UK’s Proposed Spy Law Can Force Apple to Bypass Security, Plus a Gag Order

The newly proposed British spying law, the Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), is reported to include methods that would permit the British government to order companies like Apple to re-engineer their own technology, similar to current demands from the FBI. In addition, if the law passes, it would be accompanied by a gag order. more

Building Resilient Broadband Networks: Lessons from the Power Industry’s Transformation

It's almost impossible to talk about broadband at the community level without talking about resiliency and redundancy. It's hard to find rural communities that haven't experienced a broadband outage due to a fiber being cut somewhere. The issue hits the news when there are reports of regional or national broadband outages. more

ICANN Update on Cargo Ship Fire that Destroyed Equipment Bound for ICANN57

ICANN has confirmed that all equipment destroyed in the fire are replaced and now in Hyderabad. On September 1, a fire caused by an explosion aboard the cargo ship docked in Hamburg, Germany which contained all of ICANN's technical equipment being transshipped from Helsinki to Hyderabad for the upcoming ICANN57 meetings next week. more

Internet a Key Catalyst for Sustainable Development, Says ISOC CEO

Internet Society President and CEO Kathy Brown wrote about the critical role that the Internet has in enabling the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). more

The Loss of a Friend

Dear colleagues and friends, it is very, very difficult to write these words. The loss of a young person is always a tragedy. The untimely loss of a friend is even worse and is always a very difficult time. The loss of a fellow Internet pioneer is like losing a brother. Tarek Kamel was a great friend of the Internet Society–Bulgaria. I remember him giving an interview for the Bulgarian public television in Yokohama during the INET 2000 meeting... more

Internet Suffers Significant Slowdowns After Michael Jackson’s Death

Maggie Shiels reporting from BBC: "The internet suffered a number of slowdowns as people the world over rushed to verify accounts of Michael Jackson's death. Search giant Google confirmed to the BBC that when the news first broke it feared it was under attack. Millions of people who searched for the star's name on Google News were greeted with an error page. It warned users 'your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application'." more

November 2016 U.S. Elections and the Fate of Internet Privatization

The currently ongoing process of privatizing the Internet technical functions under the IANA Contract -- outside the direct control of the U.S. government -- will not happen before March 2017, predicts Sophia Bekele in an op-ed published in The Hill. more

U.S. Cyber Command to Split Off from NSA

The Unites States is finalizing plans to revamp the nation’s military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America’s ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials. more

Using 42 GHz Spectrum for Broadband

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission circulated draft rules to govern the lower 42 GHz spectrum (between 42-42.5 GHz). This is within the range of spectrum referred to as millimeter wave spectrum. This is one of the more unusual FCC spectrum deliberations because this spectrum is totally empty -- there is nobody currently authorized by the FCC to use the spectrum band. The FCC is starting this deliberation with a clean slate. more

Expect More Malware Threats Exploiting the Financial Crisis, Warn Experts for 2009

Continued exploitation of the financial crisis to scam users with fake financial transactions services, fake investment firms, and fake legal services is the top trend to emerge for 2009 according threat predictions by McAfee. "Computer users face a dangerous one-two punch today," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs, McAfee's research group. "The current economic crisis is delivering a blow to our financial well-being, while malware authors are taking advantage of our distraction to deliver a roundhouse strike." more

Cyberattackers Targeting Iranian Infrastructure and Communications Companies

Internet based attacks have targeted Iranian infrastructure and communications companies, disrupting Internet access across the country, according to today's reports. Country's secretary of the High Council of Cyberspace, has been quoted telling the Iranian Labour News Agency: "Yesterday we had a heavy attack against the country's infrastructure and communications companies which has forced us to limit the Internet. ... Presently we have constant cyber attacks in the country." more

ICANN Publishes Final Process to Be Used for Development of IANA Stewardship Transition Plan

On June 6 2014, ICANN published a Process to Develop the Proposal and Next Steps that is the culmination of a series of community discussions and input into the process to develop a proposal to transition the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community. more

Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress Announces 2014 Date

Momentum today announced the date for its third Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress: March 3-4, 2014 in New York. The event will once again bring together the leaders of the brand and domain community for two days of advanced learning and real-world launch case studies timed to coincide with the anticipated delegation and launch of the initial wave of new TLDs. more

Interpol Joining ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee as an Observer

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Interpol plans to apply to join ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee as an observer, according to ICANN. The news came in a press release this evening, detailing a meeting between ICANN president Rod Beckstrom and Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble. The meeting 'focused on Internet security governance and enhancing common means for preventing and addressing Internet crime'." more

Domain Name Registrations Up 22% from Last Year, Totaling 168 Million

VeriSign today released the Domain Report for the second quarter of 2008, highlighting a continued growth of the Internet globally. At the midpoint of 2008, according to the report, there were 168 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domain Names (TLDs) -- repersenting a four percent increase over the first quarter of 2008 and 22 percent growth over the same quarter last year. The base of Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) totaled 65 million domain names, a four percent increase quarter over quarter and a 27 percent increase year over year. VeriSign also reports on processing peak loads of more than 48 billion Domain Name System (DNS) queries per day in the second quarter of 2008. more