News


Polish Domain Name Market - Q2 2012 Report Available
Click to access the Q2 Report from NASK concerning the Polish Domain Name Market


Add-on for Internet Explorer Protects Users from Fraudulent Websites
Prague, 25 July 2012 – CZ.NIC Laboratories, the research department of the maintainer of the .CZ national domain, in cooperation with the Czech representative of Microsoft, have launched the DNSSEC Validator, a new security add-on for Internet Explorer (IE) browsers. With this application, the browser can verify whether the visited websites are secured by DNSSEC technology. This way, users can know immediately that the site is not fraudulent and that there is, for example, no risk of sensitive data theft.
“According to a study of the NSS Labs security company, Internet Explorer versions 8 and above consistently rank first in efficacy in the fight against Internet attacks, particularly thanks to IE security features such as the SmartScreen Filter or the Application Reputation system. DNSSEC Validator is another element that further strengthens the security of Internet Explorer users, protecting them from fraudulent websites which are appearing increasingly often in the Czech Republic,” says Lukáš Křovák, manager of the Windows Client division at Microsoft.
CZ.NIC Laboratories has already published several versions of the DNSSEC Validator plugin for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers. Now the add-on has been released for Internet Explorer as well, so far only for 32-bit versions (IE versions 6 through 9). More information on the current version 1.0 is available on the project website - http://www.dnssec-validator.cz/ie/.
ABOUT THE DNSSEC TECHNOLOGY
DNSSEC is the extension of the DNS system, which increases the security of domain names. The principle of DNS is the translation of human-friendly Internet addresses, such as www.nic.cz or www.dobradomena.cz, into numerical addresses understood by computers, which can in turn provide services such as displaying web pages, sending e-mails, Internet telephony etc. DNSSEC increases security while using DNS by preventing forged, altered or incomplete domain name data. CZ.NIC association, as the administrator of the .CZ and ENUM domain registries, implemented this security technology for the holders of these domains and for the users of the Czech Internet in September 2008. More information can be found at www.nic.cz/dnssec/.
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Registrations open for Serbian IDN .срб
From now on, everyone can register a .срб domain name, regardless of whether or not they already have an equivalent .rs domain name.
Cyrillic .срб domain name is the second national Internet domain name of the Republic of Serbia, and it is used along with existing .rs domain name. Currently there are over 6,000 registered .срб domain names and over 73,000 registered .rs domain names.
A majority of new registrants are brand names who seek not only to protect their intellectual property, but also to ensure that searches uniquely lead to their sites, since search engines treat both Cyrillic and Latin results in Serbian language equally.
Internet addresses in Cyrillic are particularly well-received by the Serbian expatriates, who see them as another vehicle to preserving their cultural and national identity.

Registration of .срб domain names is carried out through registrars whose list can be found here
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Malware security: Switzerland No. 1 worldwide
In its fight against malware, SWITCH is demanding that the holders and operators of infected websites remove the malicious code within 24 hours. Thanks to this measure, a total of 1052 Swiss websites have already had the dangerous drive-by code removed from them in 2012.
According to the latest quarterly report published by security firm, Panda Security, 32 percent of computers worldwide were infected with malware in 2012, somewhat fewer than the year before (38 percent).
Switzerland is No. 1 worldwide with the lowest infection rate.
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A Brief account of .cn Registrations in China
EVOLUTION OF .CN REGISTRATIONS

BACKGROUND
2007
In response to the market demand in the emerging Chinese Internet Community, Registry initiates promotional program “1 RMB Experience”. Due to the lower price, the registration volume of .cn sharply increased to 13 million by the end of 2008, which was the top count among all the ccTLDs at the time.
After this .cn boom, it was found that the domain name abuse had also increased considerably along with the domain name registration, especially in terms of illegal content, Spam and inaccurate WHOIS records. In order to keep the consumer trust, the Registry suspended the “1 RMB Experience” program in 2009. The registrations subsequently fell.
“Target Abusive Domain Name Program” launched. Registry outlines 3 steps to fight domain name abuse;
- Cooperation with Abusive Information Complaint Center of China Internet Society to shut down the website and cancel the illicit domain name registration when receiving validated complaint.
- CNNIC conducts strict Whois Accuracy review of existing domain name and require the domain name registrant to submit Photo ID for validation of the whois data. Failure to provide such proof, results in the domain name registration being canceled.
- For new domain name applications, the Registry starts conducting strict registrant information validation before activation of the domain name. Also incorporate requirements for every new applicant to submit proof of establishment of the registration entity (Corporate registration ID, etc.) to validate the information.
The result of these steps has been very effective with the percentage of domain name abuse dropping sharply which in turn helped .cn to became a trusted TLD. However, during the process, the Registry lost much of its registrations (which were mainly the illicit domain name registrations). So the count dropped to less than 4,000,000
.CN TODAY
Thanks to the improved brand image as a secure and reliable TLD, the registrations have been gradually rising since 2011. This was helped also by the fact that rather than having to produce corporate ID's as validation, individuals can register domains using only personal IDs for validation. This change was made possible given the improvements to mechanisms monitoring domain name abuse and tracking.
The registrations count of .cn has been quickly recovering since then and on the rise.


