Webremixed Articles for tags: domains

Users Don't Like Forwarded Spam

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:18:00 GMT

A message on Dave Farber's Interesting People list complained that Comcast was blocking mail forwarded by DynDNS, a popular provider of DNS and related services for small-scale users... Actually, they're blocking it because a lot of it is spam. This is a problem that every mail forwarder and every mail system encounters; the only unusual thing here is that DynDNS is whining about it. It's yet another way that spammers have broken the mail for the rest of us. More...

Largest Spam Gang Operation in the World Shutdown by U.S. and New Zealand Authorities

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:31:00 GMT

U.S. authorities announced today that they have shut down one of the largest spam operations in the world, an extensive network with ties to Australia, New Zealand, India, China and the United States. The group, dubbed 'HerbalKing' by spam fighting organizations, had been active as far back as 2005 and became notorious as the number one worst spam gang on the Internet for much of 2007 and 2008 according to Spamhaus, a non-profit anti-spam research group. More...

Continued Controversy Over Google Ads on Typosquatted Domains

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:53:00 GMT

Regular readers of this site would be familiar with the ongoing legal battles involving the practice of typosquatting; the registration of misspelled domain names of well know brands with the intention of making a profit. Taking advantage of the fact that millions of online users mistype addresses of websites they intend to visit, typosquatters register common misspelled versions of popular sites and make money by displaying ads. Google's AdSense for Domains (AFD) program, often used for displaying such ads, has been particularly targeted by trademark owners which according to McAfee's SiteAdvisor, serves ads on more than 80% of typosquatting sites recently uncovered. More...

Retailers More Confident with Cyber Security Measures in 2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:58:00 GMT

Recent U.S. survey reveals a lesser percentage of leading retailers have invested in Internet security measures in 2008 -- as compared to last year -- due to confidence in protective systems already in place. According to accounting and consulting firm, BDO Seidman, "44 percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) at leading U.S. retailers stated that they have increased their level of investment in cyber security to combat potential data breaches, down from 61 percent in 2007, indicating a growing comfort with the protective systems in place." More...

ISP Warnings Could Cut Illegal Music Downloads by 75%, Says Survey

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:19:06 GMT

According to a survey by European research group, Entertainment Media, 75% of music pirates would stop illegal downloads if warned by their ISPs. The research which looked at the digital habits of consumers, has also found that the abundance of online music services has played a strong role in reducing illegal music downloads. "It is quite evident that an ISP-led strategy has bite, because illegal downloaders are fairly convinced that ISPs are currently monitoring their activities and are more likely to act against them than the courts," said Russell Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research. More...

No Way Out of Australian ISP Filters

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:19:06 GMT

Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government's pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will only have the option to be placed on a weaker blacklist. Under the government's $125.8 million Plan for Cyber-Safety, users can switch between two blacklists which block content inappropriate for children, and a separate list which blocks illegal material. "Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked -- end of story." More...

Cluck, Cluck… ICANN and Contract Compliance Enforcement

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:05:00 GMT

I've always been a fan of co-ops. In New York, we shop at greenstar.coop and my wife banks at alternatives.coop, in the UK we shop at co-operative.coop. So when the .COOP domain opened, I wondered if I could get my own clever domain name, but found that chicken.coop was taken by a small producer co-op in the southern U.S. Drat. More...

Are You Getting Your News From Spam? My Mother Does

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:44:00 GMT

This is a story about my mother and Obama. My mother: "Have you heard about Obama? Really impressive guy." Me: "What about him?" My mother: "x, y and z." Me: "Where did you hear about this?" My mother: "I read email too, you are not the only one who is into technology." Luckily, my mother bases her opinion on more than just spam messages... More...

U.S. Department of Commerce Seeking Public Comments for Deployment of DNSSEC

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:35:00 GMT

During a conference, "Internet of Things," in France, the U.S. Department of Commerce made the announcement that it will hold a public consultation on the different proposals to cryptographically sign the DNS root zone file, and determine who will hold the root zone trust anchor for global DNSSEC implementation, says Milton Mueller on the Internet Governance Forum blog. The blog, titled "Commerce Department asks the world to comment on its plans to retain control of the root," continues... More...

