What Domain Names Get Transferred: Why and Why Not?

Think of trademarks situated on a continuum with famous and well-known at one end and less well-known or unrecognized by average consumers at the other. On one end there is certainty of infringement... at the other end, certainty of having the complaint denied either for lack of proof or overreaching... At some point along the continuum, it becomes uncertain whether respondents registered accused domain names in bad faith, and the question has to be answered by examining the facts. more

Large Hadron Collider, Nessus, and the InterWebz

CERN put the Large Hadron Collider through some rigorous tests, and apparently at first some of the Siemens manufactured SCADA systems failed. While they are apparently better now, and I am happy to see how serious CERN is about security, this does beg the question... WAIT! You mean it's connected to the Internet? I suddenly don't feel so safe. more

The Dangers of Building a Brand on a Tenuous Country Code

About two years ago I wrote with concern about Bit.ly's use of Libya's country code. I noted that It's always important to keep in mind that a company can't "own" a domain the way it owns real estate. Now it appears that companies that have built brand names on Libya's country code are facing difficult times. more

Collecting Cybercrime Data: Can Signal Spam Be a Piece of the Puzzle?

The gathering of coherent data on cybercrime is a problem most countries haven't found a solution for. So far. In 2011 it is a well known fact that spam, cybercrime and botnets are all interrelated. The French database Signal Spam may be a significant part of the solution to gather, analyse and distribute data on spam, phishing, cybercrimes and botnets, but also be a forum in which commercial mass e-mail senders and ISPs can work on trust. more

ICANN Must Release the Single-Character .com Hostages from the IANA Impostor’s Warehouse

Most of the single-character .com labels were initially registered in 1993 by Dr. Jon Postel while performing work pursuant to a contract with, and funded by, the U.S. government and are currently assigned to a "shell registrar" created and controlled by ICANN. This shell - which is the 376th entry on ICANN's list of accredited registrars - is misleadingly identified as the IANA registrar while being engaged in the illicit warehousing of domain names for speculative purposes. more

Five Thousand SpaceX Starlink Terminals for Ukraine

On March 1, I wrote that a small number of SpaceX Starlink terminals had arrived in Ukraine, and they would be an important asset for distribution to selected government and resistance leaders and journalists. I didn't know who would get the terminals or how many there were, but it was a single truckload. A week or so later, we learned that two more shipments of terminals had arrived and fifty of them went to DTEK, a company struggling to repair Ukrainian electrical infrastructure. more

Cloud Brokerage and Other Business Opportunities

The market for cloud computing is getting more interesting every day. There is still a long way to go, as the success of cloud computing depends not only on high-speed networks, but also on capacity, robustness, affordability, low latency, ubiquity, security, privacy and reliability. Of course, the ideal infrastructure would be nationwide FttH networks, but obviously we can't wait for that... more

Deliverability Emergencies from the ISP Side of the Desk

I recently read an interesting blog post over at Word to the Wise, about Delivery Emergencies. Laura Atkins makes the point that many email emergencies are a result of poor planning, or an error on the part of the sender... Fortunately, most people grow out of their college fraternity phase, and the same applies to most email senders. As folks become aware of industry standards and best common practices, they adapt their mailing paradigms to what is expected of them by receivers, and recipients. more

Automation for Physical Devices: the Holy Grail of Service Provisioning

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are finally starting to pick up momentum. In the process, it is becoming clear that they are not the silver bullet originally advertised to be. While great for some use cases, emerging technologies like SDN and NFV have been primarily designed for virtual greenfield environments. Yet large service providers continue to run tons of physical network devices that are still managed manually. more

Business in the Hotseat over Net Censorship

My weekly technology law column focuses on the growth of Internet censorship and the accompanying pressure on the business community to do something about it... China's censorship system may be the most extensive, but it is not alone. The University of Toronto's OpenNet Initiative, a world leader in tracking state-sponsored Internet censorship, recently co-published Access Denied, a book that highlights its pervasive growth. The book notes that some countries control all public Internet services, thereby creating an easy pipeline to implementing filtering technologies. Countries such as Syria have sought to chill access to the Internet by requiring cybercafe owners to record the names and identification cards of clients... more

Dyn Acquired by Oracle

Oracle this morning announced agreement to acquire Dyn, leading cloud-based Internet Performance and DNS provider. Dyn, which recently gained substantial media attention as a result of a historic cyberattack, drives 40 billion traffic optimization decisions daily for more than 3,500 enterprise customers, including preeminent digital brands such as Netflix, Twitter, Pfizer and CNBC. more

Hacking Increasingly Becoming a Physical Concern

If this past quarter's stories are any indication, we could very well be seeing the rise of a new wave of threats that will affect people in a more pronounced and physical level, reports Trend Micro in its Q2 Security Roundup Report. more

Yes, 3 Billion Net Users by End of Year, but What Will the Majority in Emerging Markets Do Online?

The United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announcement that by end 2014, there will be nearly three billion Internet users -- two-thirds of them from the developing world -- with mobile-broadband penetration approaching 32 per cent. This information is so timely that it needs to be put in proper perspective by asking: What will the majority of these two-thirds do online? And how do we in the ICANN community deliver on our mandate of serving the global public interest? more

Help Recognize Internet Pioneers and Heroes – Nominations Open for 2021 Internet Hall of Fame

Do you know someone who deserves recognition for launching the Internet in their region or country? Or someone who made some major technical innovation that made the Internet faster or better? Or someone who is a passionate advocate who influenced other people to make the Internet better? Can you think of someone who helped the Internet reach new people? For example, in a new region or language? Do you know someone who made the Internet more inclusive and accessible to more people? more

DOTZON Study: Digital City Brands 2024

We've just published the 2024 edition of the DOTZON study "Digital City Brands." After introducing the study in early 2017, DOTZON has mapped how successful cities are using their Digital City Brands for the seventh year in a row. The Digital City Brand is the digital dimension of the City Brand and mirrors the "Digitalness" of a city. The advent of the Internet was why Digital City Brands came into being in the first place. more