presidential Election, not even six hours after Donald Trump became the nation's President-Elect, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group launched a series of coordinated and well-planned spear phishing campaigns. more

Google Launches Project to Track Encryption Efforts - Both Internally and at Other Popular Sites

Google launched today a new effort to track the progress of encryption efforts - both at Google and on other popular websites. Google hopes the project will hold the company and others accountable to encrypt so as to enhance web safety and security. more

China Steps Up Media Pressure, Extends Restrictions to Blogs, Apps and Other Digital Media

China's latest restrictions on online news and commentary will extend to blogs, online forums, mobile apps, instant messaging tools and other forms of digital media under rules published May 2 by the Cyberspace Administration of China. more

Sudanese Nationals Charged in Global Cyberattack Campaign

Two Sudanese nationals have been indicted for allegedly leading Anonymous Sudan, a cybercriminal group responsible for over 35,000 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks targeting critical infrastructure worldwide. more

Head of UK Intelligence Agency Says Tech Companies Should Provide a Way Around Encryption

In a speech at the Internet Policy Research Initiative at MIT, British intelligence agency GCHQ director Robert Hannigan said Monday that law enforcement and intelligence officials want only targeted ways to stop what he called "abuse of encryption" by ISIS and other terrorists and criminals. more