The Big Questions Facing the Telecom Industry

I took a pause the other day to think about the big issues facing the telecom industry. When I've done that in past years, I always came up with a few major issues and more smaller ones. But we are in such turmoil right now that I rattled off the following list quickly. I can't remember a time when our industry was wrangling with so many major issues at the same time. The industry's performance over the next decade is going to depend upon how we handle these issues. 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

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

Energy Industry Number One Target by Cyber Criminals, According to New Study

Web security company, ScanSafe reports that, in the past quarter, companies in the Energy industry faced the greatest risk of Web-based malware exposure, at a 196% heightened risk compared to other verticals. The Pharmaceutical and Chemicals industry faced the second highest risk of exposure at 192% followed by the Construction & Engineering industry at 150%. The Media and Publishing industry were also among those at highest risk, with a 129% heightened risk compared to other verticals. 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

Google Releases a One-Stop Reference Source to Browser Security

Today via its Online Security Blog, Google announced the release of its Browser Security Handbook aimed at providing web application developers, browser engineers, and information security researchers a "one-stop reference" to critical security attributes of modern web browsers. "Insufficient understanding of these often poorly-documented characteristics is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of several classes of security vulnerabilities," says the introduction to the 60-page document. more

NetNeutrality Rules to Be Stifled Under Trump Presidency, Experts Fear

"Donald Trump's presidential election victory has increased the chances that President Barack Obama's landmark net-neutrality rules could be rolled back," John D. Mckinnon and Shalini Ramachandran reporting in the Wall Street Journal today. more

Global Panel Releases Report on How to Evolve Internet Governance Ecosystem

The Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms - a global Panel of stakeholders from various organizations and governments - today released key recommendations on how to evolve the Internet governance (IG) ecosystem to accommodate global needs for collaboration, interconnectivity and Internet growth. The report also presents a roadmap and timeline for the future management of the Internet. more

Tactics for Responding to Cyber Attacks - Squeezing Your Cyber Response-Curve: Part 2

In part one of this post we introduced the cyber response curve. In this post, we have outlined some observations which illustrate how different level of maturity and approaches can affect your cyber response curve. more

Internet Capacity Is Keeping Pace With Traffic Growth, Says Research Firm

According to new data from TeleGeography research group, international Internet traffic grew 53% between mid-2007 and mid-2008, down from 61% the preceding year. Traffic growth between the US and Latin America was especially fast, surging 112%. In contrast, traffic on internet backbones between major cities in the relatively more mature US market rose a modest 47%. For the second consecutive year, according to the study, total international Internet capacity grew faster than total Internet traffic, leading to lower utilization levels on many internet backbones. Between 2007 and 2008, average traffic utilization levels decreased from 31% to 29%... more

How .eco Domain Was Won, Vancouver Team Behind the TLD

In the high-stakes world of internet domains, .eco was a dream green prize -- and is now finally going online, Lisa Johnson reporting in CBC News. more

.ORG Stewardship Council Will Ensure .ORG’s Commitment to Freedom of Expression Continues

The .ORG Stewardship Council is, in a lot of ways, a natural progression or evolution from our current PIR Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is made up of independent .ORG community members from around the world that provide advice to PIR on policy issues affecting them. The "AC," or the Advisory Council, has been a key part of PIR's work since its inception. more

Implications of California Telecom Attack Gone Un-Reported

In an article titled "A Cyber-Attack on an American City", Bruce Perens writes: "Just after midnight on Thursday, April 9, unidentified attackers climbed down four manholes serving the Northern California city of Morgan Hill and cut eight fiber cables in what appears to have been an organized attack on the electronic infrastructure of an American city. Its implications, though startling, have gone almost un-reported. That attack demonstrated a severe fault in American infrastructure: its centralization. The city of Morgan Hill and parts of three counties lost 911 service, cellular mobile telephone communications, land-line telephone, DSL internet and private networks, central station fire and burglar alarms, ATMs, credit card terminals, and monitoring of critical utilities..." more

Civilian Tech Mobilization in Ukraine

As was the case in the US during World War II, civilian volunteers are making important contributions to the Ukrainian war effort. On February 8, 2022, the first truckload of Starlink terminals arrived in Kyiv. A week later they were being used. By April 2022, there were 5,000 terminals in Ukraine, and 42,000 as of April 2023. (At this point, SpaceX and Ukraine have gone silent. Neither ChatGPT4, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, nor I could not find a current terminal count). more

What Trump and Clinton Said About Cybersecurity in the First US Presidential Debate

The Internet and tech got very little mention last night during the first of three presidential debatest. The only notable exception was cybersecurity where moderator Lester Holt asked: "Our institutions are under cyber attack, and our secrets are being stolen. So my question is, who's behind it? And how do we fight it?" The following are the responses provided to the question by the two candidates. more