It has been about six months since I got together with four of my friends from the DNS world and we co-authored a white paper which explains the technical problems with mandated DNS filtering. The legislation we were responding to was S. 968, also called the PROTECT-IP act, which was introduced this year in the U. S. Senate. By all accounts we can expect a similar U. S. House of Representatives bill soon, so we've written a letter to both the House and Senate, renewing and updating our concerns. more
Recent articles in the press have outlined how sites including MSN and Hulu are now using an advanced version of the old cookie file to track user behavior. These "supercookies" are very hard to detect and delete, and can track user behavior across multiple sites, not just one. These tricky little trackers have lawmakers pressing the FTC to investigate, and the IAB scrambling to defend industry practices. more
There has been considerable debate on whether the Internet needs new Top Level Domains. Advertising advocacy groups have objected to the expense of re-investment in online branding. There's a lot of work involved in telling the world .BEYONCE is where you will now find all official Beyonce related information. I'm wondering, why would anyone object to some order being applied to the internet? more
"Smartphones (and tablets, WdN) are invading the battlefield", reports the Economist on its website of 8 October 2011. On the same day the hacking of U.S. drones is reported on by several news sites. ("They appear friendly". Keyloggers???) Is this a coincidence? more
The US government is looking at telling ISPs how to deal with compromised customers and botnets. They're a bit late to the party, though. Most of the major commercial ISPs have been implementing significant botnet controls for many years now. more
In 1964, Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan famously wrote, "The medium is the message." This phrase popped into my head last week as I listened to the opening speakers at the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi. McLuhan meant that the form in which a message is delivered - the medium - embeds itself in the meaning of the message. The medium influences how the message is perceived and understood and is therefore inseparable from the message itself. What does this have to do with the Internet? more
A funny thing happened in Nairobi last week... I showed up for an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) panel discussion on the use of the Internet during times of political and social unrest, and a truly multi-stakeholder dialogue broke out. It turned out to be my favorite session during an incredible IGF week that, thanks to our Kenyan hosts, exceeded every expectation. The session, formerly known as "The Internet in the Post-Revolution Phase – Challenges of Political Engagement and the Safety of Citizens" was cancelled for reasons unknown. Perhaps it was a conflict of schedules, or maybe the topic was deemed by the organizers or certain governments to be too sensitive for the official agenda. more
Here at the IGF in Kenya, we're debating how governments, private sector, and civil society can improve the multi-stakeholder model that's helped the Internet become such a vital part of life around the world. Makes me think of another kind of multi-stakeholder model I saw last week on a photo safari in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve. more
Signing Email is now a Draft Standard! Signing email transitioned from a proposed standard to a draft standard (RFC6376 -- one of the new RFCs) over at the IETF a few days ago. The other is RFC6377. Let's go through a brief history of DKIM RFCs to refresh our memories... more
On September 12 China, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan released a Resolution for the UN General Assembly entitled "International code of conduct for information security." The resolution proposes a voluntary 12 point code of conduct based on "the need to prevent the potential use of information and communication technologies for purposes that are inconsistent with the objectives of maintaining international stability and security and may adversely affect the integrity of the infrastructure within States..." more
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