PIR, the .ORG Domain Registry, Announces Radical Change to Marketing Scheme

Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization managing the .ORG top-level domain, says it will not be offering any further volume discounts to domain registrars when the current agreements expire. more

Annual Review of .fr ccTLD, With Growth of +6% in 2021

Like 2020, the year 2021 saw exceptional conditions, with the persistence of the health crisis. As the registry for the .FR TLD, Afnic was well placed to observe the adaptation of French society to these exceptional conditions, particularly from the viewpoint of the digital transition process. Following on from a historical record in .fr domain name creations in 2020 (793,441), the 776,514 in 2021 have confirmed the take-up of digital benefits by French users, with registrations still up 12% as compared to 2019. more

Lessons From an E-Voting Debacle

There has been a significant focus over the past two years on the vulnerability and cyber threat risks faced for voting systems at the local level. That focus has typically been on State and local jurisdictions like cities, counties and towns, and resulted in the creation of the DHS Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to assist. However, there are other local governance entities at significant risk as well. more

ICANN Makes Senior Management Restructure to Fix Organizational Weaknesses

Kieren McCarthy reporting in .Nxt: ICANN's new CEO Fadi Chehade has embarked on a bold restructure of the organization's management on his first day in the job. Announcing two new senior management members -- Sally Costerton as head of stakeholder relations and communications and Tarek Kamel as head of governmental affairs -- Chehade says his focus was on engaging at a global level with stakeholders, building relationships and improving accountability. more

IGF Call for Public Comments on the Definition of Multistakeholder Participation Mechanisms

Over the past weeks, communities gathering experts from government, business, Civil Society, and the academic and technical communities, have been working through open mailing lists and online virtual meetings on IGF Best Practices. The discussion was documented by independent experts that will feed into five 90 minute Forums in Istanbul and that will in turn report into a Best Practices Main Session. more

NANOG’s Edward Mc Nair to Deliver Keynote Address at CaribNOG 17 in April

Edward Mc Nair will deliver the keynote address at the next regional meeting of the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), to be held in Bridgetown, Barbados from April 10 to 12. The featured talk will take place on Thursday 11 April at 9 am AST. A live netcast will be available. Mc Nair is the Executive Director of the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG). more

The .BEST Brand Protection (Interview)

Launching a social network based on a single domain name extension is seriously innovative, but such a concept also implies to give Trademarks a chance to protect themselves. I recently interviewed Cyril Fremont, the new operator of the .BEST Registry and also CEO of "THE.BEST Social Network" on his plan to allow Trademarks to protect their assets prior to the launching of the review network. more

Are Big Tech CFOs (Inadvertently) Stealing From Shareholders?

When valuing a stock, analysts and shareholders evaluate always revenue and profit. Big tech COFs are sitting on assets worth tens of millions of dollars of annual profit (not just revenue, but true profit) in the form of unallocated IPv4 addresses. By not selling or leasing these out, they are incurring expenses to hold them and missing out on tremendous profits. At a 20X multiple (for context, Cisco is trading at nearly 18X earnings, Google at just over 33X earnings, Shopify at well over 700X earnings), big tech CFOs are actively preventing over $250 billion in market capitalization for their shareholders. more

Most Employees in Rural America Can’t Work From Home Due to Lack of Required Broadband Speeds

One of the hottest topics in the news related to coronavirus is working from home. Companies of all sizes are telling employees to work from home as a way to help curb the spread of the virus. Companies without work-at-home policies are scrambling to define how to make this work to minimize disruption to their business. Allowing employees to work at home is not a new phenomenon. more

Internet of Things Market Expected to Reach $3.04 Trillion, 30B Connected Things in 2020

A newly released Internet of Things ecosystem forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) attempts to clarify the hardware, software, services, connectivity, and security that make up the evolving Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. The worldwide IoT market is forecast to grow from $1.3 trillion in 2013 to $3.04 trillion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%. more

Spectrum and Weather Forecasting

There is currently a brewing controversy over the allocation of various radio frequencies for 5G that could have a negative impact on weather forecasting. Weather forecasting has become extremely sophisticated and relies on masses of data gathered from weather satellites and other data-gathering devices. The masses of data, along with modern supercomputers and data center computing, have significantly improved the ability to predict future weather. more

Reducing the Risks of BYOD with DNS-Based Security Intelligence; Part 2: Taking Control

In part 1, I talked about some of the risks associated with BYOD. But there are actions you can take to greatly reduce this risk. One effective method for limiting the risk of BYOD is to employ DNS-based security intelligence techniques. DNS-based security intelligence makes use of an enterprise's caching DNS server to monitor and block DNS queries to known botnet command and control (C&C) domains. more

How to Turn a Closed Generic gTLD Into a Restricted One

As the New gTLD Program has rolled out over the course of the past few years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has made a number of program changes along the way. One of these changes disallows closed, generic gTLD applications, such as Amazon's application for .BOOK. Now, applicants for closed generics must decide how to proceed: whether to open their generic strings to the public, limit registrations to a defined portion of the public, withdraw the application, or sell it. more

International Academy for Trans-Sector Use of Broadband

While jogging along LacLeman in Geneva I caught up with Dr. Kim Seang-Tae, the President of the National Information Society Agency of South Korea. He is also one of the Commissioners of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Digital Development. Dr. Seang-Tae is the chief architect of the FttH miracle that is transforming South Korea. His broadband journey began in 1994, when he developed the country's first broadband plan. more

Internet Shut Down in Iraq in Response to Mass Protests

The Iraqi government shut down internet access in the country for nearly four hours in response to mass protests in Baghdad. more