Domain Names

The Last gTLD Round Taught Us the Wrong Lessons

Fourteen years after ICANN's last gTLD expansion, registration figures offer an incomplete verdict. The next round will test whether applicants can build namespaces with enduring relevance, rather than merely generating impressive launch volumes and revenues. more

DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists

Research suggests criminals may control a striking share of newly registered gTLD domains, raising questions about whether ICANN's definitions, contractual safeguards and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with the industrial scale of technology-facilitated harm. more

Whose Precedent Gets Remembered? Selective Amplification Has Its Own Amnesia

DotConnectAfrica's landmark .AFRICA IRP victory established an ICANN accountability precedent later expressly invoked by Amazon. Selective amplification has since detached that precedent from its origins, distorting the historical record. more

DNSSEC Doesn’t Need a Better Story - It Needs a Better Tuesday

DNSSEC adoption is stronger than headline figures suggest, yet uneven across industries. New data indicate the bigger obstacle is not reputation but operational friction, especially key rollovers, registrar coordination and automation still missing across major domains. more

ICANN Should Immediately Clarify if Applicants for the Same String Can Communicate Before Reveal Day

With more than 1,600 applications filed for ICANN's 2026 new gTLD Round, self-revealing applicants face uncertainty over whether pre-Reveal Day communications and agreements about overlapping strings could violate strict rules against privately resolving contention sets. more

The Long Wait for .web Ends

After a decade of legal disputes, Verisign has secured .web and will launch the long-awaited domain later this year, opening a new chapter in digital identity while raising fresh questions about pricing, adoption and competition. more

The Web Has Become a Content Delivery Network

Cyberattacks, AI scraping and relentless bot traffic have transformed CDNs from performance tools into the Web's defensive gatekeepers, reshaping Internet architecture, governance and control as private intermediaries increasingly determine which requests reach origin servers first. more

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in ICANN’s 2026 Round of gTLD Applications

AI can help applicants navigate ICANN's complex new gTLD process, from business planning and financial modeling to drafting and reviewing applications, pointing towards faster, cheaper and increasingly automated domain-name rounds in the future. more

What the i2Coalition Article Misses About DNS Abuse

Authors defend research showing malicious domain registrations occur at industrial scale, arguing that blocklist data is reliable and that policymakers must prioritize prevention alongside mitigation to curb cybercriminal exploitation of the domain name market globally. more

The Phishing That Hasn’t Happened Yet: MX Records as Bad-Faith Evidence in UDRP Proceedings

Inactive cybersquatted domains may conceal active email infrastructure. MX records can corroborate bad faith in UDRP disputes when weighed with other evidence, helping panels address fraud risks before harm occurs without conflating capability with misconduct. more

The Business Value of dotBrand: Twelve Real-World Success Stories

Twelve real-world dotBrand success stories show how organizations strengthen trust, improve security, simplify customer experiences, and create measurable business value. From AI-driven innovation to global digital ecosystems, dotBrand domains are becoming essential infrastructure worldwide today. more

What the Interisle Report Reveals, and What It Doesn’t, About DNS Abuse

Interisle's report illuminates malicious registration trends, but its broad blocklist methodology measures different questions than DNS Abuse, complicating conclusions about registry and registrar accountability by conflating reputation signals with actionable domain enforcement decisions for policymakers. more

The UN Needs Its Identity in the Digital Space - a Case for .UN Top-Level Domain

As AI systems increasingly mediate trust online, the United Nations faces a closing opportunity to secure a sovereign .un domain, creating a machine-readable digital identity that strengthens authenticity, preserves institutional knowledge, and counters impersonation. more

Fake Domains, Real Harm: The Data Behind India’s DNS Abuse Crisis

New data on DNS abuse reveals most malicious domains remain active beyond 24 hours, while a handful of registrars host the bulk of infrastructure, leaving India's population of first-generation internet users uniquely exposed to fraud. more

DNS Abuse Is Stealing India’s Youth: Fake Domains and the Job-Seeking Trap

Fake recruitment websites exploiting India's young job seekers are proliferating, exposing millions to identity theft, financial fraud and malware while regulators, registrars and digital literacy programs struggle to keep pace with a growing labor market. more