By Mark Zuckerberg
Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people control over what they share, they will want to share more. If people share more, the world will become more open and connected. And a world that's more open and connected is a better world. These are still our core principles today.
Facebook has been growing quickly. It has become a community of more than 400 million people in just a few years. It's a challenge to keep that many people satisfied over time, so we move quickly to serve that community with new ways to connect with the social Web and each other. Sometimes we move too fast — and after listening to recent concerns, we're responding.
The challenge is how a network like ours facilitates sharing and innovation, offers control and choice, and makes this experience easy for everyone. These are issues we think about all the time. Whenever we make a change, we try to apply the lessons we've learned along the way. The biggest message we have heard recently is that people want easier control over their information. Simply put, many of you thought our controls were too complex. Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark.
We have heard the feedback. There needs to be a simpler way to control your information. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services. We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible. We hope you'll be pleased with the result of our work and, as always, we'll be eager to get your feedback.
We have also heard that some people don't understand how their personal information is used and worry that it is shared in ways they don't want. I'd like to clear that up now. Many people choose to make some of their information visible to everyone so people they know can find them on Facebook. We already offer controls to limit the visibility of that information and we intend to make them even stronger.
Here are the principles under which Facebook operates:
You have control over how your information is shared.
We do not share your personal information with people or services you don't want.
We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.
We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone.
We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.
Facebook has evolved from a simple dorm-room project to a global social network connecting millions of people. We will keep building, we will keep listening and we will continue to have a dialogue with everyone who cares enough about Facebook to share their ideas. And we will keep focused on achieving our mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected.
The writer is founder and chief executive of Facebook. Washington Post Chairman Donald E. Graham is a member of Facebook's board of directors.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Microsoft counters Gmail with Hotmail overhaul
Microsoft is trying to counter Google by overhauling Windows Live Hotmail with new online editing capabilities for Office documents, and more than two dozen other enhancements for business and home users.
Microsoft's refresh of Hotmail is being announced Tuesday, less than a week after the release of Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft strikes blow against Google with Office 2010
"The moment you receive an Office document as an attachment in Hotmail - Word, Excel or PowerPoint - you can open and view the attachment online in any popular browser, on PC or Mac and even if Office is not installed," Microsoft said in its latest announcement. "This results from the seamless integration between Hotmail, SkyDrive [Microsoft's free online storage service] and the Office Web Apps, so you can send, receive and work on a document with others."
Google, of course, offers online editing of documents through Gmail's integration with Google Docs, and the ability to import Microsoft Office documents into Google's online office suite.
Microsoft is increasingly adding to its lineup of Web-based office tools, while offering integration with existing on-premise software installations of Microsoft Office.
New Hotmail features announced this week will be incorporated into the service over the next few months, Microsoft said.
Microsoft promised improvements in the visual quality of Office documents displayed in web browsers, and said it will be easy for users to move back and forth between the Web-based version and the Office software installed on their PCs.
The announcement acknowledges that users may still need to use the packaged software version of Office for "intensive editing tasks."
"If you need to perform intensive editing tasks, you can go from editing the document in your browser with the Office Web Apps to editing it in an Office application on your PC," Microsoft said. "When you're finished, any edits you made to the document on your PC will be automatically saved back into the cloud where you can then keep the document stored for only you to see or share it with others."
Hotmail and Gmail are locked in a battle for second place in the webmail market. Each have more than 40 million users in the United States, with Hotmail claiming a small lead over Gmail. Yahoo still has more than twice as many users as its nearest competitors.
In addition to further Office integration, Microsoft said the new Hotmail will have enhanced security with full-session SSL; smarter junk mail filters and a "Trusted Senders" feature making it easier for users to distinguish between legitimate messages and scams.
Hotmail will also have conversation view – a feature Gmail already has – making it easier to view a single conversation that is spread out over many e-mails.
Hotmail users will be able to send up to 10GB of photos per message, and Microsoft, not surprisingly, is rolling out new mobile features to take advantage of the expanding smartphone market. For example, Microsoft said Hotmail will be optimized for rich mobile browsers and touch screens, while supporting "filters, in-line message previews, HTML messages, offline e-mail viewing, conversation threading, the ability to flag messages, the option to turn header details on or off, and more."
