The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, announced that it received the offer in November. Private investment firm Ethos Capital, based in Pennsylvania, offered ICANN a $1 billion endowment in exchange for the Public Interest Registry, also known as PIR, which operates the .org domain. When ICANN announced they’d received this offer, it opened a flood gate of opposition letters from both the tech community and pretty much anybody with a .org domain, including a letter from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a letter from Elizabeth Warren and other congress members. “I’m glad ICANN listened to our concerns and blocked a private equity takeover of the .org domain registry, which would have raised costs on .org websites and threatened them with censorship. This is good news for nonprofits and everyone who relies on a free and open internet,” Warren wrote in the letter. But most of the opposition was grassroots—people who pay for .org domains and don’t want to see them fall into the hands of an organization they don’t trust. "We were... concerned about passing on the price hikes to customers who have registered .org domains," said Perry Toone, CEO of thexyz.com, an email service based in Toronto. He was so concerned about the sale, he started SaveDotOrg, a website that aims to raise awareness of the sale. "These (organizations that would be affected) are often charities or non-profit organizations. They were mostly unaware about the sale,” he said.

While cybercriminals strike at any time of the year, they’re particularly active during the holiday and income tax filing seasons when computer users expect to see more emails — and scammers are increasingly targeting individual small businesses with phishing scams, sending messages that look legitimate but do harm instead. An unsuspecting owner or employee clicks on a link or attachment and like Radin finds that malicious software has invaded their PCs. Cybersecurity experts find that criminals who used to blanket thousands of computer users in hopes of fooling a handful have refined their methods. Scammers find small businesses through websites, social media sites and by combing email address books. They also mine personal data from breaches at retailers and other large companies. Then, using a process called social engineering, they construct emails that increasingly look realistic, as if they truly come from a boss, colleague, friend, potential client or vendor, a bank and even the IRS. “In the last year or two they’ve been running more professional campaigns,” says Perry Toone, owner of Thexyz, an email service provider based in Toronto. “It can take a couple of minutes for me to determine that they’re phishing scams. That tells me they’re doing a very good job.”

It was a gradual idea that slowly manifested into what is known as Thexyz today. After recently qualifying as a French polisher, I was adamant to run my own business preferred traditional techniques to modern technology. The business did really well initially, then as a slow summer season dragged on, I knew I had to step up my game if I was to stay in business. It was the early 2000's and the internet was booming. I know... I will start a website to advertise my business. They seem all the rage these days. Thexyz Inc. Perry Toone Letting my creative side loose, I ended up creating quite a cool website and it didn't take long for the leads to come in, except they weren't French polishing leads as I had hoped, but leads for web development, hosting and email services. Thexyz was born on Thexyz.com domain to advertise my new found skills in email, domains and websites. Our customers are now very much a mixed bag, located in over 100 countries and some with over 1000 staff have come to rely on the reliability of Thexyz web services. During the years that followed Edward Snowden's revelations regarding widespread government spying on private citizens, we saw significant growth in the consumer market. In general, we attract a more privacy aware consumer that has led to some odd requests to maintain a high level of privacy. I would like to discuss these more, although I am limited here for privacy reasons.