Does the U.S. government want to seize The Pirate Bay's domain?

For years Hollywood has put pressure on the American and Swedish governments to put a stop to that pesky little Pirate Bay bittorrent site. Despite a government raid, large fines and jail time, the site is more popular than ever. But according to TorrentFreak, the United States government planned an operation in coordination with ICANN to seize thepiratebay.org.

As part of a campaign called ‘Operation In Our Sites,’ the government has already illegally seized the domains of nine movie streaming sites. According to an insider source at TorrentFreak, ICANN took control of the domains and then handed them to the government– in clear violation of domain owner rights.

The government was poised to seize The Pirate Bay’s domain as well as MegaUpload.com, but changed its mind at the last minute for some unknown reason. This does not mean these sites are safe, however. As Professor Pouwelse of the Delft University of Technology put it, “Hollywood lawyers have discovered the soft underbelly of piracy.”

ICANN has declined to comment on the matter.

IT executives doubt time line of government data consolidation plan

The United States government has pledged to consolidate its data centers from its current over-bloated structure into a more efficient form. A survey of 143 federal IT executives reveals that 63% of believe the consolidation will take place, but an even greater 74% think it will take longer than the government estimates to carry out the plan.

Nearly half of respondents said it would be reasonable for their agency to give up data centers under the plan. Around the same number of people expressed concern about using services from a private firm, however.

Some 86%of the executives believe that government culture is the biggest obstacle to consolidation. Most agreed that sharing data centers between government agencies was the most viable option for trimming the fat. If the government is successful, it will have conducted the largest data center consolidation ever.

Bill could give United States right to seize Internet

Senator Joe Lieberman has introduced a bill to Congress that if enacted, would give the American government broad powers to direct Internet policy and seize control of critical infrastructure during emergencies.

Called the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), this legislation could effectively give the government control over the Internet. This is because much of the Internet’s root core and many of its administrative bodies, including ICANN, are located in the United States.

All governments should take cyber security seriously, but I think Lieberman is going a bit far with this bill. I highly doubt the government could even effectively manage something as large and complex as the Internet by itself. How would it go about taking control in the first place? My guess is this bill won’t make it very far.

Source | The Register

UK Businessman in Heated Dispute Over .AE Domain

As if the .ae top-level domain craze could stand to get more sensational, Michael Reed, a businessman from the United Kingdom, is complaining that the UAE domain regulator, .aeDA unlawfully took back a domain he had legitimately registered. The domain in question is Irena.ae. Reed owns a 12-year-old trademark for Irena, a nutritional supplement, in Europe and the UK.

According to Reed, however, when the UAE government made a deal with IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Association, they snipped his registration from over his own registrar’s head. The regulator .aeDA argues that Reed did not register the domain until two days after the IRENA EU statute and that he posted a “for sale” advertisement on youcanbuythiswebsite.com. When they contacted him, they said he did not respond in a timely manner.

Reed contends that he never offered the domain for sale. The .aeDA asserted that its policies grant it permission to revoke registration of domains that are identical to inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), but there is no mention of it in the policy document. Reed is threatening to pull his business out of the UAE completely. Now it will be up to the UAE to decide which is more important to them: their inter-governmental agreements or the business interests and potential commercial benefits of one man.

Source: Arabian Business
Photo: Flickr

More updates on call for U.S.-ICANN relationship

In a letter sent out on August 4, two Democratic congressmen called for a permanent relationship between the United States government and ICANN. Since the event made news yesterday, more details about the situation have emerged.

The letter published by the congressmen calls for the following to occur at ICANN:

Any further involvement of the United States in ICANN will more than likely cause an international uproar, and there is the possibility that it could refuse to cooperate with the government. Either way, I think ICANN hasn’t been as transparent and responsible as it could have been over the years and someone needs to clamp down on it. What the two politicians are calling for isn’t too unreasonable.

Considering the JPA expires on September 30, we should hear about any formal steps by the government to take hold of ICANN soon.

Source | DN Journal
Photo | Flickr

Meet "The Bunker"

Last week, I covered what is undoubtedly one of the most secure data centers in the United States, if not the world. But a UK facility, dubbed “The Bunker,” may give the Americans a run for their money.

