Syria Shuts Down Internet to Prevent Cheating During National High School Exams, Say Insiders

Early this morning in Syria, the Internet was almost entirely down for four hours. It was the ninth such outage since 31 July 2016 -- each one lasting from approximately 4am to 8am local time. more

ISPs, COVID-19 and the Coming Year of Confusion

I've had a number of people ask me about how I think COVID-19 will impact the ISP industry over the next six months. It's an interesting question to consider because there are both positive and negative trends that ISPs need to be concerned about. The chances are that these various trends will affect markets and ISPs differently - making it that much harder for an individual ISP to understand what they are going to see over the next six months. more

Quantifying the Homework Gap – Finally a Definitive Study

The Quello Center that is part of the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University just released a definitive study that looks at the impact of lack of broadband on students. The study was done in conjunction with Merit Networks, the organization that acts as the ISP for schools in Michigan. I describe the study as definitive because it used study techniques that isolate the impact of broadband from other factors such as sex, race, and family income. more

Carriers Constrain Entrepreneurs

Previously, I've written about how the success of the MVNO (though not without its problems) demonstrates how an Open Access-like business model can work in a wireless context. The underlying carrier, such as Sprint or Verizon, can sell access to its network at wholesale rates to a company like Virgin Mobile, which then markets to consumers. This model can be and is a success both for the retailer and the wholesaler. MVNOs are not perfect. more

FCC Chairwoman Wants Broadband Standard Boosted to 100Mbps Across the United States

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed that the US standard for broadband be redefined to a minimum of 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds, up from the current 25Mbps/3Mbps. more

Rightside Rejects Donuts’ Unsolicited $70 Million Proposal, Says Undervalues Business

In an announcement released this morning, Rigtside said its Board of Directors has rejected the unsolicited proposal from Donuts Inc. to acquire Rightside's entire registry of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and related assets for $70 million in an all-cash deal. more

Time to Spread the Muck, ICANN

"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread", according to English philosopher Francis Bacon. In these times when everyone is busy with the big questions surrounding the IANA transition and ICANN accountability, I thought we could quickly solve some simple questions. One of them is: What should ICANN do with all that money? What money, you might ask? more

Cyptech Needs You!

In August of last year I wrote in a blog about the importance of cryptech to wide-scale trust in the Internet. For those who don't know about it, http://cryptech.is is a project aiming to design and deploy an openly developed, trustable Hardware Security Module (HSM) which can act both as a keystore (holding your secrets and keeping them private) and as a signing engine. more

The Global Digital Compact and the Future of Digital Governance

The unveiling of the Global Digital Compact's (GDC) zero draft on April 1, 2024, heralds a critical juncture in the quest to frame a digital future that is equitable, secure, and human-centered. Orchestrated under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the initiative endeavors to forge a consensus-driven framework for global digital cooperation. more

Radioihead Backs Community-Based Application for the New gTLD ‘.Music’

Ed O'Brien, guitarist from the band Radiohead, is the latest musician expressing support for DotMusic's community-based application for the new gTLD .music. more

Internet Governance: Coin of the New Realm

The Aspen Institute released the IDEA Common Statement and Principles as a do no harm Hippocratic Oath for Internet governance. The Aspen report describes the present moment as an inflection point for "the most robust medium of information exchange in history". Reed Hundt outlined the risks associated with Internet governance changes favored by China and a group of developing nations through the ITU. more

US Government Networks Thoroughly Penetrated by Foreign Spies, Experts Tell Senate

Network security experts from across the U.S. government told a U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Tuesday that federal networks have been thoroughly penetrated by foreign spies, and that current perimeter-based defenses that attempt to curb intrusions are outdated and futile. more

Research Finds Mobile Malware Infections Overblown

Advanced threat detection company, Damballa has released findings of a new research on Wednesday, detailing the overblown nature of the mobile malware problem. According to the company, the research, based on Big Data (50% of US mobile traffic), was used to determine actual malware infection rates -- not just samples found, or vulnerabilities/theoretical attacks. more

Swimming Australia Website Comes Under DDoS Attack in Wake of Allegations Against Chinese Swimmer

The website of Swimming Australia has come under DDoS attack just hours after the Australian Bureau of Statistics went back online following a similar attack bringing the online census initiative to a halt. more

New Brandsight Domain Management Survey Reveals Companies Face Challenges Managing Domain Portfolios

Brandsight recently concluded their Second Annual Domain Management Survey. Respondents to the survey were corporate domain name professionals. Of those that responded, 35% had portfolios that were between 3,000-10,000 domains and another 30% had portfolios greater than 10,000 domains. Fifty-seven percent of respondents reported that they manage domains out of the legal department, with the remaining respondents' portfolios managed out of IT, marketing and other groups. more