In Defense of Process: Identifying the Problem Before Seeking Solutions

You don't necessarily need to walk before you can run, but you should probably look where you are going before you do either. The U.S. Government's announcement that it would transition out of its unique legacy role in ICANN set off a powder keg at ICANN, as stakeholders from every corner of the community rushed to offer their recommendations on how to fill the impending contractual vacuum with something, new, better, and appropriately reflective of the multi-stakeholder model. more

The Overlooked Signals of ccTLDs

Two ccTLD signals should get more attention when we're talking about the domains' benefits. Companies in emerging markets can signal their brands to expats and/or westerners. This ability to take the companies' appeal beyond their immediate, national markets deserves a look and some appreciation. Traditionally, Western companies have been the ones who registered ccTLDs to signal target="_blank" operations in overseas markets, while companies in emerging markets use them to signal their local brands to the local market. more

Why the Fukushima Analogy Was Apt

A few days ago, CAUCE published a blog post entitled "Epsilon Interactive breach the Fukushima of the Email Industry" on our site, and the always-excellent CircleID. A small coterie of commenters was upset by the hyperbolic nature of the headline. Fair enough, an analogy usually has a high degree of probability that it will fail, and clearly, no one has died as a result of the release of what appears to be tens of millions of people's names and email addresses. But, the two situations are analogous in many other ways, and here's why. more

Ossification and Fragmentation: The Once and Future ‘net

Mostafa Ammar, out of Georgia Tech recently posted an interesting paper titled The Service-Infrastructure Cycle, Ossification, and the Fragmentation of the Internet. I have argued elsewhere that we are seeing the fragmentation of the global Internet into multiple smaller pieces, primarily based on the centralization of content hosting combined with the rational economic decisions of the large-scale hosting services. The paper in hand takes a slightly different path to reach the same conclusion. more

AT&T CEO Publishes Open Letter Calling on Congress to Establish an “Internet Bill of Rights”

Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO, published an open letter today urging Congress to "end the debate once and for all, by writing new laws that govern the internet and protect consumers." more

Privacy Becoming Very Public Matter

At the round tables on privacy held by the Federal Trade Commission, Indiana University law school professor and member of the board of the Privacy Projects, Fred Cate said out loud what long has been silently known about consumer protections based on the notices web sites post to describe their data protection practices and the consumers' choice to click on or away. Cate said: "Choice is an illusion." There is more than a bit of substance behind the bumper sticker... more

NordVPN Introduces Quantum-Resilient Encryption

NordVPN, a leading VPN service provider, has unveiled its first application featuring quantum-resilient encryption – a significant advancement in cybersecurity. Post-quantum cryptography support is currently available on NordVPN’s Linux client, with plans to extend this enhanced security to all applications by early 2025. more

More Provocative Reasons for a Mandatory National Breach Disclosure

I read, with some small amount of discomfort, an article by Bill Brenner on CSO Online, wherein he interviewed several other CSOs and other "Security Execs" on their opinions on the firing of Pennsylvania CISO Robert Maley. For those who haven't heard about this, Mr. Maley was fired for talking about a security incident during the recent RSA conference without approval from his bosses. more

US Policy Container: Depoliticizing the Global Internet

One of fastest growing trends of electronic communications is digital identity. The simplest way of establishing digital identity is to get a domain name and create a web site and email accounts. While this might have been a fairly complex undertaking some ten years ago, today it is a trivial matter. So trivial in fact that spammers and phishers can ply their trade with very low costs of entry. These low cost of entry have made the Internet a commodity business as traffic is handled in the aggregate and competitive pricing has made being an ISP a difficult business model. It also has created aggressive growth and adoption curves. The Internet is also the lowest common denominator... more

About That Second, Third and Fourth Wireless “Attachment”

There is some good news about the decision by Verizon Wireless to offer shared monthly data plans. But there could be a lot more if the FCC applied its Carterfone policy. That policy gave consumers the power to decide what and how many devices to attach to a network connection. If Carterfone applied, consumers could use multiple devices to access a network subscription, albeit perhaps not at the same time. more

Cryptographic Catastrophe Theory

Technologists and law enforcement have been arguing about cryptography policy for about 30 years now. People talk past each other, with each side concluding the other side are unreasonable jerks because of some fundamental incompatible assumptions between two conceptual worlds in collision. In the physical world, bank branches have marble columns and granite counters and mahogany woodwork to show the world that they are rich and stable. more

Bandwidth is Bust - Managing True Fundamental Network Resources, Not Fantasy Ones

I recently shared the idea that there is a new category of network architecture, the Network of Probabilities. This differs from classical circuits (Network of Promises) or best-effort packet data (Network of Possibilities). I personally believe it's the next revolution in telecoms. What's new is that it provides a trading space for allocating contention between flows, and does this with some novel applied mathematics. more

DNS Insecurity

The Internet as we know it and use it today -- is broken, badly broken. Yes broken so much so that we are really crazy to have any expectations of privacy or security. Yes, really. The Internet was conceived as somewhat of a utopian environment, one where we all keep our doors, windows and cars unlocked and we trust all the people and machines out there to "do the right thing...". more

Network Neutrality Upsetting Worldviews?

With everyone talking about network neutrality, with all the heat, it didn't feel good to have to be in NY today and miss the goings-on in Washington. I watched part of the late afternoon markup session online, with Rep. Barton sounding awfully effective as he marched steadily through Title III -- quickly taking votes, soothing congress people who were suggesting soon-to-be-rejected amendments, and sounding confident. The only substantive work I heard was the rejection of an amendment that would have left in place all state laws that regulate the subjects of the bill -- like mini wireless networks. But the real news had already happened... more

What If They Simply Made Communications Technology Better?

Rob Hyndman has a pointer to Mark Cuban's latest: Think the Internet Will Replace TV? Think Again. Cuban's post can be summarized as: Today's broadband networks are too slow. The insatiable appetite for on-demand rich media content will soon overwhelm them. Telco's aren't putting in upgraded networks quickly enough to meet that demand. Cuban also provides some facts and figures to back up that claim. In the comments, readers have a number of viewpoints, including the view that Mark has ignored cable, and that cable can provide the required speeds and feeds... more