Research Firm Predicts 22.4 million IPTV Subscribers by 2013 in Asia-Pacific

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:10:00 GMT

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan research firm suggests that the IPTV subscriber base in Asia-Pacific -- covering 13 countries -- reached 4.1 million in 2007 and estimates this number to reach 22.4 million by the end of 2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.7 percent (2007-2013). Of the 13 countries, eight had commercial IPTV services in 2007, while the rest are conducting trials for expected deployments from 2009 onwards, according to the report. "Many service providers feel the urge to launch IPTV services as a defensive strategy to increase their 'n-play' offerings with one more service." More...

The Net Neutrality Conflicts in Obama vs. McCain Presidential Debates?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:20:00 GMT

According to U.S. presidential candidates' position statements on the issues, John McCain is against Net neutrality and Barack Obama supports it. Glenn Derene, senior tech editor of Popular Mechanics who has put some thought into this issue in light of the current presidential race, says Net Neutrality is "one of the few technology issues on which the candidates clearly disagree." Derek explains... More...

Peering into Fast Flux Botnet Activity

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:31:00 GMT

Together with Thorsten Holz, I recently published a paper on fast flux botnet behaviors, "As the Net Churns: Fast-Flux Botnet Observations," based on data we gathered in our ATLAS platform. Fast flux service networks utilize botnets to distribute the web servers to the infected PCs... One of the most well known fast flux botnets has been the Storm Worm botnet, which uses the zombies to spam, send out new enticements to infect users, and to host the malicious website which delivers the malcode. More...

Google's Eric Schmidt: Internet Becoming a Cesspool Where Brands Are Increasing Important

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Internet is a "cesspool," a festering sea of bad information, said Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, yesterday while speaking to a group of visiting magazine executives at the company's Mountain View, California Campus during the American Magazine Conference. Schmidt suggested that "brands" are more important than ever and key solution for this problem is brands. "Brands are the solution, not the problem," said Schmidt. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool." Branding, on the other hand, may be an essential element that helps people navigate the world, he continued. "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component." More...

Email Ad Network Isn't Liable for Spam: Ferron v. Echostar

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:14:00 GMT

John Ferron is one of several anti-spam litigation entrepreneurs around the country (perhaps not coincidentally, he's also an attorney). He has brought numerous anti-spam lawsuits, and according to the court, he collected 45,000 spams in 6 months as source material for future anti-spam lawsuits. Among other trolling for spam, he submitted his email address to a dozen satellite dish websites and waited for the dish satellite spam to roll in so that he could sue the senders... More...

Aftermarket.com Auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:45:08 GMT

Thought Convergence is proud to announce that Aftermarket.com has been selected as the premier auction house for the upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under conference, scheduled to take place November 18-20, 2008 in Queensland, Australia. The Aftermarket.com auction will commence on November 20, 2008, beginning at 8:30 AM AEST UTC/GMT +10 hours (Nov 19, 2008, [...]

U.S. Counterterrorism Data Mining Measures Questioned by New NRC Report

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:59:00 GMT

An extensive report released today by The National Research Council (NRC), titled "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Assessment", examines the balance between security and privacy. According to the report, all U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data -- such as phone, medical, and travel records or websites visited -- should be required to systematically evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy. More...

Wholesale Internet Bandwidth Prices Continue to Decline Globally, Says New Study

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:28:06 GMT

According to a report by research firm, TeleGeography, the price of wholesale internet access (IP transit) continues to decline but varies considerably around the world. From today's report: "IP transit prices in Asia remain far higher than in the US and Europe. Prices for GigE ports in major Asian cities in Q2 2008 ranged from USD30 per Mbps month in Seoul to USD45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo. IP transit service in Latin America is even more expensive, with median GigE port prices ranging from USD73 per month in Buenos Aires to USD86 per month in Santiago." More...

