An End to Data Caps?

All of the major ISPs that were enforcing data caps have lifted those caps in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This includes AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Mediacom, and CenturyLink. All of these companies justified data caps as a network management tool that was in place to discourage overuse of the network. That argument no longer holds water if these ISPs eliminate them during a crisis that is overtaxing networks more than we are likely to ever see again. more

Liberia’s Internet Brought to a Halt After Facing Multiple Mirai-Based Attacks

The entire internet infrastructure of the African nation of Liberia is distributed by the same weapon used to cause the historic cyberattack just two weeks ago. more

Why ‘Trust Me’ is a Bad Model for Internet Governance

"Trust me" is not a model for good governance of the Internet or anything else, says Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). "With the U.S. government relinquishing control of Internet governance, ICANN -- the global nonprofit organization responsible for managing key Internet functions -- will be operating independently without serious checks and balances..." more

Coronavirus Online Threats Going Viral, Part 3: Mobile Apps

In part three of this series of posts looking at emerging internet content relating to coronavirus, we turn our attention to mobile apps - another digital content channel that can be used by criminals to take advantage of people's fears about the health emergency for their own gain.One of the most common attack vectors we have found in our analysis is the use of apps purporting to track global progression of COVID-19, or provide other information, but which instead incorporate malicious content. more

NSA PRISM Program Has Direct Access to Servers of Google, Skype, Yahoo and Others, Says Report

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian. The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says. more

Chinese Hackers Exploit U.S. Telecom Systems, Eviction Efforts Lag

American officials have revealed an ongoing struggle to expel Chinese hackers from telecommunications networks, months after the espionage was first discovered. The campaign, attributed to a group called "Salt Typhoon," has infiltrated major telecom carriers, particularly in the Washington region. more

Kieren McCarthy: Issue Guide to ICANN San Francisco Meetings

As the ICANN's 40th international meetings start off in San Francisco, Kieren McCarthy, General Manager (US) of the Global Internet Business Coalition (GIBC), and founder of the .NXT conference, has released a guide for the most important topics (listed below) with some added commentary, background and links to relevant resources. more

IANA Transition Must Move Forward, Says Google Senior VP and General Counsel

"Preserving a Free and Open Internet," is the title of a post published today by Kent Walker, Google's SVP and General Counsel. more

Australia’s First Online Census Halted Due to Multiple DDoS Attacks

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports deliberate and "malicious" attacks from offshore, designed to sabotage nation's first online 2016 Census. more

Comment Period for ICANN Accountability Process Enhancement Extended

ICANN made an announcement today stating that in response to ensuring the community has sufficient time, while also having the process in parallel to, and informing, the process to Transition NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions, there is a one week extension of the comment period to 6 June. more

Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service Rapidly Gaining Acceptance Among Enterprises

Public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings are rapidly gaining acceptance among enterprises as a viable alternative to on-premises hardware for IT infrastructure, According to new IDC study more

A Chance to Tackle the Urban Digital Divide

For the first time in my career, we face the possibility of some big changes for broadband in low-income neighborhoods in cities. The recent American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) gave cities significant funding that can be used for various kinds of infrastructure, including broadband. Cities have been handed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fix some of the broadband deserts that have grown in poor neighborhoods. I'm already working with several cities that are taking this opportunity seriously. more

Kill the Spreadsheets! Automate VPN IP Assignments and Tracking over MPLS/VRF and vLAN

Advancements in virtual private networking have extended system capabilities for service providers. Providers can divide LANs into multiple discrete segments using either Virtual Local Area Networks (vLANs), leverage Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) or Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) to host Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that support service operations over multiple instances. more

FCC Gives Final Approval to Broadband Label Requirements, with Minor Modifications to 2022 Rules

At the end of August, the FCC gave final approval to the requirement that ISPs must provide broadband labels. The FCC had originally approved the broadband labels in November 2022 but then received three petitions to further modify the rules. The recent order makes a few minor changes to the original order but largely leaves the original broadband label rules intact. more

VoIP’s Threadbare New Clothes

Om has burnt the midnight oil analyzing Vonage's S-1 filing, coming to the conclusion that, while churn may not be as ugly as people thought, it's still cause for concern, and apparently intensifying. His point at the end about definitions is particularly good, as excluding cancellations in the first 30-days is undoubtedly flattering to the numbers. The net present value of Vonage's lifetime customer revenues is an issue which VoIP-watchers have long speculated about with trepidation -- what if marketing spending, churn, and price competition combined to form a toxic soup which fatally poisoned the economic proposition for access-independent VoIP? more