Emergency Patch Issued for Samba, WannaCry-type Bug Exploitable with One Line of Code

The team behind the free networking software Samba has issued and emergency patch for a remote code execution vulnerability. more

The 3 Biggest Challenges Facing New gTLDs

When ICANN announced the nTLD program, thousands of applicants threw their hats in the ring. It seemed pretty straight forward; the existing TLDs were running out of short meaningful options, all that was needed was to create newer options that would be more relevant for specific sets of customers. Years later, the process is well underway; hundreds of nTLDs have hit the market, yet less than 10% of those that have gone live seem to have found success. more

China Says It Will Use All Means, Including Military, to Ensure Online Security

"Beijing vowed on Tuesday to use all necessary means, including military ones, to wipe out subversion and attempts to undermine its sovereignty in cyberspace," Zhuang Pinghui reporting in South China Morning Post. more

4% of Americans Online Use Location-Based Services, According to Pew Survey

In its first report on the use of "geosocial" or location-based services, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life project finds that 4% of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services. more

CaribNOG Partners with Global Infrastructure Body PCH to Strengthen Caribbean Resilience

CaribNOG and PCH have renewed their partnership to boost the Caribbean's Internet resilience, expanding technical capacity, advancing inclusive training, and strengthening the people and systems essential for recovery as islands rebuild after Hurricane Melissa. more

France Drops Its Internet “Three Strikes” Anti-Piracy Law

France has put an end to its most extreme measure of its notorious "three strikes" anti-piracy law. "Getting rid of the cut-offs and those damned winged elephants is a good thing. They're very costly," Joe McNamee, of European Digital Rights. more

Rural Home Connectivity in Cuba

Cuba's government monopoly ISP ETECSA in October announced special home connectivity rates for some of the poorest towns in rural Cuba. The monthly charge for 30 hours of 512/256 Kbps DSL access in those towns will be 5 CUC. In other areas where home connectivity is available, the minimum monthly charge is 15 CUC for 30 hours of 1,024/256 kbps service and faster, more expensive, plans are available. more

EFF Founder John Perry Barlow Has Died

Electronic Frontier Foundation founder John Perry Barlow, has died at the age of 70, according to a statement issued by the Foundation. more

Dissecting the ISOC/PIR/Ethos Transaction (With Ways to Help Ensure PIR’s 2002 Commitments)

On February 11th, Professor Ben Leff of American University Washington College of Law (WCL) spoke on the panel: The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry: The Conversation We Should be Having as a scholar of charitable and nonprofit law. On February 21st, he posted a blog piece on WCL's PIJIP blog outlining and expanding his presentation. With Professor Leff's permission, I repost his piece on CircleID to join the timely discussion taking place here on the .ORG sale. more

Encryption = good : Backdoor = bad

Every time there is a tragic attack on people or property, there is a cry from various authorities or politicians for law enforcement to get unfettered access to all kinds of communication tools. But that would cause far more harm than good, and is a really bad idea. The argument goes something like this: 'These bad actors hide behind encrypted communications to plan their evil deeds...' more

Study Reveals 76% of Internet Users Vulnerable to Browser History Detection

A recent study reveals a browser history detection method, largely dismissed as an issue with minimal impact, can in fact be used against a vast majority of Internet users with significant malicious potential. Researchers, Artur Janc and Lukasz Olejnik, analyzed real-world results obtained from 271,576 Internet users and have reported the results in a paper titled, "Feasibility and Real-World Implications of Web Browser History Detection". more

NTIA Asks New gTLD Applicants to Submit Public Interest Commitments

Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said today that all new gTLD applicants, even those that have not already been hit by government warnings, should submit Public Interest Commitments to ICANN. In a rare comment sent to an ICANN public forum today, the NTIA suggested that applicants should use the process to help combat counterfeiting and piracy. ... NTIA said that applicants should pay special attention in their PICs to helping out the "creative sector". more

Fear of Disaster: 5 Tips to Help Enterprises Cope

IT disasters can strike anywhere, anytime. In 1983, a faulty Soviet warning system nearly precipitated World War III -- the system claimed five missiles were en route from the U.S. Only quick thinking by Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov saved the day when he realized the United States would never launch so few warheads. And in 2004, a private contractor working with the British Child Support Agency (CSA) suffered a glitch that overpaid 1.9 million people and underpaid 700,000. more

gTLD.club, New Site Focused on New gTLDs

Participant Jean Guillon submits the following text about a new website gTLD.club which is focused on new generic Top-Level Domains. more

Identify DDoS Attacks with External Performance Monitoring (Part 2 of 3)

In Part One of this series, we examined internal server, network and infrastructure monitoring applications. Now let's take a look at another way to capture DDoS information: external performance monitoring... Unlike network/infrastructure tools - which are usually installed inside a customer's network - external performance monitoring solutions are typically provided by a third party and leverage monitoring locations from around the world. more