Apple Rumored Building Its Own CDN, Negotiating Paid Interconnect Deals With ISPs

Apple has reportedly formed a new internal group to work on building out their own content delivery network (CDN) to deliver Apple software updates, apps and other Apple related content. more

Wall Street Bailout: Could Learn a Thing or Two From Botnets

Well, at this point, the government is well on its way to bailing out Wall Street from its own incompetence, putting taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion. The worst part is that as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson puts it, "You're worried about taxpayers being on the hook? Well, guess what? They're already on the hook!" I read that and said "Aw, crap..." Anyhow, Wall Street should maybe learn something from botnet operators. For you see, botnets are not just for sending spam anymore. The bots have diversified their holdings... more

Caring About Cybersecurity or Preparing the Ground for an I-Patriot Act?

Few months ago in a talk given at the Institution of Engineering and Technology organised here in London by the Society for Computers and Law, Professor Lessig recounted a conversation he had with former US Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, where Larry asked the question that many had in mind... how the US Government managed to conceptualize, design and draft a piece of legislation as vast and complex as the USA PATRIOT Act in such a short period of time (a month and 15 days after 9/11), and the answer was what many people had imagined... more

Ask Not What ICANN Can Do for You, But What You Can Do for ICANN

In recent weeks, you may have seen several articles asking that "ICANN", the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, move more expeditiously to open up the next application window for new gTLDs. As one commenter wrote "Ask a Board member or ICANN staff when they expect the next application window to open, and they will inevitably suggest 2020 -- another three years away. more

ICANN Releases Guideline for Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting

ICANN has released a set of guidelines to explain its Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting. The guidelines serve two purposes, says ICANN: "They define the role ICANN will perform in circumstances where vulnerabilities are reported and ICANN determines that the security, stability or resiliency of the DNS is exploited or threatened. The guidelines also explain how a party, described as a reporter, should disclose information on a vulnerability discovered in a system or network operated by ICANN." more

ICANN 58 Copenhagen: What to Expect

I don't know much about Copenhagen, except that Princess Mary of Denmark is really 'our' Princess Mary from Tasmania, Australia. The other thing I know is that it will be really cold. In terms of the ICANN meeting, there continues to be an element of dismay over the scheduling for this meeting, most notably reflected in a letter to ICANN's CEO from the GNSO Commercial Stakeholder Group. While it's good to get these issues on the table ... community should take ownership... more

Shadow Regulations and You: One More Way the Internet’s Integrity Can Be Won

Even those who care about net neutrality might not have heard of the aptly-called Shadow Regulations. These back-room agreements among companies regulate Internet content for a number of legitimate issues, including curbing hate speech, terrorism, and protecting intellectual property and the safety of children. While in name they may be noble, in actuality there are very serious concerns that Shadow Regulations are implemented without the transparency, accountability, and inclusion of stakeholders necessary to protect free speech on the Internet. more

Smells like Cybersquatting? How the UDRP “Smell Test” Can Go Awry

The UDRP has the form of a substantive Policy, but it operates as a "smell test".1 If the evidence smells bad, the panel will likely order a transfer. If it doesn't, the panel won't. An aim of this article is to help improve UDRP panels' sense of smell when it comes to differentiating between domain name investors and cybersquatters. I will provide some insight into the business of domain name investing that I hope will be helpful to UDRP panelists in making more accurate inferences in disputes involving investors. more

Keeping IT Industry Developments in Context

The announcement that Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt is standing down from the Apple board hardly came as a surprise. Google's Android is already powering smartphones that offer an open alternative to Apple's iPhone, while the recent announcement of plans for Chrome OS, an operating system that will directly challenge Mac OS, makes Google a direct competitor to Apple in its core market... more

A Netmundial+10 Could Help Redefine Pathways for Internet Governance in the Global South

The original Netmundial was a unique Internet governance event that took place in 2014 and set out to map new avenues for global cooperation around the theme, uniting diverse stakeholders to discuss the future of IG in a broad manner. It was initially convened by the Brazilian government and ICANN as an answer to the Snowden revelations of global Internet espionage performed by various nations (primarily the USA), in part due to these two actors being directly affected by the implications of the revelations. more

Study Looks at the Amount of Spam Over IPv6

A study conducted by RIPE Labs indicates that about 1.89% of spam are received over IPv6. "With the increased deployment of IPv6, we were curious to see how much the amount of spam sent over IPv6 increases. We looked at the e-mail system of the RIPE NCC and produced some statistics that could be seen as an indication for the overall trend of spam sent over IPv6," says RIPE in a blog post explaining the analysis. Group also notes that the study was based on one week’s worth of data and that it excluded messages already rejected by blacklisting and greylisting. more

Google Cracks Down on Illegal Online Pharmacies

Announced on the Google Blog last week, the search engine giant has filed a federal lawsuit against a group of rogue pharmacies in an effort to stop them from advertising on its search engine and websites. Michael Zwibelman, the company's litigation counsel, notes that the advertisers have deliberately "violated policies and circumvented technological measures" by using Adwords to promote pharmacy and prescription-drug operations without verification from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. more

PRISM, Multistakeholderism Cancer Scare, Montevideo Declaration, Brazil Summit: Where’s ICANN Going?

Many who attended the ICANN Durban meeting this summer will recall the open forum were speakers lined up to call on ICANN to either speed up or slow down the new gTLDs depending on their position or interest. I chose to address a different topic that no one was yet willing to tackle publicly. It was PRISM and the NSA surveillance scandals. In my intervention I was also the first to also publicly warn ICANN and Fadi Chehade directly that "Trust" in ICANN and Multistakeholderism face serious perils from the Snowden revelations... more

Study Assesses Potential Impact of DNSSEC on Broadband Consumers, Results Not Good

Recent collaborative test by Core Competence and Nominet have concluded that 75% of common residential and small SOHO routers and firewall devices used with broadband services do not operate with full DNSSEC compatibility "out of the box". The report presents and analyzes technical findings, their potential impact on DNSSEC use by broadband consumers, and implications for router/firewall manufacturers. Included in its recommendations, the report suggests that as vendors apply DNSSEC and other DNS security fixes to devices, consumers should be encouraged to upgrade to the latest firmware. more

Technologists vs. Marketers: Talking Incompatible Talk Leads to Walking in the Wrong Direction

As if conversations between technologists and marketers weren't already difficult enough, it appears that the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Email Experience Council wants to redefine long-standardized terms such as "header" and "message." more