CircleID

Network World – The Internet engineering community is grappling with what to do about a serious flaw in the DNS discovered this summer, and the ongoing debate brings to mind a famous quotation from Voltaire: "The perfect is the enemy of the good." At issue is whether the group should use its resources to encourage DNS registries, ISPs and enterprises to upgrade to the ultimate DNS security solution known as DNSSEC; or whether it should tweak the DNS protocols to address the so-called 'Kaminsky bug' as an interim step. The issue is being debated at a meeting of the IETF, the Internet's leading standards body, being held here this week.»

Reuters – Canada's telecoms watchdog has sided with Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) in letting the company slow down certain file-sharing traffic on wholesale networks it leases to smaller, independent service providers. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said today that BCE's main telecom unit, Bell Canada, can continue to "shape" traffic on the leased networks, but will now have to notify wholesale customers at least 30 days in advance of making performance-affecting changes.»

Reuters – Cybercrime is likely to wreak as much havoc as the credit crisis in the coming years if international regulation is not improved, some of the world's top crime experts said on Wednesday. Damage caused by cybercrime is estimated at $100 billion annually, said Kilian Strauss, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).»

As the total number of broadband lines in the world passes 400 million, market research firm Point Topic forecasts that the total in the 40 biggest broadband countries in the world will grow from 393 million by the end of 2008 to 635 million by 2013. Broadband in the rest of the world will grow from 16 million to 48 million lines in the same period, so the world will add 273 million lines to reach 683 million in total. This represents a 10.8% per year compound growth rate, well down from 27.7% per year in the 2004 to 2008 period, but still substantial.»

Internet demand remains at a rate which could outpace capacity within the next two to four years, according to "Internet Interrupted: Why Architectural Limitations Will Fracture the 'Net," a new report today from Nemertes Research. ...If left unaddressed, the development of next generation applications, from software to interactive video, will likely be stifled as users find Internet infrastructure incapable of efficiently delivering quality content.»

Google's Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, a member of President-elect Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, said the government needs to focus on the areas of broadband infrastructure, research and alternative energy in an effort to rebuild the nation's economy. Openness is critical for that, he argued. The end-to-end principle that underlies the Internet, the open network, is a must. "It is that openness, the ability that anyone can play ... that drives the modern economy... Why don't we do the same thing with the energy grid? ...isn't it obvious?"»

FWC – The market-based, voluntary approach that the Bush administration has used to encourage companies to improve cybersecurity is not sufficient and the incoming Obama administration should form a cybersecurity social contract with industry based on economic incentives, according to a new report by Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance). ISAlliance has released a report suggesting a cybersecurity social contract through which government would encourage and reward corporations by potentially working cybersecurity into procurement and loan processes, along with possible awards programs that could be used as marketing advantages.»

Intellectual Property Watch – The Council of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is set to talk Wednesday about the Union's contribution to follow-up of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the third Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Turkey has tabled a resolution on strengthening the ITU's role in the IGF. The discussion comes at a time when a tense debate between the ITU and its critics has arisen over the best governance models for the internet.»

External Source – A Court of Appeals in Kentucky has granted a motion to delay a forfeiture hearing that will determine the fate of 141 domain names related to online gambling and poker sites. The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), an Internet trade association based in Washington, D.C., asked the three-panel appeals courts to grant a stay so that the appeals court could consider iMEGA's petition to have the lower court seizure ruling overturned.»

External Source – Flaws in the current DNS system, most notably the Kaminsky Vulnerability publicly exposed in July 2008, have left Internet uses exposed to potential attacks. DNS inventor Dr. Paul Mockapetris, chief scientist and chairman of IP address infrastructure software provider Nominum, points out that the DNSSEC has been under development for 15 years and the adoption remains low with only Sweden and Puerto Rico signing up to the system. "It baffles me," Mockapetris said of the delay. "On the one hand I'm never baffled by how long standards processes take, but 15 years sounds like a lot to me. I think we've lost 10 years of progress with DNS technology due to this stupid food fight around DNSSEC. We've been at it for 10 years, I think there's five years of good work there."»

