SpaceX Wants to End Rural Broadband Subsidies

SpaceX argues that Starlink makes rural broadband subsidies obsolete, but questions about speed, universal availability, voice service and affordability complicate its case for eliminating high-cost Universal Service Fund support. more

How AI Answer Engines Are Quietly Rewriting What Makes a Domain “Brandable”

As AI answer engines become referral channels, domain distinctiveness may matter more than exact-match search intent, challenging traditional valuation models built around keyword demand, traffic and historical sales. more

Why Africa Keeps Relearning the Same Digital Lessons

Africa's digital transformation challenge is not a lack of strategies or research, but weak institutional learning that prevents governments from preserving project lessons, applying evidence and avoiding repeated failures across administrations and technology programs. more

DNSSEC Validation Climbs Across Africa Ahead of Root Key Rollover

ICANN reports African DNSSEC validation has reached 53%, with Ghana near 98% and Nigeria around 60%, as independent APNIC measurements broadly support the country figures ahead of October's root key rollover. more

EU Cyber Resilience Act Costs and Economic Impact

The EU Cyber Resilience Act faces questions over its economic impact as third-party estimates point to substantial compliance costs, competitive pressures and unresolved concerns about whether its requirements meet established proportionality and competition norms. more

Taming Shadow AI: Closing the Context Gap in Enterprise AI Security

Shadow AI exposes sensitive enterprise data when employees use unsanctioned AI tools. Context-aware guardrails can reduce leakage and false positives by combining deterministic rules, contextual inspection, graduated enforcement and centralized observability. more

Russian Attack Disrupts Internet and Digital Services Across Kyiv

A Russian attack disrupted Internet access for about 100,000 Kyiv-area households and affected data centers, hosting and court services, exposing disruptions across multiple infrastructure layers while leaving possible shared dependencies unclear. more

IPv6 Growth Remains Concentrated Among Major Infrastructure Providers

IPv6 availability now reaches more than half of measured website hosts, but provider-led deployment means the global figure can obscure how heavily adoption depends on major hosting, cloud, CDN, DNS and email platforms. more

ICANN Reports Persistent Acceptance Gaps for Internationalized Domains

ICANN reports 151 internationalized top-level domains and 4.3 million second-level registrations, but persistent Universal Acceptance gaps still prevent some applications, websites and email systems from reliably handling internationalized names. more

ICANN Confirms 1,616 Applications Will Proceed in 2026 New gTLD Round

ICANN says 1,616 applications will proceed in the 2026 new gTLD round, with Reveal Day expected by October 14 to disclose applicants, requested strings and initial contention sets. more

The Case for Longitudinal DNSSEC Data

Repeated DNSSEC failures show the limits of snapshot diagnostics. A longitudinal record of signed delegations could reveal persistent misconfigurations, rollover problems and correlated failures, helping operators identify recurring patterns and their likely sources. more

Microsoft Disrupts EvilTokens AI Cybercrime Service Linked to 12,000 Compromised Inboxes

Microsoft disrupted EvilTokens, an AI-enabled cybercrime service linked to more than 12,000 compromised inboxes, seizing websites and disabling domains used to automate mailbox analysis, impersonation and preparation for financial fraud. more

ICANN Commenters Urge Limits on Proposed Domain Abuse Checks

ICANN commenters broadly support proposed registrar checks of domains associated with known DNS abuse but urge evidentiary safeguards to prevent weak associations from triggering action against legitimate domains. more

EU Sets Sustainability Labels for Larger Data Centers

The European Commission has adopted an A-to-G sustainability rating system for larger data centers, grading energy and water efficiency as EU computing demand grows and regulators consider binding performance standards. more

US AI Policy Applies Two Scales at Home and Abroad

The danger the White House dismisses at home has justified restricting frontier models abroad. Now, as Trump meets Xi Jinping, competing forces within his administration could determine who writes global AI rules and in what register. more