Internet Society President and Chief Executive Officer Lynn St. Amour today announced that she will leave the Internet Society in February 2014 at the conclusion of her contract. St. Amour joined the Internet Society in 1998 as Executive Director of its Europe, Middle East, and Africa division. She became Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer in 1999 and was appointed President and CEO in March of 2001. more
Last month at CIRA's annual general meeting, I had the pleasure of meeting Tracy Axelsson, the executive director of the Vancouver Community Network. Her organization is working to connect street-involved citizens in downtown Vancouver with critical life-saving information via SMS messages. Chatting about her program was a vivid reminder for me of what many technology companies around the world have recognized, that the benefits of our wares can have a profound impact on our economies, culture and social fabric of our countries. more
The cellular companies have made an unprecedented push to get customers interested in 5G. Back in November, I recorded a college football game that enabled me to go back and count the twelve 5G commercials during the game. Advertising during sports events is relatively expensive, so these ads were not purchased at bargain-basement prices. The amount of money being spent on advertising 5G must be gigantic. more
A recent research seems to indicate that financial industries should increase the security standards they use for their mobile home banking solutions. IOActive Labs recently performed a black box and static analysis of worldwide mobile home banking apps. The research used iPhone/iPad devices to test a total of 40 home banking apps from the top 60 most influential banks in the world. more
In December 2005 the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched an inquiry into the future regulation of wholesale access on fixed networks. It has now announced a final decision, following a public inquiry, under section 152AL of the Trade Practices Act 1974 on six fixed-line services that had been due to expire at the end of this month. The following will remain declared services until July 2014... more
As technology gets more and more sophisticated, tech-savvy cybercriminals are having a field day devising increasingly ingenious ways to steal confidential data from ill-prepared targets. What this means is that an equally sophisticated cybersecurity response is needed to keep attackers at bay. This would involve re-examining reactive cybersecurity practices and adopting a proactive approach towards an active search for risks and vulnerabilities with the help of threat intelligence (TI). more
With 300+ sessions and over 7,800 participants from 158 countries across every time zone, RightsCon Online 2020 (July 27-31) demonstrated the importance of convening people worldwide to bring about positive changes in a time of crisis. The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (York University, Canada) organized a panel of diverse experts and academics to discuss "Promoting human rights and access to safe medicines during pandemics: The critical role of Internet pharmacies." more
If you are like the majority of Registry Operators we have spoken to, you may now be thinking that compliance with your new gTLD Registry Agreement is much more difficult than first envisaged -- especially if you are one of the lucky operators which have been chosen for ICANN's latest round of registry audits! You may also be surprised at the number of questions and requests that you need to respond to. more
Security experts at RSA Research Lab have reported the discovery of a new type of phishing attack targeted against online banking customers that combines a typical phishing website with a live change session initiated by fraudsters. The technique dubbed "Chat-in-the-Middle" not only attempts to trick customers into entering their usernames and passwords into a phishing site but obtains further sensitive information (such as answers to secret questions used by banks to authenticate customers). According to the report, this attack is currently targeting a single U.S.-based financial institution, however operators of all online banking websites are cautioned. more
Worldwide internet traffic plunged by around 40% as Google services suffered a complete black-out, according to web analytics experts. The tech company said all of its services from Google Search to Gmail to YouTube to Google Drive went down for between one and five minutes on Friday. more
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 on Thursday to advance a Republican plan to reverse the Obama administration's 2015 'net neutrality' order. more
T-Mobile announced today that as a part of its "T-Mobile Tuesdays" promotion it will give its customers unlimited data to play Pokemon Go until August 2017. Move called Net Neutrality violation. more
Today, the national governments that constitute ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) for the first time publicly voiced their concerns over specific new Top-Level Domain (TLD) applications in the form of Early Warnings. More than 240 individual GAC Early Warnings were issued in relation to 200 new TLD applications which account for 162 unique strings. By far the most prolific government to issue GAC Early Warnings was the Australian government with 129. more
A Chinese state-backed company has successfully launched its first 18 satellites, marking the initial phase of a significant project to establish a vast orbital network intended to compete with Starlink, according to The China Securities Journal. more
The Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020 has been submitted by the U.S. Congress to the White House for signing into law. It has been sitting there for several days now, but there are obviously more important developments demanding attention than a law compelling the Executive Branch to develop a 5G security strategy within 180 days through public and Federal agency consultations that will be implemented by the NTIA. more