.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) has announced today the launch of a new campaign aimed at educating IT professionals about securing DNS and the adoption of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). The key purpose of the "Practice Safe DNS" website, according to PIR, is to "serve as a key resource for domain holders, registrars, web developers and IT professionals to learn how they can respectively play a increasingly relevant role in providing a safer and more secure Internet." more
The .LY domain is Libya, and their government recently cancelled the registration of the short and snappy VB.LY, provoking great gnashing of teeth. If you direct your attention to the address bar above this page, you'll note that it's at JL.LY, equally short and snappy. The .LY registry started allowing two letter second-level domains last year, and there was a quiet land rush. Now they restrict those domains to people actually in Libya, but say they'll let us keep the ones we have. How concerned am I that they'll take my domain away, too? more
This Friday, it looks as though the ICANN Board will follow the clear conclusions drawn by its independent review and approve dot-xxx. Given the importance of the first use of the review process, the importance of the Board being seen to be accountable and the fact that the community was pretty unanimous in recent public comment, it is pretty much the only reasonable course of action. The question then is: how do things move forward? more
On Monday, June 21, ICANN convenes in Brussels, hosting its "Welcome Ceremony" for attendees. In advance of the session, the agenda for the Board meeting on Friday, June 25 has been released. As is the fashion, it lists significant issues without being too specific or tipping the Board's hand. It also allows for matters that arise organically during the week of the meeting to (possibly) be heard. more
Much has already been written about the prospects and challenges associated with the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This post were originally written for my personal blog but a good industry friend has persuaded me to post it (and more) on CircleID. During this series I will attempt to show how the introduction of new gTLDs is ultimately a "win win win" scenario. A win for innovation, a win for commerce and most importantly a win for internet users. So where to begin? more
When deciding to register a given domain name under any of the new ICANN-proposed top-level domains (TLDs), remember that a relatively high initial registration volume does not necessarily imply that the domain names will command high market value or that demand for them will grow. Below are some of the reasons... more
The registries (gTLDS) are all moving towards signing in about a year. PIR and .org is going to be first with .edu, .biz, and others closely behind. The root is scheduled to be signed in the beginning of July (end of June looking at the holiday calendar) being the biggest milestone. Some of the roots already contain DNSSEC information. Other ccTLDs continue to turn DNSSEC on with countries on every continent signed. more
Complete DNSSEC implementation requires that domains are authenticated at the root by the Registry, and that DNS zones and records are authenticated as well. Now before I go any further, let me begin by stating that I fully support the development and deployment of DNSSEC and that the vulnerabilities presented by Cache Poisoning are very real, especially for those websites collecting login credentials or other types of sensitive information. more
Loic Damilaville writes to report: Today AFNIC is publishing its new issue paper on the secondary market in domain names. The paper -- written to inform individuals as well as businesses -- gives a detailed account of the concept of "secondary market", the valuation mechanisms used, and the main players involved. The secondary market covers over-the-counter sales of already registered domain names, as well as the market in "second-hand domain names" and the ecosystem made up of the various players involved in these matters. more
Joe Schoenmann of the Las Vegas Sun reports: "The Las Vegas City Council will debate today whether to strike a deal with an Internet entrepreneur who seeks to use the Internet suffix .vegas -- over the objections of Clark County officials and one local company who say the city is jumping the gun and in the process likely shortchanging Las Vegas and county taxpayers. The council will consider endorsing a proposal by Dot Vegas Inc., to create the top-level Internet domain ".vegas" -- a new suffix that could be used in addition to the familiar .com, .net, .gov or .org suffixes that end most Web addresses." more
For the upcoming 25th anniversary of .com Top-Level Domain, VeriSign, the registry operator of the domain will launch a year-long initiative to celebrate the event. From the announcement: "In March 1985, the first .com domain was registered, igniting the birth of the consumer Internet that, 25 years later, continues to transform communications, commerce and our society as a whole. Beginning in March 2010, VeriSign, the long-time operator of the .com domain, will lead an industry-wide initiative to recognize the innovators and leaders that have shaped the first 25 years of .com and in doing so transformed our economy and society. The celebration of "25 Years of .com" will kick off with a policy-focused event in Washington, DC on March 16." more
CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, has looked back at the notable events of the last decade in our industry. Each year/link in the post explodes to a discrete blog entry with a month-by-month break-out of notable events. more
A big security news event last night and today is that the Twitter.com Web site was hacked and content on the site replaced. TechCrunch reported it and it has been picked up globally. But - was the Twitter.com website really hacked? We now know it was not so. There are four ways that users typing in Twitter.com would have seen the Iranian Cyber Army page. more
A domain name is a unique alphanumeric designation that facilitates reference to sets of numbers which actually locate a particular computer on the Internet. Domain names are a fundamental part of the Internet's user interface. Improving the usability of the Internet depends upon effective domain name policy. This study is intended to contribute to improvement in Internet usability for the end users of domain names. Benefits of more usable domain names include: higher sales, customer satisfaction and productivity, and reduced support costs. more
A incorrect configuration within Swedens .SE zone caused temporary shutdown of all websites under the country code top-level domain. Web monitoring company, Royal Pingdom, also located in Sweden reports: "Last night, a routine maintenance of Sweden's top-level domain .se went seriously wrong, introducing an error that made DNS lookups for all .se domain names start failing. The entire Swedish Internet effectively stopped working at this point. Swedish (.se) websites could not be reached, email to Swedish domain names stopped working, and for many these problems persist still..." more