News Briefs

Major Organizations Overlooking High Priority Security Risks, Too Much Focus on OS

According to a new security report released today by SANS Institute, TippingPoint and Qualys, the number of vulnerabilities found in applications in the last few years is far greater than the number of vulnerabilities discovered in operating systems. "On average, major organizations take at least twice as long to patch client-side vulnerabilities as they take to patch operating system vulnerabilities. In other words the highest priority risk is getting less attention than the lower priority risk." more

NCUC Sends Urgent Plea to the ICANN Board Regarding Recent Changes Affecting Noncommercial Groups

An open letter from nearly 150 individual and organizational members of ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) has been submitted to ICANN's board of directors and CEO. The letter has expresses serious concern over a recent ICANN Board decision regarding the restructuring of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). From the letter: "We believe that the Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) chartering process has been seriously flawed on both procedural and substantive grounds. We appeal to you to address these problems before permanent damage is done to ICANN's reputation, to the GNSO reform process, and to the interests of noncommercial users of the Internet." more

New Research Predicts 1B Mobile Cloud Computing Subscribers by 2014

Over the next five years, the number of mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide are expected to grow rapidly, "rising from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008, (approximately 1.1% of all mobile subscribers) to just over 998 million in 2014 (nearly 19%)," according to the latest study by ABI Research. "From 2008 through 2010, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications. A total of 60% of the mobile Cloud application subscribers worldwide will use an application enabled by location during these years,” says senior analyst Mark Beccue. more

Google’s Simple Home Page Now Patented

Ryan Tate of Valleywag writes: "After a five-and-a-half-year fight, Google and its attorneys have managed to convince federal bureaucrats to bestow a patent on the company's iconic home page. We always thought the page was brain-dead simple, but apparently it's an innovative 'graphical user interface. ...In other words, subject to how the patent is enforced, Google owns the idea of having a giant search box in the middle of the page, with two big buttons underneath and several small links nearby." more

The State of Internet Traffic (After Dark)

According to a recent research, European Internet traffic peaks in the early everning and drops off soon after until the next business day hours while in the United States, internet traffic reaches its peak at 11 p.m. EDT and stays relatively high until 3 a.m. in the morning. "The question is what are Internet users doing after dark?" Craig Labovitz of Arbor Networks reports. more

Another Internet Governance Forum: in the U.S.A.

Milton Mueller, reporting today on the Internet Governance Project (IGP) website: "Although you may not have heard about it yet, there are plans afoot for an Internet Governance Forum for the U.S. The location has been set for Washington, DC at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The date is set at October 2. The purpose of the affair is to debate, discuss and seek out common ground on some of the issues facing the global Internet Governance Forum operated by the United Nations, which will be held in Egypt November 15-18." more

Americans Watched 21.4 Billion Videos in July, Largest Number Ever Recorded

According to the latest report released by comScore for the month of July, 58 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month, the largest audience ever recorded. Online video reached another all-time high in July with a total of 21.4 billion videos viewed during the month, according to the report. YouTube.com accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed while Viacom Digital ranked second with 812 million (3.8 percent) followed by Microsoft Sites with 631 million videos viewed (3.0 percent). more

United Arab Emirates TRA Investigating High Level Speculative Interests in Recently Liberalized .AE

Domain names registered under United Arab Emirates' recently liberalized county code Top-Level Domain (.ae) have attracted such high level speculative interests that red flags have been raised within the country's regulatory agency. Domain names such as 'vip.ae' and 'vips.ae' registered only a little over a year ago are currently receiving multi-million dollar offers according to reports. Abu Dhabi's newspaper, The National, reported last week that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), the .ae administrator, has stated "registering a UAE domain with no intention other than to resell it could hurt the registrants if they are later accused of registering the site in bad faith, something forbidden by its rules." more

Latvian ISP Closure Dents Cutwail Botnet ...for a Whole 48 Hours

From MessageLabs' latest report: "Real Host, an ISP based in Riga, Latvia was alleged to be linked to command-and-control servers for infected botnet computers, as well as being linked to malicious websites, phishing websites and 'rogue' anti-virus products. Real Host was disconnected by its upstream providers on 1 August 2009. The impact was immediately felt, where spam volumes dropped briefly by as much as 38% in the subsequent 48-hour period. Much of this spam was linked to the Cutwail botnet, currently one of the largest botnets and responsible for approximately 15-20% of all spam. Its activity levels fell by as much as 90% when Real Host was taken offline, but quickly recovered in a matter of days." more

Apparently Legitimate Estonian ISP Operating as Large Cybercrime Hub Since 2005

An apparently legitimate ISP in Tartu, Estonian is reported to have been serving as the operational headquarters of a large cybercrime network since 2005 according to TrendWatch, the security research arm of TrendMicro. "An Estonian company is actively administering a huge number of servers in numerous datacenters, which together form a network to commit cybercrime. It appears that the company from Tartu, Estonia controls everything from trying to lure Internet users to installing DNS changer Trojans by promising them special video content, and finally to exploiting victims' machines for fraud with the help of ads and fake virus infection warnings..." more

US Broadband Speed 15 Years Behind South Korea at Current Rate of Growth

According to research by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), from 2007 to 2009, the average download Internet speed in the United States has increased by only 1.6 megabits per second (mbps), from 3.5 mbps in 2007 to 5.1 mbps in 2009. At this rate, CWA says it will take the U.S. 15 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in South Korea, the country with the fastest average Internet connections. "People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the US average upload speed," says the report. more

Genachowski: FCC Will Enforce Net Neutrality and Watch Any Violations of Principles

US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski today reaffirmed his commitment to network neutrality and said that the FCC will go after anyone who violates its tenets. "One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles," said Genachowski told The Hill newspaper when asked what he could do in his position to keep the Internet fair, free and open to all Americans. more

Study Finds Some 4000 Domains Expired After Being Won in Court, Some Disputed Again by Same Company

According to a recent study on trends of disputed domain names, companies could save millions on legal costs by being more proactive about registering the names first. "The results indicate more than $220 million was spent on reclaiming domain names from third parties through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)," says Corporation Service Company (CSC). "If brand owners had registered these domain names proactively, it would have only cost them $1.1 million (£600K), yielding a cost savings of $219 million." more

Pew Looks at the State of Online Music Ten Years After Napster

Pew Internet reporting on the 10th anniversary of the Napster's launch: "As researchers look back on the first decade of the 21st Century, many will no doubt point to the formative impact of file-sharing and peer-to-peer exchange of music on the internet. Distributed networks of socially-driven music sharing helped lay the foundation for mainstream engagement with participatory media applications. Napster and other peer-to-peer services "schooled" users in the social practice of downloading, uploading, and sharing digital content, which, in turn, has contributed to increased demand for broadband, greater processing power, and mobile media devices." more

Google Reveals New “Secret” Web Search Project

In a blog post by Google's Sitaram Iyer, Staff Software Engineer, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, a "secret project" has been revealed in an effort where the company is aiming to enhance various key aspects of its web search technology including indexing speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. The company so far has released the new engine "under the hood," for testing and feedback only and says most users will not notice a difference in search results. more