Internet Society Submits Comments on IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal

Internet Society submitted its comments today in response to the Call for Public Comment by the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group. "The Internet Society has consistently advocated for the globalization of the IANA functions, said President and CEO Kathryn Brown in a related post today. "We firmly believe that the global community is ready now to assume this important stewardship role and that a successful completion of this process is a critical step in providing additional confidence in the collaborative and multistakeholder Internet governance model." more

ICANN’s 52nd Meeting Kicks Off in Singapore

Singapore's Minister of Communications and Information, Dr. Yaacob bin Ibrahim, and former Senior Advisor to President Bill Clinton, Ira Magaziner, spoke to the success of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance during the Opening Ceremony of ICANN's 52nd public meeting today... more

APWG: The Internet Has Never Been More Dangerous

Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) released its latest Phishing Activity Trends Report today warning that the number of unique phishing websites detected in June rose to 49,084, the highest since April, 2007's record of 55,643, and the second-highest recorded since APWG began reporting this measurement. "The number of hijacked brands ascended to an all-time high of 310 in March and remained, in historical context, at an elevated level to the close of the half in June," says the report. more

Internet 2008 in Numbers

In a blog post today, Royal Pingdom has posted a variety of statistical answers to questions for 2008 such as: How many websites were added? (A: 31.5 million) How many emails were sent? (A: 210 billion per day) How many blog posts were published? (A: 329 million) Other numbers include total number of Internet users in the world which, according to June 2008 data, is recorded at 1,463,632,361 with Asia having the highest percentage of users (39.5%) followed by Europe as the second largest (26.3%) and North America as the third (17%). Numbers have been gathered using a wide variety of sources from around the Web. 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

Euro 2020 Part Three: Domains (Revisited) and Other Channels

In this final article in the series of studies looking at Euro 2020-related infringements, we revisit domain name infringements and consider activity across other online channels, with a focus on social media and mobile apps. Following the original study, which looked at domains registered before May 2020 with names containing "euro2020" or "euro2021," we analyzed daily activity levels in the period immediately preceding and during the competition. more

Microsoft Data Suggests 1 Out of Every 14 Downloads is Malware

Microsoft Program Manager, Jeb Haber, reports in a blog post that from browser data collected on user downloads, 1 out of every 14 programs downloaded is later confirmed as malware. Haber says: "Consumers need information to make better decisions. That said, IE9 adds another layer of defense against socially engineered attacks that now looks at the application being downloaded -- this is in addition to the URL-based protection described above. This new layer of protection is called SmartScreen Application Reputation." more

ICANN Needs to Tighten Director-Conflict Policies, Says CEO

ICANN needs to strengthen conflict-of-interest policies for its board of directors, said Rod Beckstrom, CEO, in his opening remarks during the organizations 43rd public meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica. "It is time to further tighten up the rules that have allowed perceived conflicts to exist within our board. ... ICANN must place commercial and financial interests in their appropriate context," said Beckstrom, who plans to step down in July. "How can it do this if all top leadership is from the very domain name industry it is supposed to coordinate independently?" more

Human Rights and the Digital Domain Primer - Part 2

The digital domain encompasses the different spaces and spheres we use to relate and interact with the people and things that surround us using digital technologies. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, as the globally accepted standard, should serve us as the guiding light when it comes to striking the delicate balance between our rights and responsibilities on and offline. more

Code Released by ‘Shadow Brokers’ Raises Alarming Concerns on Whether NSA Was Hacked

The release on websites this week of what appears to be top-secret computer code that the National Security Agency has used to break into the networks of foreign governments and other espionage targets has caused deep concern inside American intelligence agencies, raising the question of whether America's own elite operatives have been hacked and their methods revealed. more

IRAN Nuclear Deal; the Flag of Changes? the End of Civil Society Isolation? or What?

The crucial importance of Iran Nuclear Deal and, hopefully, the imminent expectation, for reaching to an indisputable solution and agreement among 5+1+ Iran (as well as the other parties who claim to have interest in this matter) all have created a special climate and proper ground for all the activists and the observers in order to seriously sit and make a review of the actual situation and the potentials of the main player of the field, say Iran, or Civil Society of Iran... more

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

Lawsuit Against IANA Transition Dropped

Four US states attorneys general have quietly thrown in the towel in their attempt to have the IANA transition blocked," reports Kevin Murphy this morning in Domain Incite. more

ICANN Releases Call for Public Input for NTIA’s Stewardship Transition of IANA

On 8 April 2014, ICANN released the "Call for Public Input: Draft Proposal, Based on Initial Community Feedback, of the Principles and Mechanisms and the Process to Develop a Proposal to Transition NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions." more

Internet Activity in Britain Stored for a Year Under New Surveillance Law

The internet activity of everyone in UK will have to be stored for one year by Internet service providers, under the new surveillance law plans. "This duty would include forcing firms to hold a schedule of which websites someone visits and the apps they connect to through computers, smartphones, tablets and other devices. Police and other agencies would be then able to access these records in pursuit of criminals -- but also seek to retrieve data in a wider range of inquiries, such as missing people." more