Rising Ransomware Threats and a Record-Breaking $75M Payout

A recent report has revealed an alarming trend in ransomware attacks and a staggering $75 million ransom payout. The report by Zscaler ThreatLabz team indicates a 17.8% increase in ransomware attacks. more

WHOIS Database Download: Proactive Defense Against the Rising Tide of BEC Fraud

How many times have you heard that humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity? The headlines have proven that over and over again. In particular, business email compromise or BEC (also known as email account compromise or EAC) scams, which typically target an employee with access to the financial resources of his company -- this could be a C-level executive or any high-ranking officer -- for fraud are still on a constant uphill trend. more

How the Internet Grew in 2009

Internet 2009 in numbers as reported by Royal Pingdom: In 2009 there were 90 trillion emails sent; 100 million new email users; 24 percent increase in spam; 47 million new websites; 8 percent increase in domain names with the total reaching 187 million; 18 percent increase in overall Internet users with the worldwide total reaching 1.73 billion; and new zombie computers created reach 148,000 per day. more

G20 Nations Must Set Clear Priorities for Digital Agenda

Home to two-thirds of the world's population and 90 percent of its economic output, the G20 countries are a powerhouse that have yet to take on a coordinated digital agenda. This could be about to change. Under the German presidency of the G20, digital concerns - from getting people connected to protecting people's data once they are - have been made a priority through a new 'Roadmap for Digitalisation'. more

When CDA Immunity is Not CDA Immunity

Here's a question: If 47 USC 230(c) (the Good Samaritan provision of the Communications Decency Act) says that online services are not liable for third party content, then can you even sue the online service? Shouldn't the online service be immune from lawsuit? Because, after all, what would be the point of being sued for something for which you cannot be liable? more

Hearing on “Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance”

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will meet this Wednesday at 1000 local time to grill Chehade and others on the plan to remove the US government from the current triumvirate responsible for managing changes to the DNS root zone under the IANA arrangements..." more

KRACK Attack Can Affect All Modern WiFi Networks, Researchers Have Disclosed

Security researchers Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens have detected a major vulnerability in the WPA2 protocol that secures all protected Wi-Fi networks. more

Healthy Domains Initiative Isn’t Healthy for the Internet

We had high hopes that the Domain Name Association's Healthy Domains Initiative (HDI) wouldn't be just another secretive industry deal between rightsholders and domain name intermediaries. Toward that end, we and other civil society organizations worked in good faith on many fronts to make sure HDI protected Internet users as well. Those efforts seem to have failed. more

ICANN57 Preview: What to Expect in Hyderabad

The domain name industry descends on Hyderabad this week for ICANN's 57th annual public meeting, with a mixed sentiment of excitement and determination as ICANN stands on its own two feet absent US Government oversight. We'll have to get used some new acronyms as a result: PTI -- Public Technical Identifier; and the CSC -- Customer Standing Committee, but otherwise I don't think many of us will notice the difference. more

Contention for Three More gTLDs Resolved in Fourth Applicant Auction

The Fourth Applicant Auction has concluded, resolving contention for three more strings. Donuts Inc. came away from the auction as the winner of all three strings: .LIFE, .CHURCH, and .LOANS. Life Covenant Church, Inc. will be compensated for withdrawing their application for .CHURCH, and Radix will be compensated for their withdrawal from .LOANS, while Xiamen 35.com Technology Co.,Ltd and CompassRose will be compensated for their withdrawal from .LIFE. more

FTC Chief Concerned Over Most New gTLD Bids

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: The US Federal Trade Commission is still "looking at" ICANN's new gTLD program amid concerns that most of the applicants applied defensively, it has emerged. ... "We have been very, very concerned about ICANN and their dramatic expansion of the domain names, which we think will cause consumer confusion and even worse lead to more areas where malefactors can hide from the law while defrauding consumers," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said. more

Repeat DDoS Attacks the Norm in Q4 2015, 24 Attacks per Target on Average

During Q4, repeat DDoS attacks were the norm, with an average of 24 attacks per targeted customer in Q4, reports Akamai in its newly released Q4 2015 State of the Internet - Security Report. more

Fed Records Indicate Over 50 Cybersecurity Breaches Since 2011, Some Flagged as “Espionage”

The cybersecurity reports, which represent only a slice of all cyber attacks on the Fed, were obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request. more

Arbor Networks: Internet Architecture and Operations Facing Perfect Storm

According to the latest Infrastructure Security Report by Arbor Netowrks, the Internet architecture and operations is about to face a perfect storm with the convergence of issues including IPv4 to IPv6 migration, implementation of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and to 4-byte ASNs (used for inter-domain routing on the Internet). "Any one of these changes alone would constitute a significant architectural and operational challenge for network operators; considered together, they represent the greatest and potentially most disruptive set of circumstances in the history of the Internet, given its growth in importance to worldwide communications and commerce," says the report.
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Starlink’s New Business Broadband

Starlink has quietly updated its business broadband offerings. The original plan for businesses was $500 per month with a two-terabyte data cap. If a customer exceeded the data cap, the speed reduced to 1 Mbps for the remainder of the month unless a customer bought additional broadband at $1 per gigabyte. Starlink business comes with a premium antenna from HP at a one-time cost of $2,500. more