Internationalization of Malware Has Become a Difficult Challenge

Former malware analyst, Wes Brown, has reported on the growing internationalization of malware. He writes: "In the past, an anti-malware company could focus on English-targeted samples. But an increasing percentage of malware samples are international in origin and targeting international machines. I saw numerous cases of Chinese malware targeting Chinese software or hosts. This was quite a challenge to determine if it was malware or not for several reasons." Brown further explains: "One of the most fascinating facets of the increasing internationalization of malware is the cultural assumptions around such software. What is considered malware in the US may be commonly accepted in China or Japan, and this is largely due to the society that it exists in." more»

Bulgaria Applies for Top-Level Domain .bg in Cyrillic Script

Bulgaria has submitted a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the Top-Level Domain (TLD) '.bg' in Cyrillic script as part of efforts to boost national pride amid a growing influence of English. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also called for his country to be assigned a Cyrillic TLD as the Kremlin is concerned that Russian, once the main language throughout the Soviet Union, is losing ground to local languages. more»

The Next Billion Users: What Will it Mean to The Internet?

With more than a billion internet users worldwide, doubling that number, which should happen within the next decade, will obviously have a profound effect on the network, technology, the computer software industry, access to knowledge, and our environment. Understanding the effect of another billion internet users starts with considering the origin of those users. Although some will reside in North America, Europe, and other developed countries that close their domestic digital divides, the majority of the growth will undoubtedly come from the developing world. more»

ICANN CEO: "High Politics" Fueling IGF Debates

It has been reported that the U.S. control over how domain names are assigned dominated discussions at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which began yesterday in Brazil. Although few participants at IGF attacked the United States directly, most were well aware of the role Americans play over domain name policies, including whether and how to assign top-level domains in languages other than English. more»

ICANN to Start Sample Internationalized Domain Trials in 11 Languages

On Oct. 15, ICANN plans to unveil mechanisms for individuals and businesses to try out the new sample Top-Level Domains in nearly a dozen languages. The 11 domains now under review will read "test" in Arabic, Persian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil. At this point, these 11 domain names are meant primarily for software developers and website designers to test the new system, but they are the first such names entered in the root servers after years of discussions and limited-access tests. more»

ICANN's 29th International Meeting Opens in San Juan

"The future of the Internet will be front and center as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opens its 29th International Public Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Monday, 25 June 2007," says the ICANN press release issued today. Discussion will include issues such as new top-level domains and internationalized domain names. more»

Dot Asia: First TLD Awarded to a Transnational Entity Without Formal Government Structure

In a story at SFGate, Jeff Yang has written a report on the upcoming role out of the recently approved top-level domain name .asia. The ceremony of .asia's approval by ICANN last year in Brazil was largely ignored. But Jeff points out that as the "fall launch of this new domain approaches, it raises some interesting, perhaps even historic, implications". more»

International Domain Names Tested Successfully

Internationalized domain names have moved a step closer to reality, after ICANN announced it had successfully completed testing.

ICANN commissioned a laboratory test of IDNs in October 2006. The test was designed to establish whether the use of encoded internationalized characters would "have any impact on the operations of the root name servers providing delegations, or the iterative mode resolvers." more»

ICANN Discussing IDNs, Kiting, in Sao Paulo this Week

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will discuss key projects and initiatives at a meeting this week, including the internationalization of the domain name system and a new, lucrative Web site registration practice that some object to. more»

"Political Gambits" Risk to DNS Language Expansion, Says Vint Cerf

On the eve of the first ever United Nations-sponsored Internet Governance Forum, which opens near Athens on Monday, Cerf said national interests had surfaced in recent weeks that would change the process for "internationalizing" Internet addresses. The fresh conflict shows that the high- level global debate over U.S. influence and control of the global network is still unresolved, he said. more»

Reviving Concerns Over Internet Control

Starting next week, about 1,200 diplomats and technology ministers will gather at a hotel in the outskirts of Athens to resume a debate that has often pitted the Bush administration and a handful of its Western allies against Brazil, India, China and African countries. Officially, the inaugural meeting of the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum is designed to explore topics like free speech, security, spam and multilingualism... more»

ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector Unveils IDN Resource Site

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has unveiled an Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) resource site to share information on work progress, achievements and acquired knowledge in the field of IDN. It includes an introduction to IDN, information about related events, standards materials, news, information on national and other IDN developments and a FAQ. more»

Internet a Global Revolution So Long as You Use Western Alphabets

The internet is a global revolution in communication - as long as you use letters from the western alphabet. ...According to Kaled Fattal, "People say the net works, but it only works for those communities whose native language is Latin-based. The rest of the world is totally isolated." Fattal speaks perfect English but as chairman and chief executive of the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC), and an Arab, he knows that the majority of the world's population does not. more»

ICANN to Launch Testing of IDNs for TLDs in the Third Quarter of 2006

ICANN will start the trial testing of internationalized domain names (IDN) in the Top-Level Domain (TLD) system, in the third quarter of 2006, Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, told Interfax in an interview Tuesday. Once IDN domain names are implemented Internet sites will able to have domain names in foreign languages, and foreign character sets -- such as Chinese.

"The preparation for the testing is already underway, and it will be a testing on the top of the root," said Twomey. "We are presently moving to introduce the IDNs of TLD, and are much closer to the end for the answer." But the exact date for the launch of the IDN is not yet available.  more»