Are Inter-Satellite Laser Links a Bug or a Feature of ISP Constellations?

I hope each of these companies has someone in charge of thinking about what might go wrong with a single, satellite-based network providing fast, low-cost links anywhere on the global Internet. OneWeb, SpaceX, Telesat and Leosat all aspire to be global Internet service providers using constellations of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Their success will require still-unproven technological innovation, but there are also political stumbling blocks. more

ICANN’s September Surprise

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!" is how Gomer Pyle would react to the news that the US government has allowed the JPA to expire, thus completing the transition of DNS management to ICANN. Plenty of skeptics doubted the US would let it happen, but today really is ICANN's independence day. more

How to Prepare for the DNSSEC Root KSK Rollover on October 11, 2018

Are you ready? Are your systems prepared so that DNS will keep functioning for your networks? One week from today, on Thursday, October 11, 2018, at 16:00 UTC ICANN will change the cryptographic key that is at the center of the DNS security system - what we call DNSSEC. The current key has been in place since July 15, 2010. This is a long-planned replacement. more

Most U.S. Agencies Expected to Miss IPv6 Deadline

Most federal agencies are expected to miss the September 30 deadline that requires their public-facing websites to support IPv6. An official weekly snapshot provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology showed that as of September 26, just 11 percent of the 1,498 government external domains tested had operational IPv6 support, Federal Computer reports.  more

The Rest of the World Is Still Waiting…

Good news. In now my 15th ICANN meeting or so it's clear that the internet governance community is finally taking some real note of the rest of the world -- including the over 50% of humankind that doesn't use Latin script characters to communicate. In fact, talk of emerging markets is everywhere at the San Francisco ICANN meeting this week. The ICANN Board and Government Advisory Committee (or GAC, a group of government representatives that advise the Board) are talking about the needs of developing countries. more

Phishing in the New gTLDs

The new Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) Global Phishing Survey has just been released. Written by myself and Rod Rasmussen of IID, the report is the "who, what, where, when, and why" look at phishing, examining the second half of 2014. The report has many findings, but here I'll concentrate on the new gTLDs. The second half of 2014 was when an appreciable number of new gTLDs entered general availability and started to gain market share. more

Thoughts on the Toys “R” Us Acquisition of Toys.com

Using the purchase by Toys "R" Us of Toys.com as an example, I outline the problems that come with using the popular ascending auction design and point out some of the potential strategic uses and signals of the domain name acquisition. Toys “R” Us paid $5.1 million in February 2009 for Toys.com. It outbid five others, including National A-1 Advertising and Frank Schilling... 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

Craigslist Gets a $40 Million CAN-SPAM Judgment

Classified ad site craigslist is famously protective of its contents. While they are happy for search engines like Google to index the listings, they really, really do not like third parties to scrape and republish their content in other forms. In 2013 craigslist sued a company called 3taps which had created an API for craigslist data. They also sued real estate site Padmapper, which showed craigslist and other apartment listings on a map, something craigslist didn't do at the time. more

The Grapes of Wrath? An Insight Into .WINE, the Most Hotly Debated TLD in Government Circles

Everybody agrees, all .WINE applicants want to find where the buck is going to stop, as far as the strange stalemate we have been in for so many months. Situation? "What situation?" I hear you asking. In July 2012, when applications and the name of their applicants were released to the public, it appeared that 3 applicants had the same idea, when they applied for a .WINE Top-Level Domain. more

Spam Continues to Drop

The chart in this post shows the amount of inbound mail that we see, both spam and non-spam, over the past three and a half years. You can see in the above that the amount of good mail that we see has continued to increase over time. This is because of an increased customer base, not because the total amount of good mail worldwide has gone up... However, the amount of spam has plummeted from 23,000 in mid 2010 to 5000 now, a drop of over 75%. The contrast couldn't be starker -- spammers are not spamming as much anymore. It almost looks like the battle against spam is almost over. What's still left to do? more

Remembering the Cybersecurity Treaty That Never Happened

The cybercrime legal community from around the globe is meeting under the aegis of the Council of Europe (COE) to hold the annual Cooperation against Cybercrime conference dubbed Octopus 2021. It is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Cybercrime Convention treaty signed in November 2001 in Budapest. Not celebrated and little known, however, is the Stanford Draft -- A Proposal for an International Convention on Cyber Crime and Terrorism -- and the initiative begun in 1997 which brought about that draft treaty instrument. more

Warranties and Representations on Purchasing Domain Names: What are they Worth?

The WIPO Final Report published in April 1999, from which sprung the UDRP the following October, is useful in shedding light on what the assembled constituencies had in mind in agreeing to particularly contentious issues. One of those issues was whether registrants had to actively search trademark records before purchasing domain names. Other than paragraph 2 of the Policy which codifies registrants' representations, there is no guidance as to what registrants must do... more

Circumstantial Evidence of Yahoo’s CAPTCHA Being Broken

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article on Yahoo that some outfit in Russia claimed to have broken Yahoo's CAPTCHA for creation of new email accounts. Another blogger wrote that it was unlikely that the spamming outfit had achieved 100% success at breaking the CAPTCHA. Yet, in the past couple of weeks, I have noticed something that would seem to confirm the theory... more

The Path Forward: Accountability Through the IANA Transition

It's clear that the US government is intent on dropping its legacy contractual role for the IANA functions. Whatever your views on the wisdom or timing of that decision, the challenge now is to ensure that the transition leaves ICANN in the best possible position to succeed. Arriving yesterday to the island nation of Singapore felt strangely appropriate. Over the past week I've been one of the lonely people in the ICANN community to express concern about the US government's decision. more