Microsoft's refresh of Hotmail is being announced Tuesday, less than a week after the release of Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft strikes blow against Google with Office 2010
"The moment you receive an Office document as an attachment in Hotmail - Word, Excel or PowerPoint - you can open and view the attachment online in any popular browser, on PC or Mac and even if Office is not installed," Microsoft said in its latest announcement. "This results from the seamless integration between Hotmail, SkyDrive [Microsoft's free online storage service] and the Office Web Apps, so you can send, receive and work on a document with others."
Google, of course, offers online editing of documents through Gmail's integration with Google Docs, and the ability to import Microsoft Office documents into Google's online office suite.
Microsoft is increasingly adding to its lineup of Web-based office tools, while offering integration with existing on-premise software installations of Microsoft Office.
New Hotmail features announced this week will be incorporated into the service over the next few months, Microsoft said.
Microsoft promised improvements in the visual quality of Office documents displayed in web browsers, and said it will be easy for users to move back and forth between the Web-based version and the Office software installed on their PCs.
The announcement acknowledges that users may still need to use the packaged software version of Office for "intensive editing tasks."
"If you need to perform intensive editing tasks, you can go from editing the document in your browser with the Office Web Apps to editing it in an Office application on your PC," Microsoft said. "When you're finished, any edits you made to the document on your PC will be automatically saved back into the cloud where you can then keep the document stored for only you to see or share it with others."
Hotmail and Gmail are locked in a battle for second place in the webmail market. Each have more than 40 million users in the United States, with Hotmail claiming a small lead over Gmail. Yahoo still has more than twice as many users as its nearest competitors.
In addition to further Office integration, Microsoft said the new Hotmail will have enhanced security with full-session SSL; smarter junk mail filters and a "Trusted Senders" feature making it easier for users to distinguish between legitimate messages and scams.
Hotmail will also have conversation view – a feature Gmail already has – making it easier to view a single conversation that is spread out over many e-mails.
Hotmail users will be able to send up to 10GB of photos per message, and Microsoft, not surprisingly, is rolling out new mobile features to take advantage of the expanding smartphone market. For example, Microsoft said Hotmail will be optimized for rich mobile browsers and touch screens, while supporting "filters, in-line message previews, HTML messages, offline e-mail viewing, conversation threading, the ability to flag messages, the option to turn header details on or off, and more."
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wi-Fi key-cracking kits sold in China mean free Internet
Kits that crack WEP and guess WPA keys are popular despite hacking laws
Dodgy salesmen in China are making money from long-known weaknesses in a Wi-Fi encryption standard, by selling network key-cracking kits for the average user.
Wi-Fi USB adapters bundled with a Linux operating system, key-breaking software and a detailed instruction book are being sold online and at China's bustling electronics bazaars. The kits, pitched as a way for users to surf the Web for free, have drawn enough buyers and attention that one Chinese auction site, Taobao.com, had to ban their sale last year.
With one of the "network-scrounging cards," or "ceng wang ka" in Chinese, a user with little technical knowledge can easily steal passwords to get online via Wi-Fi networks owned by other people.
To crack a WEP key, the applications exploit weaknesses in the protocol that have been known for years. For WPA, they capture data being transmitted over the wireless network and target it with a brute-force attack to guess the key.
Security researchers said they did not know of similar kits sold anywhere besides China, even though tutorials on how to crack WEP have been online for years.
Depending on many factors, WEP keys can be extracted in a matter of minutes," Muts said. "I believe the record is around 20 seconds."
The brute-force attacks on WPA encryption are less effective. But while WEP is outdated, many people still use it, especially on home routers, said one security researcher in China. That means an apartment building is bound to have WEP networks for a user to attack.
Dodgy salesmen in China are making money from long-known weaknesses in a Wi-Fi encryption standard, by selling network key-cracking kits for the average user.
Wi-Fi USB adapters bundled with a Linux operating system, key-breaking software and a detailed instruction book are being sold online and at China's bustling electronics bazaars. The kits, pitched as a way for users to surf the Web for free, have drawn enough buyers and attention that one Chinese auction site, Taobao.com, had to ban their sale last year.
With one of the "network-scrounging cards," or "ceng wang ka" in Chinese, a user with little technical knowledge can easily steal passwords to get online via Wi-Fi networks owned by other people.
