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Three New Cyber Security Threats in One Day

• Comment posted Dec 13, 2012 8:54 am PST — by Wout de Natris
  Last week, so I found out just now, the Dutch NCSC has published a factsheet on securing the connectivity of devices that are connected to the Internet. It's in Dutch, but may help you to gain knowledge or define your…

Is ICANN Stumbling Forward? GAC Advice and Shared Decision Making Procedures

• Comment posted Oct 25, 2012 9:49 am PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Looking at this topic from a historian's point of view, it could well be we are reliving interesting times, allowing for loads of differences of course in 2012. To explain, around 1998 I had to delve into parliamentary history in…

Reducing Unreachable ICANN Registrations

• Comment posted Feb 07, 2012 1:47 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Michele, Reading over the article, I understand your confusion. By sticking to the moniker IP resource instead of (top level) domain name I have unintentionally given the impression that I was talking of IP addresses, which I wasn't. Thank you…

Implications of Canada's CASL - Toughest Anti-Spam Law the World Has Ever Seen

• Comment posted Jan 24, 2012 9:14 am PST — by Wout de Natris
  Responding to the last comment on Australian anti-spam law by The Famous Brett Weston. It looks like this is probably the best qualification and praise on the effectiveness of an anti-spam law, in combination with the efforts of the regulator…

• Comment posted Jan 20, 2012 9:45 am PST — by Wout de Natris
  OPTA, the Independent Post and Telecommunication Authority, is vigorously enforcing the Dutch anti-spam and malware legislation since May 2004. Still, the amount of cases started against members of the DDMA, Direct Dialogue Marketing Association, can be counted on the fingers…

Antispam Law Draws Backlash

• Comment posted Dec 31, 2011 11:39 am PST — by Wout de Natris
  You put this very well, Terry. In the Netherlands it's quite clear that the anti-spam law changed the way marketers work. And those who haven't were disciplined by OPTA. For Canada I have no doubt the CRTC will do the…

ARIN Launches WHOWAS: Trial Service Providing Historical Information for a Given IP Address

• Comment posted Nov 29, 2011 10:50 am PST — by Wout de Natris
  Michele, For law enforcement this is a very useful service. You may be surprised to find out how many of the now "Yogi Bear" registrations around the world were once registered to a Mr. X, address etc, given, who turns…

When Cyber Awareness Is Fundamentally Lacking

• Comment posted Oct 13, 2011 10:38 am PDT — by Wout de Natris
  In a statement, published by the Washington Post, the US military claimed that the malware was a keylogger designed to capture passwords in the gaming environment. In other words, the issue is downplayed. Remember the claim "it appeared friendly" at…

Government and Botnets

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2011 11:37 am PDT — by Wout de Natris
  If this is not the way forward for the US government, what can be steps for governments to proceed? From my point of view disinfecting end users is, albeit very necessary, curing effects and not the cause. They could be…

What's New In the Field of Cybersecurity Cooperation

• Comment posted Jul 01, 2011 10:00 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Well written, Veni. I've been saying this for quite some time now, ever since the OECD anti-spam toolkit of 2006. Things are changing, Cyber Security Councils are springing up everywhere. Over the past two years I have become convinced that…

Is Internet Part of the Curriculum of Universities?

• Comment posted Jun 16, 2011 10:32 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  My son graduated today from high school and will enter the college of his choice, see this blog post, in August. (A proud dad.)

Solving the Spam Problem

• Comment posted May 30, 2011 3:57 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  As I already wrote in a few places last week, this example of banks is one in the many what ifs that passed by where spam and botnet mitigation are concerned. Yes, in an ideal world this would work. Unfortunately…

The Ugly End of the Phone Network

• Comment posted May 17, 2011 9:04 am PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Good questions. In the Netherlands the first two cellular phone companies were obliged to have nation covering network before a certain date and were regulated if necessary. The same obligation came with 3G networks. There are a few notorious black…

Slippery Slope

• Comment posted May 11, 2011 9:01 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  David, To my mind there are two struggles going on at the moment. One with governments and one with trade mark representatives. Both were caught unaware of the fast technical and sociological developments concerning the adaptation of the Internet by…

Why Isn't Mobile Malware More Popular?

• Comment posted May 11, 2011 4:34 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Thank you for your thoughts, Suresh (and the compliment). What strikes me in your comment is the distinction you make between telco and ISPs and that mobile operators stem from the telco side. Now many a telco has started or…

9 Thoughts on Stepping Up Spam and Malware Enforcement

• Comment posted Apr 22, 2011 8:49 am PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Thanks for your comment. This could be of interest to the privacy community within the EU (which I am not a part of). If you think it of interest to follow up on your comments, I'd suggest to contact me…

Neelie Kroes, the EU, Cloud Computing, Regulation and Good Ears

• Comment posted Mar 28, 2011 6:52 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Here's the link to Mrs. Kroes' blog. Apparently I forget to put it in. WdN

We Need Smarter Governments to Manage a Changing Global Environment

• Comment posted Mar 23, 2011 8:57 pm PDT — by Wout de Natris
  Great piece, Paul. Some quick thoughts here. 1. Africa, Middle East From what I hear people manage to take their lives in their own hands more, e.g. through cell phones, for information and payments. This drives development and change at…

ICANN-Law Enforcement Due Diligence Recommendations and Fundamental Rights

• Comment posted Feb 27, 2011 4:33 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Very well put here, Nigel. In 2006 Chris Fonteijn, chair of OPTA, the Dutch Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority, presented in Marrakesh to the ICANN board and the joint GAC - GNSO meeting. In his presentation on whois, he stressed…

Foreign Hackers Attack Canadian Government

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2011 9:16 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Thanks for the overview. At last something like a positive note against the nothing can be done except disconnecting from the Internet choir I hear so often.

Are We at the Dawn of a New Cold War?

• Comment posted Feb 01, 2011 5:54 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Thank you, Suresh, for responding before I had time to do so. Suresh is correct that I think all is connected. What I've tried to stress is that if all players on the Internet strive for making it a safer…

Canada's Anti-spam Bill C-28 is the Law of the Land

• Comment posted Dec 15, 2010 2:18 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Congratulations to all at CAUCE and Industry Canada. Remember this is the first step. 1. Anti spam/malware law 2. Enforce 3. Fine just and proper 4. Prepare your judges for what is to come. Looking forward to the first results…

Report to US Congress: China "Hijacked" 15% of Global Internet Traffic for 18 Minutes

• Comment posted Dec 08, 2010 2:35 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  To reverse the question: what happens with Internet traffic, including highly classified material of all other 200+ countries, in the 525,585 minutes that are left in a year? And has that overly worried the rest of the world? What are…

eco: 100K PCs Cleaned Through Anti-Botnet Center

• Comment posted Dec 06, 2010 6:31 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Please read 30.000 pc's infected in Australia per day.

Kidnapping, Theft and Rape Are Not "Cyber" Crimes

• Comment posted Nov 08, 2010 6:27 pm PST — by Wout de Natris
  Neil (and J.D.) I totally agree with you that cyber crime is crime and cyber fraud is fraud. The “cyber" criminal will be sentenced by a judge for these offences and not for using his computer. I do beg to…