KnujOn Releases New Security, Abuse and Compliance Report

We have just issued a new report detailing abuse of the Domain Name System and Registrar contract compliance issues. The report specifically discusses several items including: Registrars with current legal issues; Illicit Use of Privacy-Proxy WHOIS Registration; A study on the contracted obligation for Bulk WHOIS Access; and more. more

Eureka! We’ve Struck ... Consensus

It took a trip to California - the land of the gold rush - to discover that most elusive of ICANN aspirations: consensus. ICANN kicked off this week's meeting in San Francisco with a parade of Internet pioneers discussing the past, present and future of ICANN. ... ICANN insiders might focus on points of contention that came out of this morning's comments -- whether on new gTLDs or the future of the IANA functions -- but I was more interested by those areas where ICANN pioneers clearly agreed. more

Transparency Comes to Load Testing via the Cloud

The importance of online presence continues to grow exponentially. More and more of our personal and professional endeavors are conducted online. Because of this, the ability to ensure a good experience for our online friends and customers also is increasing rapidly. At its core, load testing is nothing more than ensuring your online presence is ready for the number of visitors you expect. It's simple to explain, but historically it's been anything but simple, or easy to afford. more

Kieren McCarthy: Issue Guide to ICANN San Francisco Meetings

As the ICANN's 40th international meetings start off in San Francisco, Kieren McCarthy, General Manager (US) of the Global Internet Business Coalition (GIBC), and founder of the .NXT conference, has released a guide for the most important topics (listed below) with some added commentary, background and links to relevant resources. more

Japan Earthquake Only Minor Impact on Region’s Internet Infrastructure

James Cowie from Renesys reports: "8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan has had surprisingly limited impacts on the structure and routing dynamics of the regional Internet. Of roughly 6,000 Japanese network prefixes in the global routing table, only about 100 were temporarily withdrawn from service -- and that number has actually decreased in the hours since the event. Other carriers around the region have reported congestion and drops in traffic due to follow-on effects of the quake, but most websites are up and operational, and the Internet is available to support critical communications." more

Google to Let Users Block Sites Based on Domain Names

In pursuit of its efforts to improve Google search results, the company on Thursday announced the release of a new feature that enables users to block specific search results based on domain names. more

IPv6 Percolates, IPv4 Regurgitates

APNIC happened to be the first Regional Internet Registry to meet in the IANA post IPv4 era. While discussions and proposals on how to divvy up the last 'slash 8' into tinier blocks are to be expected, it was rather unreal to see the energy spent divining how the RIR's would share IPv4 space that would eventually be returned to IANA and then regurgitated. A timewarp with the exhaustion clock turning backwards? more

Ottawa Committed to Overturn CRTC Decision on Usage-Based Internet Billing

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement has announced that the Harper government will overturn the CRTC's decision that effectively ends "unlimited use" Internet plans if the regulator doesn't rescind the decision itself. more

Proxy-Privacy User Higher for Illicit Domains

WHOIS issues are looming large for the ICANN meeting next week, starting with an all-day WHOIS Policy Review on Sunday (background). WHOIS is a subject that has been the recent topic of a number of issues including a debacle over potentially disclosing the identities of compliance reporters to spammers and criminal domainers. more

Libya Using a Different Internet Strategy than Egypt

In a Renesys blog post, James Cowie writes: "Why did Libya put its Internet in 'warm standby mode' instead of just taking it down, as Egypt did? Perhaps because they're learning from Mubarak's experience. Cutting off the Internet at the routing level (powering down the Internet exchange point, going after the remaining providers with secret police to enact a low-level shutdown) was a technically unsophisticated desperation move on Egypt's part." more

Malware Decrease in February, Trojans Continue to Be Most Prolific

Only 39 percent of computers scanned in February were infected with malware, compared to 50 percent last month, according to recent data gathered by Panda Security. Trojans were found to be the most prolific malware threat, responsible for 61 percent of all cases, followed by traditional viruses and worms which caused 11.59 percent and 9 percent of cases worldwide, respectively. more

Hitachi Second Major Consumer Brand to Announce .Brand TLD Application

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Japanese electronics giant Hitachi has emerged as the second big consumer brand to officially announce it will apply for a '.brand' top-level domain. GMO Registry, also based in Japan, is the company's back-end provider of choice, according to this news release..." more

Conflict Over Efforts to Develop a Best-Practices Document for Blacklist Operators

Neil Schwartzman writes to report: "Ken Magill covers the current rake fight on the IRTF's Anti-Spam Research Group mailing list concerning anti-spam DNS Blacklist, or Blocklist, (DNSBL) operators charging for delistings, that is well worth a read, he has quotes from many experts and leaders in the industry who are decidedly against the practice." more

Comcast’s Impressive System for Notifying Infected Users

Pretty much as long as there've been computers, one of the biggest challenges has been user education. How do you create software smart enough to inform a user when they're about to do something potentially disastrous - or, worse, when something disastrous has been done to them? As one of the world's largest access providers, Comcast has put a ton of thought into developing a notification system for their users. The solution Comcast developed involves, in effect, hijacking HTTP requests... more

NTIA Request for Comments on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions

On Feb. 25, 2011, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released the following request for comments concerning the USG's contract for the IANA function. As indicated, the USG's contract for the IANA function with ICANN expires later this year. Interested parties can file comments with NTIA by March 31, 2011. more