To crack a WEP key, the applications exploit weaknesses in the protocol that have been known for years. For WPA, they capture data being transmitted over the wireless network and target it with a brute-force attack to guess the key.
Security researchers said they did not know of similar kits sold anywhere besides China, even though tutorials on how to crack WEP have been online for years.
Depending on many factors, WEP keys can be extracted in a matter of minutes," Muts said. "I believe the record is around 20 seconds."
The brute-force attacks on WPA encryption are less effective. But while WEP is outdated, many people still use it, especially on home routers, said one security researcher in China. That means an apartment building is bound to have WEP networks for a user to attack.
Social Web Email CloseDigg Slashdot Fark Stumble Reddit
Microsoft acknowledges fixing internally-found flaws without disclosing details
Microsoft silently patched three vulnerabilities last month, two of them affecting enterprise mission-critical Exchange mail servers, without calling out the bugs in the accompanying advisories, a security expert said today.
Two of the three unannounced vulnerabilities, and the most serious of the trio, were packaged with MS10-024 , an update to Exchange and Windows SMTP Service that Microsoft issued April 13 and tagged as "important," its second-highest threat ranking
According to Ivan Arce, the chief technology officer of Core Security Technologies, Microsoft patched the bugs, but failed to disclose that it had done so.
"They're more important than the [two vulnerabilities] that Microsoft did disclose," said Arce. "That means [system] administrators may end up making the wrong decisions about applying the update. They need that information to assess the risk."
Microsoft silently patched three vulnerabilities last month, two of them affecting enterprise mission-critical Exchange mail servers, without calling out the bugs in the accompanying advisories, a security expert said today.
Two of the three unannounced vulnerabilities, and the most serious of the trio, were packaged with MS10-024 , an update to Exchange and Windows SMTP Service that Microsoft issued April 13 and tagged as "important," its second-highest threat ranking
According to Ivan Arce, the chief technology officer of Core Security Technologies, Microsoft patched the bugs, but failed to disclose that it had done so.
"They're more important than the [two vulnerabilities] that Microsoft did disclose," said Arce. "That means [system] administrators may end up making the wrong decisions about applying the update. They need that information to assess the risk."
example of inheretance clas program
// main class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace inheretence
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
woman ee = new woman();
ee.eat();
man rr = new man();
rr.eat();
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
// inheretance class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace inheretence
{
abstract class human
{
public abstract void eat();
{
Console.WriteLine("eatinggggggggggggg");
}
}
class man : human
{
public override void eat()
{
Console.WriteLine("man eating");
}
}
class woman : human
{
public override void eat()
{
Console.WriteLine("woman eating");
}
}
}
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace inheretence
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
woman ee = new woman();
ee.eat();
man rr = new man();
rr.eat();
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
// inheretance class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace inheretence
{
abstract class human
{
public abstract void eat();
{
Console.WriteLine("eatinggggggggggggg");
}
}
class man : human
{
public override void eat()
{
Console.WriteLine("man eating");
}
}
class woman : human
{
public override void eat()
{
Console.WriteLine("woman eating");
}
}
}
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Flawed McAfee update paralyzes corporate PCs
Cripples Windows XP machines with endless reboots after critical system file quarantined
A flawed McAfee antivirus update sent enterprise administrators scrambling today as the new signatures quarantined a crucial Windows system file, crippling an unknown number of Windows XP computers, according to messages on the company's support forum.
The forum has since gone offline.
McAfee confirmed it had pushed the faulty update to users earlier today. "McAfee is aware that a number of customers have incurred a false positive error due to incorrect malware alerts on Wednesday, April 21," said company spokesman Joris Evers in an e-mail reply to questions. "The problem occurs with the 5958 virus definition file (DAT) that was released on April 21 at 2:00 P.M. GMT+1 (6:00 A.M. Pacific)."
According to users on McAfee's support forum, today's update flagged Windows' "svchost.exe" file, a generic host process for services that run from other DLLs (dynamic link libraries).
HOW THE F*** do they put a DAT out that kills a *VITAL* system process?" asked Jeff Gerard on one thread. "This is goddamn ridiculous," added Gerard, who identified himself as a senior security administrator with Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. "Great work McAfee! GRRRRRRRRRRR."
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, McAfee's support forum was offline, with a message reading "The McAfee Community is experiencing unusually large traffic which may cause slow page loads. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."
