Report: Web Hosts Common Target of Phishers

Nearly 40 percent of web hosts were repeat victims of phishing attacks that resulted in the placing of malware on their server platforms, according to a new report by the Internet Policy Committee of the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents said their websites had phishing or spoof sites planted on their web …

DEFCON Founder Jeff Moss Joins ICANN

The Internet Center for Assigned Names and Numbers announced last week it has named Jeff Moss, the founder of DEFCON and the Black Hat Conference, to head its security efforts.

Moss, a self-proclaimed hacker for more than 20 years, will serve as ICANN‘s vice president and chief security officer. His …

Fresh Crop of 340 Undecillion IP Addresses Now Available

It’s official: The Internet recently ran out of IPv4 Internet addresses. But fear not, there’s a new round of addresses and it looks like they won’t exhaust anytime soon, with the introduction of 340 undecillion new, fresh addresses.

If you haven’t heard of undecillion before, it means a trillion trillion, which is notably more than the 4.3 billion IPv4 Internet…

Cyber Cops Want Stricter Rules on Domain Registration

International police would like stricter rules surrounding domain registration in order to facilitate finding and acting against cyber criminals. If industry fails to regulate, governments might be forced to, the police warn.

During 38th public meeting of ICANN in Brussels, Belgium, police from four agencies said that domain registrars should crack down on criminals that submit fake contact information when…

Non-Latin Addresses Go Live as ICANN Opens Up Internet

Arab speaking countries are leading the charge into web addresses in non-Latin script, as ICANN, the Internet regulator, has opened up the Internet to non-Latin script web addresses for the first time.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first three nations to have ‘country codes’ in Arabic script. Over twenty countries have requested approval for international domain names from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and…

ICANN Raises Issues with DNS Redirect

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has denounced the use of domain name system redirect requests. ICANN raised significant questions about its exploitation by cyber criminals and privacy issues.

According to an article by ComputerWorld, the DNS redirect system operates as follows: “Rather than return an error message for DNS (Domain Name System) requests for nonexistent domains, some DNS operators send back the…

ICANN Internationalized: Potential Security Problems

Late in October, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), approved the use of non-Latin characters in web domain addresses. This move was widely hailed throughout the world, but may have an unforeseen cost.

The Information Systems Audit and Control Association has raised some significant concerns surrounding the move. By allowing non-Latin scripts, such as the Cyrillic alphabet (used in Russian and…

ICANN to Allow Non-Latin Script

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the use of non-Latin script web addresses. The board voted to allow web addresses in Chinese, Arabic and several other scripts.

Approximately half of internet users’ primary language is in a non-Latin script. The shift to allow non-Latin characters with the new Internationalized Domain Name system is an involved process, challenging basic coding that has been in…

ICANN to be More Independent

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the US Commerce Department have ended an 11-year partnership in which the U.S. government possessed direct control of ICANN.

The split will allow for a private sector-led model for the Internet, with review teams from around the globe.

The two organizations have signed an Affirmation of Committments that gives ICANN significantly more autonomy. The prior relationship was heavily criticized by…

Is the Federal Government Seizing the Internet?

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the entity that distributes domain names and IP addresses), will be asked by Congress to submit to direct US government control.  ICANN is currently administered as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), an administrative system mixing public and private control.

In a letter to Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce, dated August 4, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired…