NOTE: If you are unable Continue reading
We are proud to announce that Chapterthon 2017 on Digital Schools was recognized today as the winner of a 2018 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize under the category “International and Regional Cooperation,” awarded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
For the Internet Society, this award is a strong affirmation of the valuable work that our Chapters are doing on the ground to empowering their communities through the Internet and, as so, advancing sustainable development.
Chapterthon is a global Chapters marathon, where our chapters work hard with their communities to develop a project within a timeline and budget for achieving a common goal. In 2017, the topic was Digital Schools and 30 Chapters from all 6 regions carried out specific projects to improving education by using the Internet.
Great ideas were taken into action and each project contributes to making a difference not only in their communities but also beyond them. Connecting schools to the Internet through community networks, teaching coding to girls, training teachers and parents, raising awareness about the safe use of the Internet and developing an online platform for a school were not isolated actions but part of global efforts towards improving people’s lives. Together Continue reading
In 2017, the Internet Society unveiled the 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future. The interactive report identifies the drivers affecting tomorrow’s Internet and their impact on Media & Society, Digital Divides, and Personal Rights & Freedoms. Last month we interviewed Nicholas Thompson, Editor in Chief of Wired, to hear his perspective on the forces shaping the Internet’s future.
Prior to joining Wired, Thompson was a journalist at The New Yorker, where he was also the editor of newyorker.com. Thompson has written about politics and technology for numerous publications, and has spent time reporting from West Africa on the role technology plays there. He is also the author of The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War.
The Internet Society: You recently published (and co-wrote) a long feature on Facebook’s difficulties over the past two years, focusing to a large extent on its role in distributing news and misinformation (or fake news) alike. As policy leaders shape future norms in this field, do you think platforms face stricter regulatory measures? How?
Nicholas Thompson: Platforms need to do better. They need to play a better role in Continue reading
This week is IETF 101 in London, and we’re bringing you daily blog posts highlighting the topics of interest to us in the ISOC Internet Technology Team. There’s plenty of variety on Wednesday, following the themes of Trust and Identity, IPv6 and the Internet-of-Things.
TLS has its second session of the week starting at 09.30 GMT/UTC, and will be focused on the big development of the TLS 1.3 specification being approved by the IESG. Some further work is required, but there are a number of TLS 1.3 related drafts up for discussion.
These include Datagram Transport Layer Security, DTLS Connection Identifer, Exported authenticators in TLS, DANE Record and DNSSEC Authentication Chain Extension for TLS, TLS Certificate compression, SNI Encryption in Tunnelling via TLS, and Semi-static DH Key Establishment in TLS 1.3.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 101 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.
Running in parallel is LPWAN which is working on enabling IPv6 connectivity with very low wireless transmission rates between battery-powered devices spread across multiple kilometres. There’s a draft providing an overview of the set of LPWAN technologies under consideration by the IETF Continue reading
The Internet Society Kyrgyzstan Chapter is implementing one of its first major projects supported by Beyond the Net Funding Programme. The aim of the Ferghana Valley Internet Exchange Point (FVIXP) project is to establish an IXP in the city of Osh in the south of Kyrgyzstan and to bring more affordable Internet for the residents of Ferghana Valley.
Ferghana Valley is located on the crossroads of three countries – Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan – and is the most populated area in Central Asia with over 14 million residents. Historically, this area has been a source of regional interethnic tensions due to water irrigation and land disputes, poverty and lack of access to communication services.
Internet prices for end users in Ferghana Valley are higher than in other districts of Kyrgyzstan. Residents in the southern cities pay five times more for the same bandwidth than their countrymen in the capital city Bishkek located in the north of Kyrgyzstan. Users in the neighboring countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan face even higher prices due to very limited options for international connectivity and to challenging domestic market conditions.
With this project, the Kyrgyzstan Chapter hopes to increase regional cross-border collaboration between stakeholders and communication Continue reading
RIP encryption? Quantum computers, cutting-edge machines that promise to be much more powerful than binary PCs, could eventually defeat current encryption schemes, said Jason Matheny, director of the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. The agency is looking for new encryption standards that could stay ahead of quantum computers, he told Federal News Radio.
