Dictators Could Rule the Internet: A Response to Robert McDowell and Gordon Goldstein

The Obama administration's proposals to regulate the Internet according to common carrier rules have set off a storm of opposition from carrier interests, whose scale and reach have been impressive. The arguments they muster are fatuous and deceitful. The Internet is not what the carriers own or have created; the Internet is what they seek to extract money from. "Regulating the Internet" is not the issue; regulating the carriers is. more

.ORG Registry Stays With Current Backend Operator, But Will Save Millions in New Deal

"The non-profit that runs all .org domains and provides the bulk of the funding for the Internet Society and Internet Engineering Task Force has just saved itself millions of dollars a year," reports Kieren McCarthy in The Register. more

Google Signs Memoranda of Understanding With Four Cuban Organizations

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed the first annual meeting of Cuba's IT professional society, the Unión de Informáticos de Cuba. In his talk, Díaz-Canel announced that four Cuban organizations - the Havana City Historian's Office, the University of Computer Sciences (UCI), Infomed, Cuba's medical network, and the Ministry of Culture had signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with Google. more

How to Turn a Closed Generic gTLD Into a Restricted One

As the New gTLD Program has rolled out over the course of the past few years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has made a number of program changes along the way. One of these changes disallows closed, generic gTLD applications, such as Amazon's application for .BOOK. Now, applicants for closed generics must decide how to proceed: whether to open their generic strings to the public, limit registrations to a defined portion of the public, withdraw the application, or sell it. more

The Early History of Usenet, Part IX: Retrospective Thoughts

Usenet is 40 years old. Did we get it right, way back when? What could/should we have done differently, with the technology of the time and with what we should have known or could feasibly have learned? And what are the lessons for today? A few things were obviously right, even in retrospect. For the expected volume of communications and expected connectivity, a flooding algorithm was the only real choice. more

An Open Response to “Stop Obama’s Internet Giveaway”

It seems necessary to publicly address the arguments posed in "Stop Obama's Internet Giveaway" by L. Gordon Crovitz of the Wall Street Journal. If, as Crovitz suggested, the President were truly "giving away the Internet," there would be mass outrage. After all, the Internet has become a primary driver of global commerce. Internet users, businesses, civil society members and Internet operators have come together to approve a set of proposals to make the Internet stronger and more open. more

Alphabet Launches New Cybersecurity Company, Chronicle

A new cybersecurity company called Chronicle has emerged from Alphabet's "moonshot factory," that's dedicated to helping companies find and stop cyberattacks before they cause harm. more

IPv4 and Education: The Basics

An IP address is a unique identifier for a device on a network, including the internet. IP stands for Internet Protocol (IP) which is a set of rules (a protocol) for addressing and routing data so it can travel through networks and arrive at its intended destination. Hence, "address." Internet-connected devices such as computers and smartphones each have a unique IP address. more

ICANN Makes Senior Management Restructure to Fix Organizational Weaknesses

Kieren McCarthy reporting in .Nxt: ICANN's new CEO Fadi Chehade has embarked on a bold restructure of the organization's management on his first day in the job. Announcing two new senior management members -- Sally Costerton as head of stakeholder relations and communications and Tarek Kamel as head of governmental affairs -- Chehade says his focus was on engaging at a global level with stakeholders, building relationships and improving accountability. more

Free the Fiber Now

In a previous blog post I mentioned that the FCC had taken away restrictions to allow broadband supplied by E-Rate funding to be used to provide free WiFi for the public. That's a good idea that will provide some relief for areas with little or no other broadband. But the announcement raises a more fundamental question - why was such a restriction in place to begin with? more

Collaboration: A Means to Boost Enterprise Network Protection

In an age where cyber threats and attacks have reached a point of ubiquity, managing your organization's network security single-handedly may no longer be sufficient. The increasing volume and sophistication of threats, not to mention the continuous advancement in attack tools and their perpetrators' skills and know-how, has led to concerns on whether potential targets can keep up. more

IGF Call for Public Comments on the Definition of Multistakeholder Participation Mechanisms

Over the past weeks, communities gathering experts from government, business, Civil Society, and the academic and technical communities, have been working through open mailing lists and online virtual meetings on IGF Best Practices. The discussion was documented by independent experts that will feed into five 90 minute Forums in Istanbul and that will in turn report into a Best Practices Main Session. more

CFR Report: Reversing IANA Transition by Trump Administration Would Be a Grave Mistake

Council on Foreign Relations has released a brief today authored by Megan Stifel, former director for international cyber policy at the U.S. National Security Council in the Obama administration, urging Trump administration to not back away from the IANA transition and to instead invest in the multistakeholder process. more

Audio Recording from the “Power, Privacy, and the Internet” Conference

On October 30 – 31, 2013, The New York Review of Books held a conference called "Power, Privacy, and the Internet," taking a look at the role of the Internet both as a vehicle of political and cultural dissent and, in the hands of the state, as a weapon of repression and control. The recordings from the event have recently been released where listeners can stream or download the audio. more

Cybercriminals Continuing to Exploit Human Nature, Increasing Reliance on Ransomware, Study Finds

Cybercriminals are continuing to exploit human nature and relying on familiar attack patterns such as phishing, and increase their reliance on ransomware, where data is encrypted and a ransom is demanded, according to Verizon 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report released today. more