Will 2012 be the year when US retailers, banks and content providers finally bolster their DNS systems with an add-on security measure that prevents Web site spoofing? That's what advocates of the security measure - dubbed DNSSEC for DNS Security Extensions - are hoping will occur.

A new era of Web site naming begins, when Internet policymakers start accepting applications for hundreds - perhaps thousands - of new domain name extensions such as .hotel and .paris.

A group led by former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde is forming to develop a peer-to-peer-based alternative to today's ICANN-controlled DNS system, according to a blog posted on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, .org became the first generic top-level domain to offer its customers improved security using DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions).

These days, having access to wireless broadband is an absolute necessity for home offices and small businesses.

Leading Web content providers -- including Google, Yahoo, Netflix and Microsoft -- are conducting early-stage conversations about creating a shared list of customers who can access their Web sites via IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

Network engineers from Yahoo are pitching what they admit is a "really ugly hack" to the Internet's Domain Name System, but they say it is necessary for the popular Web content provider to support IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

A networking error has caused computers in Chile and the U.S. to come under the control of the Great Firewall of China, redirecting Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube users to Chinese servers.