Facebook Stays, Everybody’s Happy, but Nothing Has Changed

After some turmoil, Facebook won the war with the Australian Government as the necessary changes were made to the legislation that avoided them needing to change their business model. Those subtleties are lost in the general press. What counts for the popular media is that they were able to spin some great stories around the fact that Australia stood up to the giants. That brought international attention, which boosted the ego of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. more

Cyptech Needs You!

In August of last year I wrote in a blog about the importance of cryptech to wide-scale trust in the Internet. For those who don't know about it, http://cryptech.is is a project aiming to design and deploy an openly developed, trustable Hardware Security Module (HSM) which can act both as a keystore (holding your secrets and keeping them private) and as a signing engine. more

New Cyber Security Bill Could Increase Power of President and DHS

Introduced by ranking Senate members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, S.3480 is intended to create an Office of Cyber Policy in the executive branch of the government, confirmed by the Senate and ultimately reporting to the president. Senators Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and Tom Carper introduced the bill publicly on June 10, and a critical part of the bill is that critical infrastructure networks such as electricity grids, financial systems and telecommunications networks need to cooperate with the Office of Cyber Policy. more

Internet Cut Off Across Syria Amidst Tense Fighting

Internet monitoring companies say Syria's Internet connectivity has been shutdown nationwide. Renesys, a U.S.-based network security firm that studies Internet disruptions, reports that about 6 hours ago (12:26pm in Damascus) Syria's international Internet connectivity was shut down. "In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet." Akamai Technologies Inc. has also confirmed the complete outage in Syria. more

Negotiating the WSIS+10 and the Future of the Internet

After two and a half years of technical analysis and discussions, six months of deliberations among all stakeholders, and intense negotiations at the United Nations, at three o'clock in the morning on December 12, 2015, the talented co-facilitators from the United Arab Emirates and Latvia dropped the gavel on the outcome document for the ten-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). That consensus document presents international principles that will guide the UN's work on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-related issues. more

An Easier Way to Define Broadband

Our broadband policies always seem to lag the market. If and when the FCC seats the fifth Commissioner, it's expected that the agency will raise the definition of broadband from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps. That change will have big repercussions in the market because it will mean that anybody that can't buy broadband speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps would not have broadband. That's how an official broadband definition works -- you either have broadband, or you don't. more

How Can You Make More Accurate Capacity Planning Decisions?

Cable operators face a big challenge today as data utilization continues to increase on their networks. Keeping up with the demand for high quality services while upgrading network infrastructure seems to be a never-ending task. Many times, network upgrades are done without much help from tools and systems, leaving it mostly based on experience and performance indicators defined by the operator. Unfortunately, this is the reality for far too many service providers today. more

Research Finds Mobile Malware Infections Overblown

Advanced threat detection company, Damballa has released findings of a new research on Wednesday, detailing the overblown nature of the mobile malware problem. According to the company, the research, based on Big Data (50% of US mobile traffic), was used to determine actual malware infection rates -- not just samples found, or vulnerabilities/theoretical attacks. more

State Department Should Return to Its Knitting

Having researched and written about the 100 year history of U.S. State Department's institutional machinations in the telecom/cyber sector, taught law school graduate courses, and worked with its bureaus and staff over the past 45 years, the latest twists and turns seem to repeat past mistakes. The fundamental problem is that the U.S. is the only country whose Foreign Ministry is given a significant role and engaged in telecom and cyber matters in global venues. more

Radioihead Backs Community-Based Application for the New gTLD ‘.Music’

Ed O'Brien, guitarist from the band Radiohead, is the latest musician expressing support for DotMusic's community-based application for the new gTLD .music. more

Goodbye Marilyn Cade

Marilyn Cade was an exceptionally hardworking, always gracious leader in ICANN and IGF. She was a strong supporter of U.S. interests at ITU and a member of the U.S. delegation at the WCIT. Dozens have spoken of her at a memorial site, including Vint Cerf: "Marilyn was an elemental force in the ICANN, IGF and policy worlds. She was an advocate who could be counted upon to speak passionately for the causes to which she was dedicated..." more

British Organizations Could Face Massive Fines for Cybersecurity Failures

Organizations who fail to implement effective cybersecurity measures could be fined as much as £17 million or 4% of global turnover, as part of Britain's plan to prevent cyberattacks. more

FCC Chairwoman Wants Broadband Standard Boosted to 100Mbps Across the United States

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed that the US standard for broadband be redefined to a minimum of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds, up from the current 25Mbps/3Mbps. 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

Internet Governance: Coin of the New Realm

The Aspen Institute released the IDEA Common Statement and Principles as a do no harm Hippocratic Oath for Internet governance. The Aspen report describes the present moment as an inflection point for "the most robust medium of information exchange in history". Reed Hundt outlined the risks associated with Internet governance changes favored by China and a group of developing nations through the ITU. more