Taking fake news by surprise: During the SXSW conference, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced plans to add Wikipedia text to videos the service determines to be conspiracy related. YouTube didn’t notify Wikipedia of its proposal to fight fake news and conspiracy theories, however, reports The Verge. While the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t require notice or a licensing deal for other organizations to use its content, it suggested companies that repurpose its articles contribute to the service in the “spirit of sustainability.” Vanity Fair called the YouTube announcement a “Band-Aid” for a much larger problem.
Blockchain the vote: Sierra Leone has used Blockchain technology to assist with a nationwide election this month, according to a story in Quartz. In the country’s most populous district, Swiss foundation Agora offered digital voting services using a permissioned Blockchain. The goal was more system transparency by recording each vote using Continue reading
This week is IETF 101 in London, and we’re bringing you daily blog posts highlighting the topics of interest to us in the ISOC Internet Technology Team. After a hectic Monday there’s less dashing around needed today, although there’s a few things to highlight, even if you’ll have to choose between them as they’re unfortunately all scheduled at the same time.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend IETF 101 in person, there are multiple ways to participate remotely.
DNSOP starts its first of two sessions at 15.50 GMT/UTC (it continues on Thursday. Several of the drafts under discussion relate to the Root KSK Rollover and how to better automate and monitor key rollovers.
At the same time, DOTS is also meeting and has a bit of a mixed agenda with four drafts up for discussion, implementation reports, and feedback on the Hackathon.
There are two drafts covering the Distributed Denial-of-Service Open Threat Signaling (DOTS) Signal Channel and Data Channel specifications, one that establishes an architecture for establishing and maintaining signalling within and between domains, with the last one presenting use cases describing the interactions expected between DOTS components and messaging exchanges.
Alternatively, DMM has a very busy agenda with no Continue reading
It’s another packed week at IETF 101 in London, and we’re bringing you daily blog posts highlighting the topics of interest to us in the ISOC Internet Technology Team. Monday is a very full day with two important IPv6 working groups, one on IoT, a couple on routing, and another couple related to crypto.
NOTE: If you are unable Continue reading
It seems like yesterday we were in Tunis at the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where I was involved in the negotiations that led to the formation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). When I look back at the evolution of Internet governance since then, it is amazing!
But the decisions we have made before are in constant scrutiny of the reality check. Geopolitical forces around the world have been changing and increased challenges with rapid Internet evolution have impacted global society as never before. Nevertheless, the IGF community is showing signs of fatigue – less government and high level attendance, difficulties to confirm the host country in advance, fewer contributions for the intersessional work – while there are heated debates on the Internet front regarding cybersecurity, the digital economy, and the future of jobs and education with IoT and AI.
Thus, it is urgent that the community takes the responsibility of introducing the reform the IGF needs to continue its brilliant journey. The IGF has an amazing opportunity ahead to adapt and inspire people to work effectively in support of people-centered development.
The world is much better with the IGF than without it!
The IGF Continue reading
It’s going to be a crazy busy week in London next week in the world of DNS security and privacy! As part of our Rough Guide to IETF 101, here’s a quick view on what’s happening in the world of DNS. (See the full agenda online for everything else.)
As usual, there will be a good-sized “DNS team” at the IETF 101 Hackathon starting tomorrow. The IETF 101 Hackathon wiki outlines the work (scroll down to see it). Major security/privacy projects include:
Anyone is welcome to join us for part or all of that event.
On Thursday, March 22, at 12:30 UTC, ICANN CTO David Conrad will speak on “Rolling the DNS Root Key Based on Input from Many ICANN Communities“. As the abstract notes, he’ll be talking about how ICANN got to where it is today with the Continue reading
The Indonesian province of Bali has asked mobile providers to shut down customers’ access to the Internet during Nyepi, a Hindu holiday known as the Day of Silence.
Mobile Internet access will be cut off at 6 a.m. local time Saturday, March 17, and the island’s airport will also close for 24 hours during the New Year celebration. Other Internet access will be available during the holiday, the Bali government said.
Internet advocates oppose shutdowns, saying they can hurt local economies and endanger users who depend on connections to contact emergency and health services. Internet shutdowns cost countries $2.4 billion in 2015, according to a Brookings Institute study.
“In a globally connected world, social and economic freedoms depend on reliable access to the Internet,” Sally Shipman Wentworth, the Internet Society’s vice president of global policy development, wrote in Quartz recently. “The internet is the lifeline to the global economy and each shutdown contributes to a more divided world.”
