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There was a compelling article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the other day about ICANN and illegal online pharmacies. The result of a six-month investigation, the reporter, Jeff Elder, calls into question ICANN's effectiveness in investigating complaints of suspected illegal activity on domain names it has a contractual relationship with. Elder cites a recent incident where Interpol and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tried to have 1,300 websites shut down because they were suspected of selling drugs without a prescription. more
The advance teams are already gathered in Tunisia ahead of next week's second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, and those of us on the press list are being deluged with announcements, releases, notices and invitations to meetings. The meeting, which runs from 15-18 November, is an opportunity to look at the progress that has been made since December 2003, when representatives and heads of state gathered in Geneva. more
No one can have failed to notice that the last IPv4 address will soon be allocated. We have lived with a shortage of addresses for 15 years, but when the last address is allocated, the shortage will become acute, instead of just a pain, as it is today... In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams describes the least expensive and most effective method for making something invisible. You simply decide that it is Someone Else's Problem or SEP, if you abbreviate. This is an approach that is frighteningly similar to the Swedish public sector's view of the address shortage on the Internet. "It is not our problem -- if we ignore it, it will probably go away." more
The ICANN Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) and Business Constituency (BC) will be hosting a community-wide discussion regarding the proposed accreditation and access model for non-public WHOIS data, which was first circulated to the community during ICANN 61. The discussion will take place via ICANN-supported remote participation and/or audio bridge this Friday, April 6, 2018, from 1400-1600 UTC. more
The Internet's users rely on domain name registration information for vital purposes, including providing security, problem-solving, and legal and social accountability. The data is so important that users perform more than two billion WHOIS queries every day. ICANN has instituted new data policies over the last two years, and is also directing a migration to a new technical protocol, RDAP, that will replace WHOIS access in the near future. So at this critical juncture, how is it all going? more
ICANN, the private, non-profit, US-based organization is a key player in the global Internet governance ecosystem because it coordinates the Internet's unique identifiers and domain name system. In addition, ICANN develops policies that govern the DNS and addressing system of the Internet. For this reason, and the very model on which the organization's work is based, many countries take participation in ICANN very seriously... To hear ICANN tell it, their work is based on a "bottom-up, consensus-driven, multi-stakeholder model." more
I was browsing CircleID the other day and came across Bruce Schneier's article on cyberwar. Schneier's article, and the crux of his point, is that the term cyber war and the threat of cyber warfare has been greatly exaggerated. The real problem in cyberspace is not the threat of cyber warfare wherein a foreign government, or possibly non-state actor, conducts a cyber attack on another nation. more
The afternoon of 13 December in Dubai is notable for one important deadline -- "declaration" if a Nation State is willing to accept the obligations of the resulting treaty instrument and if so, subject to what conditions. It is worth emphasizing that multilateral treaty instruments are serious constraints on a Sovereign's powers, and most nations even if they do sign, make general declarations that provide escape routes to the obligations. more
The cybercrime legal community from around the globe is meeting under the aegis of the Council of Europe (COE) to hold the annual Cooperation against Cybercrime conference dubbed Octopus 2021. It is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Cybercrime Convention treaty signed in November 2001 in Budapest. Not celebrated and little known, however, is the Stanford Draft -- A Proposal for an International Convention on Cyber Crime and Terrorism -- and the initiative begun in 1997 which brought about that draft treaty instrument. more
The FCC is seeking public comments to help create a better definition of "broadband". The effort is in relation to its development of a National Broadband Plan by February 2010 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Accurately noting that "broadband can be defined in myriad ways" and "tends to center on download and upload throughput," the FCC seeks a more robust definition. The definition will be part of the governance over those receiving funding for broadband development as part of the Recovery Act. This could get interesting. more
Foggy Bottom is the local affectionate name for the U.S. State Department -- because of its location near a former low-lying Potomac River lagoon in Washington DC. It recently announced the appointment of Nate Fick as the head of its "Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy," pending Congressional approval because it is wrapped up with ambassadorial status. The term "cyber" in this international diplomacy context has come to include all manner of electronic communication and information systems and services, i.e., ICT. more
In today's rapidly shifting digital landscape, the question of whether the Internet can retain its foundational values has never been more urgent. As it increasingly permeates every aspect of human activity - from communication and commerce to governance and geopolitics - the Internet has evolved into both a shared global commons and a contested arena of power. At stake are its core values: global connectivity, openness, interoperability, decentralization, the end-to-end principle, robustness and reliability, and freedom from harm. more
"Surprise, surprise, surprise!" is how Gomer Pyle would react to the news that the US government has allowed the JPA to expire, thus completing the transition of DNS management to ICANN. Plenty of skeptics doubted the US would let it happen, but today really is ICANN's independence day. more
As the saying goes, elections have consequences. The consequences are underscored in the recent U.S. Presidential election and the potential impact on the Internet, infrastructure and cybersecurity. In the context of the CircleID global community, it seems worth asking where things are headed? It does beg for an analysis of what is actually proposed in Presidential Transition Project 2025 related to things internet and cybersecurity. more
Monika Ermert reporting in the IP Watch: "On the eve of the third internet-related Ministerial Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) starting tomorrow in Cancun, Mexico, the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) published a think report on 'One Internet.' Calling for a new 'social compact' for the internet, the 140-page report that was fed by 50 research studies has a number of well-known recommendations, some surprisingly technical and some interesting ones." more
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