News Briefs

First Broad Internet Census Since 1982 Reveals Surprising Number of Unused IPv4 Addresses

In the upcoming Internet Measurement Conference being held next week in Vouliagmeni, Greece, a team of six researchers will be presenting a paper called "Census and Survey of the Visible Internet," based on a comprehensive census of more 2.8 billion allocated IP addresses on the Internet. The research is claimed to be the first comprehensive census of its kind in more than two decades. more

A Data Dumb Exposes 773 Million Unique Email Addresses, 22 Million Passwords

Close to 773 million unique email addresses and 22 million unique passwords were found to be hosted on cloud service MEGA. more

EFF to FCC: ‘Restoring Internet Freedom’ Plan Riddled With Technical Errors and Factual Inaccuracies

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a post today pointing out that the FCC continues to ignore the technical parts of a letter sent to it earlier this year by nearly 200 Internet engineers and computer scientists. more

U.S. Schools Targeted in Ransomware Attacks: White House Responds

In response to increasing ransomware attacks targeting U.S. educational institutions, the White House convened an inaugural cybersecurity summit this Tuesday. The malicious cyber onslaughts have led to the online leakage of confidential student data, ranging from medical files to reports on sexual assaults. more

T-Mobile Breaks Upload Speed Record with New 5G Dual Connectivity

T-Mobile has claimed a new world record in 5G upload speeds, achieving an impressive 2.2 Gbps in tests conducted at California's SoFi Stadium. Partnering with Ericsson and Qualcomm, the telecommunications firm leveraged an emerging technology, 5G Dual Connectivity (5G DC), which combines mid-band and millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum bands. more

MMX Announces Acquisition of ICM Registry

Minds + Machines Group Limited (MMX), a leading operators of Internet Top-Level Domains, announced on Friday that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the entire membership interests of ICM Registry LLC. more

Israel’s Entire Voter Registry Exposed, the Massive Data Leak Involves 6.5 Million Voters

Israel's entire voter registry was recently uploaded to a vulnerable voting management app which effectively left the data wide open for days. more

Cuba’s Internet Connection to the World Worse Than Expected

Inspired by expansion announcements from companies such as Netflix and Airbnb into Cuba, Fabián E. Bustamante, professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the McCormick School of Engineering, and his graduate student Zachary Bischof, conducted research examining feasibility of the business ideas given the region's notoriously weak network infrastructure. more

Security Firm Recovers Over 272 Million Stolen Credentials from a Collector

The latest discovery came while researchers at a security firm found a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected and was ready to give away a far larger number of stolen credentials that ended up totalling 1.17 billion records, Reuters reports. more

Facebook Announces Global Digital Currency, Financial Infrastructure Built on Blockchain Technology

Facebook today announced a newly formed subsidiary, named Calibra, to provide financial services. The first product Calibra will introduce, according to the company, is a digital wallet for Libra. more

China to Require Face Scan for Internet Access and New Phone Numbers Starting December

Chinese citizens will be required to let telecommunications carriers to scan their faces in order to sign up for internet access or to get a new phone number. more

Telesat and the Government of Canada Join Forces to Tackle Canada’s Digital Divide

The Canadian satellite operator, Telesat announced this week that it has partnered with the Government of Canada in a mission to provide affordable high-speed Internet connectivity across rural and remote areas of Canada through the development of Telesat's LEO Satellite Constellation. more

UPDATEDICANN CEO: Top-Level Domain Expansion Has Been Anything But Rushed

In response to the Washington Post's December 11 article title "What's the .rush?", directed at the expansion of new TLDs, Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's President and CEO has replied in a letter to the Washington Post stating: ""The program of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to open the Internet to new top-level domain names (TLDs) has been anything but rushed..." more

ICANN Denies Reduction of Annual Fees for Struggling New TLD Operators

ICANN has denied a request by new top-level domain operators to reduce the $25,000 annual fee. more

SpaceX Quietly Launches New Website for Cellular Starlink Service

SpaceX has unveiled its new "Starlink Direct to Cell" service, aimed at providing cellular connectivity globally via its Starlink satellite network. The newly launched website promotes the service with the promise of "Seamless access to text, voice, and data for LTE phones across the globe." more