The government-owned data center is located in Kent and sits 30 meters underground below a secure fenced-in area. Like the American facility, it features guard dogs, cameras, and armed guards. Routine patrols and encrypted keys are also used to prevent unauthorized access. Oh, and did I mention that the whole place is designed to survive a nuclear blast?

Triple redundancy ensure the power never goes out. Air-tight doors and thick steel walls are also present to prevent any type of electronic eavesdropping equipment from monitoring the facility. Is it me, or is the government a bit paranoid?

Congressmen call for permanent ICANN relationship

With less than two months of ICANN‘s Joint Project Agreement with the United States Department of Commence remaining, two key House members are calling for permanent government involvement in the organization.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D.-Calif., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., made a statement regarding their views today:

Rather than replacing the JPA with additional JPAs or Memoranda of Understandings that expire every few years, we believe the time has come for a permanent instrument to which ICANN and the Department of Commerce are co-signatories. This statement of commitments and principles would ensure that ICANN remains perpetually accountable to the public and to all of its global stakeholders.

ICANN has previously declared that it neither wants government involvement nor a renewal of the JPA. The California organization has never really experienced any government oversight before, and it is unclear how the U.S. government could push itself into ICANN.

Personally, I think government involvement in ICANN is a good thing. Every other industry is regulated. Why the Internet has not already been made privy to federal oversight I do not know.

Source | eWeek

Cyber czar resigns

Just a few months after being appointed, the director of the National Cyber Security Center, or cyber czar, has resigned.

Melissa Hathaway was given the position temporarily pending further review, but now wishes to move on to other things. The post hasn’t fared well since it was created by President Obama shortly after taking office. The government has had trouble determining just what role the organization should play in cyber government, and many of its duties overlap with other agencies.

The first National Cyber Security Center director, our one and only Rod Beckstrom, also resigned after a short tenure in office. He cited budget problems and a lack of cooperation from other agencies as the main reasons for his departure.

As of right now, there is no replacement for Hathaway. A number of officials have turned down job offers for the post. As Tom Kellermann, a former cyber security expert at the World Bank, put it: “the system has become paralyzed.”

Source | WSJ

Korean cyberattack may be wild goose chase

U.S. and South Korean agencies are still scratching their heads trying to track down the perpetrators of widely publicized July 4 attacks. South Koreans were quick to point the finger at North Korea or “North Korean sympathizers”, but as of yet, no concrete proof has emerged. The botnet infected 50,000 computers and then sent a DDoS (dedicated denial of service) attack on government web servers in South Korea and the United States, crippling them.

Because of the nature of the attacks, analysts say they could have originated anywhere in the world.

“The truth is, we may never know the true origin of the attack unless the attacker made some colossal blunder,” said Joe Stewart, a director in the Counter Threat Unit at SecureWorks, a computer security consulting organization.

What researchers have determined is that the code of the attacking program was not very sophisticated and could have been written by an amateur. They are hoping that the creators of the botnet left a fingerprint trail that will lead investigators to them. Even if they are able to determine the country of origin, however, even that could have been masked. Ultimately, they may have to rely on arrogance that typically characterizes villains: that they will boast about their accomplishments.

Source: New York Times
Photo: Flickr

Hackers attack South Korea and US

According to reports, North Korean hackers are believed to have launched cyber attacks on government offices in the US and South Korea. Some South Korean and US websites were momentarily taken down. Among the South Korean sites with service disruption were the Blue House, defense ministry, national assembly, Shinhan bank, Korean Exchange bank, and Internet portal Naver.

As of yet, there seems to be no concrete evidence that the North Korean government had any involvement in the attack, despite the suspicions to the contrary. South Korean officials announced that they suspected North Korea or its sympathizers of initiating the attack and that they are working with the US in the investigation. The US treasury department, secret service, Federal Trade Commission, and transport department websites were hit and momentarily taken off line over the past weekend.

The method of attack appears to be DoS (denial of service), a technique preferred by hackers because of its effectiveness at taking down websites without the need to infiltrate security systems. The hackers will normally use several computers connected to the Internet, sometimes spread all over the world, to bombard a website with simultaneous connections until the site can no longer handle the load. The site then either goes offline or is simply unreachable to legitimate visitors.

Source: Guardian
Photo: Flickr