Both users and McAfee said that the flawed update had crippled Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) machines, but not PCs running Vista or Windows 7 . "Our initial investigation indicates that the error can result in moderate to significant performance issues on systems running Windows XP Service Pack 3," acknowledged Evers.
Affected PCs have displayed a shutdown error or blue error screen, then gone into an endless cycle of rebooting, users claimed.
McAfee reacted by warning users not to download today's update if they haven't already, and by posting recovery instructions and a signature update to suppress the defective one seeded to users earlier. "Apply the EXTRA.DAT to all potentially affected systems as soon as possible," the company recommended. "For systems that have already encountered this issue, start the computer in Safe Mode and apply the EXTRA.DAT. After applying the EXTRA.DAT, restore the affected files from Quarantine." Unfortunately, those instructions and the suppression EXTRA.DAT update file are not currently available, again because McAfee's support site has gone dark.
Instead, users can reach the instructions and EXTRA.DAT file from elsewhere on McAfee's site .
A flawed McAfee antivirus update sent enterprise administrators scrambling today as the new signatures quarantined a crucial Windows system file, crippling an unknown number of Windows XP computers, according to messages on the company's support forum.
The forum has since gone offline.
McAfee confirmed it had pushed the faulty update to users earlier today. "McAfee is aware that a number of customers have incurred a false positive error due to incorrect malware alerts on Wednesday, April 21," said company spokesman Joris Evers in an e-mail reply to questions. "The problem occurs with the 5958 virus definition file (DAT) that was released on April 21 at 2:00 P.M. GMT+1 (6:00 A.M. Pacific)."
According to users on McAfee's support forum, today's update flagged Windows' "svchost.exe" file, a generic host process for services that run from other DLLs (dynamic link libraries).
HOW THE F*** do they put a DAT out that kills a *VITAL* system process?" asked Jeff Gerard on one thread. "This is goddamn ridiculous," added Gerard, who identified himself as a senior security administrator with Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. "Great work McAfee! GRRRRRRRRRRR."
As of 3:30 p.m. ET, McAfee's support forum was offline, with a message reading "The McAfee Community is experiencing unusually large traffic which may cause slow page loads. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."
Both users and McAfee said that the flawed update had crippled Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) machines, but not PCs running Vista or Windows 7 . "Our initial investigation indicates that the error can result in moderate to significant performance issues on systems running Windows XP Service Pack 3," acknowledged Evers.
Affected PCs have displayed a shutdown error or blue error screen, then gone into an endless cycle of rebooting, users claimed.
McAfee reacted by warning users not to download today's update if they haven't already, and by posting recovery instructions and a signature update to suppress the defective one seeded to users earlier. "Apply the EXTRA.DAT to all potentially affected systems as soon as possible," the company recommended. "For systems that have already encountered this issue, start the computer in Safe Mode and apply the EXTRA.DAT. After applying the EXTRA.DAT, restore the affected files from Quarantine." Unfortunately, those instructions and the suppression EXTRA.DAT update file are not currently available, again because McAfee's support site has gone dark.
Instead, users can reach the instructions and EXTRA.DAT file from elsewhere on McAfee's site .
FBI: Finding criminal data on cell phones and game consoles is tough
FBI says variety of software and limited memory pose challenges
Non-traditional communications devices such as smartphones and game consoles pose a particular problem to law enforcement agencies trying to milk them for forensic data that reveals criminal activity, attendees were told at the 2010 Computer Forensics Show in New York City. "Forensic tools for cell phones are in their infancy," says Stephen Riley, a forensic examiner with the FBI's Computer Analysis and Response Team. "There's lots of different carriers, different phones, different cables – just try to keep up."
Smartphones can communicate via SMS, MMS, mobile e-mail, mobile internet access, VoIP and traditional cellular voice networks, Riley says, making each machine a potential treasure trove of information but also a nightmare maze of possible proprietary technologies to unlock it.
Retrieving SMS messages can depend on the model of phone, the carrier, the time of day, even the country in which the phone is used. SIM cards removed from phones carry potentially useful forensic information, but unless it is associated with a particular phone's PIN, it's inaccessible. Perhaps the personal unlock feature controlled by phone manufacturers could release the data, but that requires knowing the make and model of the phone, he says The ready availability of cell phones is also a problem. Searches of suspects' residences can turn up drawers-full of cell phones that are no longer used but never thrown out. Yet they can demand valuable forensic time.
