2014 M3AAWG Mary Litynski Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

In 2010 the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) and the Internet industry as a whole lost a great friend and supporter, Mary Litynski. Her dedication, excellence, perseverance and tireless work behind the scenes of M³AAWG helped make the organization the success that it is today. Through this award, M³AAWG seeks to bring attention to the remarkable work that is done far from the public eye over a significant period of time... more

To 5.5G and Beyond

I recently saw an article in FierceWireless that reports that Huawei thinks we are going to need an intermediate step between 5G and 6G, something like 5.5G. To me, this raises the more immediate question about why we are not talking about the steps between 4G and 5G? The wireless industry used to tell the truth about cellular technology. You don't need to take my word for it... more

How Insider Domain Theft Can Bring Down ICANN

If a hired philosopher graced ICANN, the work would get down to brass tacks. "What is it?", she would ask, that drives ICANN beyond the mysterious dot that apparently represents the root. One can picture subsequent appeals from senior management to its navels, for clues as to what in the end game the root truly represents. I surmise that contemplating bred-in-the-bone values does not resonate easily or often at ICANN. Its like that unreachable itch that evades our scratch; we can't get at the source. more

Addressing Anticompetitive Behavior in Internet Standards Bodies

A significant focus is emerging today on the anticompetitive behaviour of Silicon Valley companies directed at dominating critical sectors of the on-line marketplace, and a U.S. Congressional hearing is scheduled. Such practices can be pursued in many ways. One of the more elusive, but very effective anticompetitive playbooks - known legally as the "antitrust conspiracy" - can occur in internet standards bodies. more

Defensive Domain Name Registrations – Exactly Where Should They Resolve?

Domain names can be valuable assets, but many corporate domain name portfolios consist of non-resolving domains. In a recent survey conducted by Brandsight, more than 91% of domain professionals said that ensuring domains redirect to relevant content was an extremely important or somewhat important goal. That said, it's not uncommon for less than half of corporate domain name portfolios to point to live content. more

IP Address Blocking

A network can fence its own IP addresses or block specific external ones from access. Administrators frequently block access to their own IP addresses to bar unwanted access to content. Individual IPs or blocks of IPs may also be blocked due to unwanted or malicious behavior. IP address blocking prevents a specific IP address or group of IP addresses from connecting with a server, computer, or application. more

Japan Post Launches Digital Codes to Replace Traditional Addresses

Japan Post said Monday that it has launched a "digital address" system that links seven-digit combinations of numbers and letters to physical addresses. more

Carriage vs. Content

Does anyone remember the Internet before Google? And no, using Google to ask about the pre-Google Internet is not going to work all that well! For those of you who can recall the Internet of around 2000, do you also recall what debates were raging at the time? Let me give you a hand in answering that question. One big debate at the time was all about the relationship between the carriage service operators and the content providers, and, as usual, it was all about money. The debate was about who owed who money, and how much. Ten years later and it seems that nothing much has changed. more

The Chinese Domain Name Bubble Bursts

Nearly one year ago, I asked Will .CN become the next .COM? And perhaps I was right in more ways than one. Because now it appears that .CN is experiencing its very own .COM bust. Just a year ago Chinese domain registrations were booming, so quickly in fact that .CN had surpassed .DE to become the most-registered ccTLD. more

The .ORG Sale Is a Radical Departure That Puts the Internet at Risk

It can be hard to take a side. Especially when you are with a big organization. I know, I used to work for the United Nations and ICANN. Neutrality is a huge part of that work. Your role is not to take a stand; it's to create the space for other people to take stands. To create and protect a neutral platform. That's what we all thought the Internet Society (ISOC) was doing for us by running .ORG. more

Registerfly Victims Are Really Stuck Now

Last week I noted here that cutting off collapsed domain Registerfly will leave a huge problem for registrants. ICANN is supposed to have escrowed copies of each registrar's registrant data, but has never got around to setting that up. This means that unless Registerfly can supply the data, there may be no record of the actual owner of their domains. more

Why Distinguish Between Defensive and Offensive Domain Names?

Offensive domain-name registrations require strategic corporate decisions. Second, they require different strategic and tactical remedies when third parties register desired names. Thus, different organizational approaches are necessary to manage domain name risks and rewards. The essay identifies the strategic differences and remedies for the two types of domain names, and outlines the implications for internal work-flow organizational structures. more

DNSSEC vs DDoS Protection: Is It Really a Choice?

Within the last year or two, I've heard people express an opinion to the effect that if the domain name industry put as much focus on preventing distributed denial of service attacks as we have on implementing DNSSEC, the Internet would be a safer place. While there may be a grain of truth there, I suggest that this kind of thinking presents us with something of a false dichotomy. more

“Objection, Your Honour!”

Big news! The official website of the ICANN Independent Objector is now online. Another piece of good news announced at the same time is that the site will also offer a French version, which was under construction at the time. More than a month later, the French version is still under construction. Do we have to wait for eternity? While this situation may not seem critically important on the surface, it must in fact be taken very seriously because it is symptomatic of a far deeper problem... more

Mergers and Acquisitions in Domain Industry Increasing at an Impressive Rate

As the year progresses the number of mergers and acquisitions in the domain industry is increasing at an impressive rate. Hot on the heels of GoDaddy's acquisition (saving?) of RegisterFly another media company acquires a domain company. Is anyone beginning to see a pattern emerging? Oversee.net has acquired SnapNames... It's an interesting acquisition for Oversee.net which already owns DomainSponsor as well as a very interesting portfolio of domains. more