Nominet: 77% of British Consumers Prefer .UK Search Result over .COM

According to a report released today by Nominet, UK's domain name registry, 77% of British consumers prefer to use a .uk rather than a .com when searching for information on the Internet. The report also indicates that despite the current economic climate, the global domain name industry has seen an 8% growth with 187.6 million domain names registered worldwide. "Generic top level domains (gTLDs), such as .org and .com, have grown on average by 6% whilst the country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) including .uk and .de (the German registry) fared slightly better and together generated a 10% average growth in registrations," says Nominet. more

US, China Reach Agreement on Guidelines to Combat Cybercrime

United States Justice Department has announced that US and China have reached an agreement governing how the two countries will request assistance to combat cybercrime. more

Diversity Is Neither an Option Nor a Secondary Requirement for ICANN

While enhancing ICANN's diversity has been agreed on as a principle, previous discussions were often characterized by conflicting views on priorities, dimensions of diversity, or the current levels of diversity. As a new group is about to be formed to enhance ICANN's diversity, the importance of the purpose cannot be underestimated: "Maximum participation and transparent deliberations by all affected stakeholders are necessary in order to capture the diversity of views that constitute the (global) public interest in a given instance". more

ICANN Turning into a FIFA-Like Organization, Says the Guardian

A story published today in the Guardian warns that the US government's plan to give up control of ICANN may create the web's answer to Fifa. more

IT Security Guide: “Financial Impact of Cyber Risk” Released by ANSI and ISA

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Internet Security Alliance (ISA) released today a new action guide to assist business executives in the analysis, management and transfer of financial risk related to a cyber attack. In 2004, the Congressional Research Service estimated the annual economic impact of cyber attacks on businesses -- which can come from internal networks, the Internet or other private or public systems -- to be more than $226 billion. In 2008, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff named cyber risks one of the nation's top four priority security issues. more

Battle for .eco Top-Level Domain Not Over Yet

Sources recently had reported that Al Gore had dropped his bid to win control of the proposed new Top-Level Domain (TLD), leaving the door open for a rival Mikhail Gorbachev-backed consortium. But according to a report from Adam Vaughan in the Guardian, the company that Gore's Climate Reality group was working with remains in the running. "Despite losing the vice-president's backing and switching off its campaigning website, Dot Eco LLC tells me it's hopeful of winning a tussle with its main public rival, the Canadian company Big Room, which is supported by Gorbachev's Green Cross." more

Surfing the Internet in Bali: Reflections on IGF 2013

It's been a busy week for the Internet. More famous for its golden beaches, Bali recently hosted the eighth Internet Governance Forum which delivered waves of constructive discussion and debate. Over the past few days, the Internet governance community has exchanged best practices and debated a wide range of key topics that will continue to pose questions for policy as the Internet evolves... more

Public-Private Cooperation Policy for Cyber Security Suggested by Commissioner Kroes

At a speech during the Security and Defense Agenda meeting on 30 January Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, showed how the Commission envisions public-private cooperation on cyber security. more

Support Plug-and-Play with On-Boot Firmware Updates

Have you ever purchased a new electronic device, taken it home, excitedly unwrapped it and switched it on, only to discover that something is wrong and you need to phone customer support? This scenario is all-too-common in the broadband services industry, and unfortunately, it's usually the service provider who takes the blame. New customers will often purchase gateways from third parties or redistributors without knowing that the device's firmware is out of date. more

Trump to Sign Cybersecurity Executive Order on Tuesday

President Donald Trump expected to sign an executive order on cyber security on Tuesday. more

Impartiality of Dot Pharmacy TLD Questioned

Catherine Saez and William New reporting in Intellectual Property Watch: "New generic top-level domain names seem set to be a constant source of discussions and dissension. The domain '.pharmacy' has been awarded to a United States pharmacy association with industry backing, stirring concerns among civil society and others. But the association insists it will work in an impartial manner to ensure safety of online pharmaceutical sales..." more

Cyberhygiene Requires Critical Thinking

At his farewell speech in August outgoing, Telstra CEO Andy Penn mentioned that the cyber threat has never been as serious as the present. He mentioned the deteriorating geopolitical situation and the big shift in how criminals operate in the cyber domain. One thing is for sure is that in order to enjoy all the positives resulting from the digital economy, we need to be far more vigilant about the barrage of information that we are receiving and/or have access to. more

National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Cautions ICANN on .INC, .LLC, .LLP, .CORP TLDs

Michael Berkens reporting in TheDomains.com blog reports: National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) is an organization whose members include Secretaries of State and Lieutenant Governors of the 50 U.S. states and territories send a letter to ICANN in late July that was just published today, that the new gTLD's .INC, .LLC, .CORP and .LLP.should only be allowed to be registered by 'entities that are appropriately registered and in good-standing with the Secretary of State or other appropriate state agency." more

U.S. Justice Department Forms Group to Study National Security Threats of IoT

"The U.S. Justice Department has formed a threat analysis team to study potential national security challenges posed by self-driving cars, medical devices and other Internet-connected tools," reports Dustin Volz from Washington in Reuters" more

Would You Like Your Private Information to be Available on a VHS or Betamax Tape?

When I was a young child growing up in the late 1980s, my parents were lucky enough to be able to afford to have both a VHS-tape video-recorder in the living room and a Betamax tape recorder in their bedroom. This effectively meant that to me, the great video format wars weren't a decade-defining clash of technologies, but rather they consisted mainly of answering the question "in which room can I watch my favorite cartoons?". more