Public Interest Registry and American Red Cross Partner to Combat Online Donation Fraud

Public Interest Registry (PIR), a domain registration and management service for the .org top-level domain, has partnered with the American Red Cross, aiming to combat online fraud, especially in the context of fundraising in emergencies. The collaboration seeks to increase internet safety and enhance public trust in online donations to charitable causes. more

A New Phase of Measuring DNS Abuse

Today the DNS Abuse Institute (“DNSAI” or the “ Institute”) adds a new level of reporting for our measurement project: DNSAI Compass™ (“Compass”). With this new level of reporting, we intend to show the spectrum of how malicious phishing and malware is distributed across the DNS registration ecosystem.1 To demonstrate this, we are identifying registrars and TLDs with high and low volumes of malicious domain registrations in their Domains Under Management (DUM), or new registrations. more

How to Protect Your Brand in Web3

In 2014, computer scientist Gavin Wood coined the term "Web 3.0." The phrase, which has now been shortened to "Web3", refers to the third generation of the internet that's designed to be truly decentralised and free from a central authority. Web3 has the potential to add real-world value for businesses by creating additional avenues to reach consumers. However, owing to its less regulated nature, brands also have the potential to be taken advantage of both by users and by the providers in the space. more

Will Electronically Steered Antennas Replace Parabolic Antennas in Satellite Ground Stations?

Three recent developments make me wonder whether we are on the cusp of a shift in satellite ground station technology from parabolic to electronically steered antennas (ESAs). The U.S. Space Force operates the Satellite Control Network, with 19 parabolic antennas at seven locations around the world. more

Ransomware Attacks Skyrocket: Median Cost Doubles to $26,000, Representing a Quarter of All Breaches, Reports Verizon

A report from Verizon Business's 16th annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) reveals a startling surge in the frequency and cost of cyberattacks. It analyzed 16,312 security incidents and 5,199 breaches, showing a sharp uptick in the cost of ransomware.  more

50 Years of Ethernet

The idea for Ethernet was born fifty years ago in May 1973 when Robert Metcalf coined the word Ethernet. He had been studying ALOHAnet, developed at the University of Hawaii in 1971 and was the first public demonstration of a wireless packet data network. Metcalf used the work Ethernet as a reference to luminiferous aether, a concept postulated in the 17^th century to explain how light could be transmitted through a vacuum. more

Are You Ready for WiFi 7?

It wasn't that long ago that we saw a major update to WiFi standards with the release of WiFi 6 in 2019 and WiFi 6E in 2020. But we're on the verge of the next generation of WiFi with the official launch of the new WiFi 7 standard in November 2022. There has already been a soft release of WiFi 7 routers in China, and we'll start seeing the new routers in the market here sometime this year. more

Building a More Secure Routing System: Verisign’s Path to RPKI

At Verisign, we believe that continuous improvements to the safety and security of the global routing system are critical for the reliability of the internet. As such, we've recently embarked on a path to implement Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) within our technology ecosystem as a step toward building a more secure routing system. In this blog, we share our ongoing journey toward RPKI adoption and the lessons we've learned as an operator of critical internet infrastructure. more

Exploring Common Ground: Human Rights at ICANN

Our relationship to human rights is ambivalent. We take them for granted, we don't want to be without them, but on the other hand, we see them as somewhat abstract and aspirational, a lofty ideal easily forgotten and set aside in our daily struggles. When it comes to the digital domain, human rights are seen by many as an unwanted source of regulations in an industry that demands "unregulated innovation." more

RIPE 86 Bites: Encryption and Active Network Management

Change is hard, and the larger the system, the slower the pace of change. There are just so many systems that need to change their behaviors, and the motivations of users, vendors, service providers, content generators and many others all vary. Getting all of us to change some aspect of our technology, platform or application set is hard, if not impossible, to orchestrate such that it happens at the same time. more

RIPE 86 Bites: What’s the Time?

A little appreciated aspect of our digital infrastructure is just how dependent we are on access to time. Disrupting the time base can not only lead to disruption in communications but can result in various forms of compromise of the integrity of communications. Accurate time was all but unobtainable for centuries, and then, as we spent significant sums devising even more accurate timekeeping instruments, accurate time became a specialized service. more

Gigabyte Motherboard Firmware Exposes Millions of PCs to Potential Cybersecurity Threats

In a potentially damaging cybersecurity revelation, researchers from the cybersecurity company Eclypsium have identified a hidden mechanism in the firmware of motherboards manufactured by Taiwanese company Gigabyte. more

RIPE 86 Bites: Gigabits for EU

Rudolph van der Berg presented on the latest updates from the ongoing tensions in the Internet industry between carriage infrastructure providers and content providers, with a European perspective. The carriage providers in the EU region are asserting that they're making major capital investments in augmenting the access network infrastructure to carry gigabit traffic volumes, which is largely streaming content, while at the same time the content providers were getting a free ride, or so goes the argument. more

EFF Raises Concerns Over EU’s Proposed Cyber Resilience Act

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has voiced concerns about the European Union's proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), saying it could pose significant threats to open-source developers and cybersecurity. more

FCC Touts 6G

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has seemingly joined forces with the marketing arm of the cellular industry in declaring that the spectrum between 7-16 GHz is now considered to be 6G. Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel recently announced that the agency would soon begin looking at the uses for this spectrum for mobile broadband.  more