Security Against Election Hacking - Part 1: Software Independence

There's been a lot of discussion of whether the November 2016 U.S. election can be hacked. Should the U.S. Government designate all the states' and counties' election computers as "critical cyber infrastructure" and prioritize the "cyberdefense" of these systems? Will it make any difference to activate those buzzwords with less than 3 months until the election? First, let me explain what can and can't be hacked. Election administrators use computers in (at least) three ways... more

Code Released by ‘Shadow Brokers’ Raises Alarming Concerns on Whether NSA Was Hacked

The release on websites this week of what appears to be top-secret computer code that the National Security Agency has used to break into the networks of foreign governments and other espionage targets has caused deep concern inside American intelligence agencies, raising the question of whether America's own elite operatives have been hacked and their methods revealed. more

NTIA to Allow IANA Functions Contract to Expire October 1

On Friday, ICANN informed NTIA that it has completed or will complete all the necessary tasks called for in the transition proposal by the end of the contract term. more

Video: Interview with Jari Arkko at IETF 96 in Berlin

Would you like to understand the major highlights of the 96th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) last month in Berlin? What were some of the main topics and accomplishments? How many people were there? What else went on? If so, you can watch a short video interview I did below with IETF Chair Jari Arkko. more

Mysterious Hacker Claims to Have Hacked a Group Linked to the NSA

A mysterious hacker or hackers going by the name 'The Shadow Brokers' claims to have hacked a group linked to the NSA and dumped a bunch of its hacking tools. In a bizarre twist, the hackers are also asking for 1 million bitcoin (around $568 million) in an auction to release more files. more

Reselling Domain Names on the Secondary Market: Bona Fide Offering, or Not?

On the question of reselling domain names on the secondary market, a dissenting panelist in a 2005 case observed that "[t]here is no doubt Respondent is in the business of being a reseller of domain names that consist of common English words" and then suggested that the "fundamental question before the Panel is whether or not such a business should be allowed under the UDRP." He concluded that such a business should not be allowed... more

Buying Multiple Domains Makes Sense

Companies usually use one single domain name for their online activities but then, more questions pop up: SEO, Infringement, Future of the company, monitoring online competition... If buying multiple domain names answers some of these questions, there is a way to do it. Here is how... It often happens that the domain name of a company is neither the generic keyword of its core business nor a keyword that necessarily appears attached to its name. more

Complexity and Crashes

It's a familiar story by now: on the 8th of August, 2016, Delta lost power to its Atlanta data center, causing the entire data center to fail. Thousands of flights were cancelled, many more delayed, and tens of thousands of travellers stranded. What's so unusual about this event is in the larger scheme of network engineering, it's not that unusual. If I think back to my time on the Escalation Team at a large vendor, I can think of hundreds of situations like this. And among all those events, there is one point in common: it takes longer to boot the system than it does to fix the initial problem. more

Controversy Looms as Pakistan Passes Cybercrime Law, Critics Say Violates Human Rights

Pakistan's National Assembly on Thursday passed the controversial cybercrime bill through a majority vote that prescribes a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail and 5 million rupees in fine for cyber-terrorism. more

ICANN Announces Newly Created Organization to Replace IANA

ICANN has announced the name of the newly incorporated organization, Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), as a nonprofit entity to begin operation as 'Post-Transition IANA'. more

Data Growth, IoT Will Lead to Unlimited Energy Consumption If Not Controlled, Scientists Warn

Researchers from Lancaster University's School of Computing and Communications have warned that the rapid growth of remote digital sensors and devices connected to the internet -- Internet of Things -- has the potential to bring unprecedented and, in principle, almost unlimited rises in energy consumed by smart technologies. more

Google Shows Signs of Agressive Plan for Nationwide Wireless Broadband

Google Fiber is planning a move from the expensive and slow-moving physical pipes strategy to deployment of wireless network, according to an FCC filing. more

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

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

How Radix’s New gTLDs Fare with Consumers - An Infographic

ICANN conducted Phase 2 of its Global Consumer Research Survey to determine consumer response to domain names, both legacy and new gTLDs. The ICANN commissioned survey conducted by Nielsen included 5,452 consumers ages 18+ in 24 countries and was conducted in 18 languages. This research was aimed at measuring several variables like TLD awareness, consumers' interaction with sites on classic and new TLDs and their trust in them. more