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Advancing Digital Trust: Global Innovations in Domain Registrant Verification (Highlights from the ICANN79 Community Forum)

On 6 March 2024, the ICANN At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) held a plenary session entitled "Building Trust on the Internet Through Registrant Verification" at the ICANN79 Community Forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that Michael Palage and Avri Doria co-moderated. This session was inspired in part by a recent World Economic Forum report entitled "Reimagining Digital ID"... more

KnujOn Releases New Security, Abuse and Compliance Report

We have just issued a new report detailing abuse of the Domain Name System and Registrar contract compliance issues. The report specifically discusses several items including: Registrars with current legal issues; Illicit Use of Privacy-Proxy WHOIS Registration; A study on the contracted obligation for Bulk WHOIS Access; and more. more

ICANN vs Epag/Tucows: German Court Rules Against ICANN

German courts seem to be pretty fast, so instead of having to wait weeks or months to see how they'd rule, we've already got the answer. The German court in Bonn has ruled that EPAG (Tucows) is not obliged to collect extra contacts beyond the domain name registrant. The decision, naturally, is in German, but there is a translation into English that we can use to understand how the court arrived at this decision. more

44% Of Domain Names Globally are Country Code TLDs, 56% Generic TLDs, Reports CENTR

The Council of European National Top level Domain Registries (CENTR) released its global TLD report today, stating that the global TLD market grew 1.4% year over year at the end of first quarter this year. more

What Are New gTLD Governance Councils?

Many generic, community and other geographic new domain name extensions (also called "gTLDs" or "generic Top Level Domains") will soon become a focal point for the industry or sector they represent. These simple denominators which define a vertical sector, profession, geographic, ethnic or other delineated group on the Internet have not existed on the Internet until now. These new domain name extensions are moving from the realm of science fiction to science fact: in fact a domain name ending in ".science" will soon exist on the Internet and will clearly contain web sites with a relationship to science. more

Country and Regional TLDs Are Vital in Supporting Online Linguistic Diversity, Study Finds

A study conducted by the Oxford Information Labs in collaboration with Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR), finds that the role of country and regional TLDs is imperative in supporting diversity in global online linguistic. more

ICANN SSAD Proposal Poised to Succeed?

The GNSO Council and the ICANN Board both seem poised to grant sufficient runway to the community to refine an idea for a simple ticketing system designed to centralize requests for registrant information disclosures and provide meaningful data that is likely to help ICANN staff enhance its assessment of the SSAD proposal. This is very good news for those who advocate for consumer safety and trust on the Internet, and it is very good news for the ICANN multistakeholder model. more

Evolution of the Dot Brand Domains in 5 Years

ICANN's last new gTLD application closed in 2012 with more than 600 brands applying for their dot brand. Dot brand domains associate a keyword or keyphrase and a brand name in a complete domain name... To understand better how the evolution of the dotBrand has been throughout these years, number of websites launched, redirects, registries etc, Dot Brand Observatory prepared a few visual graphics. more

Another Thanksgiving and Another 131 Domain Names Seized by Homeland Security

Last year I wrote a post right after Thanksgiving entitled: "While You Were Eating You're Turkey Homeland Security Was Seizing 9 Domains". Well I could have repeated the headline today except the number would be 131 domains rather than just 9. Looks like Homeland Security is going to make domain seizures on Thanksgiving as common in the US as Turkey and Stuffing. more

The Root Is Not a TLD

It's a simple, straightforward fact that the root is not a TLD. However, the current policy around new gTLDs treats the root like a TLD registry and as anyone who runs a TLD registry knows, they have certain inescapable characteristics that may not be the best for the root. In almost every TLD, once a domain name has been registered, the registrant can use it commercially with few restrictions... more

IANA Checkmate - Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool Me Twice Shame on Me

In connection with the recent publication of the IANA RFP, there have been some commenters that have proclaimed that removing the requirement of the Contractor to document the consensus of relevant stakeholders in connection with the delegation of new gTLDs from the original draft Statement of Work as a win for ICANN. However, when reading the recently revised IANA RFP language in light of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Dakar Communiqué, a rather compelling legal case can be made... more

ICANN and the Hyper-Aggressive Trademark Owners: The “Monster Test”

We read and hear a lot of complaints from trademark interests about allegedly rampant cybersquatting and other forms of trademark infringement, but it's rare to see a story about reverse domain name hijacking and other abuses committed by them. That's what made it so refreshing to see an article in the Saturday, April 4th Wall Street Journal titled "The Scariest Monster of All Sues for Trademark Infringement – Fancy Audio-Cable Outfit Defends Its Brands; A Mini Golf Course Fights Back". more

GoDaddy Acquires Neustar’s Domain Name Registry Business

Neustar, Inc. today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with GoDaddy Inc. to sell its domain name registry business. This transaction enables Neustar to focus on its Marketing, Risk, Communications, and Security businesses said Neustar President and Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Gottdiener. more

DNS, Domain Names, and Certificates: The Missing Links in Most Cybersecurity Risk Postures

In 2019, we've seen a surge in domain name system (DNS) hijacking attempts and have relayed warnings from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, U.K.'s Cybersecurity Centre, ICANN, and other notable security experts. Although the topic has gained popularity amongst CIOs and CISOs, most companies are still overlooking important security blind spots when it comes to securing their digital assets outside the enterprise firewalls -- domains, DNS, digital certificates. more

Three Reasons Why CISOs Need to Understand Domain Security

Domain name abuse is one of the most dangerous and under-regulated issues in digital business security today. An attack on a web domain can lead to the redirection of a company's website, domain spoofing, phishing attacks, network breaches, and business email compromise (BEC). Domains used as a company's online world are part of an organization's external attack surface and need to be continuously monitored for cybercrime attacks and fraud. more