Without Internet access, many business activities are also disrupted, she said. Digital payments can’t be made, contracts can’t be signed, and data in the cloud can’t be accessed.
Although the Internet outage in Bali is limited, it can Continue reading
It’s that time again! In this post of the Rough Guide to IETF 101, I’ll take a quick look at some of the identity, privacy, and encryption related activities at IETF this coming week. Below a few of the many relevant activities are highlighted, but there is much more going on so be sure to check out the full agenda online.
Encryption continues to be a priority of the IETF as well as the security community at large. Related to encryption, there is the TLS working group developing the core specifications, several working groups addressing how to apply the work of the TLS working group to various applications, and the Crypto-Forum Research Group focusing on the details of the underlying cryptographic algorithms.
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Working Group is a key IETF effort developing core security protocols for the Internet. The big news out of this working group is the IESG approval of the TLS 1.3 specification. There is still some way to go before final publication, but the end is in sight.
There will be two TLS sessions this week. The Monday session will focus primarily on the ongoing discussion of data center operator concerns Continue reading
Barely a week passes without something in the news that reminds us of the critical role encryption plays in securing our data. It is a technology that protects so much of what we rely on, as individuals protecting our privacy, as companies securing our business assets and transactions, and as governments responsible for critical national infrastructure.
As a CEO, I needed to know what questions I should be asking my technical experts about encryption and its use, so I asked my staff to produce this paper. I found it to be so useful that I thought we should share it with other executives as they try to understand and manage this complex but indispensable technology.
We believe, at the Internet Society, that encryption is a MUST for protecting what is one of the most valuable assets we manage—data. We hope this paper can be helpful to you.
— Kathy Brown, CEO, Internet Society
The request Kathy mentions came after the San Bernardino shootings in California (which reinvigorated the debate about third party access to encrypted information), and after a former Director of the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had set out his view in these terms:
“Encryption is overwhelmingly Continue reading
Tomorrow begins IETF 101 in London, United Kingdom, and it’s the third time that an IETF has been held in the country. Following on the heels of our Rough Guide to IETF 101 where we go in-depth about specific topics of interest, the ISOC Internet Technology Team is again highlighting the latest IPv6, DNSSEC, Securing BGP, TLS and IoT related developments as the week progresses.
Below are the sessions that we’ll be following in the coming week. Note this post was written in advance so please check the official IETF 101 agenda for any updates, room changes, or final details.
Monday, 18 March 2018
Tuesday, 19 March 2018
Two months ago, I read something that made me furious. A chocolate company had gradually reduced the size of my favorite chocolate bar by 30%. The greedy chocolate company – no, they were “Big Chocolate” now – were cutting corners in an attempt to trick everyday people like me. I vowed I would boycott them.
A week later I found myself in the checkout lane at the grocery store, eyeing my favorite chocolate bar. Five minutes later, I was eating it. I didn’t even have the decency to feel guilty.
I enjoy being justifiably outraged, I don’t enjoy taking the time to help fix the problem. Fixing things is a pain.
There’s no area I do this more with than cybersecurity and online privacy. I’m always infuriated by the latest data breach. I’m angry when a website forces me to download an app and make an account instead of allowing me to use my mobile browser.
Yet, I still download the app. In fact, I’ll continue to do business with a company after they’ve had a data breach, sold insecure Internet-connected devices, or even been caught spying on their customers through their TVs. And then I’m infuriated all over again six months later when the Continue reading
Girls in Technology is a community-based initiative to help increase schoolgirls’ participation in emerging Internet technology careers. The pilot project, lead by the Internet Society Sri Lanka Chapter and supported by Beyond the Net Funding Programme, will provide grade 9 girls with coding lessons and extracurricular activities to help them select ICT subjects at grade 10. Niranjan Meegammana, project leader and director of the Shilpa Sayura Foundation, explains how this initiative will contribute to gender equality in STEM education and help the young women reach for the stars.
Internet Society: What motivated the Chapter to take this initiative?
