Bloomberg: Pricing of New TLDs Seem “Kind of Random”, Sector in “Flux”

Bloomberg's Economic Editor, Peter Coy, suggests that the Top-Level Domain pricing seen in the market today appears to represent a big pricing experiment in a sector of the economy "that's in flux". more

Hundreds of Syrian Domains Seized As a Result of Trade Sanctions

"In apparent observation of international trade sanctions against Syria, a U.S. firm that ranks as the world's fourth-largest domain name registrar has seized hundreds of domains belonging to various Syrian entities, including a prominent Syrian hacker group and sites associated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," reports Brian Krebs. "The apparently coordinated action ended with each of the site's registration records being changed to include Web.com's Florida address, as well as the notation 'OFAC Holding'." more

Caribbean Infrastructure Investment Must Keep Pace With Global Digital Trends

Caribbean islands are known for white-sand getaways, but one of the region's best-kept secrets remains buried under its picturesque beaches. That hidden treasure is the Caribbean's complex network of subsea Internet cables, worth their weight in gold because they connect these small-island nations to each other and to the global Internet. With that Internet connectivity comes the hope of a better life for millions of Caribbean citizens, and regional ambitions of global competitiveness. more

Ensuring Patient Safety: A Concise Guide to Post-Market Surveillance for IoMT

A significant segment of the IoT ecosystem, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 23.7 percent (forecast period: 2022 -- 2032). This fast growth is indicative of how rapidly IoTM is integrating into modern society, which has understandably attracted the attention of regulators. The widespread use of IoTM devices means that their malfunction or dysfunction can affect the health and lives of many. more

China Starts Coordinated Internet Blackout Ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary

Various sources are reporting that the Chinese authorities have blocked internet access to popular social networking and email sites such as Twitter, Flickr reviews, Bing, Live.com, Hotmail.com and several others. According to the Telegraph, "[T]he measures came as the authorities tried to close all avenues of dissent ahead of Thursday's anniversary, placing prominent critics under house arrest and banning newspaper from making any mention of the pro-democracy protests." This latest co-ordinated internet 'blackout' was initiated at 5 P.M. local time as various websites suddenly became unavailable to Chinese internet users. more

Registry/Registrar Separation: Clarifying the Mess!

Do you keep hearing about this Registry/Registrar Separation (or Vertical Integration) issue but really aren't sure what it's all about? This post should help you to get a better understanding of the details of this saga which is one of the most controversial, yet still unresolved issues within the new gTLD program. more

AI System Abused in China-Linked Cyberattack, Says Anthropic

A Chinese-linked cyberattack exploited Anthropic's Claude AI to infiltrate global institutions with limited human input, prompting urgent calls for regulation and sparking debate over the growing autonomy of artificial intelligence in digital threats. more

FCC’s Ignorant Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Bravado

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday released a Report and Order in the matter of its implementation of Ray Baum's Act Section 503 and international call spoofing. The FCC mostly did the right things in the R&O except in one rather extraordinary assertion of legal ignorance and bravado. It asserted unilaterally that it could exercise "extraterritorial jurisdiction that Congress expressly provided in section 503 of the Ray Baum's Act," and it furthermore knew of no "treaty obligation [contravened],...nor other legal barrier...and...are aware of none." 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

Expression of Interest for New TLDs: Time to Shine!

Like many of those present at the ICANN Seoul meeting last October, and indeed along with those around the globe who were eagerly awaiting new TLDs, I too was angered and frustrated at ICANN's deadlines that were slipping like a cartoon character running on an oil slick, caused by an incessant search by certain industry factions for perfection in an imperfect science. (We do work with the internet remember?). more

Broadband Consumption Continues Explosive Growth

OpenVault Just released its Broadband Industry Report for 4Q 2019 that tracks the way that the US consumes data. The results of the reports are as eye-opening as OpenVault reports for the last few years. OpenVault has been collecting broadband usage for more than ten years. As usual, the OpenVault statistics are a wake-up cry for the industry. more

EU Accuses Google for Using Android to Skew Market Against Competitors

European commission has taken a preliminary view that Google abused its mobile operating system's dominant position, following an initial one-year investigation. "What we found is that Google pursues an overall strategy on mobile devices to protect and expand its dominant position in internet search," says Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief. more

Google Inks Another Undersea Internet Cable Deal

KDDI, Bharti Airtel, Reliance and Google yesterday signed a letter of intent to build a $400 million subsea cable between India and Japan. The 6-fiber-pair Asia-Pacific Japan Cable will have a design capacity of 17 Tbps -- the highest capacity cable ever planned -- and will be upgradeable to 23 Tbps, the companies said in a joint statement. 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

.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