Game consoles pose a separate problem. They can be used to send e-mail and connect to the Internet but have very little internal memory so whatever is on the drive can be quickly over written and therefore gone forever, he says. "You can take a Wii onto the Internet and it doesn't save sites or browser history," he says. "If you type in a Web address and surf, 10 minutes later there's no record of it."
Non-traditional communications devices such as smartphones and game consoles pose a particular problem to law enforcement agencies trying to milk them for forensic data that reveals criminal activity, attendees were told at the 2010 Computer Forensics Show in New York City. "Forensic tools for cell phones are in their infancy," says Stephen Riley, a forensic examiner with the FBI's Computer Analysis and Response Team. "There's lots of different carriers, different phones, different cables – just try to keep up."
Smartphones can communicate via SMS, MMS, mobile e-mail, mobile internet access, VoIP and traditional cellular voice networks, Riley says, making each machine a potential treasure trove of information but also a nightmare maze of possible proprietary technologies to unlock it.
Retrieving SMS messages can depend on the model of phone, the carrier, the time of day, even the country in which the phone is used. SIM cards removed from phones carry potentially useful forensic information, but unless it is associated with a particular phone's PIN, it's inaccessible. Perhaps the personal unlock feature controlled by phone manufacturers could release the data, but that requires knowing the make and model of the phone, he says The ready availability of cell phones is also a problem. Searches of suspects' residences can turn up drawers-full of cell phones that are no longer used but never thrown out. Yet they can demand valuable forensic time.
Game consoles pose a separate problem. They can be used to send e-mail and connect to the Internet but have very little internal memory so whatever is on the drive can be quickly over written and therefore gone forever, he says. "You can take a Wii onto the Internet and it doesn't save sites or browser history," he says. "If you type in a Web address and surf, 10 minutes later there's no record of it."
Google Apps vs. Microsoft Office
Google may pose strongest long-term threat to Microsoft's dominance
Google Apps or Microsoft Office? That is the question on the minds of many CIOs today
Microsoft has long dominated the e-mail, collaboration and office tools market, and its customer list dwarfs that of Google and all other competitors. But despite the presence of well-established alternatives such as OpenOffice and IBM's Lotus Notes, some industry analysts believe Google may pose the strongest long-term threat to Microsoft's office dominance. "Google is still a wannabe, but they're Google so this is a very strong challenger," says Laura DiDio, lead analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp (ITIC).
Why should a business choose Google over Microsoft? Google is inexpensive, at $50 per user per year. Employees are often familiar with Gmail, so user training shouldn't be too burdensome. Outsourcing IT functions to Google lets businesses reduce internal IT expenditures and wasted time maintaining servers and applications. With Google, businesses get the basic productivity tools of e-mail, calendaring, and document creation and editing, as well as a Web site builder, private video sharing and other functions. (See related article, "Google Apps basics".)
Yet even Google has a hard time arguing that its own office tools are just as good as Microsoft's. And customers and analysts agree that Google's support is not on the same level as Microsoft's, which has far more experience dealing with the needs of enterprise customers.
But Google's momentum, and the emergence of cloud computing as a viable alternative to in-house IT systems, has clearly caused Microsoft to change the way it approaches the office market. Microsoft is offering its own online services now, and is being forced to give better pricing to customers who bring up the name of Google as a negotiation tactic.
Rexel, an electrical distributor in France, recently chose to deploy Microsoft Exchange Online instead of Google Apps and was able to get pricing that was nearly identical to Google's $50 per user per year, says CIO Olivier Baldassari
Google Apps or Microsoft Office? That is the question on the minds of many CIOs today
Microsoft has long dominated the e-mail, collaboration and office tools market, and its customer list dwarfs that of Google and all other competitors. But despite the presence of well-established alternatives such as OpenOffice and IBM's Lotus Notes, some industry analysts believe Google may pose the strongest long-term threat to Microsoft's office dominance. "Google is still a wannabe, but they're Google so this is a very strong challenger," says Laura DiDio, lead analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp (ITIC).
