Want to learn more about our “25 Under 25” award recipients? How are they using the Internet to change the communities in which they live? On Monday, September 18, 2017, at 9:00am US Pacific (16:00 UTC), you will have the chance to learn about the amazing work they are doing. The awards ceremony will be streaming live out of Los Angeles on both Livestream.com and Facebook. You can watch at:
22 of the awardees will be in L.A. to receive their awards. (Three were denied visas.) One of the initiatives supporting the Internet Society’s 25th Anniversary, the program recognizes 25 young people from around the globe who are passionate about using the Internet to make a positive impact in their communities and the world.
Representing 19 countries on five continents, the 25 Under 25 awardees’ initiatives include creating an anti-cyberbullying youth movement in Australia, providing e-health education to teens in Tanzania, and using ICTs to break the cycle of poverty for families in Costa Rica.
Join us to be inspired in how these young people are working to #ShapeTomorrow!
The post WATCH LIVE: the Continue reading
Last week we announced the names of twenty-five individuals who were selected as the awardees of our 25 under 25 program, an initiative which recognizes young people from around the globe who are using the Internet to make a positive difference.
The program forms part of the Internet Society’s 25th Anniversary celebrations this month, including a special recognition ceremony planned in Los Angeles, California on Monday 18 September for the 25 under 25. We invited all twenty-five awardees to Los Angeles to take part and receive their awards in person but we have learnt that unfortunately, not everyone will be able to travel. Three of the awardees have not been granted visas to enter the United States.
On hearing this news one awardee, Mariano Gomez, penned us an open letter. In it, he explains his frustration at a process which required him to travel over several days to a ten minute interview which resulted in rejection. He described with utter clarity the irony of being denied entry due to the very conditions he hopes to address with the innovations he is pursuing on the Internet.
We understand and applaud Mariano’s statement. Not only are we disappointed that he and two Continue reading
Billions of Bluetooth-enabled devices may be exposed to a new remote attack called “BlueBorne”, even without user interaction or pairing. Affected systems include Windows, iOS (older than iOS 10), the Linux kernel, and Android. What should you do about it?
Bluetooth is ubiquitous, commonly connecting accessories like headsets and keyboards, but is also used throughout the brave new Internet of Things (IoT) world. An attacker exploiting these BlueBorne vulnerabilities can mount a man-in-the-middle attack, or even take control of a device without the user even noticing it.
The vulnerabilities were discovered by a security company called Armis earlier this year. Researchers reached out to the companies responsible for vulnerable implementations that lead to the coordinated disclosure (and patches) on September 12. (You can read more about our views on responsible disclosure and collaborative security in Olaf Kolkman’s blog post here.)
This case once again highlights how crucial it is that software update mechanisms are available to fix vulnerabilities, update configuration settings, and add new functionality to devices. There are challenges, both technological and economic, in having update capabilities ubiquitously deployed, as discussed in the recently published Report from the Internet of Things Software Update (IoTSU) Workshop 2016.
Vulnerabilities Continue reading
It’s my enormous pleasure to welcome you to the new Internet Society website.
The completely new-look, new-feel website is a far cry from our old site. Many months in the making, it’s been designed and built with some key attributes in mind. We’ve simplified and improved the structure to make things easier to find. It highlights the issues we work on and shows the news and resources you need in those areas. We’ve made the site mobile friendly and accessible to accepted standards. We’ve also introduced a cleaner design containing more graphics and more visual components to bring our content to life.
We’ve consolidated pages where it makes sense to do so to provide a sleeker, more streamlined experience. We’ve made it easier to find information about what we do regionally and around the world. Importantly, “Take Action” is now prominent throughout the site to help you understand what you can do to support our work and shape the future of the Internet.
What’s more, we’re doing all this in three languages – English, French and Spanish!
Everything about the site is different, and – I hope you agree – refreshing. It delivers an engaging experience and draws attention Continue reading
The Internet Society’s story has been 25 years in the making.
The foundation for a global community of people dedicated to bringing the Internet to everyone started in 1992. We have come a long way since then, and today our mission has never been more important or challenging.
This milestone year presents a unique opportunity for us all to reflect on our rich heritage, and to consider how we can impact the Internet for the next 25 years. Our community has a critical role in guiding the decisions that must now be taken for the future Internet in today’s rapidly changing world.
