US Facing a Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity, Says CSIS

A new study has been released by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th President that looks into cybersecurity manpower challenges in the United States. The report titled, "A Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity," is produced by CSIS - a bipartisan public and foreign policy think tank in Washington. more

Looking Back at 20 Years of ICANN

I became interested in the global management of the Domain Name System (DNS) in 1991, soon after helping to create commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Sweden. We moved the Internet Exchange Point (IX) from Academia to the private sector and similarly the management of the SE country code top-level domain. The exercise was fascinating and it really tweaked my interest in the DNS and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. more

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Apologizes for Data Breach, Blames Russian Agents

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer apologized today at the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing regarding massive data breaches at the internet company, blaming Russian agents. more

Iran Begins Roll Out of “National Internet”

Iran has announced the launch of its first ever national data network. The inauguration ceremony was held on Saturday by country's communications and information technology minister, Mahmoud Vaezi. more

Survey Indicates 69% of Internet Users Already Making Use of Cloud Computing

According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center's Internet Project, 69% of all Internet users in U.S. have either stored data online or used a web-based software application. "These users are making use of 'cloud computing,' an emerging architecture by which data and applications reside in cyberspace, allowing users to access them through any web-connected device." At the same time, most of these users are still unfamiliar with the term "cloud computing." more

The Costs of a Dysfunctional Relationship - Part 2

Part 1 described the impasse between the ICANN board and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) over the introduction of new gTLDs. This part analyzes the conflicts and offers suggestions for beginning to resolve them. ... Some of these conflicts turn out to have clear answers. Approving the DAG before public comments could be considered violated ICANN's bylaws, but the board has unmistakable authority to reject the GAC's advice. more

U.N. Cybercrime Convention Enters Critical Stage

Negotiations for a U.N. cybercrime convention have reached a critical stage at the fourth round of discussions in Vienna. Delegates from over 150 states have met for over 100 hours to discuss the proposed convention, which has been met with skepticism from some states, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders more

ICANN HR Shares Some Data on Staffing

How diverse is ICANN? While the recently published Afnic report gives some insights, it didn't explore ICANN staff in any detail. ICANN's HR team, however, did share some data on ICANN's staff diversity during a session at the ICANN meeting in Helsinki earlier this week. Some interesting data was shared about how ICANN handle their HR overall, but the bit that caught my eye was in respect to gender. more

Top 10 Most Successful Digital City Brands 2019

Dotzon presents the results of their "Digital City Brands 2019" study. In the third edition of "Digital City Brands" after 2017 and 2018, Dotzon analyzed which factors determine the successful use of Digital City Brands. The Digital City Brand is the digital dimension of the City Brand and mirrors the "Digitalness" of a city. European capitals like Berlin, Paris and London were among the first to have their own Digital City Brands. more

Japanese ISP Buys Z.com Domain For Close to $7 Million

One of Japan's leading Internet services providers and domain registrar, GMO Internet, Inc., today announced the acquisition of the single-character domain name, Z.com for JPY ?800 million (close to USD $7 million). According to the company, the acquisition is part of a plan to unify its global strategy under the brand name, Z.com and building GMO's "core values and objectives into the Z.com brand" more

Net Neutrality, Health Care, and “The Customer is Always Wrong!”

The surest way to screw up future innovative applications would be for ISPs to make constraining assumptions about the future based on existing applications' performance. Discussing P2P behavior as if it were some monolithic, unchanging entity is simply wrong. What is P2P? BitTorrent? Skype? CNN live video feed fan-outs? And what of changes to these existing apps? What of future apps? more

How Long Does a URS Case Take?

The Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) -- which allows a trademark owner to suspend certain domain names, especially those in the "new" gTLDs -- was designed as a quicker and less-expensive alternative to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). As I've written frequently before, there are significant differences between the URS and the UDRP. One of those differences is how long a typical proceeding lasts. more

Deadline of Feb 1 for Nominations for Public Interest Registry (.ORG Operator) Board of Directors

Would you be interested in helping guide the future of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit operator of the .ORG, .NGO and .ONG domains? If so, the Internet Society is seeking nominations for three positions on the PIR Board of Directors. The nominations deadline is 23:00 UTC on Thursday, February 1, 2018. Find out more about the positions and the required qualifications. more

Analysing the USA: An Outsider’s Perspective

Over the last year I have become deeply involved in the debate in the USA regarding the future of their telecoms sector, which is proceeding very much along the lines of the trans-sector approach towards infrastructure (using it for other sectors such as healthcare, education, energy), open networks and a separation between infrastructure and applications. While many of the issues are universal it was also interesting to observe the specific elements that make the USA so unique. more

Marketing Activities for New TLDs That Can Start Right Now

Sitting on the plane after a tightly packed 3 days in Amsterdam for the regional registrars meeting, I'm bursting with ideas and thoughts. The highlight of the event for me was the meeting organized by Google to propose the creation of a trade association on behalf of TLDs. Brilliant and long overdue. The comedy of the situation the domain name industry has lived with since its inception is the fact that it actually doesn't exist in the eyes and minds of the average business or consumer. Domain names are simply a by-product of websites, or possibly even web-hosting.  more