January 2017 archive

TDYR 320 – The State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016

What is the state of deployment of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)? What is DNSSEC all about, anyway? Why should you care about it? What does it do? In this episode I dive into what DNSSEC does and the recent report we released about the "State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016" - Please see the full report at: https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/state-dnssec-deployment-2016

For Immediate Release #69: Shut Up Already, Mariah Carey

Three IABC Fellows — Priya Bates, John Deveney, and Mark Schumann — joined Shel Holtz for this week’s FIR to talk about these topics:

  • More on how companies can prepare for the prospect of a tweeted attack by the President of the United States
  • Companies bucking the vitriol trend by creating TV commercials that spotlight inclusion of Muslims
  • With Facebook Live gaining steam, some companies are expecting employees to know how to host a live video
  • Mariah Carey’s handling of her lib-synching debacle on New Year’s Eve isn’t exactly a crisis communication case study (unless you want to stay in the story cycle)
  • IBM’s Watson is replacing white-collar workers at a Japanese insurance company. The communication implications are coming for pretty much every company
  • Is the PR/communication industry ready for voice to be the next big digital platform?
  • Tech correspondent Dan York follows up on his participation as a panelist in last week’s show, including the unmasking of a Go champion as a Google AI program; he also reports on database security and Russia’s demand for Apple and Google to remove the LinkedIn app from their app stores

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @priyabates, @johndeveney, and @dmarkschumann.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

FIR is usually recorded using Zencastr (but not this week, due to technical problems).

About today’s panel:

All of this week’s panelists are IABC Fellows who participate regularly in the Circle of Fellows broadcast/podcast here on the FIR Podcast Network.

Priya Bates is a senior communication executive who provides strategic internal communication counsel in order to ensure leaders, managers, and employees understand the strategy, believe in the vision, act in accordance to the values, and contribute to business results. She is president of Inner Strength Communications in Toronto, and previously served as senior director of Internal Communications at Loblaw Companies Limited.

In 1996, while on the fast track to a partnership in a growing PR agency, John Deveney opted to strike out on his own and form Deveney, a process and a practice that embraces the soundest principles, the newest media, and the most innovative technologies. Based in New Orleans, Deveney is particularly strong in the areas of crisis, healthcare, tourism, and hospitality. (After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, John led the only on-site communication operation and media center for both the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana Office of Tourism.)

Mark Schumann is the director of graduate business communication programs for the Zzicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York. He is also founder and principal of re-communicate. Most recently, he was VP of marketing and communications for Western Connecticut Health Network. He served as IABC’s chair in 2009-2010 and is currently IABC’s liaison to the Global Alliance. He was a managing principal and global communication practice leader at Towers Perrin for 26 years.

The post FIR #69: Shut Up Already, Mariah Carey appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

New report: “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016”

State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016

What is the current state of deployment of the DNS Security Extensions? (DNSSEC) How many domains are secured with DNSSEC? What actual usage are we seeing on the Internet? What software is available to help?

For years there have been many statistics about DNSSEC available, but it’s been hard to get an overall picture of deployment. To help with this, we’ve worked over the past few months to pull together as much information as possible into one document:

We encourage you to please read the document – and share it widely with people who need to understand more about the security of the Domain Name System.

We also welcome feedback on questions such as:

  • How helpful did you find the report?
  • What sections were particularly helpful? (or not?)
  • Is there additional information you’d like to see included in a future report?

You can post the feedback here as a comment – or send it to me directly via email.

Our intent is that this will be the first in an ongoing annual series of reports for at least the next few years until DNSSEC is more widely deployed.  Our goal is for the “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2017” report to be ready in time for the ICANN 60 DNSSEC Workshop happening in early November 2017 in Abu Dhabi.

I’d like to thank Chip Sharp for all his hard work assembling this report and incorporating feedback. I also want to thank the group of people who provided a quick final review and proofreading in the last weeks of December (noted in the final Acknowledgements section). And I want to thank everyone within the larger DNSSEC community who continue to share their information, statistics and more.