This September, to commemorate the Internet Society’s 25th anniversary, we’d like you to join in a series of global celebrations to inspire the world to take action in shaping tomorrow and in ensuring that the Internet remains a positive force for future generations. We will honor innovators and visionaries who advanced the early Internet at our 2017 Internet Hall of Fame ceremony. We will also recognize 25 under 25 next generation leaders who are using the Internet to make a difference for their communities and beyond.
After 18 months of research, we will launch The 2017 Internet Society Continue reading
The Internet Society’s story has been 25 years in the making.
The foundation for a global community of people dedicated to bringing the Internet to everyone started in 1992. We have come a long way since then, and today our mission has never been more important or challenging.
This milestone year presents a unique opportunity for us all to reflect on our rich heritage, and to consider how we can impact the Internet for the next 25 years. Our community has a critical role in guiding the decisions that must now be taken for the future Internet in today’s rapidly changing world.
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.
On September 18th in Los Angeles, California, the Internet Society will celebrate a selected group of exceptional young people under the age of 25 who are using the Internet to make a difference in peoples’ lives.
I had the privilege of reading hundreds of submissions and nominations, many of which left me feeling humbled and inspired. The incredible impact these individuals have already had in such a short time is a model for youth around the world and for those of us who already have some years of experience!
Their efforts include creating an anti-cyberbullying youth movement in Australia, providing health education to teens in Tanzania, reducing the gender technology gap in Gambia, and using ICTs to break the cycle of poverty for families in Costa Rica. You can read more about the awardees and honourable mention recipients and their extraordinary work here.
Although the awardees’ stories are as individual as they are compelling, they do share a common theme: an unwavering commitment to solving an identified problem and a passion for using the Internet to shape tomorrow in their communities.
This is the same theme that motivated young innovators, pioneers, and connectors in their twenties and thirties to imagine the Continue reading
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.
As Dawit Bekele, our Africa Regional Bureau Director, recently wrote, we do not believe Internet shutdowns are the solution for governments in Africa or anywhere in the world. In today’s connected world, network restrictions have wide-ranging economic and social consequences for all people.
We join with our chapters in calling on governments to end Internet shutdowns.
Please share our Togo chapter’s statement widely on social media – and help spread the word that we need to #KeepItOn
Update: Norbert Glakpe, the president / chair of the ISOC Togo Chapter, was interviewed on RFI Afrique this morning. His audio can be heard at the end of this article: Au Togo, nouvelle journée de mobilisation à l’appel de l’opposition
Read more:
On September 18th in Los Angeles, California, the Internet Society will celebrate a selected group of exceptional young people under the age of 25 who are using the Internet to make a difference in peoples’ lives.
I had the privilege of reading hundreds of submissions and nominations, many of which left me feeling humbled and inspired. The incredible impact these individuals have already had in such a short time is a model for youth around the world and for those of us who already have some years of experience!
Human development cannot happen without inclusive access to information.
This, along with reading and applying knowledge helps us to make better decisions and to create and innovate.
The Internet has brought this much closer. It is easier to create, communicate, and collaborate than ever before. E-commerce has given us new markets, e-journals are allowing us to learn, and e-health is keeping us fit.
Libraries have seized the opportunity not only to promote online access to information, but to help their users get the best out of the Internet. The welcoming environment and targeted support that they offer is almost as important as the resources to which they provide access. Libraries are also key to improving levels of digital literacy.
Internet access is a prerequisite for achieving this mission. With information providers from the United Nations to local newspapers cutting back on physical printing, the possibility to get online is more essential than ever. Where connections are unreliable, or do not exist, people may even be in a worse position than before. Because of this, all 196 of the UN’s Member States endorsed giving everyone the possibility of Internet access in the 2030 Agenda.
It is therefore unacceptable that governments Continue reading
Human development cannot happen without inclusive access to information.
This, along with reading and applying knowledge helps us to make better decisions and to create and innovate.
The Internet has brought this much closer. It is easier to create, communicate, and collaborate than ever before. E-commerce has given us new markets, e-journals are allowing us to learn, and e-health is keeping us fit.
After the experiment with DPRIVE at IETF99, we thought we’d try to implement it in the Go6lab and see how this actually works in day-to-day reality.
The first step was to take a look at https://dnsprivacy.org/wiki/ as we had a feeling this might be the best source for information around this topic. There’s a ton of info about DNS over TLS, but what we were really looking for was simple instructions on how to setup a recursive DNS server to serve DNS responses over TLS (port 853), as well as how to setup a local client on our device that could talk to the server and accept local DNS queries over TLS, thereby protecting our DNS communications over the Internet.
