News

On 16-17 April, the GCCS took place in The Hague to discuss key cyber domain related developments. Governments dominated the list of participants, which otherwise included the more or less typical Internet multistakeholder mix. Expectedly, the conferences focused on threats in the cyber domain and the need to step up efforts in cybersecurity, detecting and fighting cyber threats and crimes and protecting privacy and data security.

The GCCS also gave birth to the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, a best-practice exchange body, consisting of government representatives, intergovernmental organisations, and private companies that subscribe to the Hague Declaration on that forum. It will focus on cybersecurity, cybercrime, data protection and e-governance.

 

In the coming weeks, Nominet will be conducting research with a randomly selected sample of .uk domain registrants in order to gain a better understanding of consumer demographics, domain buying behaviour and sentiment in selecting UK domain names.

The research will be performed via an online questionnaire on our behalf by an agency called Insight Engineers, although the email inviting registrants to complete the survey will be sent from Nominet. 

 

The ambitious ‘Connected Continent’ proposal under ex-Commissioner Neelie Kroes has seen better days. Member States only want to discuss roaming and net neutrality. Spectrum has been stripped off the proposal altogether. Current elements considered by the Council ahead of today’s second trilogue meeting (Commission, Council, European Parliament) would grant telecom companies a ‘transitional period’ (and no immediate phase-out of roaming fees). During that period, when abroad, customers would receive an ‘allowance’ (on 7 days, they can use their phone for the same price they pay at home). That way customers could make essential calls (‘I arrived safely’, send some holiday pictures, check the hotel’s address). A phase-out, they argue, would lead to higher domestic prices. A third trilogue meeting is scheduled for 5 May 2015. 

The US government is wary of so-called data localisation trends, where countries increasingly require that data about their citizens be physically stored and processed on servers within their country. Whereas the US critique seems particularly aimed at China, such demands have also been voiced in the EU and even individual countries (s.a. discussion on a ‘German Internet’ in 2013).

The European Commission circulated a document to Member States in the week after Easter warning about the risk to cybersecurity when online trading sites (such as Amazon or eBay) fall prey to an attack. The document seems to be part of a technical analysis on the criticality of certain services that the Commission would like to include in the scope of the NIS Directive, while Member States remain divided and the European Parliament seems set to leave such businesses out.

The Commission argues that platforms hold sensitive data, such as product catalogues and transactions; social media store user credentials and are themselves 'vectors of malware'; search engines store profile information of queries, which – if compromised – would interrupt the localisation of online information; cloud service providers bear the risk of spreading problems across sectors, if SMEs neglect proper back-ups. At this stage, it is not clear whether the impact of including the DNS has been further analysed, as it has not been part of the Commission’s initial proposal. 

On 17 April 2015, members of the internet technical community co-signed a statement after the Global Conference on CyberSpace, which was held on 16-17 April in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Members of the internet technical community include the African Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD), Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA), Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Internet Society (ISOC), Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD), the Ripe Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), Dr. Michael R. Nelson, Dr. Alejandro Pisanty, George Sadowsky and Andrew Sullivan.

Registro.it, the registry for .it domain names, just launched an awareness campaign entitled 'Without a name it remains a dream': www.unnomeunsogno.it. The campaign is aimed at increasing awareness on the use of internet. It especially targets micro, small and medium enterprises, which are the backbone of the Italian economy and which can substantially benefit from an optimal use of internet.

 

Dušan Stojičević, Chair of Board of Governors, Serbian National Internet Domain Registry (RNIDS) wrote a post in which he shares his experience regarding the very successful DIDS 2015 conference that was held on 10-11 March in Belgrade, Serbia. DIDS 2015 was the sixth annual conference on the development of the internet globally and in the Serbian .rs and .срб domain spaces, held this year under the slogan ‘Which Internet Film are you in?’

Read the blog post
 
 

The European Commission has said that it wants to understand Big Data better before thinking about regulating it. One of the key questions to be addressed is 'who owns the data', which it hopes would improve trust in digital technologies. Businesses do see the advantage of Big Data, but as of now are reluctant to release their databases to others, without having a clearer picture of how they will be able to benefit from it. The Commission explores whether these concerns can be addressed through existing rules, before looking into 'micro-managing' companies. 

The new European Commission’s work programme for 2015 clusters around 10 long-term priorities, including ‘an ambitious Digital Single Market (DSM) Package’. As part of its 'DSM' Strategy, the COM aims at concluding ongoing proposals such as the data protection reform and the regulation on a Connected Continent. New initiatives include the following areas: telecommunications regulation, EU legislation on copyright, audiovisual media services, consumer rights for digital/online purchases, e-commerce, and cyber security. The only concrete legislative proposal so far, however, concerns the ‘modernisation of copyright’ (see Annex I). It is common practice that the EP comments on the Work Programme by adopting a resolution. Yet, it failed to do so this time, mainly due to political bickering. Whereas united in their shock at the Commission's planned withdrawal of waste and air pollution legislation, they could not agree on a common resolution. However, even if the resolution had passed, the Commission would not have been bound by it.