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US Telco Fined $3 Million in Domain Renewal Blunder (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: Sorenson Communications, a Utah-based telecommunications provider, received a whopping $3 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week for failing to renew a crucial domain name used by a part of the local 911 emergency service. The affected service was the Video Relay System (VRS), a video calling service that telecommunication firms must provide to deaf people and others people with vocal disabilities so they can make video calls to 911 services and use sign language to notify operators of an emergency or crime. According to the FCC, on June 6, Sorenson failed to notice that the domain name on which the VRS 911 service ran had expired, leading to the entire system collapsing shortly after. Utah residents with disabilities were unable to reach 911 operators for almost three days, the FCC discovered. Sorensen noticed its blunder and renewed the domain three days later, on June 8.

9 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If the registrars/hosters are liable... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It wasn't an unintended screw up. They have a responsibility to keep the service running. Not only did they fail to renew the domain registration, they failed to notice that the system was down for three days. Gross negligence is deliberate.

  2. They can't count, either. by msauve · · Score: 2

    "on June 6, Sorenson failed to notice... Sorensen noticed its blunder and renewed the domain three days later, on June 8."

    Uh, want to try that arithmetic again?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:They can't count, either. by Glarimore · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can see why they may have made this mistake.

      Yes, 8 - 6 = 2, but we can assume that if the issue began on the 6th and was resolved on the 8th, then service was affected for three business days. I'm sure that point (business days of outage) has been made multiple times. I can imagine the author overlooking their error due to thinking, "If service was affected for three days, then the issue must not have been fixed until three days later." This is an especially easy error to make if you're leaving date or numeric placeholders in an article as you're writing it.

      Anyway, I think we should be less hard on summary and article authors for simple arithmetic errors like this (that doesn't mean editors shouldn't be doing their due diligence, though).

  3. Re:The big accountability by chill · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Word up, go find sources that aren't so biased.

    Back at you.

    "This is what we got last night: four pallets of water, three pallets of meals and 12 pallets of infant food â" which I gave them to the people of Comerio, where people are drinking off a creek," she said

    All of that was what for a city with a population of just under 400,000. She was making a point that what was getting thru was paltry compared to the need, and that further help was needed.

    Her standing in front of the pallets of aid was EXACTLY what she should have done. She was being transparent about the magnitude of the crisis versus the magnitude of what was getting thru.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/san-juan-s-mayor-pleads-trump-you-are-killing-us-n806116

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  4. so, these are emergency services? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why is there no standardization? why does every telco has its own names registered for services like these? It is like allowing each telco to setup its own emergency number instead of the standardized 911.

    Why not a single name, the same everywhere, that the telco can then maintain in there local DNS, and there DNS only?

    It is a critical emergency service, right? Then it is worth doing it properly.

  5. Re:If the registrars/hosters are liable... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

    A) You've confused registrants with registrars. It's the registrant, Sorenson Communications, that's being held liable here, not a registrar like Google, so your comparisons to Google's situation fall apart right from the get-go.

    B) Companies that provide 911 service agree to certain legal obligations. Failure to uphold those obligations results in hefty fines because lives are literally at risk. Registrars like Google are under no such obligations to IANA.

    C) Speaking of IANA, it, rather than the US government, is the organization with the authority you're talking about. The USG gave it away in 1998 to ICANN, which is a nonprofit organization in the private sector. As such, none of their authority has stemmed from the USG in nearly 20 years.

    D) Barring its obligations to IANA—which again, do NOT derive from government authority—Google can set whatever terms they want. If an applicant doesn't like them, they can simply take their business elsewhere.

    E) Google's terms—which The Daily Stormer agreed to—make it clear that they can cancel registrations at their discretion, such as if a site is being used for unlawful activities. The courts have repeatedly ruled that inciting violence—which is what The Daily Stormer is accused of—is an unlawful form of speech, akin to shouting "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. It is neither protected speech nor a civil right. Guess what Google cited as the reason for cancelling the registration?

    All of which is to say, I'm fine with people pointing out that Nazis have rights too, and I'll stand by you in defending them (regardless of my utter and complete distaste for what they say), but don't you dare suggest that private entities are obligated to assist them in spreading their message, particularly for speech that not even the US government itself is obligated to protect.

  6. Re:The big accountability by msauve · · Score: 2
    Maybe she should walk down to the docks instead of spending time on a photo op and misleading the news about the availability of aid.

    Crowley says it has more than 3,400 commercial containers at its terminal now. That's just one shipping company, at one port. Several other ports are accepting shipments, and stranded crates total an estimated 10,000..."These containers are full of food, these containers are full of water, full of medicine ... full of construction materials,"...

    -NPR

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  7. Wow - a reasonable fine for a serious offence by Bruce66423 · · Score: 2

    Compare and contrast the slaps on the wrist that BIG companies get. The EU's approach of basing fines on a percentage of international turnover gets the attention of the monopolies of Silicon Valley...

  8. This should be criminal by mysidia · · Score: 2

    The designer and their managers who allowed a critical emergency service to be dependent on an internet domain registration should be jailed for gross negligence.

    When failure of a service would mean lives are at risk DO NOT make that service dependent upon resources from 3rd parties that can be terminated at will or that are subject to natural disruptions with no consequences for the 3rd parties (Or agreement with them that the services are used for functions critical to life).

    A DNS domain registration can be terminated or suspended at will at the decision of a domain registrar or registry for any number of potential reasons
      (although it is rare; a domain can even be terminated by mistake or hijacked by a malicious adversary in some cases), or DNS servers connected to the internet can be nuked by evil folks in a DDoS attack, or temporarily suspended by various service providers for network maintenance; Or various situations on the internet under 3rd party control and no SLA can cause temporary outages of access to the DNS.