U.S. Preparing Sanctions Against Chinese Firms and Individuals over Cyberespionage

The Obama administration is developing a package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government’s cybertheft of valuable U.S. trade secrets. The U.S. government has not yet decided whether to issue these sanctions, but a final call is expected soon, perhaps even within the next two weeks. more

The Next International Policy Battlefield Will Be ICT Policy

I am currently in Hyderabad, attending the Internet Governance Forum, IGF. With hours before the official opening, it might be worth reflecting a bit on Internet Governance and the general discussion on the role of international policy and ICT (information and communication technologies). I have several times before said, and written, that the real difference that governments could make (assuming that Governance is in relation to Governing) in Internet policy is close to their traditional roles.  more

Gall’s Law and the Network

In Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail, John Gall says: "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system." In the software development world, this is called Gall's Law... more

Give Network Administrators a Zero-Impact Firmware Update Solution

Struggles with the firmware update process are well known by Network Administrators in the cable industry. The copious tasks required to complete an end-to-end firmware update are painstaking and error-prone, often making the investment not worth the time it takes to complete the work... imagine doing these manual tasks over and over for hundreds to thousands of devices, many from different vendors, each with its own unique device update path! Clearly, this complex challenge needs a solution. more

Starlink Service Is Great on (Some) Cruise Ships

I recently used Starlink on a cruise along the coast of Northwest Africa, and I'll summarize my experience below, but first let me explain why I put some in the title of this post. I posted the following request on the Reddit Cruise group: "What has been your experience of Starlink Internet service on Seabourn or other cruise lines? How was latency? Do video chats work smoothly? Games? etc." more

Domain Name Association Supports IANA Transition, Petitions Congress to Move Forward

I recently sent a letter to congressional leaders including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid expressing the Domain Name Association's support of the U.S. Administration's planned transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the global multi-stakeholder community under the stewardship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). more

Security Against Election Hacking - Part 1: Software Independence

There's been a lot of discussion of whether the November 2016 U.S. election can be hacked. Should the U.S. Government designate all the states' and counties' election computers as "critical cyber infrastructure" and prioritize the "cyberdefense" of these systems? Will it make any difference to activate those buzzwords with less than 3 months until the election? First, let me explain what can and can't be hacked. Election administrators use computers in (at least) three ways... more

DCA’s Sophia Bekele Blocked from ITU Event by AUC Over dotAfrica Dispute

Michael Ouma reporting in AllAfrica: Even after ICANN recently moved a step closer to controversially delegate the dotAfrica domain to South Africa's ZA Central Registry NPC - which is supported by the African Union (AU) - last month, another storm has erupted... Sophia Bekele had been invited to Addis Ababa by the ITU's Regional Office for Africa to deliver a speech during this year's "Girls in ICT" day event held on Thursday April 24 at the AU headquarters but later blocked due to disputes with the organization. more

China Nearing Full Mobile Broadband Coverage

China’s mission to put its entire population on the internet is almost complete, as analysts predict full mobile broadband network coverage in the world’s second-largest economy within the next few years. more

Flying the Flag for the Technical Community: CENTR Provides Feedback to the United Nations’ Initiative on a Global Digital Compact

CENTR, the association which represents European country code top-level domain name registries (ccTLDs), such as .de for Germany or .no for Norway, has provided feedback to the United Nations' initiative on a Global Digital Compact (GDC). The GDC seeks to "outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all", and invites multistakeholder participation in the consultation phase. more

Under Pressure, ICANN Reveals Lobbying Expenses

Following several months of pressure, ICANN has revealed a breakdown of figures under its catch-all term of "professional services," exposing its political expenses, Kieren McCarthy reported today in the Register. more

DHS Asks Citizens to Practice Good “Cyber Hygiene”

Kicking off the sixth annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has urged computer users to practice good "cyber hygiene". The campaign was given a boost Wednesday when the Senate passed resolution 285 to support its goal to make U.S. citizens more aware of how to secure the internet. DHS has also announced that is has been given new authority to recruit and hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity professionals across the department to fill roles such as: cyber risk and strategic analysis; cyber incident response; vulnerability detection and assessment; intelligence and investigation; and network and systems engineering. more

China Calls for Global “Governance System” to Regulate Internet, Activist Warn Threat to Free Speech

Speaking at the the Second World Internet Conference, a government-organized conference attended by executives of global and Chinese Internet companies, Xi called for the creation of a global "governance system" to reflect the "wishes and interests of all countries." more

ICANN Releases Initial Evaluation Results for First Set of New gTLD Applications

The first round of Initial Evaluation results has been released exactly on schedule. On March 23, ICANN announced that 27 out of 30 new gTLD applications reviewed this round passed Initial Evaluation. The remaining three applicants are still marked as in Initial Evaluation. more

Data Breach Costs Continue to Rise, 40% Increase Since 2005

According to a new study by PGP Corporation and Ponemon Institute, data breach incidents cost U.S. companies $202 per compromised customer record in 2008, compared to $197 in 2007. The study is based on 43 organizations across 17 different industry sectors with a range of 4,200 to 113,000 records that were affected. It is also noted that since 2005, the cost component has grown by more than $64 on a per victim basis since -- nearly a 40% increase. more