Amazon’s Letter to ICANN Board: It’s Time to Approve Our Applications for .AMAZON TLDs

When ICANN launched the new gTLD program five years ago, Amazon eagerly joined the process, applying for .AMAZON and its Chinese and Japanese translations, among many others. Our mission was -- and is -- simple and singular: We want to innovate on behalf of our customers through the DNS. ICANN evaluated our applications according to the community-developed Applicant Guidebook in 2012; they achieved perfect scores. more

CE Router Certification Opens Up the Last Mile to IPv6 Fixed-Line

With reference to IPv6, probably most end users do not have any sense of it. The mainstream condition in the industry is that network carriers and content/service providers stick to their own arguments. Carriers consider lack of IPv6 content and service as the reason demand for IPv6 from the users is very low. The content and service providers believe that users cannot have access to content and service through IPv6 and thus carriers should provide the service in the background. more

Equifax Breach Blamed on Open-Source Software Flaw

Equifax has blamed a flaw in the software running its online databases for the massive breach revealed last week that has allowed hackers to steal personal information of as many as 143 million customers. more

Lessons Learned from Harvey and Irma

One of the most intense natural disasters in American history occurred last week...You may wish to donate or get involved with hurricane Harvey relief to help the afflicted. That's great, but as we all know, we should be wary of who we connect with online... The FTC warned last week that there are many active relief scams in progress and noted that there always seems to be a spike in registration of bogus domains. more

Equifax Hacked, Nearly Half of US Population Affected

In an announcement today, credit reporting giant Equifax revealed a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. more

Fact Checking the Recent News About Google in Cuba

Google's Cuba project has been in the news lately. Mary Anastasia O'Grady wrote a Wall Street Journal article called "Google's Broken Promise to Cubans," criticising Google for being "wholly uninterested in the Cuban struggle for free speech" and assisting the Castro government. The article begins by taking a shot at President Obama who "raved" about an impending Google-Cuba deal "to start setting up more Wi-Fi access and broadband access on the island." more

Fighting Phishing with Domain Name Disputes

I opened an email from GoDaddy over the weekend on my phone. Or so I initially thought. I had recently helped a client transfer a domain name to a GoDaddy account (to settle a domain name dispute), so the subject line of the email -- "Confirm this account" -- simply made me think that I needed to take another action to ensure everything was in working order. But quickly, my radar went off. more

EU Presidency Pushing Other Member States for Substantial Internet Surveillance

A leaked document by Statewatch reveals the current EU Presidency (Estonia) has been pushing the other Member States to strengthen indiscriminate internet surveillance and to follow in the footsteps of China regarding online censorship. more

Europe and North America Energy Sector Targeted by Sophisticated Cyberattack Group

The Western energy sector is being targeted by a new wave of cyberattacks capable of providing attackers ability to severely disrupt affected operations, according to reports on Wednesday. more

RIPE NCC to Hold Sixth IPv6 Focused Hackathon

The Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia (RIPE NCC) together with Comcast and Danish Network Operator's Group (DKNOG), are organizing the sixth IPv6 focused hackathon. more

Domain Registries to Discuss Possibility of ICANN Fee Cuts in Private Meeting This Month

Heads of 20 or more gTLD registries will meet privately this month to discuss various topics including the possibility of a reduction in their ICANN fees. more

Researchers Expose Over 320 Million Hashed Passwords

A group of security researchers have succeeeded in cracking over 320 million passwords which were made public in an encrypted blacklist. more

Security is a System Property

There's lots of security advice in the press: keep your systems patched, use a password manager, don't click on links in email, etc. But there's one thing these adages omit: an attacker who is targeting you, rather than whoever falls for the phishing email, won't be stopped by one defensive measure. Rather, they'll go after the weakest part of your defenses. You have to protect everything -- including things you hadn't realized were relevant. more

Global Content Removals Based on Local Legal Violations - Where are we Headed?

From the Internet's earliest days, the tension between a global communication network and local geography-based laws has been obvious. One scenario is that every jurisdiction's local laws apply to the Internet globally, meaning that the country (or sub-national regulator) with the most restrictive law for any content category sets the global standard for that content. If this scenario comes to pass, the Internet will only contain content that is legal in every jurisdiction in the world... more

Post-UDRP, ACPA Actions Challenging Awards

The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is not an exclusive remedy for cybersquatting, but it is by far the preferred forum. Direct actions in courts of competent jurisdiction, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) in the U.S. are minimal in comparison, and it is rare for respondents to remove disputes to a court of competent jurisdiction before a UDRP decision (paragraph 4(k) of the Policy). Less rare (but not copious) are post-UDRP challenges under the ACPA. more