DNSSEC Adoption Part 3: A Five Day Hole in Online Security

Implementing security requires attention to detail. Integrating security services with applications where neither the security service nor the application consider their counterpart in their design sometimes make plain that a fundamental change in existing practices is needed. Existing "standard" registrar business practices require revision before the benefits of the secure infrastructure foundation DNSSEC offers can be realized. more

2017: The Year of dotBrand

With over 600 "dot Brands" applied for in 2012, and hundreds now launched, 2017 seems poised to be the Year of dotBrand! "dotBrands" are top level domains (TLDs) that use the brand name to the right of the dot, as in www.mabanque.bnpparibas or www.home.cern. Many large companies across nearly every industry applied, including Google, Amazon, Citibank, VISA, McDonalds, Sony, HBO, Alibaba, and Hermes. more

Facebook Used VPN App to Collect Competitive Data on App Usage, According to Reports on Leaked Docs

U.K. Parliament today released 250 pages of internal emails between Facebook and other tech companies regarding accessing user data through the social network's system. more

Virgina Governor Announces Facebook Investing $1 Billion for New Data Center in Henrico County

Virgia governor Terry McAuliffe today announced Facebook will spend $750 million to establish a 970,000-square-foot data center in the White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County. more

New TLDs Are Coming, and They Are Coming Fast

Despite what you may have read about possible delays to the rollout of the new Top-Level Domain (TLD) program, all the available evidence points to ICANN approving the applicant guidebook shortly after its San Francisco conference in March. My feelings about the timing of the new TLD program were further buoyed by Kurt Pritz, ICANN's Senior Vice President of Stakeholder Relations, who gave a presentation at the .nxt conference I attended in San Francisco this week. Mr Pritz said the applicant guidebook is currently in a "proposed final" version and should be approved after ICANN's San Francisco conference in March. more

Richard Clarke: Defend Against Cyberwar by Re-Architecting Networks, Not Buying More Technology

In his keynote yesterday at the RSA Security Conference, former U.S. top chief counter-terrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, said cyberwar defence efforts need to focus on re-architecting networks not buying more technology. more

Have New Domains Had Our Twerking Moment?

There's a lot of .buzz about Google's new holding company, Alphabet. From .NYC to .London to .Tokyo the "new Google" story is making .news everywhere, as the .media large and small speculates on what it means for the .online and .tech industries, and beyond. After all, as one of the .top brands and companies in the .world, when Google makes a move it can have .global impact. more

Video: Highlights of the DNSSEC Key Signing Ceremony

ICANN video highlighting last week's historical DNSSEC key signing ceremony held in a high security data centre located in Culpeper, VA, outside of Washington, DC. "During the ceremony, participants were present within a secure facility and witnessed the preparations required to ensure that the so-called key-signing-key (KSK) was not only generated correctly, but that almost every aspect of the equipment, software and procedures associated with its generation were also verified to be correct and trustworthy." more

$59M and Counting: ICANN Board Downgrades Community Say on Use of Last Resort Auction Proceeds

ICANN's new gTLD program provides for last resort auctions to settle contention sets where the competing applicants are unable to reach agreement by negotiation or private auction, with the proceeds going to a segregated ICANN account. With the recent $25 million bid of Google to secure control of the .App registry the total proceeds of those ICANN auctions has swelled to $58.8 million. The final sum by the end of the first round could go higher, perhaps to more than $100 million. That's serious money. more

Network Requirements for the Metaverse

I've often joked that I don't play computer games because I'm holding out for a holodeck. While that may sound ridiculously far-future, we're on the verge of seeing the web-based virtual reality that will be a major step towards a holodeck. There is already some awesome virtual reality software and games where a person can get immersed in another world using a headset. more

60 Minutes Investigates Cybersecurity and the Reality of Sabotaging Critical Infrastructure

CBS's 60 Minutes aired a special report last night investigating how hackers can get into the computer systems that run crucial elements of the world's infrastructure, such as the power grids, water works or even a nation's military arsenal. From the report: "At the Sandia National Laboratories, Department of Energy security specialists like John Mulder try to hack into computer systems of power and water companies, and other sensitive targets in order to figure out the best way to sabotage them. It's all done with the companies' permission in order to identify vulnerabilities. In one test, they simulated how they could have destroyed an oil refinery by sending out code that caused a crucial component to overheat." more

DNSSEC vs DDoS Protection: Is It Really a Choice?

Within the last year or two, I've heard people express an opinion to the effect that if the domain name industry put as much focus on preventing distributed denial of service attacks as we have on implementing DNSSEC, the Internet would be a safer place. While there may be a grain of truth there, I suggest that this kind of thinking presents us with something of a false dichotomy. more

Why Distinguish Between Defensive and Offensive Domain Names?

Offensive domain-name registrations require strategic corporate decisions. Second, they require different strategic and tactical remedies when third parties register desired names. Thus, different organizational approaches are necessary to manage domain name risks and rewards. The essay identifies the strategic differences and remedies for the two types of domain names, and outlines the implications for internal work-flow organizational structures. more

EU “Fair Share” Contagion: Caribbean Telecoms Operators Seek to Deepen Their Monopoly Strangleholds

On Friday, 23rd June, Caribbean telecommunications operators (telcos) held a meeting in Miami to fine tune their strategy to force Big Tech companies to contribute financially to regional telecoms network infrastructure. Hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), and taking a similar perspective to the "fair share" proposal currently being debated in the European Union, regional network operators are arguing that over-the-top (OTT) service providers are responsible for 67 percent of the total Internet traffic in the Caribbean, but make no contributions or investments toward local delivery networks. more

IPv6 in China

Much has been written about the progress of the adoption of IPv6 over the years. I know I've been guilty of adding my writings into the pool, and this article is a further contribution to that pool of observations and measurements. In this case, I want to look in some detail at the deployment of IPv6 in China. Why is China so important in this story of IPv6 deployment? more