2015 Domain Year in Review

2015 was a challenging yet exciting year for brand owners. While new gTLDs continue to consume much of the news in the domain industry, there were other notable highlights. Global domain registrations reached nearly 300 million; ICANN had several initiatives in motion that were of particular concern to brand owners; and companies continued to face threats to their brand reputation, revenue and customer trust. Here's my top 5 domain highlights from 2015. more

Israel Becoming a Go-To Place for Cybersecurity

A report released by IVC Research Center in advance of this year's annual Cybertech 2016, highlights how a tight interplay between industry, investors, and the government has turned Israel into a center of cybersecurity technology. more

Busting 3 Popular and Misleading Terms in Telecom

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of our language." (-Ludwig Wittgenstein) The words we use to describe telecoms networks often contain hidden metaphors and meanings that lead us into wrong thinking. Here are three examples... Why misleading? The word "best" implies both benevolent and optimal intentionality: the network is going to do the "right" thing for its users, and it will maximise the "rightness" in some way. more

91.3% of Malware Use DNS as a Key Capability

Nearly 92 percent of malware use DNS to gain command and control, exfiltrate data or redirect traffic, according to Cisco's 2016 Annual Security Report. It warns that DNS is often a security "blind spot" as security teams and DNS experts typically work in different IT groups within a company and don't interact frequently. more

ITU-T - Still Living in 1924

Sometime later this year - at a venue still unknown - something short of a thousand people from around the world will gather together and engage in a now meaningless ritual almost exactly like they did in 1924. In the 1990s the name of the gathering was changed from the CCITT Plenary Assembly to a World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA). more

Are Telcos Becoming Slum Landlords?

In the 1950s and 60s, large numbers of immigrants came to London from the Caribbean and other Commonwealth countries. They had few resources, yet needed somewhere to live. Many fell prey to exploitative landlords. These unscrupulous rentiers packed tenants into formerly swanky parts of town, which then became slums. This process even birthed a new word in British English - "Rachmanism" - to define the archetypal unethical treatment as practised by one notorious landlord. more

Blocking Shodan

The Internet is chock full of really helpful people and autonomous systems that silently probe, test, and evaluate your corporate defenses every second of every minute of every hour of every day. If those helpful souls and systems aren't probing your network, then they're diligently recording and cataloguing everything they've found so others can quickly enumerate your online business or list systems like yours that are similarly vulnerable to some kind of attack or other. more

IANA: Keeping the Ultimate Objective in Mind

Later this week, ICANN's Chartering Organizations will indicate whether they will support the third draft proposal of the CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 Recommendations. This is a significant moment in the IANA transition process. Support for the accountability proposal by the ICANN community will mean that we are very close to a point when the transition can move to its next phase. more

Facebook-owned Instagram Wants Domain Deal Upheld

Facebook-owned Instagram has filed legal proceedings in the US to have a 2011 domain name purchase of 'instagram.com' upheld and block a 'sham' lawsuit in China. more

Who Will Secure the Internet of Things?

Over the past several months, CITP-affiliated Ph.D. student Sarthak Grover and fellow Roya Ensafi been investigating various security and privacy vulnerabilities of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the home network, to get a better sense of the current state of smart devices that many consumers have begun to install in their homes. To explore this question, we purchased a collection of popular IoT devices, connected them to a laboratory network at CITP, and monitored the traffic that these devices exchanged with the public Internet. more

IoT a Major Global Development Opportunity, ITU Reports

In a new report released today by ITU and networking giant, Cisco, the Internet of Things (IoT) is identified as a major global development opportunity with potential to improve the lives of millions and dramatically accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. more

Federal Data Crisis: Unreliable Federal Databases are Destroying Opportunities for Small Businesses

Databases are the infrastructure of the modern administrative state and data is its lifeblood. When the data is contaminated with errors, federal agencies have difficulty performing even the most basic administrative functions such as managing its inventory of office space and protecting the personally identifiable information (PII) of social security number holders. The federal dissemination of unreliable data doesn't just waste money; it undermines public trust in government and leaves it unmanageable. more

IETF Turns 30

Today marks the 30th anniversary of a meeting that became the first version of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings now held three times per year. On 16-17 January 1986 in San Diego, California, 21 people attended the historic meeting what is now known as IETF 1. more

The Promise of Connectivity at CES Means Nothing Without IPv6

For a few years now, we have been promised a bright future where connected devices all communicate with each other on the Internet of Things. If this year's CES was any indication, the consumer technology industry is just about ready to deliver on that promise with a flood of new devices and products that will transform the way we interact with technology on a fundamental level. more

Building a Strong, Sustainable Domain Name Industry - With Integrity

This week, I had the privilege of presenting at NamesCon on behalf of the Domain Name Association (DNA) -- in my position as Chair of the Board -- to provide an update on our activities and an assessment of our progress as an industry in light of the goals of the DNA. In summary, there is still a long way to go with many challenges to address. Despite this, there is much to be excited about and incredible opportunity for our combined success. Included here is a transcript of my speech. I welcome feedback and comments. more