Thankful for a Domain That Gives Back

Thanksgiving is just around the corner in Canada. It's a time of year when the harvest is in, the weather grows colder and families gather to give thanks for all they have. It is in this moment of gratitude that I want to highlight one of the most valuable and unique offerings in our industry: the ways in which country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) give back. Canadians who choose to use a ccTLD, which for us is .CA, help contribute to investments in the internet community. more

My Name is Vint Cerf, I’m a Scientist and I am Voting for Barack Obama

Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist who is also credited as the co-founder of the Internet, has endorsed U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in a YouTube video submitted to AVoteForScience channel. In the video, Cerf discusses the importance of Net Neutrality (NN) and the fact that Obama is the candidate that supports NN. The following excerpt is a portion of what Cerf says in the video... more

NTIA Asks New gTLD Applicants to Submit Public Interest Commitments

Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said today that all new gTLD applicants, even those that have not already been hit by government warnings, should submit Public Interest Commitments to ICANN. In a rare comment sent to an ICANN public forum today, the NTIA suggested that applicants should use the process to help combat counterfeiting and piracy. ... NTIA said that applicants should pay special attention in their PICs to helping out the "creative sector". more

.ORG Will Thrive Under Ethos Capital

I've been proud to serve Public Interest Registry (PIR) since 2017 and play a part in helping the organization support those with a mission to do good. I recently joined every one of my fellow board members in reaching the unanimous decision to approve the sale of PIR, as I believe PIR's mission will best be served by the sale and .ORG's long-term future will be stronger under Ethos Capital ownership. more

The [Dot]Brand Tribes - Part 1

In my last post we talked about the value of introducing new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) to Tribes. We discussed what a Tribe was and how communities of people sharing knowledge and experiences can benefit from new TLDs. In the next three posts from my blog we'll discuss how brand owners can either benefit from creating a tribal home and/or come together with other tribes for the benefit of their members. more

ICANN Website Breached, Passwords Obtained by an Unauthorized Person

Usernames/email addresses and encrypted passwords for profile accounts created on the ICANN.org public website have been obtained by an unauthorized person, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced Wednesday night. more

Syrian Internet Shutdown

James Cowie from Renesys reports: "Starting at 3:35 UTC today (6:35am local time), approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet. Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table." more

Jan 28: International Data Privacy Day

January 28 is marked as International Data Privacy Day in order to help raise awareness and generate discussions about information privacy. This year companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Google, AT&T, LexisNexis and The Privacy Projects are sponsoring Data Privacy Day efforts. more

It’s Auction Time Again

This week ICANN will auction off .WEB or .WEBS. There are seven live applications for .WEB and one for .WEBS. The string contention process decided that the two names are so similar that they'll only assign one of them, so all eight applications are in one auction... There are some deep pocketed bidders in this round including Google, Donuts, web.com which owns Network Solutions and a lot of other web properties, and Schlund which owns the largest web hoster 1&1. more

Experts Urge Support for Security Researchers, Call a Stop to Intimidation Efforts

Over fifty experts and expert advocates have released an open letter in support of security research and against efforts to chill or intimidate security researchers. more

The Rise of ChatGPT and Its Impact on Cybersecurity

The emergence of ChatGPT, a powerful AI language model developed by OpenAI, has revolutionized the way developers approach coding tasks. With its ability to generate code snippets and even entire software programs, ChatGPT offers convenience and time-saving potential. more

Russian Lawmakers Pass Bill to Expand Government Control Over Internet, Protests Expected to Ensue

Russian lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill to expand further government control of the internet proclaimed by backers of the bill to be a defensive measure against internet disruptions by hostile nations. more

Kuala Lumpur Mandates WiFi for All Restaurants and Bars

A new law passed in Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, this month will require all food and beverage outlets to provide wireless internet access to customers by April of this year. The law makes WiFi access for customers a requirement for food operators when applying for a new license for a restaurant or renewing an existing license. Cafes, pubs, bars and club lounges are also required to provide WiFi services, the mayor of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Fuad Ismail, was quoted as saying to a Malaysian newspaper recently. more

Testing, Testing, Testing for a More Secure (Internet) World

Reading up on COVID-19 and Zoom/Boris Johnson outcry yesterday, an analogy struck me between the two: the lack of testing. In both cases, to truly know how safe and secure we are, testing needs to be stepped up considerably. This post focuses on cybersecurity. Over the past days and weeks, more and more organisations have switched to digital products and services to sustain working from home, to keep productivity up and to be connected. more

European ccTLDs Passed 64 Million Domains, Growth Slower, Reports CENTR

"European ccTLDs closed April 2013 with just over 64 million domains under management. Over the 12 months preceding, overall net growth was 6.7% -- an increase of around 4 million domains. This growth however, is a lower rate compared with that of the same period in the year before." more