Australia’s First Online Census Halted Due to Multiple DDoS Attacks

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports deliberate and "malicious" attacks from offshore, designed to sabotage nation's first online 2016 Census. more

I Didn’t Put My Name on the Census

On many occasions I have written about the dangers of electronic communications in relation to data retention laws, government e-spying and other activities undermining our democracy and our liberty. To date governments still have to come up with evidence that all of this spying on their citizens has prevented any terrorist attacks. Terrorism has been given as the key reason for the government's spying. more

Reports Provide Details on ‘Project Sauron’ Malware, Highly Advanced, Remained Hidden for 5 Years

"Security experts have discovered a malware platform that's so advanced in its design and execution that it could probably have been developed only with the active support of a nation-state," reports Dan Goodin in Ars Technica. more

WiFi QoE Assurance with TR-069 - Part 3: From Single AP to Large AP Deployments

Last week we investigated how rich data derived from TR-069 can be used to optimize the service quality of a single access point (AP) within the subscriber premises. Often a service provider will control multiple APs within a multi-dwelling unit, university campus, or other public space. This opens up new doors for optimizing service quality - instead of simply optimizing a single AP, you are now able to control other APs in the vicinity as well. more

IBM’s SoftLayer Cloud Infrastructure Service Blocks Cuba - Why Now?

Cachivache Media recently reported that the Bitly URL-trimming service had stopped working in Cuba. Cubans had been using the service for several years, so this resulted in many broken links. Cachivache did not know what had happened, but published a traceroute that timed out at an Akamai router. I contacted Akamai, and they said they could not say anything -- they would only talk with their customers -- Bitly in this case. So I contacted Bitly and had an email exchange with one of their support people. more

Fair Use Registration of Domain Names for Artists and Hobbyists

There is in the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act a provision not expressly found in the UDRP (at least, not in so many words) but the concept is nevertheless present in the Policy by construction... The term "fair use" is typically associated with protected speech (criticism and commentary), fan websites, and nominative use of domain names but it is not limited to those uses. It's a flexible principle in both trademark and copyright law. more

Kazakhstan Using Malware Against Journalists, Political Activists, Lawyers

Journalists and political activists critical of Kazakhstan's authoritarian government, along with their family members, lawyers, and associates, have been targets of an online phishing and malware campaign believed to be carried out on behalf of the government of Kazakhstan, according to a new report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). more

Verizon-Yahoo! Incumbents Never Seem to Learn

It is amazing that after the dozens of examples of failed business decisions made by telcos in relation to the digital economy, Verizon has clearly not learned any lessons and is willing to waste $4.8 billion in its purchase of Yahoo. This investment will be totally useless and will not provide any new revenue for the telco. They seemed to be attracted by the people-tracking facility (surveillance marketing) that companies such as Yahoo use, and they aim this for their own purposes to attract new advertising revenues. more

Comcast Says FCC has no Authority to Prohibit Pay-for-Privacy Model by ISPs

Amidst debates concerning privacy rules for ISPs, Comcast in an FCC filing on Monday has urged the Commission to not interfere with business models offering discounts or other value to consumers in exchange for allowing ISPs to use their data. more

IoT to Reach 27 Billion Devices, Will Generate $3 Trillion by 2025, Says Machina

Machina Research, market intelligence provider on the Internet of Things, today published its annual report on the size of the IoT where it has predicted the total number of IoT connections will grow from 6 billion in 2015 to 27 billion in 2025 - a compound annual growth rate of 16%. more

FBI Withheld Warning Democratic National Committee of Suspected Russian Role in Hack

Russian hackers believed to be affiliated with the Russian government continued to have access to Democratic Party computers for months during the critical phase in the U.S. presidential campaign, the sources have said. more

WiFi QoE Assurance with TR-069 - Part 2: Optimizing a Single Access Point

As we have seen in the first installment of this series, TR-069 offers unprecedented visibility into the customer premises network to highlight devices beyond the gateway, and in the case of WiFi, the issues affecting service quality. Insights into the surrounding WIFI landscape alone provide ample data to provision the access point (AP) to operate in a part of the spectrum with the least amount of interference. more

Would the Internet Survive a Trump Apocalypse?

Presidential nominee Donald J. Trump and his supporters are pursuing platforms to create an altered America in a different world that is profoundly different in almost every respect from what has existed until now -- it is a new world best described as the Trump Apocalypse. Would the Internet as we have known it continue to exist? The short answer is probably not. Here is why. more

Nigerian Scammer, Ringleader of International Criminal Network Arrested

The 40-year-old Nigerian national, ringleader of a global network believed to be behind scams totalling more than USD $60 million has been arrested in a joint operation by INTERPOL and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). more

Losing and Reclaiming Domain Names

For registrants who are not trademark owners losing their domain names can be an irretrievable loss; and for trademark owners, perhaps not irretrievable but fraught with uncertainties of recovery. ICANN attempted to solve the problem of inadvertent lapses of registration in the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) and its companion the Expired Domain Name Deletion Policy (EDNDP), implemented in 2013. more