U.S. Now Leading Source of Attack Traffic, Followed by China and Russia

The U.S. became the top attack traffic source in the second quarter of 2010, accounting for 11% of observed attack traffic in total, reports Akamai in its State of the Internet Report released today. According to the report, China and Russia held the second and third place spots, accounting for just over 20% of observed attack traffic. Attack traffic from known mobile networks has been reported to be significantly more concentrated than overall observed attack traffic, with half of the observed mobile attacks coming from just three countries: Italy (25%), Brazil (18%) and Chile (7.5%). more

Why We Need to Discard the Word “Multistakeholder”

A CircleID post by Alexander Klimburg takes aim at my article, "The Power to Govern Ourselves," delivered at the Gig-Arts conference in June. That speech, available here on the blog, argued that: "Multistakeholder does not describe a governance model. It never has. It was always a compromised Public Relations concept," one that muddied the distinction between governance by state actors and non-state actors. What really made the Internet institutions unique was their break with sovereignty. more

Google Fiber to Push Speed Limits Again

Dinni Jain, the CEO of Google Fiber, posted a blog last week that talks about dramatically increasing the top speeds available on fiber. He says the specific announcement will come in the coming months to dramatically expand Google Fiber's gigabit offerings. The blog gives a hint at what might be coming. Included in the blog is a speed test from the home of a Google Fiber employee in Kansas City who is receiving 20.2 Gbps. more

The Sale of .ORG Registry: Continuing the Conversation We Should Be Having

On 11 February, I participated in a discussion about the pending sale of PIR at American University Washington College of Law, appropriately titled, The Controversial Sale of the .ORG Registry: The Conversation We Should Be Having. It was great to have a balanced discussion, free of some of the emotions that have often made it hard to discern the realities of the transaction. Certain misapprehensions arose in the discussion that we lacked the time to explore fully, so I want to take those up here. more

U.S. Concerned over Increasing Russian Submarine Patrols Near Data Cables

Russian submarines and spy are reported to be aggressively operating near vital undersea cables that carry global Internet communications, according to a story in the New York Times. The issue is raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials regarding the possibility that Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict. more

TLDs of Vacant or Close to Vacant Places in the World

Royal Pingdom has put together a list of top ten places with designated country code Top-Level Domains that are barely inhabited. The list starts off with '.hm' for Heard and McDonald Islands, an Australlian territory, with zero population. Others include '.pn' for Pitcairn Islands (Population: 50), '.tf' for French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Population: 140), '.cc' for Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Population: 596) and '.va' for the Vatican City (Population: 826). more

Ukraine Conflict Transformed the Cyber Threat Landscape, Says Google

According to a recent analysis, the cyber threat landscape has changed dramatically one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Google TAG, Mandiant, and Trust & Safety have released a report titled, Fog of War: How the Ukraine Conflict Transformed the Cyber Threat Landscape, based on analysis from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), Mandiant, and Google Trust & Safety. more

More Privacy, Bit by Bit

Before the Holidays, Yahoo got a flurry of good press for the announcement that it would (as the LA Times puts it) "purge user data after 90 days." My eagle-eyed friend Julian Sanchez noticed that the "purge" was less complete than privacy advocates might have hoped. more

When You Hear “Security,” Think “National Sovereignty”

These days you can hardly talk about Internet governance without hearing about security. DNSSEC is a hot issue, ICANN's new president is a cyber-security expert, and cyberattacks seem to be a daily occurrence.
This reflects a larger shift in US policy. Like the Bush administration before it, the Obama administration is making security a high priority for the US. Only now the emphasis is on security in cyberspace. The outlines of the new policy were published in the recent US Cyberspace Policy Review, which even recommends a cyber security office directly in the White House. more

The 2022 IPv4 Market in North America

In 2021, the story was price. In 2022, the story was price and large block supply. Spurred by unprecedented unit pricing, the IPv4 market in North America experienced its second-best year ever in market history. Nearly double the number of IPv4 addresses were traded in 2022 compared to 2021, predominantly due to the increased flow of large block supply from twelve sellers, five of whom were first-time market participants. more

SnapNames Faces Lawsuit; Attorney Says Domain Industry Is the Wild West Because It Is Unregulated

A class action lawsuit was filed today in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court on behalf of lead Plaintiff Carlos A. Cueto and others who participated in online auctions for domain names. In the lawsuit, Mr. Cueto alleges that an executive of the company conducting the auctions acted as a shill bidder to manipulate bids. The domain names were auctioned online by Oversee.Net, Inc. subsidiary SnapNames.Com, Inc. "The domain name industry is the wild west of intellectual property because it remains unregulated. The online community has been up in arms over what they feel has been an opaque system that just begs for transparency. It is impossible to know whether you are bidding against someone that isn't working or affiliated with the company conducting the auction," said attorney Santiago A. Cueto. more

Gaining Better Network Edge Visibility with Automated IPAM

Large Communication Service Providers (CSPs) that provide transit to their customers need to pay special attention to those network segments to ensure that the IPs associated to them are actually being used. What happens should that customer move on or require more (or less) IP real estate? What do communication and management processes look like to ensure that all the various departments are aligned for rapid and seamless network configuration changes with no downtime? more

Study Reveals Economic and Societal Benefits of Establishing IXPs in Emerging Markets

The Internet Society today published the results of a study that demonstrates the far-reaching economic and societal benefits of establishing Internet Exchange Points (or IXPs) in emerging markets.The study, commissioned by the Internet Society and conducted by independent strategy and research consultancy, Analysys Mason, examined the critical cost and performance benefits of IXPs in Kenya and Nigeria - two sub-Saharan countries that have been on the leading edge of Internet growth in Africa. more

Benefits of DNS Based Architecture for M2M Communications

The number of 'things' connected to the internet is already bypassing the number of people on the planet. This Internet of 'things' is changing the way we live and work: from the way food is grown and produced on farms through automated temperature and feeding controls, to the way we check prices and buy through connected terminals, to the vehicles we drive, the security cameras at work, and automated gates at the entrance. Connected 'things' are everywhere. All these 'things' are helping us to be more productive and efficient while also offering more and more convenience. more

Processing Domain Data to Improve Business Continuity as a Domain Name Registry

In the fall of 2022, around 9,000 numeric domain names such as 0146.se, 0148.se, 0149.se, and so on were registered in the .SE zone. These domains were registered with two registrars, Register.eu and 1API. They had the same kind of SSL certificate, and there were other similarities among them that strongly suggested they were connected. All these domains were registered after September 1, 2022, but not on the same date... more