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Peer-to-Peer Gambling Wins in the Washington Court of Appeals

Adding to the flurry of gambling news of late, the Washington Court of Appeals issued a decision today that found peer-to-peer betting company (betcha.com) did not violate Washington state gambling laws. The court runs through some other issues underlying the statute, but the net result is that Betcha is off the hook... for now. Read more... more

ICANN Takes First Step to Becoming a Global Content Regulator

There has been wide coverage of ICANN's decision this week to adopt a new process for creating new global Top Level Domains (gTLDs). Publishing a clear, transparent and objective process is thought likely to result in a considerable expansion of gTLDs -- although nobody really knows whether this means "quite a lot" or "many thousands"... Less attention has been given to one of the new tests ICANN will use when considering whether to approve a new gTLD, contained in GNSO's sixth recommendation... more

IPv6: Childhood’s End?

A few weeks ago, when I was lurking around IPv6, I found that my own www.ipv6.tk was my first ever IPv6 domain. A "whois" on the domain says that it was registered in 2005, but something told me that I actually started this earlier. ?I therefore logged in at www.nic.tk and could see that my first feeling was correct; the first invoice for ipv6.tk was actually paid in the year of 2002. Here are some of the key things that I have experienced and learned over my first ten years. more

CENTR Unveils Key Principles for Internet Policy Ahead of 2024 EU Elections

This follows a general meeting on November 14, 2023, and comes ahead of the 2024 EU elections. The initiative outlines strategies for protecting Europe's digital future in the coming decade, especially considering potential strategic shifts in the next legislative term. more

The Top 3 Emerging Threats on the Internet

Last week at RSA, Bruce Schneier gave a talk on the top 3 emerging threats on the Internet. Whereas we in the security field usually talk about spam, malware and cyber crime, he talked about three meta-trends that all have the potential to be more dangerous than the cybercriminals. Here are my notes. more

An Unwelcome Afterlife for a Long-Dead Blacklist

There's still a few weeks before Halloween, but have we ever got a scary story for you -- and every word of it is true. (Imagine we're sitting around a campfire, chowing down on s'mores, flashlights under our faces.) Seven years ago, on this very internet, there was a man named Matthew who was angry about spam. Now sure, there are lots of people angry about spam, and some of them are named Matthew, but this particular Matthew decided that he was going to do something about it... more

Microsoft Releases a Cybersecurity eBook, Free Download

Micorsoft has released a 253 page cybersecurity ebook primarily intended for teens but also serves as a useful resource for adults interested in overall understanding of various Internet security topics. more

DomainTools Sued for Misusing New Zealand’s .NZ Domain Name Registration Information

Domain Name Commission Limited ("DNCL"), New Zealand's overseer for the country's .NZ domain, has filed a lawsuit against the domain name service company DomainTools. more

When Space Becomes Infrastructure: Governance Challenges in Record-Breaking Week for Satellites

This past week offered a striking illustration of the pace and scale at which our shared orbital environment is evolving. In less than 24 hours, six rockets were launched from different parts of the globe, each contributing to the rapid expansion of low Earth orbit (LEO) infrastructure. China deployed a new set of Guowang satellites, while SpaceX launched two batches of Starlink satellites - one from Vandenberg in California and another from Cape Canaveral in Florida. United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully placed Amazon's Kuiper satellites into orbit... more

Now Begins the Third Stage of ICANN’s TLD Triathlon

The ICANN community here in Singapore is celebrating after the historic vote to expand top-level domains (TLDs). And while I wouldn't begrudge anyone a few Singapore Slings, I think it's a little early to start celebrating. The marathon effort ICANN began 5 years ago isn't even close to reaching the finish line. more

DNSSEC Baby Steps Reported at ICANN 41

The Internet is slowly beginning to adopt the new DNSSEC domain names standard, but significant challenges remain. That was the main takeaway from a four-hour workshop on the technology held during the recent ICANN 41 public meeting in Singapore, which heard from many domain registries, registrars and other infrastructure providers. more

Teen Hacker Who Targeted High Ranking US Government Officials Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison

A British teenager who hacked into the online accounts of former CIA director John Brennan, former director of intelligence James Clapper, and other high-profile US government employees, was sentenced today for to two years in prison. more

Evolving From an Internet Registry to IoT Registry

As the name indicates, the Internet of Things (IoT) should be an extension of the Internet. However, in reality, most IoT applications are Siloed infrastructures. We will analyse the main challenges in the IoT and explain how an Internet registry could be evolved to provide a secure and privacy integrated Identity and access management service for IoT. more

Donuts and TAS: What We Really Care About

Like everyone else applying for new gTLDs, the Donuts team thought it would now be poring over a list of applicant names and strings, nodding heads and at times raising eyebrows. The timing didn't work out that way. ICANN did the right thing by closing TAS temporarily in order to understand what it was dealing with. It's easy enough for applicants to get rattled by what they think may have happened... more

Learning in a Multistakeholder Environment: 15 Years of Summer School on Internet Governance

The 15th edition of the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) took place recently in Meissen/Germany, from August 15 -20, 2021. It was the second hybrid meeting under the challenging condition of the pandemic. Eighteen fellows from 15 countries representing all regions of the world traveled to Germany, as well as five faculty members. Fifteen faculty members joined via Zoom from California to Beijing. The agenda of the one-week course included a broad range of topics such as cybersecurity, digital diplomacy, IGF+, DNS Abuse, human rights, digital trade and taxation, as well as artificial intelligence. more