We'd like to congratulate our long time CircleID participants, Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach for being named today as Obama-Biden FCC Transition Team Leads. Susan Crawford, is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who recently ended her term as a member of the Board of Directors of ICANN and is the founder of OneWebDay. Kevin Werbach, is an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also the founder of the Supernova Group and the organizer of Supernova, a leading executive technology conference.»

External Source – A team of Swedish scientists have created a new technique that converts DNA strands to microscopic fiber optic cables. Due to the nature of DNA's structure to create helices, wires self-assemble which according to scientists is better than wires made by the previous chemical method as they can self-repair. Bo Albinsson and his colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, have worked out how to make them. The wires build themselves from a mixture of DNA and molecules called chromophores that can absorb and pass on light.»

Reuters – A senior U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill in January that would bar Internet providers like AT&T Inc from blocking Web content, setting up a renewed battle over so-called network neutrality. Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, believes a law is essential to prevent telephone and cable companies from discriminating against Internet content, even though regulators have taken actions to enforce free Web principles, a top Dorgan aide said on Thursday according to Reuters.»

Some of the largest ISPs in US, including phone and cable companies, plan on updating their networks over the next two months with a new technology that promises to accelerate P2P distribution. According to reports, recent trials have demonstrated 59% increase in download delivery speeds on average -- and up to 150% for the fastest class of users.»

International Herald Tribune – Barack Obama's Internet-fueled campaign has transformed the way Americans choose a president. Now, the president-elect's administration plans to change the way Americans -- and government -- use technology. If Obama gets his way, all Americans would have broadband Internet access, whether they live in big cities or remote villages. Online life would be safer, with better defenses against cybercriminals. And there would be greater access to government, with online services to let anyone question members of the president's cabinet or track every dime of the U.S. budget. "I think it's not going to happen in the first 100 days, but I think a lot of this can happen in the first term," Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a media reform organization based in Washington, said.»

Ars Technica – During the recent RIPE meeting in Dubai, Google presented its results of a study on "measuring the current state of IPv6 for ordinary users." ... Top five IPv6-using countries, according to Google's study, are: Russia 0.76%, France 0.65%, Ukraine 0.64%, Norway 0.49%, and the US 0.45%. Stats also indicate China being currently at 0.24% penetration and Japan 0.15%. While it not shown why Russia and Ukraine have the highest level of IPv6 users, an ISP in France is said to be responsible for the courtiers IPv6 usage due to its capable home rounters and in U.S., Apple's MacOS X support for 6to4 system (allowing IPv6 packets to be transmitted over an IPv4 network).»

External Source – Web hosting giant 1&1 Internet plans to build one of Europe's largest data centers in Hanau, Germany -- a never-used former nuclear fuel facility called 'New MOX'. The company says it will build a European data centre providing space for up to 100,000 servers across an area of 10,000 square meters. The new facility is reported to use electricity only from renewable energy sources. The nuclear facility was constructed in the late 1980s, and was originally intended to produce mixed oxide rods made from enriched Uranium and Plutonium. The facility never became operational and by the end of 1995, its former owner Siemens AG decided to give up the facility. Two years ago, the premises in Hanau were finally released from nuclear control legislation.»

The Washington Post – The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline, reports Brian Krebs of The Washington Post today. "Experts say the precipitous drop-off in spam comes from Internet providers unplugging McColo Corp., a hosting provider in Northern California that was the home base for machines responsible for coordinating the sending of roughly 75 percent of all spam each day."»

MarketWatch – IBM has struck a $9.6 million deal with International Broadband Electric Communications (IBEC) as part of a plan to deploy high-speed Internet service via power lines in rural U.S. areas which are generally underserved by traditional broadband technology. Most efforts in the past to deliver Internet access over electrical power lines have not been greatly successful despite the availability of the technology for quite some time.»

As opposition grows against the Government's controversial plan to censor the internet, the head of one of Australia's largest ISPs has labeled the Communications Minister the worst we've had in the past 15 years. Despite significant opposition from internet providers, consumers, engineers, network administrators and online rights activists, the Government is pressing ahead with its election promise of protecting people from unwanted material, this week calling for expressions of interests from ISPs keen to participate in live trials of the proposed internet filtering system. Michael Malone, head of iiNet, Australia's largest ISP, said he would sign up to be involved in the "ridiculous" trials, just to show how impractical it is.»