News Briefs

The Internet Infrastructure in Afghanistan (Event)

Join the upcoming discussion today on the past, present and future of the Internet in Afghanistan in the context of the Middle East. Panelists will address the national and international challenges and opportunities Afghans face in the changing environment of global Internet governance and sanctions laws. more

Russian Hackers Have Penetrated U.S. Electric Utilities

U.S. federal government officials have revealed Russian hackers have been able to gain access to the networks of electric utilities in the country, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. more

Research Firm Predicts 22.4 million IPTV Subscribers by 2013 in Asia-Pacific

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan research firm suggests that the IPTV subscriber base in Asia-Pacific -- covering 13 countries -- reached 4.1 million in 2007 and estimates this number to reach 22.4 million by the end of 2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.7 percent (2007-2013). Of the 13 countries, eight had commercial IPTV services in 2007, while the rest are conducting trials for expected deployments from 2009 onwards, according to the report. "Many service providers feel the urge to launch IPTV services as a defensive strategy to increase their 'n-play' offerings with one more service." more

2019 Will Be the Year of New gTLDs, Wired Predicts

In an article published today on the state of new top-level domains, Wired says "2019 could be the year of the obscure domain name." more

Making the Web Faster: Google Working on Enhancing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

As part of its efforts to speed up the delivery of web content, Google has proposed changes to Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), "the workhorse of the Internet." Yuchung Cheng who works on the transport layer at Google wrties: "To deliver content effectively, Web browsers typically open several dozen parallel TCP connections ahead of making actual requests. This strategy overcomes inherent TCP limitations but results in high latency in many situations and is not scalable. Our research shows that the key to reducing latency is saving round trips. We’re experimenting with several improvements to TCP." more

‘First True’ Native IPv6 DDoS Attack Reported

Possibly the first documented native IPv6 DDoS attack reported today suggests a DNS dictionary attack which originated from around 1,900 different native IPv6 hosts, on more than 650 different networks. more

Security Expert Bruce Schneier Calls for Creation of New Government Agency for IoT Regulation

During a talk at the RSA Conference, security expert Bruce Schneier called for the creation of a new government agency that focuses on internet of things regulation, arguing that "the risks are too great, and the stakes are too high" to do nothing. more

Frequency of DDoS Attacks Risen by 40% While Duration of Attacks Decrease

The frequency of DDoS attacks has risen by 40% year on year while the duration of attacks decreased with 77% lasting ten minutes or less, according to a new report released by Corero Network Security. more

ICANN’s GDPR Compliance Model for Whois Unlikely to Be Implemented in Time for May 25 Deadline

Domain name registries and registrars will not be able to implement ICANN's proposed overhaul of the Whois system in time for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation according to an estimated timetable from ICANN. more

Major Regulatory Changes Needed as Safety and Security Merge, Warns European Commission Report

As we increasingly move towards an IoT world, vendors of safety-critical devices will be patching their systems just as regularly as phone and computer vendors do now. Researchers warn that many regulators who previously thought only in terms of safety will have to start thinking of security as well. more

Large-Scale Study by Security Researchers in China Sheds Light on the Scope of DNS Interception

During the 27th Usenix Security Symposium held in Baltimore, MD last week, a group of researchers from China revealed results obtained from a large-scale analysis DNS interceptions. more

Configuration Chaos: Cloudflare Explains Major Outage in Detailed Post-Mortem

Cloudflare has detailed the cause of a global outage in a post-mortem report, revealing that a flawed internal database change -- not a cyberattack -- caused widespread service disruption across its network and customer systems. more

Cryptocurrency Mining Attacks for the First Time Detected on Industrial Control Systems

A water utility in Europe was compromised by cryptocurrency malware mining attack; the attack is the first public discovery of an unauthorized cryptocurrency miner impacting industrial controls systems. more

Cloudflare Outage Highlights Internet’s Growing Single Points of Failure

Cloudflare's global outage caused cascading failures across the internet, reigniting concerns about the concentration of web infrastructure and the urgent need for more resilient, transparent systems to support critical online services. more

Banking Industry Evaluating Security Benefits of Blockchain to Send Encrypted Information

The banking industry is evaluating security benefits of using blockchain to send encrypted information. more