CircleID

n a report released today by the Free Press, Derek Turner, Research Director argues that, in light of recent FCC ruling against Comcast, it is a "false choice" to believe that "because application blocking is out of bounds, providers now will be forced to use some type of 'metering' to control network congestion." In other words, if ISPs are not allowed to block applications, then usage-based pricing is NOT their only other viable option, asserts Turner.»

Speaking before an overflowing ballroom at the Black Hat security conference, representatives from U.S. government and FBI made assertions regarding government's active involvement in the fight against Internet threats, terrorism, and cyber crime. They also made it clear that they want hackers to join the effort. "The reason why we come here is we hope to attract folks to government service. And if we can't get you in service, then we want partnerships on working on security issues... It's people like yourselves that understand the threat that need to come into the government and help us address this problem," said James Finch, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division.»

During a panel discussion at the Black Hat conference, four members from a U.S. private organization called "Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency," established by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), sought input from the security community as part of their mandate to "develop recommendations for a comprehensive strategy to improve cyber security in federal systems and in critical infrastructure".»

In response to the DNS vulnerability issue, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced the release of an FAQ and a web based domain testing tool. From ICANN's announcement: "Due to the distributed nature of the DNS, no one organization can implement a fix for this vulnerability. It requires the cooperation of all name server operators and DNS software vendors. However, ICANN sees an important goal in spreading awareness of the need to update Internet infrastructure to cope with the threat. The organization has been undertaking significant outreach efforts to top-level domain operators to advise them on the issue."»

Use of search engines on a daily bases has been steadily rising from about one-third in 2002 to current rate of just under 50% according to a recent report by Pew Internet & American Life Project. With this increase, the search engine use will soon be reaching that of email which is currently 60% of internet users. The study also points out that these "new figures propel search further out of the pack, well ahead of other popular internet activities, such as checking the news, which 39% of internet users do on a typical day, or checking the weather, which 30% do on a typical day."»

In a highly anticipated presentation, Internet security researcher Dan Kaminsky today gave details of the much talked about Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability issue which has been intensely covered since it was publicly announced a month ago on Jul 8th. Although original plans entailed keeping the bug details undisclosed for 30 days in order to allow for necessary security patches to be implemented around the world, details of the bug were eventually leaked-and-confirmed 13 days after its public announcement. Even so, just hours ago in jam-packed ballroom during the Black Hat conference, Kaminsky delivered his 100-plus-slide presentation detailing the DNS flaw that, if exploited, could potentially "destroy the Web".»

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, in negotiations with other Internet companies and human rights organizations, have reached an agreement on a voluntary code of conduct for activities in China and other countries that censor the Internet. The participants are reviewing the agreement for final approval.»

Like the term Web 2.0, "cloud computing" is quickly becoming a meme without borders. And like the old one, the new phrase with the fuzzy definition has someone making a claim on its trademark, as Dell filed for a trademark on the term last year. The trademark application was recently noted by cloud computing consultant Sam Johnston, posting on a Google Groups cloud computing forum. Dell has also snatched up the Web sites cloudcomputing.com, cloud-computing.com, and cloud-computing.net as well as cloudcomputers.com. Cloudcomputing.com re-routes visitors to Dell's Cloud Computing Solutions Web site.»

AT&T is launching its own cloud computing services that will put the phone carrier in direct competition with the likes of IBM, Google and Amazon. The AT&T Synaptic Hosting is part of a $1 billion initiative that will see the carrier build five large-scale Internet data centers in the United States, Europe and Asia that will form the backbone of a new cloud computing service. The first test of this new cloud network will start when AT&T hosts the U.S. Olympic Committee's Web site during the upcoming Summer Games in Beijing.»

U.S. consumers lost almost $8.5 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes according to latest projections from the Consumer Reports State of the Net survey. Additionally, report estimates that American consumers have replaced about 2.1 million computers over the past two years because of online threats. Survey has also reveals some hopeful signs such as declining chances of becoming a cybervictim -- consumers have 1 in 6 chance of becoming a cybervictim, down from 1 in 4 in 2007.»

IT security pros, analysts and researchers are coming together for the meeting of the minds that is Black Hat 2008. The popular security conference officially kicked off Aug. 2 in Las Vegas with a series of training sessions that wrap up Aug. 5. However, the real buzz for many attendees will be the technical briefings Aug. 6-7 at Caesars Palace. The activities Aug. 6 will begin with some words from Black Hat founder Jeff Moss and a keynote from author and London School of Economics professor Ian Angell. From there, the conference launches into two days of briefings on several different tracks such as reverse engineering and rootkits. There is already hype around a number of the sessions, including the much-talked about DNS flaw discovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky.»

In follow up to Friday's FCC ruling against Comcast, Vint Cerf, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist questioned what a reasonable approach would be for broadband networks to manage their Internet traffic? "The real question," he says, is not whether broadband networks need to be managed, "but rather how." Cerf has also expressed concerns over metered billing and suggests "transmission rate caps" instead.»

Reporters covering the Beijing Olympics who are frustrated by Chinese Internet censorship can use free software tools developed to help Chinese users circumvent these controls, according to a representative of a group that develops such software (see related press release). "It's a very good time remind Western reporters that there are such tools," said Tao Wang, director of operations for the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC), adding that some Western reporters based in China routinely use the group's tools.»

In light of today's FCC ruling against Comcast, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a software tool dubbed, "Switzerland," for internet users to check ISP interference of their connections. Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney says: "The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs interfering with your Internet connection. It's up to concerned Internet users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort. Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit."»

U.S. lawmakers have broadened their investigation of Internet advertising, asking nation's largest telecommunications and Internet companies whether they target ads based on consumers' Web surfing habits. Companies receiving the letter include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and AOL among others. According to Joelle Tessler of the Associated Press, the "letters seek details on how many consumers have been tracked, whether those people have been notified and whether they were given the option to 'opt out' of it. The committee also wants to know how the collected information is used and how it is gathered -- for example, whether the companies aggregate data from different online applications."»

Comcast has been ordered to change how it manages its broadband network after U.S. communications regulators concluded some of its tactics unreasonably restrict Internet users who share movies and other material. In a precedent-setting decision, the five-member Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to uphold a complaint accusing Comcast of violating the FCC's open-Internet principles by improperly hindering peer-to-peer traffic.»

Apple which has been under criticism by security experts for being slow in patching a major DNS flaw, has at last issued a patch in a security update for its OS X operating system and other software late Thursday. Apple is among a handful of companies that security experts have said moved far too slow in reacting to the DNS bug. Other vendors, including Cisco and Microsoft, had patches ready when the existence of the flaw was disclosed on July 8, 2008. But some network administrators have reported compatibility problems with those early patches.»

In a letter sent by bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to ICANN, the department has made it clear that despite recent discussions in Paris meetings, the U.S. department intends to remain in full authority over the Internet root zone.»

The U.S. Senate has passed legislation to modernize the nation's computer crime laws and give prosecutors more leeway in pursuing cyber crooks, reports Brian Krebs of The Washington Post. "Under current federal cyber-crime laws prosecutors must show that the illegal activity caused at least $5,000 in damages before they can bring charges for unauthorized access to a computer. Under the bill approved today, that threshold would be eliminated."»

Broadband adoption among U.S. consumers seems to be slowing, with the three largest broadband providers in the U.S. posting the lowest subscriber increases in years during the second quarter of 2008.
AT&T and Verizon, in particular, reported increases in broadband subscribers that were a small fraction of numbers in past quarters, with growth in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands. Comcast reported a less dramatic drop-off. The three providers deliver service to more than half of the broadband subscribers in the U.S.»