FBI, Czech Police Arrest Russian in Connection With US Hacking Attacks

FBI in a joint operation with the Czech police, arrested a Russian citizen in Prague on Wednesday in connection with attempted cyber-attacks against the United States. more

UPU to Become First UN Body to Obtain Its Own Top-Level Domain

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), one of the world’s oldest international organizations, has concluded negotiations with ICANN for the launch of the .POST Top-Level Domain. Paul Donohoe, e-business manager at UPU headquarters, responsible for the domain application and ICANN negotiations said: “A top-level domain for a service-oriented industry such as ours is an opportunity to develop a trusted space on the Internet for integrating physical and electronic postal services ... .POST will be a unique and focused Internet domain with the potential to connect the entire postal community and its customers. The domain will enable the UPU and the postal sector at large to work on delivering new innovative Internet-based international postal services, such as hybrid mail, e-commerce, e-identity, e-communication and e-government, and built on UPU standards.” more

Asia, Europe Top the Charts on Conficker Worm Infections

Amidst hype and anticipation of the Conficker worm which is expected to become active in millions of Windows system within the next few hours, IBM Internet Security Systems team reports they have been able to locate infected systems across the world by reverse-engineering the communications mechanisms. Holly Stewart, X-Force Product Manager at IBM Internet Security Systems, writes: "... the details are still unfolding, but we can tell you from a high level where most infections are as of today. Asia tops the charts so far. By this morning, it represented nearly 45% of all of the infections from our view. Europe was second at 31%. The rest of the geographies held a much smaller percentage overall." more

How to Secure Your Data During Coronavirus

Nobody loves a good crisis more than a hacker and, by anyone's definition, coronavirus is a big, fat stinking crisis that almost everyone on earth is sitting in the middle of. For most of us, a crisis brings out the best. First responders and the healthcare systems are replete with stories of superhuman sacrifice and commitment to others. Unfortunately, it is this commitment to the work at hand that puts cybersecurity on the back burner and increases the chance of a breach, break-in, or general mischief. more

Obama Cyberattack Executive Order Extended by Trump Administration

"The ability for the government to sanction cybercriminals will last for at least one more year," Martyn Williams reporting form IDG News Service. more

The Worrying Prospects for Digital Trade Under President Trump

US leadership and influence online stems from US innovation and corporate risk-taking. But it also is the direct result of US Government policy. In the early days of the web and e-commerce, the Clinton administration recognized they had to figure out a strategy to reconcile the internet, which is global, with laws and regulations, which are domestic. Instead of demanding negotiations for shared global rules, Administration officials put forward a set of principles, which they called the Framework for Global Electronic Commerce. more

RIPE 86 Bites: Encryption and Active Network Management

Change is hard, and the larger the system, the slower the pace of change. There are just so many systems that need to change their behaviors, and the motivations of users, vendors, service providers, content generators and many others all vary. Getting all of us to change some aspect of our technology, platform or application set is hard, if not impossible, to orchestrate such that it happens at the same time. more

WiMAX Has Early Lead Over LTE, Says New Report

Mobile WiMAX will outpace LTE over the next few years due to its head start on deployments, reports In-Stat. While WiMAX and LTE will take very different paths, the report suggests Mobile WiMAX already has commercial deployments where as LTE won't be commercially available until late 2009. more

Lost in Translation? Bridging the Gap between Technology and Governance

It is reassuring that, with the WCIT underway, there is increasing awareness of the threats to the Internet posed by a number of the amendments, significantly in many cases supported by authoritarian governments. There is less awareness of the serious economic implications of some of the proposed ITR amendments. While it is highly unlikely a doomsday scenario will unfold at the WCIT itself, it is clear that substantial changes to Internet governance are possible over the next several years. more

If You’re Thinking About Applying to Be the Next ICANN CEO…

ICANN is preparing to search for its next CEO. In the past and again now, each of us has been asked for advice about applying for the job. We have willingly offered our perceptions of what the job requires. The general thrust of our advice is to alert the potential applicant about the complexities and demands of the job so they can assess for themselves whether they might be a viable candidate. Our comments in these situations are, of course, purely our own opinions, and are not connected to the official posture of ICANN. more

US Senators Push Bill to Boost Internet, Communication Channels for Iranians

Voice of America reporting: "U.S. lawmakers say they plan legislation that would fund efforts to help Iranians receive and send information despite government restrictions. Independent Senator Joe Lieberman said Thursday that the bill intends to help the Iranian people stay 'one step ahead of the Iranian regime.'" Also a related report by AFP. more

2016 US Presidential Election Likely to Have Major Impact on Broadband Expansion and Regulation

"The 2016 presidential election is likely to have a major impact on how the US government tries to expand broadband deployment and how it regulates Internet service providers," writes Jon Brodkin in Ars Technica. more

China Mobile Is Reporting 15M 5G Contracts, 8.7M Joined in February

5G is growing by millions per month in China, although the exact status is unclear. The telcos are reporting "contracts," which continue to be far higher than the separately reported 5G phone sales. more

The Privacy Shield Governing EU-US Data Flows Gets European Approval

"EU-U.S. commercial data transfer pact clears final hurdle," Julia Fioretti today reported in Reuters: "A commercial data transfer pact provisionally agreed by the EU executive and the United States in February received the green light from EU governments on Friday." more

How Much Did the U.S. Wireless Carriers “Earn” From “Location Information Aggregators”?

The FCC lawfully fined U.S. facilities-based wireless carriers nearly $200 million for selling highly intrusive location data about subscribers without their "opt-in" consent. In Section 222 of the Communications Act, Congress comprehensively specified how the carriers bore an affirmative duty of care not to disclose clearly defined Customer Proprietary Information ("CPNI"). The Act explicitly required the FCC, and no other agency, to protect telecommunications consumers. more