Today our Internet Society chapter in Togo issued a statement (in French) calling on the government of Togo to restore Internet access. Reports in the media and from our own members there indicate that that the government has shut down Internet access in the wake of protests after their recent election. The president of our ISOC Togo Chapter alerted us today that the shutdown has now even extended to SMS text messages.

Today we published a new Privacy Policy covering usage of our web sites as well as our collecting and maintaining Personal Data of our members, attendees to our events and subscribers of our various communications.

Last week the Brazilian government, through the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication, launched an open consultation as part of a process for reviewing the current structure and mission of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, the CGI.Br. 

[Note: Portuguese version of this post included below.]

An evaluation and review of a Governance mechanism is natural and something that should not call the attention of anybody.  The particularity here is that the announcement was unexpected, showing that the criteria to be used, the objectives of the review, and the process itself were not done in a multistakeholder manner.

There's a good bit of DNS secrurity and privacy activity happening at IETF 99 next week in Prague, although not all of that is in working groups. Here is a view of what is going on.

IETF 99 Hackathon

Once again there will be a good-sized "DNS team" at the IETF 99 Hackathon over the weekend (15-16 July). The IETF 99 Hackathon wiki outlines the work (scroll down to see it). From a security point of view, major projects include:

On 29 June 2017, Internet Society President and CEO Kathy Brown spoke on a panel on "Society and the Human Element" at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai event. These are her remarks as prepared.

See also:

How do you build a multilingual website? What are the things you should be thinking about? In my last post in this series, I wrote about our need for a multilingual editor (and we now have some GREAT candidates!). But there's obviously much more to a site than just having a person on board. This week, Joly MacFie of our New York Chapter pointed me to this excellent video from the recent WordCamp Helsinki 2017 event titled "The User Experience Perspective of Multilingual and Multi-regional Websites":

Whenever there's a new attack on a global scale, the world trusts the Internet a little less. Today we are concerned with the many reports about this new ransomware attack called "Petyawrap", "Petrwrap" or an older name of "Petya."

The sad fact is: this new attack exploits the same vulnerabilities in Windows systems as last month's WannaCry attack. 

Fixes have been available for most Windows systems since March 2017!

The same tips Niel Harper provided last month to protect against ransomware also apply here.

Our current website is a multilingual embarrassment.

Have you looked at our French home page lately? Or Spanish? Or Russian? Chinese? Arabic?

You probably haven't, according to our website statistics, and for a good reason: those home pages have not changed much in 2 years! 

In the early stages of our process to build a new Internet Society website, we developed a "vision" for what we wanted the new website to be. Last year we spoke with many people throughout the larger Internet Society community. We spoke with staff, with Chapter leaders, with partner organizations, with individual members and many more.  

As we launch the "beta" of the new website this week, I want to share with you the vision that emerged out of all of those aspirations:

Today I'm excited to give you a glimpse into our future! As James Wood recently wrote, we have been working on a new website that makes it tremendously easier to find information and take action on issues important to you. I also shared the vision we have for this new site.

The big news is this: we have now released an "early beta" version of the new site that shows the overall design direction and look-and-feel. It is important to note: Most of the site is INCOMPLETE. Most links will not work and many pages are missing.

How do we create a more secure and trusted Internet within the multistakeholder model of Internet governance? That will be among the many questions addressed this week at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) in Tallinn, Estonia. From June 5-7, we will have an Internet Society team on site participating in many sessions. Our EuroDIG 2017 page has all the details - including links to live video streams - but at a high level here are some of the workshops we are participating in:

Have you struggled to find information on our current website? Have you found it difficult to know what actions you can take on important issues such as connecting the unconnected and building trust on the Internet?

You are not alone.

In one of the most visible and important changes we are making this year, we are working hard on giving our website a deep refresh.  We are building it to be a direct vehicle for action. We are redesigning it from the ground up to help us achieve our objective of connecting everyone, everywhere to a globally connected, trusted Internet. 

It will look different, it will feel different, it will be more accessible and will be more aligned with this strategic goal. 

The Internet Society is deeply concerned with the increase of Internet blocking and recent reports of growing content surveillance on the Internet in Venezuela. 

On May 13th, Venezuela issued the Presidential Decree no. 2849, which has declared an State of Exception and Emergency, enforced immediately for the period of 60 days, extending a pre existing State of Exception and Emergency in the country. 

According to the Official Gazette publication, the purpose of this decree is to adopt urgent, severe, exceptional and needed measures to ensure people's rights, to preserve the internal order and access to goods, services, food, medicine and other essentials for life.  

What is happening with the WannaCry ransomware that has been attacking unpatched Windows computers around the world? How will it all end? What do we need to do collectively to deal with attacks like this? (Hint: Read Olaf's post.)

To learn more and pose questions to a panel of experts, you can join our partners at the Geneva Internet Platform and Diplo Foundation for a webinar on "Decrypting the WannaCry ransomware: Why is it happening and (how) is it going to end?"

Is the Internet bringing us together? Or is it further dividing us? Will the Internet of the future be a force for social cohesion? Or will it lead to greater fragmentation?

Please join us on Thursday, May 11, from 12:30 - 14:00 BST (UTC+1) for a live video stream out of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House in London, UK. In the session a panel of experts will address these and many related questions (view the longer description):

What are the best ways to reduce spam? How can we work together to reduce this threat and create a more trusted Internet? 

Last October, in the vibrant city of Bangkok, the Internet Society joined regulators for an in-depth conversation about how to eliminate spam and its harmful effects. Our kind hosts were the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the International Institute of Communications (ICC). 

Imagine if all your business contracts were sent to customers written on postcards. Everyone who happened to see the postcard could see exactly what you were going to charge the customer, how many of your product the customer is going to order - and all of the information about the customer.

Your competition, naturally, could take that information and send a contract to that customer of yours that undercuts your proposal and offers better terms. They could also share that information with others to let them know that this customer buys from you. (Or, at least, they used to!) Your customer, too, could potentially see what you are charging other customers.

Now... STOP imagining - THIS IS HOW THE INTERNET WORKS TODAY!

Online trust and the fundamental need to collaborate to address its challenges is an issue I care about deeply. Today I’m excited to share some important news about a new Initiative at the Internet Society that we believe will help us get to the next level in addressing online trust.

The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is an organisation with objectives very dear to ISOC’s heart. OTA’s mission is to enhance online trust, and its goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users' security, privacy and identity. OTA has a history of being principled, pragmatic and actionable.

It is a remarkably quiet week for DNS security and privacy topics at the IETF 98 meeting in Chicago next week. Both the DANE and DPRIVE working groups are moving along very well with their work on their mailing lists and so chose not to meet in Chicago. Similarly, with DNSSEC deployment steadily increasing (as we outlined in the 2016 State of DNSSEC Deployment report in December), the work to be discussed in DNS Operations (DNSOP) is more about exploring ideas to make DNSSEC even more secure.

Here is a quick view of what is happening in Chicago.

The word Internet is short for internetwork. It’s just a network of networks. So the more places you can connect those networks, the more robust the whole system is. That’s what Internet Exchange Points (“IXPs”) are. They’re the connection points where networks can connect to each other, and they’re a crucial part of the infrastructure of the Internet. 

In Europe, IXPs have traditionally been independent and are often run as nonprofits, whereas in North America, they’ve typically been owned and operated by commercial colocation facility operators or Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the last several years, though, there’s been a movement in the US to build more independent, community-focused IXPs. IX-Denver is part of that movement.