Brief Report on IETF84
We have published an interim report on IETF84. A full report will be available later this week
IETF84 - Brief Report


RNIDS and Netnod enhance services of Domain Names for Serbia
Belgrade/Stockholm, 6 August 2012 - Serbian TLD operator RNIDS and the Swedish-based Internet infrastructure organisation Netnod have entered into a strategic partnership to further strengthen the Name Service for the TLDs that RNIDS operates, including .rs and .срб. By making use of Netnod’s extensive worldwide infrastructure RNID’s operation of the domain name system will be additionally secured.
"We have chosen Netnod for their outstanding technical expertise and fully trust their competence to meet the high level demands associated with the operation of our supplementary name service for .rs, .срб and other zones we manage. Also, both Netnod and RNIDS are not-for-profit, neutral, and independent basic infrastructure-providing organisations and share similar strategic positions and views. Therefore, this partnership ideally matches with RNID’s commitment to provide services of utmost reliability, on a self-regulatory basis," said Branislav Anđelić, CEO of RNIDS.
"Netnod is happy to assist RNIDS in building an exemplary footprint by offering them the shared use of our widespread multi-site anycast infrastructure for full support of their zones, and thus for the common good of all Internet users. Of course, we are very proud that after having supported a large variety of European ccTLDs for quite some time now, RNIDS has chosen us to be their strategic DNS partner," said Kurt Erik Lindqvist, CEO of Netnod.
About RNIDS
About Netnod


CENTR Monthly Roundup July 2012
The latest edition of the CENTR Roundup newsletter is now available covering activities from the month of July 2012.
This edition includes;
- Member news highlights
- Survey summary: Disclosure of non-public Whois data
- CENTR Statistics
- Article: .NL hits 5 million registrations
- Upcoming CENTR Events



Five millionth .nl domain name registered with SIDN
SIDN has now registered the five-millionth .nl domain name. Marion Gerritsen became the happy registrant of mariongerritsen.nl. The domain name was registered through Registrar.eu, a label of Openprovider. Marion Gerritsen and Registrar.eu will both shortly be receiving a visit from a SIDN representative, who will present the new name's user with an iPad and hand out celebratory cake to everyone working for the registrar. In the Netherlands, 21% of households now have a domain name.
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Tesla's Vision of the Internet
On July 10, Serbia marks the Science Day, a national event dedicated to the great Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla and to science in general. This year, the event has commenced the day before with the opening of the exhibition entitled "Tesla's Vision of the Internet" by Lazar Boskovic, organized by the Register of National Internet Domain Names of Serbia and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, staged in Belgrade’s gallery "Ozone".
The exhibition presents Tesla’s work "World System" from the year 1900, when he presented a 12-point vision of what is today called the wireless internet, mobile telephony and GPS. In a 1909 statement for the New York Times, quoted by Popular Mechanics magazine in an article titled "Wireless of the future", Nikola Tesla said this, among other things:
"It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear instantly in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument not bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles. One may listen or transmit speech or song to the uttermost parts of the world. In the same way any kind of picture, drawing, or print can be transferred from one place to another. It will be possible to operate millions of such instruments from a single station. Thus it will be a simple matter to keep the uttermost parts of the world in instant touch with each other. The song of a great singer, the speech of a political leader, the sermon of a great divine, the lecture of a man of science may thus be delivered to an audience scattered all over the world."
All this is possible for Internet users today, using a computer or via a mobile phone.
MORE INFORMATION: теслинавизијаинтернета.срб/teslas-vision-of-the-internet
DOWNLOAD: Tesla's vision of the Internet (PDF, 3,7 MB)
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