ICANN Released Its Draft for New Top-Level Domains, 45 Day Comment Period Now Open

In follow up to its earlier announcement this year regarding the relaxation of rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday released a draft version of the Applicant Guidebook for those interested in applying for a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD). Although application comes with a hefty entry fee of close to $200,000, the development of new gTLD introductions will be of particular interest to trademark owners as well as any other company involved with domain names. Among various issues, the guidebook aims at addressing concerns such as who would qualify for '.apple' or '.amazon' gTLDs. more

U.S. House Republicans Ask CEO’s of Major Tech, Telecom Companies to Testify on Net Neutrality

U.S. House Republicans have invited CEOs of major technology and telecommunications companies to weigh in on the net neutrality debate amidst Federal Communications Commission move to repeal the Obama-era rules. more

Efficient Threat Intelligence: Learning the Secrets

How can our threat intelligence platform deliver more? This is a question many business professionals employing threat intelligence practices are asking themselves as their companies continue to fall short against the machinations of modern-day cybercriminals. The truth is that while threat intelligence is certainly not a silver bullet, organizations often make a mistake when they opt for a platform without considering several important factors that can help them evaluate the market better and deploy the practice more effectively. more

New Research Reveals Over 340 Million Accounts Compromised in the First Four Months of 2023

Recent research conducted by the Independent Advisor reveals that a significant number of accounts, exceeding 340 million, have been compromised due to business data breaches within the first four months of 2023. Notably, Twitter experienced the largest breach this year, impacting approximately 235 million user accounts. more

EURid Pauses Brexit Plans

When the UK announced its intention to withdraw from the European Union it was clear to some of us that this would cause complications with .eu and possibly other domain name extensions. Over the past year, it's become clear that the European Commission, who mandate the .eu domain name policy, weren't interested in providing a "soft landing" for impacted registrants of .eu domain names. more

European Airports Still Reeling from Ransomware Attack as Software Fix Nears

European air travel remains disrupted today following a ransomware attack on Friday that crippled automated check-in and boarding systems across several major airports. The culprit appears to be malicious code targeting Muse, a system developed by Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of RTX, which provides critical software to airlines. more

Japan’s Cybersecurity Minister Admits He Does Not Use Computers and Not Familiar With Cybersecurity

Japan's cybersecurity minister, Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, who recently stated he doesn't use a computer, also admitted on Thursday to a parliamentary committee that he's not very familiar with the whole cybersecurity field. more

US Fibre Projects: Go-Aheads Omit the Major Telcos

As the recent Senate vote on gun reform legislation has shown (wherein 42 of the 45 dissenting senators had recently received donations from gun industry lobbyists), getting things done for the good of the people is a hard task where legislation is concerned. It has been thus with the US's broadband infrastructure for years. A number of states have legislated against community broadband networks, often resulting from the lobbying efforts of the main telcos affected. State Legislatures commonly pass bills revoking local decision-making authorities from communities, effectively making them dependent on the dominant cableco and DSL provider. more

The Future of Communications Cross-Subsidies

It used to be so much easier to manage a system of cross subsidies for communications. If a regulator wanted consumer services to be subsidized by businesses, rural to be subsidized by urban, local subsidized by long distance, TV production subsidized by distribution, it could just issue an order to make it so. So let it be written; so let it be done. There were few, if any, other suppliers of those services, so there were limited arbitrage opportunities. more

No Apparent Financial or Political Motivation Behind Dyn DDoS Attacks, Says Intelligence Firm

In an after-action analysis of the Mirai botnet attacks on Dyn, business intelligence firm, Flashpoint has assessed with "a moderate degree of confidence" that the perpetrators behind the attack were most likely not politically motivated, and most likely not nation-state actors. more

Caribbean Infrastructure Investment Must Keep Pace With Global Digital Trends

Caribbean islands are known for white-sand getaways, but one of the region's best-kept secrets remains buried under its picturesque beaches. That hidden treasure is the Caribbean's complex network of subsea Internet cables, worth their weight in gold because they connect these small-island nations to each other and to the global Internet. With that Internet connectivity comes the hope of a better life for millions of Caribbean citizens, and regional ambitions of global competitiveness. more

Coachella Unsuccessful in Domain Name Dispute, Failing to Prove Bad Faith Use and Registration

The Complainant is the owner of the well-known Coachella festival. It owns a trademark registration, issued in 2016, for the mark CHELLA. The Respondent asserted that he intended to use the disputed domain name to set up an online women's clothing store but never did so. He claimed that growing up, his nickname was "Chelle" and that he modified that name to make it sound more feminine for use in connection with the store. more

First gTLD Auction Settled; Next Auction Will Be on August 13th

We're pleased to announce that the first Applicant Auction has come to a successful finish! As of this morning, the winners are now the only remaining applicants for the six contested strings... The winning prices totalled $9.01 million, which we have distributed to the other applicants after confirming that their ICANN applications have been withdrawn. more

Big Future for Telemedicine?

According to a report just released by McKinsey & Company, we are on the verge of seeing a major shift to health care from home. The report says that as much as $265 billion in annual fees to Medicare and Medicare Advantage could shift to homes by 2025. We've already seen the start of the trend towards telemedicine. The spending on telemedicine was 38 times higher in 2021 compared to 2020. Most of that shift is obviously due to the pandemic. more

Internet Society Issues Statement on Developing Cyber Security Policy Initiatives

The Internet Society has released an announcement setting out its views on the development of policy to address the balance between security and privacy. From an Internet perspective and in the context of the growing threat vector from hacking, targeted cyber attacks on networks and individuals, and surveillance, the Internet Society's approach to the development of cyber security policy initiatives is based on the following key considerations. more