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In line with international standards, DENIC has made available a whois service for many years. This information service provides access to a variety of domain data and thus guarantees that whoever needs to can quickly find out whom to contact, if a .de domain causes technical problems or infringes rights. Duly taking account of the legitimate interests of data privacy, the service has been developed continuously. User data are protected and access is secured through access restrictions.

Last but not least because of the limited access, DENIC was asked to create a function in the whois that enables a domain holder to actively prove in a secure and easy manner that he/she actually is the holder of a .de domain.

DENIC has now complied with this request: Upon completion of today's maintenance, as from about 17:00 CET, the DENIC web-whois will offer our customers the option to obtain in response to a whois query a signed output with a .de domain's holder data. Such signed whois output can be used to prove beyond doubt who was the holder of the domain name at the time when the query was made, for example, if the domain is planned to be sold or in case of matters of legal relevance.

The advantage of a query with signed information output is that the received data is reliable and unforgeable and that it bears a time stamp.

To ensure that a domain query is submitted by an authorized person and not by an automated script (bot), also the new expanded whois function is protected by a Captcha, which must be deciphered by the requester to get access to the domain holder data. To further improve security, the Captcha version introduced in 2009 was replaced by reCAPTCHA in the course of the current amendments.

You will find more detailed information about the new signed whois output and the exact procedure of signing and verifying domain data on our special information page.

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The DANE (DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities) working group, chaired by Ondřej Surý of CZ.NIC Laboratories and a Google representative, issued a new Internet standard in August. The current RFC (Request for Comments) number 6698 concerns a new technology that enables the verification of certification authorities on the basis of DNS. This quite revolutionary idea may considerably increase the use of DNSSEC technology by end users. The recently published Internet standard is the third document of its kind created with participation of CZ.NIC Laboratories.

The idea of storing certificate fingerprints in DNS has been circulating in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for quite some time, but could only be securely implemented after the root zone was signed using DNSSEC technology in July 2010. The first discussion of the project at what is known as a Birds of a Feather meeting, initiated by Ondřej Surý and Warren Kumari of Google, took place at the end of July 2010 at the annual 2010 IETF congress in Maastricht; the official DANE working group was established in the autumn of the same year. The first stage of this project, with the participation of an international team of experts, concluded this August with the publishing of RFC 6698, defining the new TLSA DNS record and methods of working with it.

“IETF has been working on the DANE project for more than two years. The objective of our effort is a fundamental change in the way certificates are used in Internet services. To date, anyone interested in obtaining a security certificate had to contact a certification authority, but the new technology allows them to create their own certificate and store it in DNS secured with DNSSEC. This will save time and money,” adds Ondřej Surý, Head of CZ.NIC Laboratories.

At the last meeting in Vancouver, members of the DANE working group agreed on the further development of the project. The group is planning to create a more precise definition of the use of TLSA records in Internet protocols such as SMTP, XMPP, and SIP. Other tasks will include creating functional implementations for example in web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

The latest edition of the CENTR Roundup newsletter is now available covering activities from August 2012.
This edition includes;

• Member news highlights
• Survey summary: Pricing and Billing Methods
• CENTR Statistics
• Article: A short overview of Chinese Registrations
• Upcoming CENTR Events

In the switchplus case, the Federal Supreme Court upheld SWITCH's appeal on 14 August 2012. The Foundation has noted the verdict with satisfaction.

On 22 March 2012, SWITCH lodged an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court against the verdict of the Federal Administrative Court of 13 February 2012. This verdict banned SWITCH from providing a link to its subsidiary switchplus ag on the www.switch.ch website. SWITCH's appeal was upheld in its entirety by the Federal Supreme Court on 14 August 2012.

SWITCH acted correctly
"With its decision, the Federal Supreme Court is supporting SWITCH's economic freedom", explains Andreas Dudler, Managing Director of SWITCH. The decision specifies inter alia that it must be possible for SWITCH to provide information on the group website www.switch.ch not only about its core business for the universities but also on the services of its subsidiary switchplus. With its verdict, the Federal Supreme Court also confirms that SWITCH has not given its subsidiary switchplus an unlawful advantage.

Background
In response to the sustained calls from domain name customers for hosting services, SWITCH set up its commercial subsidiary switchplus ag in 2009. This provides services associated with an internet presence – from the registration of the domain name, via web mail and CMS hosting, right through to hosted exchange. SWITCH uses its subsidiary's profits to support Switzerland's universities.

End of the legal dispute
After switchplus ag had been set up, a group of hosting providers prevented the market entry of the subsidiary. The decision taken by the Federal Supreme Court should now have put an end to this longstanding discussion. "We welcome this pioneering decision by the Federal Supreme Court. It confirms that SWITCH has always acted correctly", says Marco D'Alessandro, media spokesman for SWITCH.

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ISNIC is always evolving the registration of .is domains. A very important change, which is designed to increase the security of .is domains further, is being planned. This includes being able to mark domains as "very important domains", or VID.

VID's will get special treatment, especially regarding rights and renewals. So called VID insurance means that a VID's registration never expires accidentally. It will also be harder to transfer VID's to new registrants, since it will require confirmation from the registrants themselves, either digitally or a signed confirmation.

To prepare for this change, domain registrants are asked to update the registrants email at ISNIC, which can be done under "Modify Registration" on My Page. Only the administrative contact can edit the registrant information. In the fall, all administrative contacts and registrants with a registered email address will get an email where these changes will be explained in detail.

SIDN is organising the 2012 Domain Name Debate at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in The Hague on 28 September. SIDN uses such debates to gauge stakeholder opinion on proposed changes to the rules governing the Netherlands' internet domain. At the debates, any interested party can have a say and thus help to shape future policy. The fourth Domain Name Debate focuses on drop-catching and further restriction of the amount of information about private registrants available from the Whois.

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Within the latest NIC.at Domain Name Report are results of a study carried out on Domain Strategy (including details on impacts of new gTLDs)
Click for the Report 

The Irish Internet Association (“IIA”) today announces the shortlist for this year’s Dot ie Net Visionary Awards and online voting is now open.  It’s the start of award season and the fully refreshed IIA awards are the first off.  With huge thanks to our headline sponsor in IE Domain Registry Limited (“IEDR”), new categories, a stunning venue at the National Gallery of Ireland and a record number of entries, up 30% on last year, these awards are the ones to watch.

The IIA have been setting the agenda all year – eCommerce strategy, BRIC export market opportunities, cloud standards, development for accessibility and much more.  We’ve reflected these issues in the new categories; Best International “we’ll conquer the world” Irish Technology Business, The Bravest and Best “brick to click” Business, Most “joyous to look and splendid to use” Web Design, Most Indispensible Cloud Service for SMEs.  These awards are more than just trophies, they are coveted titles.

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The Estonian Internet Foundation announces the public procurement for an audit of the code of the information systems (Domain Registry Software Security Audit) it uses. This public procurement has been entered in the Registry of Public Procurements under number 132095. The bid submission deadline is 10 September 2012.

The Estonian Internet Foundation is commissioning a Domain Registry Software Security Audit, the results of which must contain answers to the following questions: 1) code security; 2) code quality; 3) quality of information system data administration; 4) suitability of the information system for DNSSEC implementation; and 5) information system sustainability. 

The public procurement documents, contract and participation terms and conditions are available under the corresponding number in the Registry of Public Procurements. This public procurement has been entered in the Registry of Public Procurements under number 132095. The bid submission deadline is 10 September 2012. 

You can apply and view the public procurement documentation by no later than 12:00 on 6 September 2012. 

Please download the public procurement documentation form and submit your questions through the Registry of Public Procurements.