Niranjan Meegammana: Sri Lanka is fast becoming a hub for technology and innovation, offering a wide range of careers in technology fields. However, girls pursuing a career in technology still remain a limited number. Girls are representing 50.28% of school population, but only 20% are actually studying ICT. The gender gap keeps on growing and generating a labor surplus. The root cause of this problem is the scarcity of opportunities for girls and teachers in the Internet sector.
Which innovative solutions will the project attempt to solve this problem?
Girls in Technology is implemented by Sri Lanka Chapter with Continue reading
Every time you see “Login with Facebook” or “Login with Twitter” etc. on a website or use login credentials issued by your employer or school, you’re using Identity and Access Management (IAM) technologies in the background. IAM has become central to our online interactions, but like a lot of infrastructure it’s largely invisible to users (at least when it’s well designed and implemented). IAM is evolving rapidly, the stakes are high, and enterprises face an increasingly complex and puzzling digital identity landscape. There is also growing concern that businesses know too much about us, and therefore end users should reclaim control over their own identities. IAM is a hot topic in the technology world, with new architectures, business models, and philosophies all in play.
Blockchain technology (sometimes also called distributed ledger technology – DLT) is also gaining attention. Proponents advocate it for a wide variety of use cases, including IAM. Blockchain is a broad class of relatively new data security methods, with certain properties of potential value in IAM. Many IAM companies have launched identity registration solutions “on the blockchain,” while others are developing new blockchain-inspired infrastructure for distributing information about users (called “attributes” and used to inform decisions about Continue reading
Our colleague Jan Žorž will be promoting RIPE-690 “Best Current Operational Practice: IPv6 prefix assignment for end-users – persistent vs non-persistent, and what size to choose” as the opening keynote at the forthcoming Netnod Meeting on 14-15 March 2018 in the Sheraton Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden.
RIPE-690 outlines best current operational practices for the assignment of IPv6 prefixes (i.e. a block of IPv6 addresses) for end-users, as making wrong choices when designing an IPv6 network will eventually have negative implications for deployment and require further effort such as renumbering when the network is already in operation. This was published in late 2017 after a year of intensive work by IPv6 experts around the world, supported by the Internet Society’s Deploy360 programme.
Netnod is a neutral, not-for-profit Internet infrastructure organisation based in Sweden that operates six Internet exchange points (IXPs) in five different cities where network operators can connect and exchange traffic.
There’s also several other interesting talks on the agenda, including trends in Internet-of-Things Distributed-Denial-of-Service botnets, prudent TLS, how to practically deploy IPv6 in the mass-market, how clouds are making new demands for connectivity and hyperconnected datacentres, and establishing research networks in Arctic environments, plus a panel session on the future of peering Continue reading
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an increasingly hot buzzword around the Internet industry and the broader technology and innovation business arenas. We are often asked what the IETF is doing in relation to IoT and in this short Rough Guide to IETF 101 post I’d like to highlight some of the relevant sessions scheduled during the upcoming IETF 101 meeting in London. Also check out the IETF Journal IoT Category, the IETF IoT page, the IETF IoT Directorate, the Internet Society’s IoT page, or the Online Trust Alliance IoT page for more details about many of these topics. See also this recent article in the IETF Journal: Internet of Things: Standards and Guidance from the IETF.
The IETF Hackathon, held the weekend preceding the main IETF meeting (17-18 March), will include at least four projects directly related to IoT, with the possibility of more being added. More information is on the Hackathon wiki.
AI on the job: Many U.S. residents believe that artificial intelligence will replace some workers over the next decade or so, but it won’t take theirs, according to a story in the New York Times. But it’s not all doom and gloom, because advances in AI and robotics can actually create more jobs, Tim Johnson, CEO of IT staffing firm Mondo, writes in Forbes.
Fixing the IoT: The U.K. government issued a set of guidelines for Internet-of-things device makers to better secure their products. Among the recommendations: Issue regular software updates, get rid of default passwords, and warn customers promptly about vulnerabilities. Ok, so it’s not rocket science, but it seems that some IoT device makers haven’t done some of these things in the past. Some critics also believe the guidelines lack teeth, according to a story in ITpro.
The Blockchain election: The use of Blockchain technologies could help resolve some continuing problems with voting, according to a story by Bitcoin Magazine run on Nasdaq.com. The use of a Blockchain ledger could address the old “hanging chad” problem from the 2000 U.S. election, and it could bring new privacy and security to elections, according to the Continue reading