Fee for '.info' Domain to Increase Same Day as ".com"

Wholesale prices for Internet addresses ending in ".info" are going up 2.5 percent on Oct. 15, the same day fees for ".com" and ".net" are increasing. Afilias, the registry managing ".info," disclosed the scheduled increase in a letter last week to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). more»

New Wave of Illegal Activity Breed of So-Called P2P Worm

Massive networks of infected computers controlled by attackers worldwide will serve as a powerful engine for the new breed of so-called P2P worm that is currently echoing across cyberspace.

Security experts have predicted over the last several years that botnets of hijacked PCs would pose one of the staunchest challenges faced by the IT community as criminals discovered new ways to use them to deliver attacks. more»

DHS Unprepared for DNS Security

Amid the outcry over allegations that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants the security keys to the DNSSEC encryption technology slowly -- very slowly -- being adopted by internet overlord ICANN, one ICANN board member, Susan Crawford, warns the DHS is woefully unprepared for what lies ahead. more»

Researchers Explore Redesigning Internet Infrastructure from Scratch

Government and university researchers have been exploring ways to redesign the Internet from scratch. Some of the challenges that led researchers to start thinking of clean-slate approaches... Researchers are questioning whether all devices truly need addresses. Perhaps sensors in a home could talk to one another locally and relay the most important data through a gateway bearing an address. This way, routers wouldn't have to keep track of every single sensor, improving efficiency. more»

Microsoft Investigating Windows DNS Server Attacks

Microsoft is investigating attacks exploiting a vulnerability in the Windows Server Domain Name System Service, as well as two types of hacks targeting Vista's OEM BIOS activation feature... "Our investigation reveals that this vulnerability could allow a criminal to run code in the security context of the Domain Name System Server Service, which by default runs as Local SYSTEM," a Microsoft spokesperson said. more»

More on Difficulties Transitioning to IPv6

Transitioning to a next-generation Internet could be akin to changing the engines on a moving airplane.

Routers and other networking devices will likely need replacing; personal computers could be in store for software upgrades. Headaches could arise given the fact that it won't be possible to simply shut down the entire network for maintenance, with companies, groups and individuals depending on it every day. more»

A Year After Launch, .eu Seventh Most Used Domain

A year after its launch, 2.5 million Europeans and companies have registered a .eu domain name, making it the seventh most widespread Web site address suffix in the world and the third in the European Union. ...Just under 80 percent of registered names are used, rather than bought only to reserve a name, the EU's executive arm said. more»

VeriSign Announces Increase in .Com and .Net Domain Name Fees

VeriSign has announced that as of Oct. 15, 2007, the registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.00 to $6.42 and that the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $3.50 to $3.85. This will be VeriSign's first registry fee increase for .com and .net since the fee structure was put in place by ICANN in 1999. more»

Catching Phishy Domains Before They Go Live

Jackson, a 26-year-old developer from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who works for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, is spending his spare time on a Web-based application called Crows Nest. It's designed to alert users when newly registered domain names that are likely to be used as phishing sites go live on the Internet. more»

ICANN Might be Seeking Immunity From U.S. Law

The closest thing the Internet has to a governing body seems to want the same kind of immunity from national laws that the International Red Cross and the International Olympic Committee have enjoyed for decades.

A recent report prepared for the board of ICANN says the organization should "explore the private international organization model" and it should "operationalize whatever outcomes result." more»

ICANN Rejection of .XXX to Likely End Up in Court

Last Friday, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted 9-5 to reject a proposal by ICM Registry to set up and operate a .xxx domain for sex-related sites. In the wake of ICANN's decision, ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley said that the dispute will likely wind up in court.

"This will probably go into litigation," Lawley said. "There are multiple prongs for challenging the ICANN decision."  more»

US Homeland Security Wants Control Over DNS

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created after the attacks on September 11, 2001 as a kind of overriding department, wants to have the key to sign the DNS root zone solidly in the hands of the US government... During the current ICANN meeting in Lisbon, Bernard Turcotte, president of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) drew everyone's attention to this proposal as a representative of the national top-level domain registries (ccTLDs). more»