176097915
submission
penciling_in writes:
In 2011, a 12-year-old YouTuber named Tom posted a video explaining Bitcoin with remarkable accuracy. At just $8 per coin, he described it as a peer-to-peer currency, free from central control, and even predicted government resistance. His breakdown of mining, Bitcoin’s 21-million cap, and its potential as an investment was astoundingly prescient. Over a decade later, his video has resurfaced, stunning viewers with its foresight and inspiring a community to honor his insight with a meme coin.
175600233
submission
penciling_in writes:
Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler, a pioneering information scientist, was recently awarded the Computer History Museum's Fellow Award for her groundbreaking contributions to the ARPANET and internet infrastructure. Initially a biochemist, Feinler transitioned to tech, joining Doug Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) in 1972. As principal investigator, she led the Network Information Center (NIC), compiling ARPANET contact information that evolved into today's WHOIS system. Beyond her technical expertise, Feinler championed diversity, mentoring women and minorities in STEM. Her enduring legacy continues to shape internet protocols, with modern projects addressing data accuracy honoring her as "Project Jake."
175317411
submission
penciling_in writes:
Pat Kane, Senior VP at Verisign, reports that on October 20th, ICANN and Verisign renewed the agreement under which Verisign will continue to act as Root Zone Maintainer for the Domain Name System (DNS) for another 8-year term. "The Root Zone sits atop the hierarchical architecture of the DNS and is essential to virtually all internet navigation, acting as the dynamic, cryptographically secure, global directory of all top-level domains that exist in the DNS. The Root Zone Maintainer is a unique role that ensures the cryptographic signing and publication of the Root Zone no less than once a day, without which, navigation on the internet would be impossible."
175233937
submission
penciling_in writes:
Ukrainian authorities have arrested a 28-year-old man in Khmelnytskyi for running an illegal VPN service that allowed users to bypass Ukrainian sanctions and access the Russian internet (Runet). The VPN, active since Russia's invasion, enabled Russian sympathizers and people in occupied territories to reach blocked Russian government sites, social media, and news.
Handling over 100GB of data daily and linking to 48 million Russian IP addresses, the VPN may have been exploited by Russian intelligence. Ukrainian cyber police, in collaboration with the National Security Service, seized servers and equipment in multiple locations.
The suspect faces charges under Part 5 of Article 361 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which could lead to a 15-year prison sentence. Investigations are ongoing into further connections and funding sources. The case highlights the growing role of VPNs in the ongoing cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia.
175144203
submission
penciling_in writes:
Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service, has hit a major milestone by surpassing 4 million subscribers worldwide. SpaceX confirmed the news on Thursday after company President Gwynne Shotwell hinted earlier in the week that the service would reach the mark within days. Since its beta launch in October 2020, Starlink has rapidly scaled, growing from 1 million subscribers by December 2022, to 2 million by September 2023, and now 4 million just months later. The service operates through a vast constellation of nearly 6,000 satellites, providing satellite internet to users in almost 100 countries, including expanding into previously underserved regions like Africa and the Pacific islands. While competition from OneWeb and Amazon’s Project Kuiper looms, Starlink remains the market leader. However, challenges like slowing U.S. growth and concerns over satellite interference with radio astronomy persist.
173721068
submission
penciling_in writes:
Cogent (CCOI) recently announced that it was offering secured notes for $206M. The unusual part is what it’s using as security: some of its IPv4 addresses and the leases on those IPv4 addresses.
The notes are expected to be repaid in five years. It’s important that Cogent is creating a special-purpose, bankruptcy-remote subsidiary for this security. The registry in charge of IPv4 records in North America is ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, and while they allow transfers, they are only allowed if the recipient can demonstrate need, or if the recipient owns the entire organization or network that holds the addresses.
170241713
submission
penciling_in writes:
Vinton Cerf, widely known as the “Father of the Internet,” has been awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2023 for his contributions to the development of the Internet architecture and for his leadership in its growth as a critical infrastructure for society.
In 1974, Robert Kahn and Cerf, who was working as program manager at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office, jointly designed the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol. Together they make up the Internet’s core architecture and enable computers to connect and exchange traffic.
Since 2005, Cerf has been vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google in Reston, Va., promoting the usage of the Internet for the benefit of the public. Cerf is also in charge of locating new technologies and creating policies that assist the production of Internet-based products and services.
