ICANN Close to Final DAG for Top-Level Domains: Will Policy Concerns by New Applicants Be Resolved?

ICANN's plan to increase competition and bring innovation in the domain space by launching top-level domains (TLD) seems to be in full swing following the resolutions at the last ICANN Board retreat in Norway. However one area that seems unclear is who will take responsibility in determining the TLD winners. After years of continuous additions, retractions and amendments, the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) is not yet finalized. However, the word in the ICANN community is that the TLD program launch will be in effect immediately after the ICANN San Francisco meeting held in March 2011. more

No Summer Break for IPv6

In India we saw the Department of Telecommunications take action. Late July the Telecom Engineering Centre organized a seminar where the recommendations for IPv4 to IPv6 transition put forward by the regulator (TRAI) were adopted. The highlights of the plan reflect a traditional Indian non aggressive but nonetheless forceful persuasion. more

Investing in Rural Broadband

There was a headline in a recent FierceTelecom article that I thought I'd never see - Jeffries analyst says the rural broadband market is ripe for investment. In the article, analyst George Notter is quoted talking about how hot rural broadband is as an investment. He cites the large companies that have been making noise about investing in rural broadband. Of course, that investment relies on getting significant rural grants. more

Lessons Behind the Microsoft 3322.org Takedown

The Microsoft action against 3322.org, a Chinese company, started with the news that computers were infected during the production phase. Stepping away from the controversy surrounding the approach, there are important lessons that cyber security officials and upper management, deciding on the level of and budget for cyber security in organisations should learn and take into account. I'm writing this contribution from a premise: China uses the fact that most IT devices are built in China to its advantage. Allow me to start with an account from personal memory to set the stage. more

The ICANN Hunger Games

Adolescents were fascinated by the book and film called "Hunger Games". The plot is about a government forcing people to watch, and forcing some to play, a cruel game for life and death. ICANN's own Hunger Games, the so-called "digital archery" or "batching" process, is not lethal to people, but shares all other features: it is forced upon the participants, it is destructive, unfair and unnecessary. more

Top Three Reasons to Just Say No to ICANN’s Current EOI gTLD Proposal

On December 9, 2009, the ICANN Board announced its intention to vote during its upcoming February 4, 2010 meeting to approve a plan by which ICANN would solicit "Expressions of Interest" (EOI) from prospective applicants for new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .BLOG. But given a number of significant governance and public policy concerns raised by the current EOI proposal, the ICANN Board should take no action on it before the next in-person ICANN regional meeting--in Nairobi, March 3-7, 2010. more

IP Addresses Are Not Telephone Numbers - The Fundamental Flaw with the FCC’s Proposed Privacy Rules

Last month the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI), the information telcos collect about consumers' phone calls. The Commission's proposed rules would adapt and apply privacy rules that have historically applied to the traditional telephone space to broadband carriers. It would also regulate how broadband providers use and share that data. more

All New gTLD Registrations Should Be Subject to Sunrise Periods - Even Reserved Names

Planning to register your trademark as a domain name during a Sunrise Period only to find out that the registration appears on a Reserved Names list? There are a number of reasons why a domain that matches your trademark is appearing on a Reserved Names list. First of all, if the domain desired is the subject of Name Collision, it may appear on a Reserved Names list. Although this is not true for all registries, as some operators are allowing domains that have been the subject of Name Collision to be allocated during Sunrise, but not delegated. more

5G Real Security Threats Lost in Trump’s Twitter Diplomacy

A new report on 5G and geopolitics by Oxford Information Labs details the complex landscape of 5G security. Importantly, it draws out how a variety of proven technical concerns around the quality of Huawei security practices and equipment are drowned out by the US' Twitter diplomacy. Critical international dialogue on genuine cybersecurity concerns relating to 5G and Huawei are being lost in the noise of the US-China trade war. more

ARIN and Antigua & Barbuda Government to Hold Workshop on Internet Resilience

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is collaborating with the government of Antigua and Barbuda to strengthen the technical capacity of local network operators. ARIN is one of five registries responsible for coordinating Internet number resources worldwide. Its service area includes Canada, the United States, and several Caribbean countries. The collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda government comes as part of a broader thrust by ARIN to support the development of the Internet across the region. more

ITU-T Takes Lead on Drone IoT Identification in 2019

In today's fast-paced world of IoT, perhaps one of the most significant involves the rapid identification of civilian drones -- more formally known as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The identification of civilian UAVs has become a critical public safety concern today. Establishing a flexible, trusted global means for identifying these objects through worldwide supply chains and resolving the identifier tags to a responsible party rapidly via a network-based resolver is a high priority. more

Will Work for Bandwidth

The Internet is in for interesting times. Previously, on Renysys' blog I wrote about the engineering issues and the policy issues facing us over the next five years. But there is at least one large issue still lurking. Most of you will not be surprised to learn that almost all of these issues are outgrowths of a single factor: money. The core of the Internet still doesn't have a sustainable business model. more

Coronavirus Exposes China’s Deep Surveillance State

Surveillance cameras in China can detect fevers with infrared cameras to an accuracy within 0.3℃ and recognize faces even if they are wearing masks. more

China Will Remember the U.S. Huawei War for a Generation

Only an idiot would believe that the U.S. is blocking TSMC manufacture of Huawei cell phone chips because of security fears. This is a commercial rivalry. The U.S. wants to put China's leading technology company out of business. We will fail, of course, at a price far higher than D.C. understands. The U.S. is ready for China's immediate countermeasures, even if Apple's stock price falls $hundreds of billions. But the long-run price will be devastating. more

.trust Technical Policy Launch

Whenever I examine the technical elements of the various Internet security certifications and standards that organisations are clamouring to achieve compliance against, I can't help but feel that in too many cases those businesses are prioritising the wrong things and wasting valuable resources. They may as well be following a WWI field guide on how to keep cavalry horses nourished and bayonets polished in a world of stealth aircraft and dirty bombs. more