Stories by Scott Bradner

SMS a killer app at 20; irrelevant at 25?

The first SMS-capable mobile phones were approved for sale in Europe 20 years ago this month. By any measure, SMS has become a huge success, at least for the telephone companies, with more than 6 trillion SMS messages sent worldwide in 2010, generating more than $110 billion in revenue. But the future may not be anywhere near as bright because of increasing use of "free" Internet-based services such as Facebook, Apple's iMessage and WhatsApp.com.

By Scott Bradner | 15 May, 2012 05:26

Tags: wireless, WhatsApp.com, WhatsApp, unified communications, sms, networking, mobile apps, LAN & WAN, Facebook, Apple iMessage, Apple

NBC, the Olympics and the Internet

I have been far from nice when it comes to my opinion of NBC's understanding of the power of the Internet when it comes to Olympic coverage. Six years ago I had the Pollyannaish view that NBC would stumble on the Internet when it next broadcast the Olympics. ("The last pre-Internet Olympics?") I was wrong and complained again the next time the Olympics came around ("NBC Olympic coverage: Is the Internet the enemy?").

By Scott Bradner | 02 May, 2012 01:48

Tags: it management, LAN & WAN, London summer Olympics, Olympics, Olympics Internet

Analysis: Is Apple destroying the Internet?

When The Guardian recently interviewed Google co-founder Sergey Brin as a teaser for its weeklong series of articles about the Battle for the Internet, the publication got a good headline out of it: "Google's Brin: threats to Web freedom 'greater then ever'"

By Scott Bradner | 17 April, 2012 04:53

Tags: Apple, Apple iOS devices, Facebook, Google, Google Sergey Brin, internet, LAN & WAN, Sergey Brin Facebook Apple

Are Facebook passwords fair game for employers?

The Associated Press in late March reported on the issue of employers asking job applicants for their Facebook passwords, citing new and old incidents. The story apparently hit a sore point because it was all over the press within a day or so and in short order politicians were posturing and reaching for the limelight by introducing legislation to ban the practice and sending letters to enforcement agencies demanding action. Based on the comments since the story broke, it is clear that the specific practice of demanding an applicant's password to a social media site is not common but that there is a common worry that it might become so.

By Scott Bradner | 04 April, 2012 04:31

Tags: Facebook, Facebook passwords, facebook privacy, security

Abusive websites and customer retention

 Why is it that companies that should know better embark on programs of customer abuse when they should stop and think like a customer, at least for a few seconds? This is a small tale of a company getting it right, then making three all-too-common mistakes. These are not the only ways a company can abuse its customers, but is an example of the kind of non-thinking that should be avoided.

By Scott Bradner | 20 March, 2012 08:24

Tags: Apple, consumer electronics, Formula 1 racing, infrastructure management, management, mobile apps, networking, security, smartphones, website design flaws, wireless

Apple's "new iPad": Too late to be corporate game changer

It's been a hard few years for we-control-everything corporate IT departments as well as for the "Microsoft is the answer, what was your question?" approach to corporate computing. It has also been a while since corporate IT departments have had to deal with a new reality that completely changed how they interact with their users.

By Scott Bradner | 08 March, 2012 09:30

Tags: apple ipad, Configuration / maintenance, Data Center, hardware systems, IBM, ipad3, iPad 3, iPad HD, ipad tablet, Microsoft, networking, New iPad, pc, wireless

Apple's Gatekeeper: A low cost for partial security

Out of the blue, Apple just announced Mountain Lion, the next generation of its OS X operating system. By the time Mountain Lion ships sometime next summer, Apple says it will have lots of new features, some transported from its iOS environment of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch world. This column will examine just one of the new features, one that, while good, has not yet included all the functions of its iOS prototype.

By Scott Bradner | 22 February, 2012 03:24

Tags: Apple, Apple Gatekeeper, Apple iOS, Apple Mountain Lion OS X, Apple security, networking, security, wireless

Science, technology and politicians

What is it about politicians that makes them believe that they, with a few minutes' cursory review, know better than people who have studied in an area for decades? Whatever the case, it far from a rare condition. The most recent example of this attitude is the copyright protection proposals currently in front of Congress.

By Scott Bradner | 18 January, 2012 09:24

Tags: DNS blocking, PIPA, security, SOPA

Is vulnerability an objective?

I ended last year with a death-of-the-Internet column, and I'm starting off the new year with a death-via-the-Internet one.

By Scott Bradner | 04 January, 2012 04:38

Tags: America the Vulnerable, Intel, IT privacy, IT security, Joel Brenner, security

The Internet has escaped the ax, at least in the US, at least for now

A year ago I wrote that 2011 would be a year in which the Internet would "be under a multi-pronged attack that threatens to change it irrevocably in ways that may destroy much of the Internet's potential." Well, 2011 has come and mostly gone, and it turned out that my pessimism may have been misplaced but not invalid.

By Scott Bradner | 21 December, 2011 02:31

Tags: fcc, Intel, Internet regulation, LAN & WAN, security, SOPA

GPS on the run?

The Supreme Court earlier this month heard arguments on a relatively common drug case, but there is a chance for this case to set the groundwork, for good or ill, on resolving most of the issues I discussed recently regarding the murky state of privacy protections from the government in the United States.

By Scott Bradner | 16 November, 2011 08:30

Tags: security

The UN, copyright extremism and you

In September representatives from India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) got together to talk about the Internet. Their conclusion: The 'Net needed help from the United Nations in the areas of developing policies, technical standards, operation, dispute resolution and crises management.

By Scott Bradner | 02 November, 2011 13:32

Tags: government, industry verticals, Internet oversight

Breach reporting: Now companies have to do it

Consumer advocates as well as many business groups have attempted to get federal laws adopted in the United States that would mandate disclosure of security breaches in which some types of private information about identifiable people are exposed. In spite of the obvious logic of having a national standard, these efforts so far have failed.

By Scott Bradner | 18 October, 2011 06:29

Tags: ChoicePoint, data breaches, security

Clarifying the rules for government

One feature of today's mostly electronic, mostly Internet world is that governments tend to assume that it is legally OK to do many things that they would never have considered to be OK in the pre-Internet world. Examples include wanting to monitor all communications for everyone when it would have been clear that opening all postal mail and recording its contents as well as following everyone everywhere all the time would not have been acceptable. But should governments be legally able to do things like this just because they have the technical ability to do them?

By Scott Bradner | 04 October, 2011 05:46

Tags: government, industry verticals, internet, security

Internet privacy: Cookies as a weapon

In November 2009 the European Parliament approved a directive on Internet privacy that, among other things, required user opt-in before websites could install cookies on the user's computer.

By Scott Bradner | 21 September, 2011 01:26

Tags: European Parliament, security, website cookies

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