125557430
submission
penciling_in writes:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced that its ICANN67 Public Meeting, which was to be held in Cancún, Mexico, will now be held via remote participation-only. This decision was made as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, considered a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization. The meeting, scheduled for 7-12 March 2020, marks the first time in ICANN's history that it will hold a Public Meeting solely with remote participation.
72091547
submission
penciling_in writes:
There are no silver bullets in Internet security, warns Paul Vixie in a co-authored piece along with Cyber Security Specialist, Frode Hmmedal: "Just as 'data' is being sold as 'intelligence', a lot of security technologies are being sold as 'security solutions' rather than what they for the most part are, namely very narrow focused appliances that, as a best case, can be part of your broader security effort." We have to stop playing "cops and robbers" and pretending that all of us are potential targets of nation-states, or pretending that any of our security vendors are like NORAD, warn the authors.
31019931
submission
penciling_in writes:
Paul Vixie shares his personal account of the DNSChanger takedown operation working with FBI and a worldwide team. He also explains the delay issues in identifying and notifying victims which resulted in FBI asking the judge for an extension and were given four more months. 'On July 9 2012 the replacement DNS servers operated by ISC will be shut down and any victims who still depend on these servers will face new risks,' he warns. A half dozen national Internet security teams around the world have created special web sites that will display a warning message to potential victims of the DNS Changer infection. The full list of these "DNS Checking" web sites is published on the DCWG's web site.
21225176
submission
penciling_in writes:
A group of DNS heavyweights have released a paper detailing serious concerns over the proposed DNS filtering requirements included as part of the bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate named Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 ("PROTECT IP Act”). The group which includes Paul Vixie, Dan Kaminsky, Steve Crocker, David Dagon and Danny McPherson, have detailed several serious technical and security concerns in the event that the mandated DNS filtering is enacted into law. Dan Kaminsky says: 'There are efforts afoot to manipulate the DNS on a remarkably large scale. The American PROTECT IP act contains several reasonable and well targeted remedies to copyright infringement. One of these remedies, however, is to leverage the millions of recursive DNS servers that act as accelerators for Internet traffic, and convert them into censors for domain names in an effort to block content.'
17321050
submission
netzar writes:
CAUSE executive director, Neil Schwartzman, in a post on CircleID urges governments and law enforcement to treat cyber crime as what it really is: 'crime': "When someone is mugged, harassed, kidnapped or raped on a sidewalk, we don't call it 'sidewalk crime' and call for new laws to regulate sidewalks. It is crime, and those who commit crimes are subject to the full force of the law. For too long, people have referred to spam in dismissive terms: just hit delete, some say, or let the filters take care of it. Others — most of us, in fact — refer to phishing, which is the first step in theft of real money from real people and institutions, as 'cyber crime.' It's time for that to stop. ... This isn't just email. This isn't a war. This isn't "cyber." This is crime.
17035776
submission
penciling_in writes:
CircleID reports that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced its approval of non-Latin string evaluation of Iran. This approval will allow the availability of Iran's top-level domain in its own native language, Persian, also known as Farsi (that is, the domain name .IRAN, in non-Latin characters). According to ICANN, there are currently 33 requests for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) representing 22 languages out of which 18 countries/territories have so far been approved.
14703064
submission
penciling_in writes:
ISC has made the announcement that they have developed a technology that will allow 'cooperating good guys' to provide and consume reputation information about domains names. The release of the technology, called Response Policy Zones (DNS RPZ), was announced at DEFCON. Paul Vixie explains: 'I am stunned by the simplicity and truth of that observation. Every day lots of new names are added to the global DNS, and most of them belong to scammers, spammers, e-criminals, and speculators. The DNS industry has a lot of highly capable and competitive registrars and registries who have made it possible to reserve or create a new name in just seconds, and to create millions of them per day.'
4993407
submission
netczar writes:
Former U.S. cybersecurity chief, Rod Beckstrom, has been selected as the new ICANN president and CEO. The decision was publicly announced during ICANN's 35th meeting in Sydney, Australia on Friday. Beckstrom will be replacing Dr. Paul Twomey who had been serving this position since March 2003 and announced his resignation earlier this year. Beckstrom recently made headlines for his sudden resignation from his post at NCSC, criticizing the lack of funding from the NSA and its move to try to "rule over" the NCSC.
