News Briefs

Kodak Announces a Blockchain Platform Initiative for Image Rights Management

Kodak today revealed the launch of a blockchain-based platform called KODAKOne which is aimed to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control of image rights management. more

Donuts Completes the Acquisition of Afilias

Donuts stated today that it has completed the acquisition of Afilias announced on November 19. Donuts' CEO Akram Atallah says the company is now ready to begin the integration plan promising minimal disruptions to customers. more

Disconnecting Finance: The EU’s Risky Use of Domain Takedowns as Regulatory Weapon

The European Union is increasingly wielding domain name deletions as a tool of financial enforcement - a trend sparked by the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and now spreading across other legislative efforts such as the Financial Data Access Framework (FiDA) and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR).  more

IP Address Information Misused by Authorities Says EFF, Not Enough to Justify Police Raids

"Law Enforcement, Courts Need to Better Understand IP Addresses, Stop Misuse," says EFF in whitepaper released on Thursday. more

DNS Inventor Impressed With Innovative Effort Behind .LUXE TLD to Integrate DNS With Blockchain

The company running the new .LUXE top-level domain (TLD) recently issued an update on its progress with the innovative effort to tie the TLD with blockchain. more

“lo” and Behold

Happy 50th Internet! On October 29, 1969, at 10:30 p.m. Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at UCLA along with his graduate student Charley Kline sent a transmission from UCLA's computer to another computer at Stanford Research Institute via ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. more

China Temporarily Cuts Itself Off from the Global Internet

China briefly disconnected from much of the global internet for over an hour on Wednesday, following a disruption traced to the country's "Great Firewall." According to activist group Great Firewall Report, the outage began at 12:34 a.m. Beijing time and lasted until 1:48 a.m. on August 20. more

Permanent Denial-of-Service Attacks on the Rise, Incidents Involve Hardware-Damaging Assaults

Also known loosely as "phlashing" in some circles, Permanent Denial-of-Service (PDoS) is an increasing popular form of cyberattack that damages a system so badly that it requires replacement or reinstallation of hardware. more

EFF Warns ICANN Not to Engage in Censorship, Says It Should Stick to Technical Role

A series of articles published by EFF, coinciding with ICANN's 60th meeting in Abu Dhabi this week, Jeremy Malcolm warns that domain name registrars, registries and ICANN can become "free speech week leaks" for online censorship. more

DNS Attack Code Has Been Published

As warned by Dan Kaminsky, Paul Vixie, and numerous other experts experts, it was just a matter of time before an exploit code for the now public DNS flaw would surface. An exploit code for the flaw allowing insertion of malicious DNS records into the cache of target nameservers has been posted to Metasploit, a free provider of information and tools on exploit techniques. According to reports Metasploit creator, H D Moore in collaboration with a researcher named "|)ruid" from Computer Academic Underground, created the exploit, dubbed "DNS BaliWicked Attack", along with a DNS service created to assist with the exploit. more

Criminals Using New Phishing Techniques to Hide from Victims and Investigators, Reports APWG

According to the APWG's new Phishing Activity Trends Report released today, phishers are using new techniques to carry out their attacks and hide their origins in order to make the most of every phishing campaign. more

North American Saw Complete Exhaustion of IPv4 Address Space Inventory in Q3, 2015

Akamai Technologies today released its Third Quarter, 2015 State of the Internet Report with updates on IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 adoption. more

Google to Deactivate Goo.gl URL Shortener, Sparking Concerns Over ‘Link Rot’

Google has announced it will fully deactivate its URL shortening service, Goo.gl, by August 25, 2025, prompting concerns about widespread "link rot." Starting next month, Goo.gl links will display a warning message before ceasing to work altogether by the 2025 deadline. more

Phishing Attacks Targeting Executives Now Top Cybersecurity Insurance Claims, Says AIG

A new report published by the insurance giant, AIG, claims phishing attacks via email, often targeted at senior executives, has overtaken ransomware. more

FTC to Big Tech: Don’t Trade American Privacy for Foreign Demands

In a striking admonition issued on August 21st, Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), cautioned over a dozen major technology firms against bowing to foreign demands that compromise American users' data security or freedom of speech. more