Why should a business choose Google over Microsoft? Google is inexpensive, at $50 per user per year. Employees are often familiar with Gmail, so user training shouldn't be too burdensome. Outsourcing IT functions to Google lets businesses reduce internal IT expenditures and wasted time maintaining servers and applications. With Google, businesses get the basic productivity tools of e-mail, calendaring, and document creation and editing, as well as a Web site builder, private video sharing and other functions. (See related article, "Google Apps basics".)
Yet even Google has a hard time arguing that its own office tools are just as good as Microsoft's. And customers and analysts agree that Google's support is not on the same level as Microsoft's, which has far more experience dealing with the needs of enterprise customers.
But Google's momentum, and the emergence of cloud computing as a viable alternative to in-house IT systems, has clearly caused Microsoft to change the way it approaches the office market. Microsoft is offering its own online services now, and is being forced to give better pricing to customers who bring up the name of Google as a negotiation tactic.
Rexel, an electrical distributor in France, recently chose to deploy Microsoft Exchange Online instead of Google Apps and was able to get pricing that was nearly identical to Google's $50 per user per year, says CIO Olivier Baldassari
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Beware the black market rising for IP addresses
IPv4 depletion is happening faster than expected; a black market could jump the price of an Internet presence
Organizations slow to adopt IPv6 take heed: Surging requests for IPv4 addresses are quickly drying up the available store, raising the specter of an IPv4 black market that could dramatically increase the cost of obtaining a presence on today's Internet.
Previous predictions pegged late 2011 as the anticipated date of IPv4 address exhaustion. But a sudden turnaround in the rate of allocation for IPv4 addresses this year has consumed an alarming number of "/8" IPv4 address blocks -- /8 being the unit of allocation to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
IPv4 black market: A matter of supply and demand The coming IPv4 shortage has been foreseen for years, but organizations needing an Internet presence -- businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and the like -- have largely been in denial about the inevitability of IPv4 exhaustion.
At last October's dual celebration of ARPAnet (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network that preceded the Internet) and the 125th anniversary of event sponsor IEEE, Internet pioneer Vincent Cerf urged immediate IPv6 adoption because Internet growth is not slowing: "We are going to see billions and billions of devices on the Net. The Internet, for its part, has invited many people to contribute content."
In a more recent interview, ARIN's Jimmerson says, "Yes, there was a dip [of IPv4 assignments] in 2009, but 2010 is accelerating. Lots of new applications -- next-gen Wi-Fi, cloud services, and smart grid -- are taking off, and regions such as Asia and South America are coming online rapidly."
IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses, is capable of supporting 4.3 billion total addresses, but severe fragmentation makes utilization of the full range of IP addresses inefficient. Worse, many consider reclaiming unused IP space a far too complex and expensive undertaking. As such, when the last IPv4 /8 is allocated, new Internet players could find high prices and a black market the only practical means of getting IPv4 addresses.
Organizations slow to adopt IPv6 take heed: Surging requests for IPv4 addresses are quickly drying up the available store, raising the specter of an IPv4 black market that could dramatically increase the cost of obtaining a presence on today's Internet.
Previous predictions pegged late 2011 as the anticipated date of IPv4 address exhaustion. But a sudden turnaround in the rate of allocation for IPv4 addresses this year has consumed an alarming number of "/8" IPv4 address blocks -- /8 being the unit of allocation to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
IPv4 black market: A matter of supply and demand The coming IPv4 shortage has been foreseen for years, but organizations needing an Internet presence -- businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and the like -- have largely been in denial about the inevitability of IPv4 exhaustion.
At last October's dual celebration of ARPAnet (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network that preceded the Internet) and the 125th anniversary of event sponsor IEEE, Internet pioneer Vincent Cerf urged immediate IPv6 adoption because Internet growth is not slowing: "We are going to see billions and billions of devices on the Net. The Internet, for its part, has invited many people to contribute content."
In a more recent interview, ARIN's Jimmerson says, "Yes, there was a dip [of IPv4 assignments] in 2009, but 2010 is accelerating. Lots of new applications -- next-gen Wi-Fi, cloud services, and smart grid -- are taking off, and regions such as Asia and South America are coming online rapidly."
IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses, is capable of supporting 4.3 billion total addresses, but severe fragmentation makes utilization of the full range of IP addresses inefficient. Worse, many consider reclaiming unused IP space a far too complex and expensive undertaking. As such, when the last IPv4 /8 is allocated, new Internet players could find high prices and a black market the only practical means of getting IPv4 addresses.
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