Breaking the Mold: Reclassifying Over a Billion .XYZ Domains for Alternative Uses

Three years ago, my team and I launched .xyz with the mission of bringing competition, choice, and innovation on the internet. .xyz was probably the only domain extension that had no built-in meaning, included very few domains priced at a premium, and relied on low margins and high volume. We brought with it the message that .xyz was for every website, everywhere. And instead of targeting one vertical, we connected with the next generation of internet users... more

Security and Fort N.O.C.‘s

In an article by MSNBC called "Fort N.O.C.'s" [Network Operating Center] Brock N. Meeks reports: "The unassuming building that houses the "A" root sits in a cluster of three others; the architecture looks as if it were lifted directly from a free clip art library. No signs or markers give a hint that the Internet's most precious computer is inside humming happily away in a hermetically sealed room. This building complex could be any of a 100,000 mini office parks littering middle class America." ...It is hardly the "most precious computer"!!!  more

The Internets

I don't know how much deep thought was involved when George Bush called the Internet "the internets" but this reflects a real risk that we face today. If you look at the traffic of many large countries with non-English languages, you will find that the overwhelming majority of the traffic stays inside the country. In countries like China and Japan where there is sufficient content in the local language and most people can't or don't like to read English this is even more so. I would say that the average individual probably doesn't really notice the Internet outside of their country or really care about content not in their native language. more

Why Digital Sovereignty Cannot Escape Its Own Contradictions? Reflections for Moving Forward

The debate surrounding digital sovereignty has gained momentum in recent years, particularly within BRICS nations, where governments seek to assert greater control over their digital ecosystems. Proponents of digital sovereignty often frame it as a necessary countermeasure against foreign technological dominance, positioning it as either a "positive" force- fostering local innovation and self-reliance- or a "negative" one- fueling authoritarian control and economic isolation. more

The Empire Strikes Back: “New” Verisign Hums a Familiar Tune

Losing your monopoly must be hard. True, few companies ever experience that particular breed of angst, but if Verisign's reply to even modest success in the new gTLD marketplace is any indication, it must be very hard to say goodbye. We understand why they're worried... The quality of newly registered .COM names is dropping and has been for years. And there is nothing Verisign can do about it. So welcome to the fire sale. more

Domain Tasting in the Spotlight

An article in BusinessWeek discusses "domain tasting" and its affects on major brands. The article, titled "The Great Internet Brand Rip-Off", discusses so-called "domain tasting" and how major brands are being exploited through domain tasting combined with typosquatting... It's important to distinguish between the two types of domain tasting... more

The Real Facts & Stats About ICANN and Its gTLDs: One BIG.FAIL ... So Far?

The crème de la crème, the good, the bad, even the ugly of the Domain Name Industry are attending NamesCon in Vegas this week. 2016 will be a very challenging, absolutely critical year for those attendees and their corporate employers as the Domain Name System (DNS) faces a massive shakeup. In 2015, 287 global brands, worth $trillions headed by Google, Amazon, had their new TLD Registries delegated into the root zone of the Internet. more

Internet Governance Outlook 2018: Preparing for Cyberwar or Promoting Cyber Détente?

In 2018, Internet Governance will be one of the top priorities in the geo-strategic battles among big powers. In today's world, every global conflict has an Internet-related component. There is no international security without cybersecurity. The world economy is a digital economy. And human rights are relevant offline as well as online. It is impossible to decouple cyberspace from the conflicts of the real world. more

Early Data Suggests New gTLDs Perform Well in Search Environment

Internet addresses registered in new gTLDs are holding their own against -- and in some cases outperforming -- comparable addresses registered in legacy domains like .COM, according to new data that provides the best window yet into the operational functionality of new gTLD addresses. A question on everyone's mind in the run up to new gTLDs was: how would new domains perform in the wild against legacy domains on the key criteria of search? more

Experience and Evidence Point to Strong Renewal Rates for New TLDs

In the tenth month of the revolutionary expansion of generic top-level Internet domains, global registrations in new gTLDs reached more than three million addresses, providing the clearest illustration yet of the strong international appetite for new, relevant addressing options. As we near the first full year of new gTLD availability, focus now shifts to another critical metric -- renewals -- which we expect to show similar strength based on history and data analysis. more

Why Colombia Is About to Make a Colossal Mistake With .CO

Ten years ago, the most effective branding exercise the internet registry market has ever seen began. And to celebrate the anniversary, its owner is going to strangle it. At the ICANN meeting in Montreal this month, the Government of Colombia booked a meeting room, prepared a Powerpoint presentation and invited representatives of the world's largest registry operators to attend. Once there, they were offered a rare and valuable opportunity: to take over running of the .co registry. more

Sinowal Trojan May Be One of the Worst Crimeware Ever Created

A sophisticated cybercrime group that has maintained an especially devious Trojan horse for nearly three years has stolen login credentials of close to 300,000 online bank accounts and almost as many credit cards during that time, according to reports released today by RSA FraudAction Research Lab. The spyware is called Sinowal Trojan, also known as Torpig and Mebroot. RSA reports that their findings are based on data collected on this Trojan over the course of almost three years -- including information regarding its design and its infrastructure. Findings indicate that this may be one of the most pervasive and advanced pieces of crimeware ever created by fraudsters, say RSA experts. more

ICANN Board - GAC Geneva Meeting: Open to Observers?

The ICANN Board and GAC will be having a meeting in Geneva next month to resolve outstanding issues in connection with the new gTLD implementation process. Unfortunately to date details of whether this meeting will be open or closed to observers has not yet been publicly addressed. As a strong advocate toward openness and transparency I have drafted the following text which calls for the meeting to be open to observers. more

Domain Speculation: Attack of the TechnoPinkos

This morning I was forwarded a link to the Business2.0 article on domainer Kevin Ham about a half-dozen times and one sent the reddit comment thread on it (titled "This guy is a piece of s**t") and I had to chuckle and replied "I see Techno-Pinkos are out in full force". Some of the comments are just classicly clueless: "He's just a parasite. Someone gaming the system for their own financial ends without providing a useful service to anyone, and making it worse for many." ...Newsflash: Speculation is any time you choose one path, good or service over another in the hopes that you will do better... more

The xz liblzma Vulnerability

On 29 March 2024, an announcement was posted notifying the world that the Open-Source Software (OSS) package "xz-utils," which includes the xz data compression program and a library of software routines called "liblzma" and which is present in most Linux distributions, had been compromised. The insertion of the compromised code was done by "Jia Tan", the official maintainer of the xz-utils package. more