Please do share this State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report with others – and if you haven’t done anything with DNSSEC on your own networks or domains, please visit our Start Here pages to learn how you can begin! Together we can make the DNS – and through that the wider Internet – a bit more secure and trusted.

The post New report: “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016” appeared first on Internet Society.

State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report shows over 89% of top-level domains signed

Did you know that 89% of top-level domains are now signed with DNSSEC? Or that over 88% of .GOV domains and over 50% of .CZ domains are signed? Were you aware that over 103,000 domains use DANE and DNSSEC to provide a higher level of security for email? Or that 80% of clients request DNSSEC signature records in DNS queries?

All these facts and much more are available in our new State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report

Dan York

New report: “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016”

State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016

What is the current state of deployment of the DNS Security Extensions? (DNSSEC) How many domains are secured with DNSSEC? What actual usage are we seeing on the Internet? What software is available to help?

For years there have been many statistics about DNSSEC available, but it’s been hard to get an overall picture of deployment. To help with this, we’ve worked over the past few months to pull together as much information as possible into one document:

We encourage you to please read the document – and share it widely with people who need to understand more about the security of the Domain Name System.

We also welcome feedback on questions such as:

  • How helpful did you find the report?
  • What sections were particularly helpful? (or not?)
  • Is there additional information you’d like to see included in a future report?

You can post the feedback here as a comment – or send it to me directly via email.

Our intent is that this will be the first in an ongoing annual series of reports for at least the next few years until DNSSEC is more widely deployed.  Our goal is for the “State of DNSSEC Deployment 2017” report to be ready in time for the ICANN 60 DNSSEC Workshop happening in early November 2017 in Abu Dhabi.

I’d like to thank Chip Sharp for all his hard work assembling this report and incorporating feedback. I also want to thank the group of people who provided a quick final review and proofreading in the last weeks of December (noted in the final Acknowledgements section). And I want to thank everyone within the larger DNSSEC community who continue to share their information, statistics and more.

Please do share this State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report with others – and if you haven’t done anything with DNSSEC on your own networks or domains, please visit our Start Here pages to learn how you can begin! Together we can make the DNS – and through that the wider Internet – a bit more secure and trusted.

 

State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report shows over 89% of top-level domains signed

Did you know that 89% of top-level domains are now signed with DNSSEC? Or that over 88% of .GOV domains and over 50% of .CZ domains are signed? Were you aware that over 103,000 domains use DANE and DNSSEC to provide a higher level of security for email? Or that 80% of clients request DNSSEC signature records in DNS queries?

All these facts and much more are available in our new State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report.

For many years a wide variety of statistics about DNSSEC deployment have been available, but it’s been challenging to get an overall view. With this report our goal is to help people across the industry understand where the deployment of DNSSEC is at – and what challenges still need to be overcome.

To back up a bit, the “DNS Security Extensions”, or “DNSSEC”, provide a way to be sure you are communicating with the correct web site, service, or application. Before your mobile phone, laptop or other device connects to a site on the Internet, it must first obtain the correct IP address from the Domain Name System (DNS). Think of DNS similar to the “address book” you may have in your phone. You may look up “Dan York” in your contact list and call me – but underneath that your phone figures out the actual telephone number to call to reach me. DNS provides a similar directory function for the Internet.

The challenge is that there are ways an attacker can spoof the DNS results which could wind up with you connecting to the wrong site. Potentially you could wind up providing information to an attacker or downloading malware.

DNSSEC uses a system of digital signatures – and the checking of digital signatures (what we call “validation”) – to ensure that the information you get out of DNS is the same information that the operators of the domains put into DNS.

At a high level, this is what DNSSEC does – it makes sure you can trust the information you get from DNS. (You can read more on our DNSSEC Basics page.)