NeuStar Completes Trial of SIP-IX VoIP Interconnection Exchange Service with COMPTEL Members

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:39:00 GMT

The successful trial included extensive testing of provisioning of telephone numbers and policy management. This policy control enables customized route instructions to optimize cost, quality and service capability, supporting new business models and relationships. More...

The Root of All Email

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:27:00 GMT

This week, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) published a number of what they call "RFCs," which originally meant "Requests for Comment" - the standards documents which specify the technical underpinnings of the Internet. Two of these, numbered 5321> and 5322, replace earlier documents defining the very core of internet email. On the surface, each of these seem surprisingly simple... Yet without general industry-wide acceptance of (and compliance with) these standards, internet email simply would not exist. More...

Inside a Managed Spam Service

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

A managed spam vendor always has to raise the stakes during its introduction period on the market. But what happens when a market follower starts using the market leader's proprietary managed spamming system, and is able to provide better spamming rates at cheaper prices? Market forces and unethical competition at its best. More...

Time for Self Reflection

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:12:00 GMT

In case you don't read any of what I have to say below, read this: I have dual citizenship. Along with my homeland citizenship, I am of the Internet, and see it as my personal duty to try and make the Internet safe. Atrivo (also known as Intercage), is a network known to host criminal activity for many years, is no more. Not being sarcastic for once, this is the time for some self reflection. More...

Wireless at the Speed of Fiber: New Millimeter-Wave Technology Sends Data at 10 Gigabits Per Second

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:28:00 GMT

Researchers at Battellea, a research and development firm in Columbus, OH, have succeeded in using off-the-shelf optical telecommunication components to create a faster millimeter-wave device sending data at 10 gigabits per second. Current Wi-Fi and cellular networks operate on frequencies of 2.4 to 5.0 gigahertz. oday there are no commercial wireless systems available that could match the speed of optical fiber capable of carrying tens of gigabits per second. More...

Two Europeans Charged for DDOS Attacks in U.S.

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:52:00 GMT

A British man and a German man have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to intentionally cause damage to the computers of two U.S.-based retail satellite companies by launching large-scale distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks that shut down the companies' websites. The two men were allegedly hired by the owner of Orbit Communication, currently wanted by the FBI, to carry out DDOS attacks. Those attacks were directed at the public websites of two of Orbit's competitors, Rapid Satellite of Miami, Florida, and Weaknees of Los Angeles. If convicted, Walker and Gembe face 15 years in prison. More...

How Can ICANN Improve Institutional Confidence?

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:50:00 GMT

This week ICANN held a public consultation in Washington, D.C., where ICANN's President's Strategy Committee (PSC) solicited remarks from a packed audience of intellectual property (IP) lawyers, domain name registrars and other Internet stakeholders on how the organization can improve institutional confidence. No surprise, ICANN's decision to add new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to the Internet was on many participants' minds. More...

Skype Messes Up, Badly

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:21:00 GMT

The Open Net Initiative's Information Warfare Monitor project has published a stunning report by "Hacktivist" Nart Villeneuve titled: "Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform." It has been covered by both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal... More...

Broadband Data Improvement Act Passes Senate, House, A.K.A. Find Why U.S. is on Continuous Decline

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:16:00 GMT

In a major win for the public interest, the Broadband Data Improvement Act passed the Senate (on September 26th) and the House (on September 29th). Due to amendments, it now goes back to the Senate for final approval (should be pro-forma) before it lands on George Bush's desk. With the United States falling further and further behind a host of other countries, the question on many people's minds (including the folks over at Point-Topic who created this graphic) is, "Why is this happening?" More...

Stay Safe Online: Fifth Annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:07:00 GMT

This month marks the fifth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) will be actively engaging public and private sector partners through events and initiatives to increase overall awareness and minimize vulnerabilities. This year, according to DHS, 28 state governors signed a proclamation in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month and 51 endorsements were provided by companies, non-profits, universities and government agencies. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. To learn more, visit DHS and StaySafeOnline.org. More...

