Policy & Regulation

Trump Administration Says US Will Start Using Offensive Strategy Towards Cyberattacks

The Trump administration today announced that the U.S. will begin a new strategy to deter and respond to cyberattacks with offensive actions against foreign adversaries. more

“Seven Dirty Words” Restriction Policy Lifted from .US Domain Name Registrations

Neustar, the registry operator of the .US domain and NTIA have reversed course, allowing the inclusion of previously restricted "seven dirty words" from future .US domain name registrations. more

The UN Panel on Digital Cooperation: Reinventing the Wheel or Innovating Internet Policy Making?

The new High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (HLP.DC), appointed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, will have its first face-to-face meeting in New York, September 25-26, 2018, just before the beginning of the 73rd UN General Assembly. The Panel, co-chaired by an American woman, Melinda Gates from the Microsoft Foundation and a Chinese man, Jack Ma from Ali Baba, "is expected to raise awareness about the transformative impact of digital technologies... more

EU Authorities to Give Internet Companies 1 Hour to Take Down Extremist Content or Face Hefty Fines

European authorities proposed new laws today subjecting internet companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook to big fines if the extremist content is not taken down within one hour. more

Internet Companies and Government Contracts: Complying with DCAA Regulations

One of the biggest opportunities for Internet companies of all sizes can be to get a U.S. government contracts. This kind of business partnership is highly desirable as the U.S. government spends about $500 billion for contracts annually. The government contracting in an extremely competitive field, as the huge number of businesses bid for the same contracts. After all, there is a lot of money involved here and those are all big jobs that can prove vital for any company. more

Toughest State-Level Net Neutrality Bill in the US Approved by California Senate

The California Senate on Friday voted to approve the toughest state-level net neutrality bill in the U.S. and now with both legislative houses having approved the bill, California Governor Jerry Brown has until September 30 to sign it into law. more

Study Finds GDPR Has Had Minimal Impact on Spam and Domain Registrations

Contrary to concerns regarding the effect of GDPR, "not only has there not been an increase in spam, but the volume of spam and new registrations in spam-heavy generic top-level domains (gTLDs) has been on the decline." more

The .EU Top-Level Domain Facing Radical Shake Up as a Result of the Proposed New European Regulation

In response to outdated Regulations in a rapidly changing world of domain names and internet governance, the European Commission earlier this year proposed a new Europen Regulation for the .EU Top Level Domain (TLD). more

Cuba’s 3G Mobile Access Trial - Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

On August 14 at 11 AM ETECSA, Cuba's monopoly ISP, began a 9-hour, nationwide test of 3G mobile Internet access -- anyone near a 3G-equipped cell tower with a compatible phone and a prepaid mobile telephony account could get free access until 8 PM. As far as I know, the only notification was this post on the ETECSA Facebook page, but word of the test and instructions for getting online spread by word of mouth. more

Trump Relaxes U.S. Regulation to Launch Cyberattacks

President Donald Trump has reversed an Obama-era policy that set limits on how the United States deploys cyberattacks. more

Cuba Testing 3G Internet Access

ETECSA, Cuba's monopoly ISP, has been running free tests of their forthcoming mobile access. It seems that the latest test is over for now, but Andy Garcia (@Dancuba96) ran a speed test before it ended... ETECSA has not announced when commercial 3G service will commence, where it will be available at first and what it will cost, but the following image at the start of the @ETECSA_Cuba Twitter page suggests that service will begin soon they are serious about mobile #Internet access. more

In an Eight-Hour Test, Cuba Makes Internet Access Available Nationwide

Cuba's government provided free internet to more than 5 million cellphone users on Tuesday as an eight-hour test prior to launching sales of the service. more

Internet as Non-Kinetic WMD

With each passing day, a new public opinion article appears or U.S. government official pronounces how the open internet is abetting some discovered catastrophic effects on our societal institutions. In just one week, the examples include increased information on FSB & GRU attacks on electoral systems and infrastructure, Trump's obliging tactical destruction of societal norms and propagation of the QAnon cult, U.S government agency officials playing "cyber security spin-the-bottle" at press conferences... more

Launch of .ISLAM and .HALAL TLDs Remain on Hold as per ICANN’s Controversial Decision

"ICANN holds .islam, .halal in limbo despite losing case," reports Kieren McCarthy in The Register. more

ITU’s Critical Cybersecurity Role and the 2018 Plenipotentiary

In the rather unique world of public international law for cybersecurity, the treaty provisions of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) stand alone. They form the multilateral basis for the existence of all communication networks, internets, and services worldwide and have obtained the assent by every nation in the world. They also contain the only meaningful multilateral cybersecurity provisions that have endured over a century and a half through all manner of technological change. more