Will Arrest Stem Tide of Spam?

Legitimate email marketers, anti-spam groups and beleaguered recipients got a bit of good news with the arrest last week of a man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers. Robert Alan Soloway, 27, dubbed "the Seattle Spammer" by federal officials, was indicted on 35 charges related to fraudulent Internet activities. Soloway pleaded not guilty to all charges at his May 30 arraignment. You can read more here. Although it's always great when a notorious spammer gets put out of business, such actions probably won't result in a drop in the amount of spam that gets sent... more

Google Starts Experimental Fiber Network Rollout With Kansas City

Google today announced plans to build ultra high-speed broadband service to a selected community in the U.S. as part of its experimental fiber network. In its announcement via a blog post, the company says: "In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations. We've found this in Kansas City. We'll be working closely with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the gigabit applications of the future."
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You Cannot Tell Your Customers to ‘Shut Up’ Anymore - Consumer Review Fairness Act Signed Into Law

Bad idea: Set up a business and provide poor goods or services; receive bad reviews online for your poor goods or services. Worse idea: Instead of treating your customers' feedback as free expert advice and listening to their suggestions on how to improve your business, sue your customers -- experience the Streisand Effect -- resulting in increased media coverage highlighting your lousy goods, service, and treatment of customers. Ensure that negatives reviews of your business get the widest exposure possible. more

While Cyberspace Is Entering an Era of Warring States, There Remains a Chance to Make a Difference

For the non-state actors who are making efforts to approach cybersecurity issue in a different and creative way, the state actors, however, have given clear signs that they have exhausted their patience and insisted on doing things alone by bringing traditional old tricks back into cyberspace. This is exemplified in the bilateral meeting of two cyber sovereigntists - the Chinese and U.S. presidents on April 6-7, and in the multilateral G7 Declaration on Responsible States Behavior in Cyberspace on April 11. more

Vietnam Primary Source of Spam in November

Vietnam is now responsible for more than 10% of the worlds spam, according to threat analysis from managed security firm, Network Box. November saw malware threat levels remain consistently high with Vietnam taking the number one spam spot from last month’s chart topper, Brazil. more

China Tightens Cybersecurity Rules to Curb AI and Infrastructure Threats

China is revising its cybersecurity laws to include faster reporting requirements and stricter oversight of AI-related incidents, reflecting growing concerns about national security and the unchecked expansion of digital infrastructure. more

Growth in Commercial Sinkholing Operations

The last couple of years have seen a growth in commercial sinkholing operations. What was once an academic method for studying botnets and other types of Internet-born threat, has more recently turned in to an increasingly profitable business for some organizations. Yesterday I published a blog on the DarkReading site titled Sinkholing For Profit, and I wanted to expand upon some aspects of the sinkholing discussion (there's only so much you can fit in to 800-ish word limits). more

Kelihos Is Dead: Long Live Kelihos

The King is dead. Long live the King! Or, given this week's events, should the phrase now be "Kelihos is dead. Long live Kelihos"? It is with a little amusement and a lot of cynicism that I've been watching the kerfuffle relating to the latest attempt to take down the Kelihos botnet. You may remember that a similar event ("Kelihos is dead") occurred late last year after Microsoft and Kaspersky took it on themselves to shut down the botnet known as Kelihos (or sometimes as Waledac 2.0 or Hlux). more

One Third of Companies Employing Staff to Monitor Content of Outbound Email, According to Survey

A recent survey of US companies conducted by Proofpoint has found companies increasingly concerned over data leaks via emplyee misuse of email, blogs, social networks, multimedia channels and text messages. From the report: "[A]s more US companies reported their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information (34 percent, up from 23 percent in 2008), an increasing number say they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email (38 percent, up from 29 percent in 2008). The pain of data leakage has become so acute in 2009 that more US companies report they employ staff whose primary or exclusive job is to monitor the content of outbound email (33 percent, up from 15 percent in 2008)." more

US, Russia and China Stay Out of Paris International Cybersecurity Pact

US, China and Russia have refused to sign the French-backed agreement, Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, announced by French President at the UNESCO Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on Monday. more

Photos of Google’s Latest $600 Million Data Center

Earlier this month, Google officially opened its new data center in South Carolina which was first reported during April of 2007 when the company announced its plans to invest $600 million in the project. This data center is one of the four new data center projects announced by Google last year with other locations being Lenoir, North Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa and Pryor, Oklahoma. more

The UK Retail Telecom Sector Again Shows Results of Effective Regulation

The UK's regulator has undertaken much commendable work in recent years, which has helped to establish the country's telecom sector as one of the most competitive and vibrant in the world. The regulator stood up to BT's intransigence in the early days of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), enforcing the creation of BT Openreach in January 2006 to operate as the company's wholesale division. The results have been very impressive... more

Can Satellite Broadband Be Affordable?

When we first heard of the possibility of broadband from low-orbit satellites, there was a lot of speculation that the technology could bring affordable broadband to the masses around the globe. The latest announcement from Starlink shows that affordable broadband is probably not coming in the immediate future. Starlink announced a premium tier of service with a $500 monthly fee for 150-500 Mbps. more

Connectivity as a Vital Consumer Service

Having Comcast et al provide Internet connectivity is like having your barber do surgery because he knows how to use a knife. I was reminded of this when my Comcast connection failed. This is part of the larger topic of consumerization. In the past, we were happy to have products that worked at all. I grew up in the world of consumer products and got my start in software building online services meant for use by non-experts. more

Thoughts of an ICANN Public Interest Stakeholder on the Intended Sale of the .ORG Registry

The announcement of the intended Internet Society (ISOC) sale of the .ORG registry to Ethos Capital has caused a lot of frustration and anger while raising a lot of questions.
It's more than just about the money. It's more than who is behind it. It's about the soul of the DNS and the ICANN community with its multi-stakeholder model. Let's remember that the Public Interest Registry (PIR) was created, with ISOC as its sole legal owner, to provide ISOC with the funds to operate and to run the registry more-or-less as a Social Business. more