ISOC Issues Statement in Response to Increasing Internet Access Restrictions by Governments

The Internet Society (ISOC) has addressed human rights issues related to Internet access stating "[t]he increasing pressure to limit access to the Internet has escalated the sense of urgency in addressing this situation." ISOC, in the announcement, reaffirmed its policy area and its work to bring attention to the impact of Internet freedom on other aspects of human rights. more

Modest Proposals for gTLD Profits

When does a non-profit organization become a profit-making one? This and similarly fundamental questions about ICANN's institutional character are raised by the high probability that the gTLD project will produce profits for ICANN. How much money those profits will amount to remains in question, but it is increasingly difficult for ICANN to say that there will be no profit at all. more

The Coming Cybersecurity Regulatory Revolution

Cybersecurity regulation will take its place alongside environmental regulation, health and safety regulation and financial regulation as a major federal activity. What is not yet clear is what form the regulations will take. FISMA controls, performance standards, consensus standards and industry-specific consortia standards are all possible regulatory approaches. What is not likely is an extended continuation of the current situation in which federal authorities have only limited, informal oversight of private sector cyberdefenses (or lack thereof). more

Growth in Commercial Sinkholing Operations

The last couple of years have seen a growth in commercial sinkholing operations. What was once an academic method for studying botnets and other types of Internet-born threat, has more recently turned in to an increasingly profitable business for some organizations. Yesterday I published a blog on the DarkReading site titled Sinkholing For Profit, and I wanted to expand upon some aspects of the sinkholing discussion (there's only so much you can fit in to 800-ish word limits). more

dot Brands Need to Look Under the Hood Before Partnering

As the countdown for the ICANN gTLD program ticks away its final 100 days, potential dot Brand applicants have to make important decisions in a short space of time: whether to apply for a new TLD, how to best leverage a new top-level domain, and which gTLD partner to choose. Most dot Brand applicants have excellent IT departments, but these resources are already over-stretched with current projects, and they likely lack the specific skills and experience needed to meet ICANN's exacting standards in the highly specialized area of top-level domain registry technology. more

.COM About to Hit 100-Million Mark

Although not quite there yet, statistical figures indicate total registration for the .com top-level domain will soon be reaching 100 million by the end of this year. The worlds most popular TLD currently has 98 million registered domains and accounts for 45% of all TLDs. more

Oil and Gas Cyber Security Forum

A reader recently brought to my attention an upcoming conference in London in the UK -- The Oil and Gas Cyber Security Forum. Here's a little blurb: "Despite investments into state of the art technology, a majority of the oil and gas industry remain blissfully unaware of the vulnerabilities, threats and capability of a malicious cyber attack on control systems..." I bring this up because it is relevant to the trends in cyber security that we see this year - that of the Advanced Persistent Threat. more

Time Warner Cable Showing Photos of Melted Fiber-Opitcs Caused by “Freakish Subterranean Fires”

In follow up to a significant outage in New York City's East Village earlier this month, Time Warner Cable has posted a detailed look at the incident caused by fire melting a portion of the fiber-optic network, affecting 24,000 customers in the area. more

Documentary Looks at 60 Hudson Street, World’s Most Concentrated Hub of Internet Connectivity

In a new documentary, filmmaker Ben Mendelsohn, takes a look at New York City's 60 Hudson Street as one of the world's most concentrated hubs of Internet connectivity. "Set in the dense, mixed-use neighborhood of Tribeca, the building's nondescript brick exterior conceals several network interconnection facilities where huge amounts of data are exchanged," writes Mendelsohn. The short documentary titled, "Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors," takes a look at the history behind the building and a peak at the hidden infrastructure within. more

Duqu Reported as Precursor to a Future Stuxnet-Like Attack

Virus researchers at Symantec Corp. have revealed a variant of the Stuxnet worm, named Duqu, that is found to be stealing information about industrial control systems. Symantec reports: "Duqu's purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party. The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility... Parts of Duqu are nearly identical to Stuxnet, but with a completely different purpose." more

Battle for .eco Top-Level Domain Not Over Yet

Sources recently had reported that Al Gore had dropped his bid to win control of the proposed new Top-Level Domain (TLD), leaving the door open for a rival Mikhail Gorbachev-backed consortium. But according to a report from Adam Vaughan in the Guardian, the company that Gore's Climate Reality group was working with remains in the running. "Despite losing the vice-president's backing and switching off its campaigning website, Dot Eco LLC tells me it's hopeful of winning a tussle with its main public rival, the Canadian company Big Room, which is supported by Gorbachev's Green Cross." more

SEC Asks Companies to Disclose Cyberattacks

I came across an interesting article on Reuters today: "U.S. securities regulators formally asked public companies for the first time to disclose cyber attacks against them, following a rash of high-profile Internet crimes..." This is a pretty big step for the SEC. Requiring companies to disclose when they have been hacked shifts the action on corporations from something voluntary to something that they have to do. The question is do we want to hear about everything? more

Innovating with New gTLDs

One of the primary purposes of the ICANN New generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program is to foster innovation in the DNS industry and the wider Internet. While having a desirable TLD string that users can relate to is a good starting point, gTLD applicants may want to bolster their value propositions by offering innovative services and differentiate their TLDs from others. Defining the services to be offered is so central to a gTLD that it should be part of the initial strategy of any prospective applicant. more

DDoS Attacks: What’s in Store for 2012?

According to Kaspersky Lab, 2011 has seen "numerous DDoS attacks with a variety of motives," many of which will "go down in the annals of cybercrime." As we look ahead to 2012, it's worth examining some of those motives to see what they portend. more

ICANN to Manage Internet Time Zone Database

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that it has taken over operation of an Internet Time Zone Database that is used by various major computer systems. ICANN agreed to manage the database after receiving a request from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The database contains time zone code and data that computer programs and operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Java, and Oracle rely on to determine the correct time for a given location. Modifications to the database occur frequently throughout the year. more