We decided that running a TLS proxy was not the way to do it, so we used CentOS 7 VPS with Unbound installed. After some time and with extensive help from Willem Toorop from NLnet Labs (thanks Willem!!!) we managed to navigate the setup process for server and client.
Firstly, we installed the default Unbound from the CentOS7 default yum repositories, which turned out not to be a very good idea, as this version is 1.4.20 Continue reading
Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security, or MANRS, was founded with the ambitious goal of improving the security and reliability of the global Internet routing system, based on collaboration among participants and shared responsibility for Internet infrastructure. These are undoubtedly essential pillars supporting the Internet’s tremendous growth and success, but we must better articulate the incentives of contributing to global security and resilience to grow MANRS participation and reach our goals.
To do so, we engaged 451 Research to understand the attitudes and perceptions of Internet service providers and the broader enterprise community around MANRS and how it relates to their organizations. The results of the study are documented in the report: https://www.routingmanifesto.org/resources/research/.
The study results demonstrate considerable unrealized potential for MANRS, showing that enterprises are interested in security and their interest should be a strong incentive for more service providers to participate. Market education could be particularly effective in overcoming the operational inertia that many providers face.
The key points from the study are:
Time is something that is often overlooked or taken for granted, but the accuracy and reliability of time is critical to our lives and must be protected. Time is a core concept underlying nearly all physical and virtual systems. Distributed computer systems, key to many functions inherent in our daily lives, rely on accurate and reliable time, yet we rarely stop and think about how that time is constructed and represented. Accurate and reliable time is needed to determine when an event occurs, in what order a particular sequence of events occurs, or when to schedule an event that is to occur at a particular time in the future. Finally, and of particular interest to our trust agenda here at the Internet Society, quality reliable time is required for many of the security technologies that help provide trust for the Internet. It is a vital and often overlooked part of the Internet infrastructure.
Some specific examples where accurate reliable secure time information is vital include:
[Note: This post was originally published on the MANRS Blog at https://www.routingmanifesto.org/2017/09/new-study-understanding-manrs-potential-for-enterprises-and-service-providers/.]
You should care about your privacy online even if you think you have nothing to hide. A key aspect of privacy is being able to choose what information you share publicly and what is private. Would you want your bank account balance displayed for anyone to see? What about your medical history?
Encryption is a vital tool for protecting private communications online from unwanted eyes. We use it every day, often without even realizing it. But, encryption is not magic. If you want to better protect your privacy online, here are five steps you can take right now:
[Note: This post was originally published on the MANRS Blog at https://www.routingmanifesto.org/2017/09/new-study-understanding-manrs-potential-for-enterprises-and-service-providers/.]
Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security, or MANRS, was founded with the ambitious goal of improving the security and reliability of the global Internet routing system, based on collaboration among participants and shared responsibility for Internet infrastructure. These are undoubtedly essential pillars supporting the Internet’s tremendous growth and success, but we must better articulate the incentives of contributing to global security and resilience to grow MANRS participation and reach our goals.
To do so, we engaged 451 Research to understand the attitudes and perceptions of Internet service providers and the broader enterprise community around MANRS and how it relates to their organizations. The results of the study are documented in the report: https://www.routingmanifesto.org/resources/research/.
The study results demonstrate considerable unrealized potential for MANRS, showing that enterprises are interested in security and their interest should be a strong incentive for more service providers to participate. Market education could be particularly effective in overcoming the operational inertia that many providers face.
The key points from the study are:
Time is something that is often overlooked or taken for granted, but the accuracy and reliability of time is critical to our lives and must be protected. Time is a core concept underlying nearly all physical and virtual systems. Distributed computer systems, key to many functions inherent in our daily lives, rely on accurate and reliable time, yet we rarely stop and think about how that time is constructed and represented. Accurate and reliable time is needed to determine when an event occurs, in what order a particular sequence of events occurs, or when to schedule an event that is to occur at a particular time in the future.
Last Friday, 25 August, a routing incident caused large-scale internet disruption. It hit Japanese users the hardest, slowing or blocking access to websites and online services for dozens of Japanese companies.
What happened is that Google accidentally leaked BGP prefixes it learned from peering relationships, essentially becoming a transit provider instead of simply exchanging traffic between two networks and their customers. This also exposed some internal traffic engineering that caused many of these prefixes to get de-aggregated and therefore raised their probability of getting accepted elsewhere.