Afilias made the jaw dropping announcement to registrars this week that the .au wholesale, or registry fee, is being reduced by a whopping A$0.05 or 0.63%.
.AU Wholesale Fee Slashed By A Whopping… 0.63%
Tag: Australia
ASPI Launches Website and eMail Security Check Tool .auCheck
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) recently launched .auCheck to help internet users check their website, email and internet connections for use of the latest and most secure internet standards. It’s aimed at .au domain names but appears to be able to check domain names in any top-level domain. And the .au policy and regulatory body, auDA, and registry, Afilias, don’t come out well.
Former .AU Registry Operator Calls for Resignations in Light of auDA and Afilias Failures
It’s not been a good week for auDA, the .au policy and regulatory body, and their backend registry provider Afilias. First on Tuesday there was a security incident that auDA claims saw “a small number of domains” disappear for half an hour. Then today with the launch of second level (or .au direct) registrations, there has been another stuff up that sees all new second level/direct registrations having to be manually entered after registration with no timeframe given for a resolution.
As auDA Gears Up for .AU 2LD Launch, a Security Breach. But Will 2LDs Be a Damp Squib?
March 24 is a big day for .au domain names. It’s the day auDA is launching second level .au domain names. It comes on the back of a security outage that reportedly saw around 15,000 (out of 3.4 million) .au domain names out for 30 minutes on 22 March. But when it comes to second level domains, what’s the point? It comes on the back of me pondering various websites around the world setup to highlight issues with Russia’s current war against and invasion of Ukraine. Under .au until tomorrow I couldn’t set up a website using a .au domain name to serve as information, for example, unless I was part of an organisation that is an official business. That’s how ridiculous the previous eligibility requirements were for .au.
Facebook, Instagram parent company Meta sued over ‘scam ads’ featuring Dick Smith, David Koch
Australia’s consumer watchdog is suing Facebook’s parent company, Meta, alleging it failed to take action against scammers on its social media platform.
How Australia’s far right uses cryptocurrencies to monetise hate online
There have never been more ways to ask for money on the internet. For rightwing extremists looking to monetise hate, that can be a big opportunity – and the earning potential of these digital assets hasn’t gone unnoticed in Australia.
Cyberwarfare report: Australia’s democracy faces existential threat from ‘mass influence’ of foreign powers and social media
Australia is facing an “existential threat” to its democratic institutions from “mass influence” actors including Russia, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, research for the department of defence has found.
Australia’s IGF Event NetThing Happening Virtually This Thursday and Friday
This week Australia’s Internet Governance Forum event, NetThing, is happening virtually with a host of discussions and presentations covering Australia’s critical infrastructure, internet standards, vaccine passports and digital rights, the internet as an essential service, tech and environmental sustainability, misinformation and disinformation, DNS abuse, trusted digital platforms, blockchain, protecting at risk voices, will technology save the planet, adult content online and mass surveillance and democracy. The theme for the 2021 NetThing Forum is “Building Bridges.”
TLD Updates: eeID for Estonia, .SPA GA Launch, UK-IGF, Registrar Applications for .LB, .KZ and .CAT Birthdays and auDA Foundation Applications Open
The Estonian Internet Foundation, the .ee registry, Estonian Internet Foundation, has launched a simple three-in-one personal identification service.
Australia installs first space laser optical ground station in southern hemisphere
Recently, my colleagues and I swung a half-tonne telescope onto the roof of the physics building at the University of Western Australia.
For a tense moment, my career hung from a crane hook.
The telescope is the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere and represents a new generation of space communications using lasers.