The basics of DNSSEC have been standardized for most of 20 years, but until the root zone of DNS was signed in 2010, there wasn’t much deployment. In the six years since, deployment has continued to grow. This report outlines that growth and provides a view into where that growth is happening and much more.

We encourage you to read and share this report widely. And if you haven’t yet started deploying DNSSEC validation on your own networks – or haven’t started signing your domains with DNSSEC – you can visit our Deploy360 Start page to find resources to help you begin.

Using DNSSEC allows us to have a higher level of trust in the domain names we use every day on the Internet. I hope you will join with me and others in deploying DNSSEC and building a more trusted Internet!

The post State of DNSSEC Deployment 2016 report shows over 89% of top-level domains signed appeared first on Internet Society.

FIR Episode 68 Available Now – Artifical Intelligence (AI), fake videos, PR trends, blockchain and much, much more

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Yesterday I had an incredibly fun experience starting off 2017 - and now you can share in that: For Immediate Release (FIR) episode #68 is available for listening or download at:

http://firpodcastnetwork.com/fir-68-us-actually-say/

Host Shel Holtz (in the big picture above) brought in C.C. Chapman, myself and former FIR co-host Neville Hobson as the panelists and we had an outstanding conversation that ranged widely. As noted in the show notes, the main topics included:


  • The incoming press secretary for President-Elect Donald Trump has warned us not to expect business as usual when it comes to the administration’s relationship with the media. What does that bode for the press’s ability to hold the administration accountable — and will the philosophy extend beyond the White House to business?
  • Some businesses have begun preparing for unexpected criticism from President Trump while others have already had to respond. Crisis experts are advising companies to add presidential jabs to the list of potential crises for which they must prepare.
  • Five industries are under threat from technology, according to the Financial Times: travel agents, small component manufacturers and distributors, auto insurers, financial advisers, and auto repair garages. How can they prepare (or can they)?
  • Artificial Intelligence will soon make it possible to create fake video with little effort. Think fake news is a problem now? Just wait.
  • Edelman Digital is out with its 2017 trends report. Among the issues the report raises, the panel was particularly interested in bots and conversational experiences, blockchain, and over-the-top entertainment.
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asked users what they wanted to see Twitter improve or create in 2017. He got answers (including one from longtime social tech leader Anil Dash). In the meantime, does Twitter know yet what it wants to be when it grows up (and will its recently announced live 360 video make a difference)?
  • Apple has published is first Artificial Intelligence paper.

It was fun to be part of the panel participating live versus the usual "tech reports" that I record each week for FIR episodes. And it was fun to have the kind of dynamic exchange that Shel, C.C., Neville and I all had. We've all known each other for a long time and so it all flowed quite nicely.

Speaking of a long time, this episode also marked the start of the 13th year of the FIR podcast! That's a remarkable bit of longevity for any podcast - and congratulations are really due to Shel for keeping it going as long as he has.

Next week I'll be back to presenting my tech reports. I continue to enjoy doing so and will keep at it in the years ahead.

Meanwhile... please do give this episode 68 a listen - and please do send in any comments to the show.

For Immediate Release #68: Did any of us actually say any of this?

Artificial Intelligence is on the panel’s mind — among other things — as C.C. Chapman, Neville Hobson, and Dan York join Shel Holtz for the first episode of 2017 and the beginning of our 13th consecutive year of podcasting. Here’s the rundown:

  • The incoming press secretary for President-Elect Donald Trump has warned us not to expect business as usual when it comes to the administration’s relationship with the media. What does that bode for the press’s ability to hold the administration accountable — and will the philosophy extend beyond the White House to business?
  • Some businesses have begun preparing for unexpected criticism from President Trump while others have already had to respond. Crisis experts are advising companies to add presidential jabs to the list of potential crises for which they must prepare.
  • Five industries are under threat from technology, according to the Financial Times: travel agents, small component manufacturers and distributors, auto insurers, financial advisers, and auto repair garages. How can they prepare (or can they)?
  • Artificial Intelligence will soon make it possible to create fake video with little effort. Think fake news is a problem now? Just wait.
  • Edelman Digital is out with its 2017 trends report. Among the issues the report raises, the panel was particularly interested in bots and conversational experiences, blockchain, and over-the-top entertainment.
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asked users what they wanted to see Twitter improve or create in 2017. He got answers (including one from longtime social tech leader Anil Dash). In the meantime, does Twitter know yet what it wants to be when it grows up (and will its recently announced live 360 video make a difference)?
  • Apple has published is first Artificial Intelligence paper.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @cc_chapman, @jangles, and @danyork.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

FIR is recorded using Zencastr.

