ITU’s Wise WTSA DOA Decision

The venerable old International Telecommunication Union (ITU) tradition finished up yesterday. Indeed, very late yesterday. The 568 representatives from 92 National Administrations met in a Tunisian town on the Mediterranean to make some key decisions about intergovernmental standards meetings for the next four years -- a body known as the WTSA (World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly). In the end, they avoided what could have been a dreadful mistake and emerged a better organization. more

High-Bid Auctions Deflate the .nyc TLD

Our hope for an intuitive and trusted .nyc TLD took a hit today when 20 domain names were sold to 10 bidders in city's first high-bid auction. While the city refers to these as "premium" names, we think of them as heritage names. With our city-TLD's success predicated on its utility and predictability, this first of perhaps 25 auctions bodes poorly on its chances. More on that in a bit, but first some details on the auction. more

Selling DONA Snake Oil at the ITU

A venerable old ITU tradition got underway today. Its Telecommunication Standardization body, known as the ITU-T, gathered, as it has done every four years for much of the past 100 years in a conclave of nations, to contemplate what they should be doing at their Geneva intergovernmental standards meetings for the next four years. The gathering is called the WTSA... Old intergovernmental institutional habits still continue, so the participants are gathered in a remote location in Tunisia called Hammamet. more

The Internet Needs a Security and Performance Upgrade

Many of you will have seen news stories that explained what was going on: a huge DDoS attack on the infrastructure of Dyn had taken down access to many large websites like Twitter. A great deal of digital ink has since been spilled in the mainstream press on the insecurity of the Internet of Things, as a botnet of webcams was being used. Here are some additional issues that might get missed in the resulting discussion. more

Trust Isn’t Easy: Drawing an Agenda from Friday’s DDoS Attack and the Internet of Things

Last week, millions of infected devices directed Internet traffic to DNS service provider Dyn, resulting in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that took down major websites including Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, and more. In a recent blog post, security expert Bruce Schneier argued that "someone has been probing the defences of the companies that run critical pieces of the Internet". This attack seems to be part of that trend. This disruption begs the question: Can we trust the Internet? more

How Did We Get Here? A Look Back at the History of IANA

October 2016 marks a milestone in the story of the Internet. At the start of the month, the United States Government let its residual oversight arrangements with ICANN over the operation of the IANA lapse. No single government now has a unique relationship with the governance of the protocol elements of the Internet, and it is now in the hands of a community of interested parties in a so-called Multi-Stakeholder framework. This is a unique step for the Internet and not without its attendant risks. How did we get here? more

2017, Year of Consolidation for Domain Name Market, AFNIC Study Suggests

AFNIC, the domain name registry for .rf (France), recently conducted a study of major trends for "Legacy gTLDs" or traditional TLDs such as .biz, .com, info, etc., as well as country code TLDs corresponding to territories such as .de (Germany), .fr (France), and .uk (United Kingdom). The new TLDs have note been included in this study since they are still something of a "new development", but will be included in the future, AFNIC says. more

Substantial DDoS Attack Disrupts Twitter, Netflix, Visa and other Major Sites

Major internet sites were disrupted for several hours this morning as internet infrastructure provider Dyn reported it was under a cyberattack, mainly affecting traffic on the U.S. East Coast. more

Another Free Registry Software Option

Google has recently announced the release of Nomulus, its free, open source registry software, triggering discussion of its impact on the industry. Afilias has over 15 years of experience in registry operations, and offers the following initial thoughts... First, free registry software is not new.CoCCA has offered this option for years, and TLDs such as .CX (Christmas Island) and .KI (Kiribati) use it. It is supported on a "best efforts" basis and appears to meet the limited needs of a few small operators. more

The Future of Software Patents

What should we do with software patents? I've seen both sides of the debate, as I work a great deal in the context of standards bodies (particularly the IETF), where software patents have impeded progress on a community-driven (and/or community-usable) standard. On the other hand, I have been listed as a co-inventor on at least 40 software patents across more than twenty years of work, and have a number of software patents either filed or in the process of being filed. more

Refutation of the Worst IANA Transition FUD

Of all the patently false and ridiculous articles written this month about the obscure IANA transition which has become an issue of leverage in the partisan debate over funding the USG via a Continuing Resolution, this nonsense by Theresa Payton is the most egregiously false and outlandish. As such, it demands a critical, nearly line by line response. more

Notorious Russian Ship Yanter Suspected of Cutting Syria’s Undersea Internet Cables

A Russian ship, suspected by intelligence and military officials to be capable of cutting undersea Internet cables, is spotted near the coast of Syria. more

When ‘Confusing Similarity’ in UDRP Cases Gets Confusing

The first element of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) requires a complainant to prove that the disputed domain name "is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights." It's unusual for a complainant to fail on this first of three prongs, but one recent case demonstrates just how uncertain the UDRP can be sometimes. more

How the Slow Adoption of the Cloud Has Impacted 3 Industries

"It's in the cloud" has become a phrase we don't think twice about, but less than a decade ago, you might have received some awkward looks using this kind of talk in the boardroom. Cloud-based software applications are heralding the fourth industrial revolution that will eventually lead to the industrial internet of things (IIOT). The reasons for this are because... more

New Trojan Used in High Level Financial Attacks, Multiple Banks Attacked

Since January 2016, discreet campaigns involving malware called Trojan.Odinaff have targeted a number of financial organizations worldwide, warned Symantec Security Response team on Tuesday. more