Investigation Reveals Massive Security and Privacy Breaches Affecting Chinese Version of Skype

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:26:00 GMT

Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers have released a report on the extensive surveillance system in China that monitors and archives text conversations that include politically charged words. The research group, called Information Warfare Monitor, is a joint project of The SecDev Group, and the Citizen Lab, at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. The following are introductory excerpts from the study... More...

Remembering Jon: Looking Beyond the Decade

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:50:00 GMT

A decade has passed since Jon Postel left our midst. It seems timely to look back beyond that decade and to look forward beyond a decade hence. It seems ironic that a man who took special joy in natural surroundings, who hiked the Muir Trail and spent precious time in the high Sierras was also deeply involved in that most artificial of enterprises, the Internet. More...

ICANN Slaps Joker.com and DNS.com.cn

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:37:00 GMT

If you have rules and regulations but don't enforce them then there's little point in having any rules or regulations in the first place. One of the criticisms that is often leveled at ICANN is with regard to compliance issues. There are a number of areas where ICANN accredited registrars may be flounting the rules, but if nobody does anything about it then none of the registrars will have any incentive to actually comply. More...

Google Explains Why Their Data Centers are Most Efficient in the World

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:19:39 GMT

According to Google's findings released today, the company claims that its energy-optimized data centers are the most efficient in the world. More specifically, the company says that its data centers "use nearly five times less energy than conventional facilities to feed and cool the computers inside." This includes efforts to optimize every element in the data center, from the chip to the cooling tower. "As a result, the energy used per Google search is minimal. In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query." More...

ICANN Faces Questions on Accountability and Outside Takeover

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:25:00 GMT

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) held a meeting today in Washington, D.C. discussing concerns over the organizations takeover by governments and other outside entities as well as the need for further accountability to Internet users. ICANN's current oversight agreement with the U.S. government comes to an end in a year and there are no plans to sign a new agreement according to ICANN officials. However in the past few years, representatives of other countries have called for an international organization to oversee the 10-year-old ICANN. In order to steer clear of outside takeovers, ICANN proposes remaining in the U.S. where it can take advantage of the countries relatively strong antitrust and competitive laws. More...

.ORG Talks with Dan Kaminsky on DNSSEC

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:46:01 GMT

The following post is based on a recent discussion .ORG had with Dan Kaminsky, a DNS expert best know for discovering a serious DNS bug, about DNSSEC and how it is a critical step toward bolstering Internet security. More...

Supposedly Private Meeting of China's Censorship Division and Wikipedia Founder

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:25:43 GMT

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has met with the Chinese government body in charge of censoring online content in the country. Cai Mingzhao, Vice Director of China's State Council Information Office in charge of China's "Internet Management Division" (censorship division), discussed Wales' concerns regarding censorship. Although no deals or agreements where made, it has been reported that the meeting has "opened a channel of communication and dialogue between the Wikipedia community and the Chinese government." More...

Finnish Security Researchers Decide to Go Public With a TCP/IP Flaw

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:03:00 GMT

Researchers at a Finnish security firm Outpost 24 claim to have discovered a flaw in the Internet Protocol that can disrupt any computer or server. After keeping the flaw quiet for years, the researchers hope that going public will help accelerate the creation of a solution, according to PC World Australia. The flaw enables attackers to bring computers and servers to a halt by sending a few specially formed TCP/IP packets. The result can be compared to a denial of service attack (DDoS), in which networks are flooded with traffic. However in this case only minimal amount of traffic is required. "We're talking 10 packets per second to take down one service," Jack Lewis, a senior researcher with Outpost24. More...

dotMobi Announces 2.0 Release of Award-Winning DeviceAtlas Mobile Device Database

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:41:00 GMT

Tthis 2.0 release moves DeviceAtlas from a "read-only" database to a "read-write" version with the introduction of a variety of technical enhancements, including automated phone capability tests, advanced search features and powerful graph options to generate insight into device data patterns along with the ability to download personalized versions of the database. More...

