Domain Names

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

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

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

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

ICANN Turning 25 - It’s the People that Make a Difference

Ali's invitation to post reflections on the past 25 years of ICANN is very welcome. No doubt, some will write about major shifts in how ICANN is governed, for example, the end of United States government oversight. While others will write about changes to the industry that ICANN has catalyzed, for example, the 2012 round of new gTLDs and the upcoming next application process. 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

Towards More Efficient Registry-Registrar Relations

On the morning of Wednesday 15th October, the The Domain Name Association (the DNA) held an important working group meeting during ICANN 51 Los Angeles. The topic was to discuss several operational issues between registries and registrars. The meeting's unofficial ongoing name is the Registry-Registrar Operations Working Group. The meeting was a continuation of an inaugural meeting that was held back in June of this year, and covered in a Industry Association: An Implementation Model circulated by the DNA from September 17, by Executive Director Kurt Pritz. more

Researchers Uncover Massive Underground Link-Shortening Service Used by Malicious Actors

New research indicates that the .US top-level domain contains numerous domains linked to a malicious link-shortening service dubbed 'Prolific Puma' promoting malware and phishing. Infoblox has been monitoring this three-year-old service, which uses short domains hosted on uncooperative providers to disguise harmful landing pages. 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

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

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

UDRPs Filed - Brand Owners Take Note

After being in the domain industry for over 15 years, there aren't too many things that catch me by surprise, but recently a few UDRP filings have me scratching my head. Both ivi.com and ktg.com have had UDRPs filed against them, and I have to say for anyone holding a valuable domain name, it's a cautionary tale and one that should have folks paying attention to the outcome of each. 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

EU Should Not Be Setting US WHOIS and Privacy Policy, Says MPAA

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in its recent submission to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has raised a stern objection regarding ICANN's attempt to adhere to the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), stating that the temporary specification had gone "well beyond what the GDPR mandates." more

What the ICANN Brussels Meeting Means for New gTLDs

ICANN's 38th get-together, in Brussels, may become known as the meeting where the dust finally began to settle. Long-standing issues were settled, compromises were reached, no-one complained too much about the latest version of the Applicant Guidebook, and the Board stood by its project plan dates, even scheduling a Board retreat to solve remaining issues. Finally, there were no surprise "gotcha!" delays that generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) applicants have been used to seeing at ICANN meeting. With one possible exception... more