News

APTLD 2014 Board Election voting period has closed on Feb. 2^nd, 2014. The results from the election for members of the APTLD Board have been reviewed and agreed by independent scruitineers with the following results in alphabetical order by ccTLD:

June Seo (.cc & .tv)

Ghalib Ali Mohammed Kharabsheh (.jo)

Kelly Hyeyoung Kang (.kr)

Stafford Guest (.nu)

 

Verisign Labs is working with a number of parties who are planning on holding a workshop to discuss the causes and potential mitigations of domain name collisions.  To support the event, we are seeking research submissions on this topic for presentation in the workshop and there are prizes given for the most valuable research contributions.   The submission of the extended abstract ends very soon (actually Monday next week!) and you have hopefully been made aware of this deadline via alternative channels of communication - however I wanted this list to be aware that if the abstract is accepted, the papers themselves are not due until March 2.  

The workshop is called “Workshop and Prize on Root Causes and Mitigation of Name Collisions (WPNC)” and is being held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London between March 8-10 this year.  The organizers are seeking sponsors and additional participation in this workshop from DNS and infrastructure organizations; full details are available at http://www.namecollisions.net/

The mojeID service, which allows users to store their personal data in one secure location and keep them up-to-date, registered its 300,000th user today. The service has been in operation since the autumn of 2010, and the last 100,000 accounts have been added since May of 2013.

In the past year, the mojeID service was expanded to include several important new features and changes, one of the most prominent being the redesign of the website atwww.mojeid.cz. The new layout, selected to bring the site’s design in line with modern trends and enhance readability, also introduced new functions.

“In terms of functionality, the homepage has the most changes; the dominant feature is with a menu that’s easier to navigate and a main rotating banner. The banner informs users about the greatest benefits of mojeID: secure login to many internet services without the need to remember dozens of username/password combinations, easier and faster utilization of new services and full user control over information that is shared”, says Ondřej Písek, the marketing director of the CZ.NIC Association. “A brand new part of the website is a catalogue of services that support logging in with mojeID.”

More information 

Nominet Cyber Assist, a pilot cyber security support and advice service aimed at small businesses, was announced by Nominet, the internet company best known for running the .uk internet infrastructure. The three-month pilot, which will run in the summer and be the first of its kind in the UK, will research whether an independent and authoritative advice service could effectively help businesses detect and combat cyber crime.

• Small businesses are now experiencing cyber security incident levels only seen previously in larger organisations
• 87% of small businesses had a security breach in the last year, up from 76% a year ago
• 63% of small businesses were attacked by an unauthorised outsider in the last year, up from 41% a year ago
• The average cost to a small business of its worst security breach was £35-65K a year  

The .ДЕТИ (Russian for "children") TLD successfully passed its pre-delegation testing, according to ICANN's letter to the Smart Internet Foundation, the .ДЕТИ registry. The pre-delegation testing is the final step before a new gTLD is delegated. The top-level domain has to pass a number of tests, including checking the DNS infrastructure, EPP and other parameters affecting performance of the new TLDs.

Among new Russian gTLDs, .ДЕТИ was the first to clear ICANN testing and is now awaiting delegation – which can happen as soon as in February, according to some expert estimations.

"With .ДЕТИ successfully completing its pre-delegation testing, it is evident that the Technical Center of Internet offers world-class services that conform to the highest standards," Marina Nikerova, deputy director of the TCI, says. "The positive results also mean that PDT would not be a problem for any of the new gTLD registries that have selected the TCI as a backbone services provider".

Andrei Kolesnikov, director of the Coordination Center, has also praised the results: "Very soon, the .ДЕТИ TLD will have its first domain names and first users. We're anticipating the delegation of the gTLD as with it, children would be able to safely use all possibilities that the global network has to offer – based on one-of-a-kind TLD that will soon become a part of the Russian Internet".

Norid (operator of the .no ccTLD) has initiated a public hearing on whether private individuals should be able to register domain names directly within .no in addition to registrations within the priv.no category domain. Everyone is invited to give their opinion on this issue. The hearing is open for input until 11 March.

The issue is whether individuals should continue to register domain names in the second-level category domain priv.no only, or also be allowed to register directly within .no.

- There are different opinions about this issue, and we hope that many people will participate in the discussion and give their input to the proposal, Hilde M. Thunem, Managing Director of UNINETT Norid AS, says.

The consultation paper and information on how to submit your answer are available from http://kari-og-ola.norid.no/ (in Norwegian only). The hearing closes on 11 March 2014.