10 Years of ICANN

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:44:00 GMT

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was officially incorporated on 30 September 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation. Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, United States, ICANN was assigned to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks originally performed directly on behalf of the U.S. government by other organizations, such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Back in 1998, there was only one domain name registrar; now there are over 900 ICANN-accredited registrars in the world and over 168 million domain names registered. More...

GNU Founder Richard Stallman Warns Against Cloud Computing

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, says cloud computing is essentially a trap that will eventually pressure more people into buying locked, proprietary systems that will continue to cost them more over time. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," says Stallman. Bobbie Johnson, Guardian's technology correspondent says 'his comments echo those made last week by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, who criticized the rash of cloud computing announcements as "fashion-driven" and "complete gibberish".' More...

Coming to Grips with an Internet that Never Forgets

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:25:30 GMT

My weekly technology law column discusses the implications of an Internet that never forgets. I note that the most significant Internet effect during the current election campaign in Canada has not been any particular online video, website or Facebook group. Instead, it has been the resignation of eight Canadian candidates based on embarrassing or controversial information unearthed online. More...

Telcos, IT Companies Start $1B Promotion for Mobile Broadband as Alternative to Wi-Fi and WiMax

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:13:00 GMT

Some of the world's largest IT and mobile companies have teamed up to create a new category of always-connected 'Mobile Broadband' devices, delivering an alternative to WiFi. According to reports, in the first phase of this initiative lead by GSM Association (GSMA), mobile operators, PC manufacturers and chipset providers will collaborate to pre-install Mobile Broadband into a range of notebook PCs that will be ready to switch on and surf straight out of the box in 91 countries. More...

It's Official: China Now Has More Broadband Lines than the United States

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT

It was just last year that those of us raising alarms about the massive half-decade market failure in the United States to adequately provision broadband services were facing a misinformation campaign that raw numbers mattered more than percentage rankings. According to this argument, the U.S. broadband market was sound because we had more broadband lines than anyone else. The misinformation brigade got so much attention that public interest groups had to issue reports systematically refuting the PR are marketing hype. More...

Rollout of Transpacific Undersea Cable Completed

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:48:00 GMT

Six of the world's largest telecommunications companies are reported to have completed the construction of a high-speed undersea telecommunications cable system across the Pacific. The fiber-optic cable, called Trans-Pacific Express, will directly link the U.S., China, South Korea and Taiwan, according to the Dow Jones news service. Verizon, one of the partners in the project, has said that the new cable system would be able to handle the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone conversations. This would be more than 60 times the overall capacity of China-U.S. existing cable, capable of handling equivalent of 1 million simultaneous phone conversations. More...

European Commission on the Future of the Internet

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:26:00 GMT

The European Commission has just published a communication which describes the broad lines of its Internet policy in the coming years. Vint Cerf, on the Google Public Policy blog sees this as a very interesting vision. Indeed, it closely links the issue of openness of the Internet to several obvious and not-so-obvious factors. More...

Internet Pioneer Paul Baran Awarded National Medals of Technology and Innovation

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:31:00 GMT

Paul A. Baran, a founding father of the Internet has been named a 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation laureate. Baren was presented the award by President Bush at the White House today. Baran is one of the three inventors of packet-switched networks, along with Donald Davies and Leonard Kleinrock. His packet switching idea has served as a foundation where others later built the ARPANET, which, over time, evolved into the Internet. More...

Delayed Enforcement Blocks Domain Name Lawsuit: Southern Grouts v. 3M

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:18:00 GMT

I'm often baffled by lawsuits over domain names and keywords because they just don't seem to make any economic sense. This lawsuit is especially perplexing given the plaintiff's delays and the seeming impossibility of the plaintiff reaching a profitable outcome, even if it won in court. What was the plaintiff thinking? More...

Going Once, Going Twice, SOLD!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:45:58 GMT

Wednesday, September 25, marked a new chapter in our history with the live auction held at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2008 Conference in New York. Everyone here was extremely excited about the results and it showed in the success of the completely new Auction Bidding Interface. As many of you already know we had to address [...]