The Cuban Internet in the Aftermath of the Anti-Government Protests

In an earlier post, I looked at the use of the Internet by anti-government protesters last month and the government's attempt to block them. Now, a few weeks later, let's see how the Internet changed after my July 18 post. The protesters used messaging and social media services, which the government tried to block, and posted images and videos of protests around the island. more

Cyberattackers Targeting Iranian Infrastructure and Communications Companies

Internet based attacks have targeted Iranian infrastructure and communications companies, disrupting Internet access across the country, according to today's reports. Country's secretary of the High Council of Cyberspace, has been quoted telling the Iranian Labour News Agency: "Yesterday we had a heavy attack against the country's infrastructure and communications companies which has forced us to limit the Internet. ... Presently we have constant cyber attacks in the country." more

Can Zero Trust Security Put an End to Human Security Weaknesses?

How bad is the human security weakness problem? Verizon's 2022 Data Breaches Investigations Report says 82 percent of data breaches have human involvement. This involvement can mean misconfigurations, poor security policy implementation, negligence, and falling prey to social engineering schemes. Essentially, a vast majority of data breaches have penetrated cyber defenses because of human carelessness, inconsistencies, and gullibility. 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

Obama Proposes $19 Billion for Cybersecurity in Final Budget Plan

President Obama is seeking a 35 percent increase in cybersecurity funding in his final budget to boost the capability of the federal government to defend itself against cyberattacks, reports Ellen Nakashima in the Washington Post. more

No Ifs, Ands or Butts, the New FCC Must Focus on Neutrality

The Denver Post today urged a new FCC to get its mind off of "buttocks" and onto more serious issues like Net Neutrality. The editorial board was referring to a case now before the U.S. Court of Appeals, in which the agency's top legal minds are trying to determine the appropriate definition for the human posterior to better guide efforts to fine ABC for a few errant cheeks featured on a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue. more

Getting Serious About Satellite Texting

One of the more interesting telecom announcements at the CES electronics show in Vegas was the announcement from the partnership of Qualcomm and Iridium of plans to bring satellite texting capability to many more cell phones and other devices. We've already seen a few other announcements recently of the ability to make emergency text calls when out of reach of cell coverage. more

ICANN Publishes Final Process to Be Used for Development of IANA Stewardship Transition Plan

On June 6 2014, ICANN published a Process to Develop the Proposal and Next Steps that is the culmination of a series of community discussions and input into the process to develop a proposal to transition the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community. more

Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress Announces 2014 Date

Momentum today announced the date for its third Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress: March 3-4, 2014 in New York. The event will once again bring together the leaders of the brand and domain community for two days of advanced learning and real-world launch case studies timed to coincide with the anticipated delegation and launch of the initial wave of new TLDs. more

Website Load Testing Services: Remove Online Roadblocks

We've all experienced it -- that moment when you have ten minutes to get to the office, coffee in one hand and a croissant on your lap, and just as luck would have it you're stuck behind an oversize load and feel like you are going "- 5" MPH. This is exactly what many companies put their online customers through during high-traffic times, such as holidays and sales promotions. By failing to identify bottlenecks and optimize their websites, many companies risk slower performance and, ultimately, loss of revenue. 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

US DMCA Rules Updated - Now Legal to Hack Devices, Cars, Video Games, If Done in ‘Good Faith’

The U.S. government has released an updated version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), adding a list of new exemptions that will protect cybersecurity professionals from prosecution over reverse-engineering of products for research purposes. more

Good Internet Hygiene During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We are all aware of the steps for mitigating the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19): Wash your hands; Practice social distancing; Report exposure.But these are not the only activities to practice right now. Cyber-criminals are taking advantage of this health crisis and the emotional upheaval it creates to perpetrate their crimes. Therefore, we also need to exercise good internet hygiene. In a time of crisis or tragedy, bad actors don't slow down; their efforts amplify. more

The Fiber Land Grab

It's becoming clear that we are now deep into a fiber land grab. By that, I mean that companies that overbuild fiber in the United States are moving into markets to build fiber as quickly as possible. The biggest ISPs have publicly discussed their plans for building a lot of fiber in 2023. Following are some of the latest projections for 2023: more

Google, Facebook Quietly Start Using Automation to Remove Extremist Content

"Google, Facebook quietly move toward automatic blocking of extremist videos" report Joseph Menn and Dustin Volz in Reuters: "Some of the web’s biggest destinations for watching videos have quietly started using automation to remove extremist content from their sites, according to two people familiar with the process." more