About today’s panel:

C.C. Chapman is a bestselling author and agile, performance-based marketer with over 15 years of experience in marketing and emerging technologies. C.C. is the author Content Rules (co-authored with Ann Handley) and Amazing Things Will Happen. C.C. has specialized skills in conference speaking, creative development, social media marketing, online direct response, working with large brands in helping them understand how to apply emerging technologies and social learnings to their marketing plans.

Neville HobsonNeville Hobson co-hosted this show for 10 years and 8 months, from its inception through October 2015. Neville is based in Bracknell, outside of London in England where he works as a senior business consultant for IBM Social Consulting. Neville has spent much of his career analyzing trends, behaviors and practices in digital communication. As an independent consultant before joining IBM, he focused on social business, the collaborative economy, wearable technologies, and the professionalism of PR. He also held a position with WCG as head of social media for Europe, and was VP of Corporate Communication for Scala Business Solutions in Amsterdam.

Dan York, Host of FIR on TechnologyDan York, FIR’s tech correspondent and host of the occasional “FIR On Technology” podcast, is a passionate advocate for the open Internet, focused on helping people understand the changes going on all around us within communication technology and practices. Dan currently serves the Internet Society as the Senior Content Strategist, creating, curating and promoting online content that helps service providers, companies and individuals more quickly deploy Internet technologies such as IPv6 and DNSSEC. Separately, Dan is also the Chairman of the global Voice Over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA). Dan is also active within the real-time communications area of the IETF. His most recent books are “Migrating Applications to IPv6” and “The Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks”. Previously Dan worked for Voxeo Corporation heading up the company’s communication through both traditional and new/social media.

 

The post FIR #68: Did any of us actually say any of this? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

My 3 Words For 2017

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Continuing the tradition I started back in 2010 (see past years), here are three words that describe themes I intend to focus on this year. They aren't "resolutions" as much as areas of activity. "Themes" is a good way to think about them.

HEALTH

I have let my weight creep up to where I am about 30 pounds over where I should be (and where I was back in 2011). I haven't been exercising. I have some dental issues to take care of. My last physical exam was... (I'm not sure... but I don't think I've ever met the doctor who replaced my previous doctor who retired a number of years ago). In short, there's a lot here I need to be paying attention to, and so this needs to be a focus this year. I want to be around with my wife and daughters for a long time... and we each only have one body. Beyond the physical health, there is also mental and emotional health. I continue to find myself trying to do too many things... and need to focus on doing fewer things better.

GRATITUDE

Over the last six months or so I have been thinking more and more about all that I have to be grateful for. And I have also been thinking about how I need to show that gratitude a bit more. Combine that with some recent reading on studies about gratitude and how we frame our internal stories... as well as some reading on mindfulness... and, well, I would like to do more in this area!

CREATIVITY

A few weeks ago I made a Christmas gift out of wood down in my workshop area in our basement. When it was done, I found myself so energized by the activity... I had forgotten how much I enjoy working with wood. But as I think about all that I have been doing over the past year, there hasn't been a whole lot of creativity. Even my writing of blog posts has become more routine, more "reporting" on activities rather than writing something new and different. It's hard with everything else going on, but this year I hope to carve out some time to do some more creative activities. Maybe some woodworking... maybe some music... maybe just some creative writing. We'll see what is feasible.

That's what I am thinking about for this year... what about you?