Does ICANN Need to Evolve Its Code of Conduct?

If you follow the Internet governance world like I do, you've no doubt had time to ponder the news of former ICANN Board Chair Peter Dengate Thrush's appointment as Executive Chairman of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (TLDH). This was a seemingly fast jump from the body that coordinates the Internet (whose most recent milestone was to approve the creation of new gTLDs) to one of the key companies that stands to actively benefit from this burgeoning part of the domain name industry. Further, he's taken up a position that, according to reports, will allow him to benefit substantially as well. more

Dispersing a DDoS: Initial Thoughts on DDoS Protection

Distributed Denial of Service is a big deal -- huge pools of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as security cameras, are compromised by botnets and being used for large scale DDoS attacks. What are the tools in hand to fend these attacks off? The first misconception is that you can actually fend off a DDoS attack. There is no magical tool you can deploy that will allow you to go to sleep every night thinking, "tonight my network will not be impacted by a DDoS attack." more

Preventing Future Attacks: Alternatives In DNS Security Management - Part I

The October 21 DDoS attacks against the 13 root-name servers containing the master domain list for the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS), (which reportedly took offline 9 of the 13 servers) remain a clear and daunting reminder of the vulnerabilities associated with online security. Many DNS authorities have named the most recent hit the largest DDoS attack against the root server system. Chris Morrow, network security engineer for UUNET, the service provider for two of the world's 13 root servers, recently told The Washington Post... more

CAUCE Director Neil Schwartzman Wins Prestigious MAAWG Award

CAUCE Executive Director Neil Schwartzman won the prestigious Mary Litynski award on June 08, 2011 for his contributions to Internet anti-abuse efforts, including the passage of Canada's Anti-Spam Law. more

Voluntary Collective Licensing of Brand-Sharing Domain Names

The essay outlines a market-driven and value-adding solution to brand use in domain names. The solution relies heavily on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's remedy to music file sharing. I propose its adoption for new registrations and renewals. Brand sharing in domain names is here to stay; desperate attempts to stop it through legal action are ineffective and will do nothing but destroy value. more

Whither .XXX?

What's going to happen this week on .XXX? Nairobi is the first public board meeting since the independent review panel's nonbinding declaration in February that ICANN acted against its own rules in refusing to go ahead with .XXX. Reports that ICANN is going to 'do something' about .XXX have gone around the world via BBC news, and even surfaced on the radio in rural Ireland. The ICM team are out in force here in Nairobi, and there is endless speculation about what will happen at the Board's meeting on Friday. more

Call for Participation - ICANN DNSSEC and Security Workshop for ICANN78 Annual General Meeting

In cooperation with the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), we are planning a DNSSEC and Security Workshop for the ICANN78 Annual General Meeting being held as a hybrid meeting from 21-26 October 2023 in Hamburg, Germany in the Central European Summer Time Zone (UTC +2). This workshop date will be determined once ICANN creates a block schedule for us to follow; then we will be able to request a day and time. more

New gTLDs String Theory for Bidders

The following is most of the generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) strings applied for in the 2000 and 2003 applications. Some are two, and even one character ASCII strings. Some have since been approved, or disapproved (which of course means nothing in the 2008 round). It is a universe of 180 strings. Enjoy. more

Is the Future of .BRAND TLDs to Be Registered Just Like a Domain Name?

Will .BRAND Top-Level Domains be made available for registration at Registrars like GoDaddy, just like second level domains are? My guess is that it will and here are the reasons why... Applying for a new domain name extension, for a new gTLD, is not so simple because you are required to submit a complete application to ICANN and this does not happen that often, it's happened once only and was called "the First Round" (of the ICANN new gTLD program). more

Cars.com $850 Million Valuation: Methodology Critique

Here is a critical look at a recent online essay about the methodology to estimate the value of the domain name cars.com, which was estimated to be $850 million. Not about estimation of valuation model's parameters' nor whether the estimate is too low or too high. Rather its valuation methodology... The purpose of a valuation is Important. Absolute valuation of any asset is its value when put to its best use. more

Demystifying Statistical Approach to Domain Name Appraisals

Professional domain name appraisals have acquired a dubious reputation, and I understand the rational skepticism regarding their usefulness. In my recent paper, "Statistical Domain Name Appraisal: Same as What You're Doing, +/-," I try to demystify the statistical approach by pointing out its commonality with methods intuitively adopted by active domainers. It will also underscore some of the sources of skepticism toward various appraisal methodologies, and point out the advantages and limitations of statistical models. The paper concludes with a list of the conditions that can make a professional appraisal value adding, and with a plea for transparency. more

The Pace of Domain Growth Has Slowed Considerably, Reports CENTR

The global Top-Level Domain market is currently estimated at 348 million domains across all recorded TLDs. Although the overall domain count has continued to grow in all regions and types, the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) reports that the pace of growth has slowed considerably. more

Port 43 Failures Continue to Haunt

On February 16, 2012 ICANN took the new step of suspending the Registrar Alantron's ability to register new names or accept inbound domain transfers. This new compliance tool was used following Alantron's apparently inadequate response to a breach notice issued November 7, 2011. The issue in part concerns Alantron's perpetual problems with Port 43 WHOIS access which is required by the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. more

Interop Las Vegas 2009 IPv6 Survey

We've heard on this site and many other trade journals that the IPv4 address space is running out (and a unique proposal about simulating outages) and that dire consequences occur if we do not act. Last week in Las Vegas, the Interop show took place. An unofficial count of 14,000 technology buyers and enthusiasts attended. While much lower than its record (over 100,000 strong), the show is still the biggest technology show which features a major presence by virtually every networking vendor. ...we decided to walk the Interop Expo and ask the IPv6 support question to see if the mainstream corporate and enterprise space agrees with the need to think beyond IPv4. more

JPA Agreement: Will it Change the Problems With the UDRP?

It was rather interesting to read this new agreement between the USDoC and ICANN talking about the mechanisms, methods and procedures necessary to effect the transition of Internet domain name and addressing system (DNS) to the private sector. What was more interesting though was to read in this very agreement the following: "...the Department continues to support the work of ICANN as the coordinator for the technical functions related to the management of the Internet DNS". OK, let's be honest! Technical? more