Preparing DNSSEC for the Post-Quantum Era

To prepare DNS security for a post-quantum future, Verisign and partners are testing new cryptographic strategies that balance security, performance, and feasibility, especially through the novel Merkle Tree Ladder mode for managing large signatures. more

Who Has Helped the Internet? May 31 Deadline for Nominations for 2013 Jonathan Postel Service Award

Do you know of a person or organization who has made a great contribution to the Internet community? If so, have you considered nominating that person or organization for the 2013 Jonathan B. Postel Service Award? The nomination deadline of May 31 is fast approaching! more

Nominet/SOCA Cyber Crime Proposal: Allow Cross Border Reactions

Reading the policy proposal of Nominet, I get the feeling that something is overseen here. Putting all the jurisdictional hassle aside for a moment, cyber crime is international, cross-border. So what happens if a UK domain is used for criminal activity outside the UK only? more

In Network Security Design, It’s About the Users

One of the longstanding goals of network security design is to be able to prove that a system -- any system -- is secure. Designers would like to be able to show that a system, properly implemented and operated, meets its objectives for confidentiality, integrity, availability and other attributes against the variety of threats the system may encounter. A half century into the computing revolution, this goal remains elusive. more

A Brave New World or Do We Need to Discuss IT and Ethics?

Every day comes with another digital security breach, surveillance disclosure and what not. The world seems to have grown used to it and continues its business as usual. It doesn't seem to be bad enough to really act. Every day comes with new stories about the end of the Middle Class, IT taking over jobs in places where up to very recently that was inconceivable, not in people's wildest dreams would these jobs disappear. more

The Free Internet in Jeopardy

The venerated BBC World Service recently commissioned a polled involving more than 27,000 people across 26 countries. The findings are unremarkable: some 87% of Internet users believe that Internet access should be a basic right, and more than 70% of non-users believe that they should have access to it. more

Transition of the Telecoms Industry Is Overdue

It is interesting to observe the changes in the telecommunications environment over the last few decades. Before videotex (the predecessor of the internet) arrived in the late 1970s early 1980s, 90% of telecommunications revolved around telephone calls. And at that time telephony was still a luxury for many, as making calls were expensive. I remember that in 1972 a telephone call between London and Amsterdam cost one pound per minute. Local telephone calls were timed... more

Regulating Magic: Why We Need to Establish a Regulatory Framework for Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence

The promises of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and other advancing technologies sound like magic. However, even magic is subject to the laws of economics. And even quantum computers are “legal things…technological tools that are bound to affect our lives in a tangible manner,” as Valentin Jeutner explains in The Quantum Imperative: Addressing the Legal Dimension of Quantum Computers. Analogous to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, Professor Jeutner proposes a three-part “quantum imperative,” which “provides that regulators and developers must ensure that the development of quantum computers. more

Applications Processing for IDN ccTLDs Fast Track

Since 16th Nov 09 Applications Processing for IDN ccTLDs Fast Track has been started. The countries and territories who are using non-English Language (nationwide) for official documentation or for community, are eligible to apply for a new country code top level domain name (ccTLD) in their own Native Language through a designated manager... Native Language Community will be able to register their domain names within the next 6 months. more

The Trouble with White Spaces

Like several other engineers, I'm disturbed by the white spaces debate because it focuses on what I regard as the wrong question. The White Space Coalition argues that showing that a system can be constructed that prevents interference between White Space Devices and television broadcast signals compels the Commission to offer up the White Spaces for unlicensed use. This is far from obvious. more

Inter-Process Communication - Building Block for the New Internet

The blog on the need for a new internet received quite a bit of (international) attention, and with the assistance of colleague John Day, we would like to elaborate a bit further on this. I mentioned RINA as a good example that can be used to have a look at how such a new internet should look like. Interestingly the basics are not all that new. Already in the 1970s, but certainly two decades later, there were plenty of telecoms and computer engineers who started to understand that the future telecommunications work would have more to do with computing than with telecoms. more

How Will Your Registration Data Be Managed in the Future?

Benjamin Franklin once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." As we consider how Internet domain and address registration data is managed and accessed in a post-WHOIS era, and given the long history of failure in addressing the shortcomings of WHOIS, it is extremely important to start preparing now for the eventual replacement of WHOIS. This is the fundamental purpose of the next Registration Operations Workshop (ROW) that is scheduled for Sunday, July 19, 2015, in Prague, Czech Republic. more

Life Outside IPv6 (Poll)

Within every organization a chosen few are tasked with introducing IPv6 into their networks, outward facing services or applications. But who are they? We know them as Network Engineers, System Administrators and Software Developers but are they one trick ponies spending all their time in layer 3? more

Why You Needed to Be at eComm 2009

I've been posting photos and snippets during eComm 2009 this week, but composing my overall impressions has been another matter. Sitting through 3 days mostly filled with continuous 15 minute presentations is a surefire recipe to fry your brain, and most people I talked to were topped out well before things wrapped up Thursday night. It's information overload of the highest -- and best -- order... Here's my top-line takeaway, and reading the rest of this post is really just detail. But it's detail you'll probably love if you really want to know what you missed... more

An Update From CIRA on IoT Security

Last April, I shared information about a multistakeholder process that CIRA is part of, which seeks to identify and guide the development of policy around the Internet of Things (IoT), putting security at the heart of internet innovations in Canada. Since the formation of this process, we've made quite a bit of progress and I'm pleased to share some of that with you. more