ICANN and the Data Quality Act: Part III

This is the third part of a multi-part series reported by ICANNfocus. In this part, the focus is on how ICANN implementation of the Data Quality Act would address congressional concerns. "Congress is deeply concerned by ICANN's management and is demanding meaningful change in how the organization governs the internet. Congressional concerns regarding ICANN and Congressional oversight activities were detailed in Part II of this series." more

Why Government Agencies Use Ugly, Difficult to Use Scanned PDFs - There’s More Than Meets the Eye

Sometimes, a government agency will post a PDF that doesn't contain searchable text. Most often, it's a scan of a printout. Why? Don't the NSA, the Department of Justice, etc., know how to convert Word (or whatever) directly to PDF? It turns out that they know more than some of their critics do. The reason? With a piece of paper, you know much more about what you're actually disclosing. more

Why DNS Blacklists Don’t Work for IPv6 Networks

All effective spam filters use DNS blacklists or blocklists, known as DNSBLs. They provide an efficient way to publish sets of IP addresses from which the publisher recommends that mail systems not accept mail. A well run DNSBL can be very effective; the Spamhaus lists typically catch upwards of 80% of incoming spam with a very low error rate. DNSBLs take advantage of the existing DNS infrastructure to do fast, efficient lookups. A DNS lookup typically goes through three computers... more

ICANN, or ICAN’T or IWON’T?

We're halfway into ICANN71, and early interactions are posing questions about ICANN Org's capability to carry out its mission to maintain an orderly domain name system (DNS). Or, if that's not the case, ICANN leadership seems bent on a hands-off approach to its oversight responsibilities to the DNS. For years now - years - the ICANN community has raised the volume level about acute issues -- a workable Whois management and access system (including clearly delineated controllership)... more

How Hard Is It to Deploy DKIM?

It's coming up on two years since the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) standard was published. While we're seeing a certain amount of signed mail from Google, Paypal, and ESPs, there's still a long way to go. How hard is it to sign your mail with DKIM? The major hurdle might seem to be getting mail software that can sign outgoing mail. more

Gripe Site Triumphant Over AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protect Act Complaint

Today's case involves the classic alleged scenario of a gripe site which used a Plaintiff's trademark in Defendant's web site domain name -- and whether this might be a violation of the Anti Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). more

More on Story Behind .ASIA

James Seng, my good colleague in APEET, said: "...Chiao called .ASIA 'more or less like a joint venture among APxx organizations'. I say nonsense!" When I say more or less, I mean more or less... On this .ASIA entry, I've intended to use the language carefully at this moment 'cos I know someone will be watching... more

NSA Takes a Leadership Seat at the Global 5G Security Table

It has been a long time coming. In the world of global 5G security, there is only one principal forum. The somewhat cryptically named 3GPP SA3 is dedicated to 5G security and holding its 103rd meeting electronically next week from 17 to 28 May with 772 submitted documents and 189 participants registered. SA3 meets every 60 days and exists at the security center of an ecosystem of numerous technical groups encompassing many hundreds of companies, industry organizations, and government agencies worldwide. more

Client-based WDS: Providing Application Acceleration in Mobile and VPN Environments

Wide-Area Data Services (WDS), aka "WAN Optimization" is becoming the most effective way to improve application performance while reducing network traffic. In scenarios where there is significant network latency that would otherwise render many applications unusable, WDS can deliver almost LAN-like speed. Where bandwidth constraints exist and there is no practical or economical option, WDS can help reduce network traffic, allowing you to postpone or avoid circuit upgrades altogether. The technology provides the ability to centralize applications and servers, furthering the cost savings on hardware, software licensing, maintenance and the operation of a distributed architecture. more

How Fast is Starlink Broadband?

We got a recent analysis of Starlink broadband speeds from Ookla, which gathers huge numbers of speed tests from across the country. The U.S. average download speeds on Starlink have improved over the last year, from an average of 65.72 Mbps in 1Q 2021 to 90.55 Mbps in 1Q 2022. But during that same timeframe, upload speeds got worse, dropping from an average of 16.29 Mbps in 1Q 2021 to 10.70 Mbps in 1Q 2022. more

New Zealand’s Domain Name Commission Wins Appeal in Lawsuit Against US DomainTools

New Zealand's Domain Name Commission (DNC) wins in court against the US company DomainTools for "illegally scrapping personal information" of .nz domain name owners. more

IANA Transition Planning Proceeding in Fine Internet Style

Hundreds of individuals from across the Internet community have spent countless hours over the last several months crafting plans for the transition of the stewardship of the IANA functions from NTIA to the global multistakeholder community. The fruits of that labor have become highly evident within the past weeks, as two out of three components of the transition plan obtained the consensus of their communities while the third continued its intensive progress. more

7 Must Have Attributes of an IP Address Management System

Exponential growth of networks combined with the complexity introduced by IT initiatives e.g. VoIP, Cloud computing, server virtualization, desktop virtualization, IPv6 and service automation has required network teams to look for tools to automate IP address management (IPAM). Automated IPAM tools allow administrators to allocate subnets, allocate/track/reclaim IP addresses and provide visibility into the networks. Here are some examples of what a typical IPAM tool can do... more

Google Building a Third Data Center in Singapore to Keep up With Rapid Growth in the Region

Google built its first Southeast Asia data center in Singapore back in 2011 and quickly expanded to a second building in 2015. more

Turning the Tide of Online Scams: Interview With Prof. Jorij Abraham, Global Anti-Scam Alliance

Professor Jorij Abraham has been a part of the international eCommerce community since 1997. From 2013 -- 2017, he has been Director of Research & Advise at Thuiswinkel.org (the Dutch Ecommerce Association) and the European Ecommerce Association with 25.000+ members in 20 countries. He is now Managing Director of Global Anti-Scam Alliance, whose mission is to protect consumers from getting scammed. He is also e-commerce professor at the University of Applied Sciences, TIO. more