Second Round of Initial Evaluations for New gTLDs

Mary Iqbal writes to report that ICANN has released the second round of Initial Evaluation Results on March 29. ICANN is currently reviewing new gTLD applications at a rate of 30 applications per week and has plans to increase that to 100 per week. more

Registration Open for Upcoming IGF-USA 2014

The IGF-USA 2014 will take place on July 16th, 2014 at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The complete agenda has now been published and registration is open. more

U.S. Government Invests $930 Million in Expanding Nationwide Internet Connectivity: Bridging Digital Divide in Remote and Underserved Regions

In a bid to expand nationwide internet access, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a major $930 million grant initiative on Friday aimed at improving internet connections in remote parts of Alaska, rural Texas, and other regions with significant connectivity issues.  more

Cyberattacks Listed as High-Impact Threat to North American Electric Grid

In a report released today by The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), cyber attacks are among the top high-impact risks -- "with potential to significantly affect the reliability of the North American bulk power system." Certain protections and mitigations are already in place to address these risks, and this study has been released to help public utility commissions, and the federal government to further prepare for these potential risks. more

Controversial Chinese Cybersecurity Law Gets 3rd Reading

The controversial Chinese cybersecurity law that has been sparking objections amongst foreign governments and business groups reached a step closer to approval today as parliament held the third reading of the draft bill. more

Data on Nearly 200 Million Potential Voters in U.S. Found Fully Exposed

According to reports released today, databases containing information on close to 200 million potential U.S. voters were found unsecured and exposed to the Internet, allowing anyone to download it without a password. more

Using Bigger Bandwidth Applications

The recent Cisco Annual Internet Report for 2018–2023 had one chart that I found intriguing. The purpose of Cisco's report is to look at the future of broadband usage, and the report included a chart showing the amount of bandwidth needed for various web functions. To me, this list was reminiscent of the list that the FCC made in 2015 when they set the definition of broadband at 25/3 Mbps -- except that all of the items on this list require more bandwidth than the functions the FCC foresaw just five years ago. more

Diagnosing Load Test Errors - Where to Start for Holiday Success

Picture this: you just completed hours of internal Web services preparations with your system administrative team prior to the holidays. You discovered possible points of failure and made appropriate modifications with the expectation of a perfect load test. You take a few minutes to relax, refill the coffee mug sitting in front of you, and connect to the conference bridge where real-time discussion about the load test will occur. Things go well for the first 20 minutes of the test... Then it happens: one of the simulated users logs an error stating that it has timed out. more

ICANN SSAD Proposal Poised to Fail?

After years of work on a proposed standardized system of WHOIS data disclosures (referred to as SSAD), and over a year of operational assessment of the proposal by ICANN itself, the ICANN Board seems poised to reject the proposal. And rightly so. The proposed SSAD is entirely watered down, fractured, and affords no oversight powers to ICANN regarding disclosure decisions that would continue to be left to the complete discretion of individual registrars (the very parties ICANN oversees).  more

EFF Announced New Service to Let You Know When Terms-of-Serivce of Popular Sites Change

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a new site to keep track of 'Terms of Service' for major websites such as Google, Facebook, eBay and others. The new website called TOSBack has been created to help users easily find privacy policies of various websites and to alert them when those policies are changed. "Some changes to terms of service are good for consumers, and some are bad," says EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "But Internet users are increasingly trusting websites with everything from their photos to their 'friends lists' to their calendar -- and sometimes even their medical information. TOSBack will help consumers flag changes in the websites they use every day and trust with their personal information." more

White House Taking Hands-Off Approach to Encryption Bill Debate

The White House will not publicly support a controversial bill that would give law enforcement guaranteed access to encrypted data, according to reports. more

UK to Implement Broadband Tax

Millions of households in UK will be paying a "broadband tax" in order to fund increase and improvement of broadband access in the country according to the Digital Britain white paper launched yesterday. BBC today reports: "One of the biggest surprises in the Digital Britain report was the news that everyone with a fixed line telephone would pay a broadband tax. At 50p a month the amount is unlikely to break the bank but experts are already questioning what it will buy." more

Google Fiber Launches 5-Gig Service in 4 of Its 12 Existing Metro Markets

Google Fiber is boosting its internet speeds and availability by offering a new 5-gig tier in four of its existing markets. Nick Saporito, Head of Multi-gig and Commercial Product, made the announcement in a blog post on Valentine's day titled: Fall in love with fast -- 5 Gig is here! more

Survey Finds “Complexity” as Most Common Challenge in Deploying DNSSEC

According to a recent survey conducted by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), 78% of service providers in Europe have plans to deploy DNSSEC within the next 3 years. On the other hand, the study also found 22% have no plans to deploy DNSSEC in the next 3 years. more

Will Altanovo’s Maneuvering Continue to Delay .web?

he launch of .web top-level domain is once again at risk of being delayed by baseless procedural maneuvering. On May 2, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors posted a decision on the .web matter from its April 30 meeting, which found "that NDC (Nu Dotco LLC) did not violate the Guidebook or the Auction Rules" and directed ICANN "to continue processing NDC's .web application," clearing the way for the delegation of .web. more