.Brand Applications Account for One Third of All New gTLD Applications

ICANN announced today that they received a total of 1930 New gTLD applications from 60 countries for 1408 unique strings. Of the 1930 applications received, .Brands accounted for 664 of them. There are an additional 80 .Brand TLDs which we have classified as "Other", as they do not fall into any of the categories listed above. more

Private Cyber Investigators

This post was prompted by questions I was asked to address when I participated in a panel discussion of cybersecurity. Here are the relevant questions: "Should we reconsider the notion that companies under attack are prohibited from investigating the attackers and trying to locate them? We allow private investigators to conduct some activities that usually only the police are allowed to do; should we accredit private cyber investigators?" ...The one I found more interesting is the second question: whether we should accredit private cyber investigators. more

The Google Telephone Company?

Google has undertaken a beta-test of a telephony platform that includes the opportunity to route incoming calls to multiple devices and telephone numbers as well as free domestic long distance service. Google offers a service that fits somewhere between computer-to-computer, Internet telephony and Voice over the Internet Protocol telephony with access to and from the public switched telephone network. These service categories present polar opposites for U.S. regulatory purposes... more

Biden’s Cyberspace Ambassador Urges Americans to Tone Down the Anti-China and Anti-Russia Tough Talk on Tech

Nathaniel C. Fick, the federal government's inaugural ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy, has urged Americans to tone down the anti-China and anti-Russia tough talk on tech in order to establish better relations with nations that have yet to pick a side. more

Industrial Plant Attack Generates Renewed Concerns Over Critical Infrastructure Hacking Threats

A recent malware attack on the control systems of an industrial plant has renewed concerns about the threat hacking poses to critical infrastructure. more

Registry-Registrar Cross Ownership: Framing the Issues

There has been much said and written recently about the issue of registry-registrar cross ownership with regard to New Top Level Domains ("New TLDs"). It is clear that there appears to be a fair amount of confusion about the issue and the positions espoused by various parties. To assist the ICANN community in understanding the issue -- the points of agreement and debate -- I offer the following overview on behalf of Network Solutions and Central Registry Solutions... more

ICANN New gTLD Program SWOT Analysis: OPPORTUNITIES (Part 3)

The SWOT analysis (alternatively SWOT Matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. The following is an attempt to apply the SWOT Analysis to ICANN's new gTLD program. more

Domain Name Lessons From iTunes

What do iTunes and a cooperative domain-name Intellectual Property (IP) regime have in common? They are market solutions to illegal activity: free downloading of music and free use of brands in domain names, respectively. The music industry tried to fight the free downloading of copyright-protected music by taking legal action against free downloaders under the pretext that their activity siphons industry revenue... more

ISC Assesses DNS Flag Day

Everyone who participated in supporting DNS Flag Day initiative should feel they have accomplished something worth-while, says ISC's Vicky Risk. more

The Untold History of the First Cyber Moonshot

A dialogue between Michael Warner (Historian, United States Cyber Command) and Tony Rutkowski (Cybersecurity engineer, lawyer and historian). Michael is chairing a cyber history panel at the October biennial Symposium on Cryptologic History hosted by the National Security Agency; his panel will include discussion of the almost unknown key role of cryptologist Ruth Nelson leading a team in the 1980s in a major initiative to secure public internet infrastructure. more

MIT Spam Conference: 2010 Call for Papers and Participation

I am proud (or disappointed) to announce the 8th annual MIT Spam Conference, March 25th and 26th at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A regular research competition that brings out the best minds in the fight against unsolicited email. At this point it would be helpful to provide a little background on the conference and remind everyone that the Call For Papers is still open. more

Baltimore Gets Hacked: Main Computer Systems Crippled, Experts Estimate Months to Recover

On May 7, hackers breached parts of the computer systems that run Baltimore's government, taking down essential systems such as voice mail, email, a parking fines database, payment systems used for water bills, property taxes, real estate transactions and vehicle citations. more

Opting for UDRP Over URS

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) implemented the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) in 2013 together with three other rights protection mechanisms for trademarks. It "is not intended for use in any proceedings with open questions of fact, but only clear cases of trademark abuse"... It was designed to afford rights holders claiming abusive registration of domain names with new gTLD extensions an even faster route to remedy than the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). more

Over 100 US Mayors Sign Pledge to Hold ISPs Accountable for Net Neutrality Violations

A net neutrality pledge initiated by mayors from New York City, Austin, and Portland, is now signed by more than 100 US mayors. The signed pledge holds ISPs accountable for net neutrality violations, despite the FCC's vote to repeal the regulations late last year. more

New Report on “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016” Shows Continued Growth

Did you know that over 50% of .CZ domains are now signed with DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)? Or that over 2.5 million .NL domains and almost 1 million .BR domains are now DNSSEC-signed? Were you aware that around 80% of DNS clients are now requesting DNSSEC signatures in their DNS queries? And did you know that over 100,000 email domains are using DNSSEC and DANE to enable secure email between servers? more