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Internet Protectors Brace for Anonymous Attack

John Johnson — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:32:56 CDT

If the Internet today reverts back to speeds of the dial-up days, there might be an explanation: Last month, Anonymous threatened to go after its backbone, the Domain Name System, on March 31, reports the New York Times . It's probably a safe bet that nothing much will happen, but the...

Hackers Hit Internet Giant VeriSign

Kevin Spak — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:41:55 CST

Hackers managed to break into the servers of a crucial web company responsible for delivering users to more than half the websites in the world. VeriSign doesn't believe the attackers infiltrated its Domain Name System network—which is responsible for directing traffic to .com, .net, and .gov addresses on the...

Coming This Week: Dot-Anything

Matt Cantor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:39:57 CST

The Internet is getting a makeover. Starting Thursday, the web will make a big step in moving way beyond dot-com , dot-net, and the like. For the first time since 2000, ICANN, the administrator of Internet addresses, will begin taking applications for a huge range of new top-level domain names. Now,...

What Boycott? GoDaddy Gained Users Yesterday

Matt Cantor — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:58:05 CST

An impending boycott may have pushed GoDaddy to change position on SOPA, but the boycott itself didn't hurt the company much. Yesterday, the official day of the movement, GoDaddy actually saw a net increase of 20,748 domains, TechDirt reports. Indeed, GoDaddy saw almost twice as many transfers into its...

Democrats Prank Gingrich With Website

John Johnson — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:26:25 CST

Newt Gingrich's campaign would like you to know, we're sure, that his official campaign website is Newt.org . If you happen across NewtGingrich.com , however, it's a whole different story. The site provides links to negative or embarrassing stories about Gingrich, including references to his Freddie Mac days, early campaign...

The Year's Priciest Domain Names

Kate Schwartz — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:45:05 CST

This year was a cheap one for buying domain names—relatively speaking. Sex.com sold for a wild $13 million last year, but 2011's top honors went to a domain name that cost the lucky buyer just $2.6 million. What was it? Social.com (which currently returns a "server...

Colleges Snatch Up .XXX Sites

Kate Schwartz — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:12:54 CST

Today is the day that .com starts to sound even tamer: The much more risque .xxx domain goes live at 11am ET today. Some 100,000 websites are expected to make their very adult debut at that time, and CNN reports on some of the upsides and downsides to the...

Tea Party (the Band) Could Get Rich Over Domain Name

John Johnson — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 10:09:44 CDT

An obscure group of Canadian rockers made an unintentionally savvy business decision in 1990: It picked the name Tea Party and created a website. Which is why if you go to TeaParty.com , you'll find no small-government rants, just band information, explains BusinessWeek . The domain name would probably fetch about...

Domain-Name Bosses Approve Huge Expansion

Matt Cantor — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:54:05 CDT

It's a huge day for the Internet: The organization in charge of online addresses has OKed a giant boost in domain endings, giving the green light to nearly any word in any language, reports the New York Times . The Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Web Names and Numbers "has...