Internet's Biggest Security Hole

Kim Zetter reporting on Wired: Two security researchers have demonstrated a new technique to stealthily intercept internet traffic on a scale previously presumed to be unavailable to anyone outside of intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency. The tactic exploits the internet routing protocol BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to let an attacker surreptitiously monitor unencrypted internet traffic anywhere in the world, and even modify it before it reaches its destination. more»

UK's Defense Group Warns Against Internet Protocol Security Challenges

Recent report says many textbooks and articles have created the myth that the Internet Protocols (IP) were designed for warfare environments, while in reality they originally focused on operational aspects of the protocol and overlooked security implications. United Kingdom's Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) has released a document raising awareness of the many security threats from attacks based on the Internet protocol. more»

Manufacturers Urged to Upgrade Routers, Network Management Software Before End of Year

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have warned that routers and network management software should be upgraded ahead of the increased distribution of four-byte (also known as 32-bit) Autonomous System (AS) numbers. Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC - Asia and the Pacific region RIR), expressed severe concerns over failure to prepare for four-byte AS numbers... more»

Comcast Proposes Its IPv6 Transition Solution to IETF, Invites ISPs to Participate

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., is reported to have developed an innovative approach for gradually migrating its customers to IPv6. The company has 24.7 million cable customers, 14.1 million broadband customers and 5.2 million voice customers. The solution dubbed Dual-Stack Lite, is backwards compatible with IPv4 and can be deployed incrementally according the company. Comcast has submitted this proposal to the Internet standards body, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which has scheduled a review during the upcoming IETF meeting in Dublin later this month. From the Comcast document submitted to IETF... more»

Pakistan Blocks Worldwide Access to YouTube

Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube have been blamed for a near global blackout of the site on Sunday. Google, the owner of YouTube, blamed the outage on "erroneous internet protocols", sourced in Pakistan. According to BBC News, the nearly two-hour long blackout was almost certainly connected to Pakistan Telecom and internet service provider PCCW.  more»

2008 Marking the 25th Anniversary of TCP/IP

Twenty five years ago, in January 1983, TCP/IP protocols replaced Network Control Program (NCP) as the principal protocol of the ARPANET making the Internet possible as we know it today. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn have been credited for the invention of the technology... more»

Sprint Gears Up to Deploy IPv6 by 2008

Sprint is gearing up for deploying the next generation IPv6 Internet protocol with new IPv6 services. The effort by the national carrier is being driven by a June 2008 US federal government mandate for IPv6. Whether or not the government agencies will actually be running IPv6 by June of 2008 is an issue that is still not yet clear. All told, it could amount to billions of dollars of revenue for vendors in 2008 and beyond. more»

Mexico to Stop IPv4 Address Assignments Starting 2011

NIC Mexico, manager of the country code top-level domain .MX and registrar of IP addressees to Internet users in Mexico, says in a report today that lifetime for IPv4 addresses is projected to finish on 1/1/11 after which all the new IP addresses will be allocated on IPv6. more»

ARIN Calls for Faster Migration to IPv6

InformationWeek reports that the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has called for a faster migration to the new Internet Protocol, IPv6. "We must prepare for IPv4's depletion, and ARIN's resolution to encourage that migration to IPv6 may be the impetus for more organizations to start the planning process," said John Curran, chairman of ARIN's Board of Trustees, in a statement. more»

IPv6 Flaw Could Amplify DDoS Attacks

This week, experts sent two drafts to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) proposing different ways of fixing a problem in the way that Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) allows the source of network data to determine its path through the network. The drafts recommend that the IPv6 feature should either be eliminated or, at the very least, disabled by default. more»

Legal Attack on ARIN Dismissed in Court

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has announced [PDF] that it has prevailed in a lawsuit that challenged ARIN's ability to allocate Internet Protocol (IP) number resources fairly. The lawsuit was brought by an individual - Gary Kremen - who sought to have a netblock of IP addresses transferred to him without agreeing to ARIN's standard terms and conditions.

"Today's victory is significant for consumers who rely on the Internet to operate efficiently and effectively," said ARIN President and CEO Raymond Plzak. more»

Transition of Government Networks to IPv6 Gains Traction

The transition of government networks to the next-generation Internet Protocol has gained traction over the last year, according to a recent survey of government and industry officials.

Almost half of the respondents from civilian agencies and nearly two-thirds of those in the Defense Department said that IPv6 is important in supporting their IT goals. Money for the transition is slowly moving into the funding pipeline. Federal spending on IPv6-enabled products and services is expected to hit $27 billion this year, climbing to $60 billion by 2011. more»

China Building Its Own IPv6, Reducing Country's Foreign Dependency

China has built its own version of an ultrafast next-generation Internet network that promises to reduce the country's dependence on foreign companies, the state news media reported Monday.

The China Education and Research Network has linked 167 institutes and departments at 25 universities in 20 cities through the Internet Protocol Version 6, China Central Television reported. more»

If You Adopt Vista, Your DNS Traffic is Going to Double

Microsoft's launch of Windows Vista could slow down or stall traffic on the Net, said Paul Mockapetris, who is widely credited with inventing the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS). Mockapetris believes Vista's introduction will cause a surge in DNS traffic because the operating system supports two versions of the Internet Protocol, a technology standard used to send information over computer networks. ""It is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey.""It is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey." more»

Data Can Bypass Most Network Security via IPv6

An independent security researcher showed off an early version of a tool for creating covert channels that, he claims, can pass undetected through most firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

Joe Klein, network security expert, North American IPv6 Task Force The tool, dubbed VoodooNet or v00d00n3t, uses the ability of most computers to encapsulate next-generation network traffic, known as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), inside of today's network communications standard, or IPv4. more»