Contact persons:
Managing Director Hilde M. Thunem, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., phone +47 414 49 885
Senior Advisor Elisabeth Farstad, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., phone +47 971 29 423

Innovative ideas and programs that make the Internet better for all Canadians could receive up to $100,000 in funding from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the organization that manages the .CA domain.

CIRA’s Community Investment Program (CIP) will provide funding to community groups, not-for-profits, and academic institutions for projects they can demonstrate will enhance the Internet for the benefit of all Canadians. In the coming year, CIRA will be investing up to $1,000,000 back into the community of which qualifying funding amounts may range in size from $25,000 to as much as $100,000. The CIP is open to a wide range of ideas, but proposals must articulate how they will benefit the Internet in Canada.

The Iuridicum Remedium non-governmental organisation, which has handed out Big Brother awards since 2005, announced the winners for 2013 on Thursday, 16 January at Bio Oko. The CZ.NIC’s Turris project took home the award in the Privacy Protection category. The purpose of this activity is to help users protect home networks by means of a special router. The Privacy Protection award is the only category in the Big Brother competition that has a positive meaning.

The jury’s justification for the Big Brother award stated that:

The Turris project prepared and implemented by the CZ.NIC Association does something for which a negative Big Brother award is usually handed out: by means of a household router, it monitors traffic between the public Internet and the specific private network and sends the acquired information to a central location. This project received a positive Big Brother award due to its objective and the manner in which it is achieved.

The aim of the Turris project is not to snoop or monitor activity. Its goal is to protect a specific private network – typically a home network of Internet users – against a wide variety of cybernetic threats and attacks that emerge in the Internet environment and become more dangerous literally hour by hour. For this reason the Turris project needs to monitor in real time which attacks the protected network is regularly exposed to.

The Big Brother competition warns of companies and projects that improperly infringe upon personal privacy, primarily in the area of information technology. Past winners of the Privacy Protection award include journalist and university instructor Jiří Peterka, the European Digital Rights organisation and the PGP encoding program.

Nominet is warning registrars and registrants to be vigilant regarding misleading offers to secure the .uk version of their existing .co.uk domain name.

Such offers  are inaccurate and unnecessary. Existing registrants don't need to take any immediate action regarding reservation of an equivalent .uk domain name or to pay any up front reservation fees to secure .uk domain names.

Holders of third-level .uk domains that are eligible for the free reservation period don’t need to pre-register the .uk equivalent. The shorter address will be automatically reserved for them for five years. Our marketing and customer outreach will continue to make it clear that registrants should not feel obliged to make a snap decision.

Registrars should be aware that this type of misleading pre-registration activity is prohibited and we will always take steps to prevent it. 

We always advise registrants to be wary of unsolicited calls, text messages or emails regarding their domain name or web presence and contact their registrar to check if any action needs to be taken.

Registrants should also check the small print carefully to fully understand what is and is not included in the details of any promotion or offer before completing a transaction.

Article Source: EURid (Source)

The fee for a basic .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure will be cut by a further 50%, according to the .eu registry EURid and the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), the institution appointed to rule on Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings for the .eu top-level domain.

The announcement heralds the third year in a row that the cost of .eu ADR proceedings has been reduced.

“The continued reduction of ADR fees will further help rights holders to overcome the financial barrier that prevented them from claiming their rights through .eu ADR proceedings,” commented Czech Arbitration Court Board Member, Petr Hostaš.

EURid’s General Manager Marc Van Wesemael added, “At EURid, we want anyone with a legitimate prior rights claim to be able to challenge a .eu registration. Making the .eu ADR process more affordable, and therefore accessible, is one way of doing this.”

Why ADR
People can challenge a .eu registration if they believe they have a prior right to the domain name and the current holder has registered the name for speculative or abusive purposes. EURid offers the fast and convenient .eu ADR procedure through the independent CAC specifically for this purpose. No travel is required as all cases are conducted online and by email, and in 24 official EU languages. Cases take an average of four months to resolve.

EURid appointed the CAC in 2005 as its ADR provider. In order to make .eu ADR decisions, the CAC selects one or more panellists from its list of 112 accredited international experts.

In numbers
Since the ADR procedure first became available in 2006, 686 cases have been filed – of which 51 in 2013. The ADR panel accepted 35 complaints last year, 10 are still pending. More information about the terms and conditions of the new .eu ADR price structure is available at eu.adr.eu.