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Articles by David Goldstein
EURid’s TLDs Show Registration Increase in 12 Months to End September
EURid, best known for .eu, has increased total registrations for its three top-level domains by a total of 15,000 in the year to the end of September, according to the registry’s latest Quarterly Report. In the third Quarterly Report for 2022 [pdf], EURid reports .eu, .ею and .ευ registrations totalled 3,721,099 as of 30 September, compared to 3,705,728 as of 30 September 2021, an increase of 15,371.
.BOO, Get Your .RSVP Domain
Google Registry has launched it’s .rsvp and .boo top-level domains, currently available through their Early Access Programmes through until 15 November where preferred domain names can be registered for an additional one-time fee which decreases each day. Then from 15 November General Availability commences for both TLDs. Google is pushing .rsvp as the go to domain for events organisers, for tourism operators in the business of selling tickets to their service.
ICANN Appoints Nitin Wali Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement for South Asia
ICANN has appointed Nitin Wali, a 25-year veteran of the technology industry, as the Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement for the South Asia region, covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. For the last 18 months Wali has been Regional Director for GoDaddy Registry.
Goldstein Report
The annual and largest domain name conference for the European German-speaking registries, hosted alternately by nic.at, SWITCH and DENIC, Domain Pulse, will be held in Winterthur in February 2023, barring COVID or other delays.
.ORG Celebrates 20 Years and Looks Forward To The Next Decade
It all started back in 2002 when Public Interest Registry launched the .org top-level domain and became the go to for organisations and individuals driven by important missions, who are seeking to make a difference in their communities and provide tangible solutions to the world’s biggest problems. Today there are 10.6 million .org domain names registered around the world. The team behind .org, Public Interest Registry, have managed the TLD from the start.
New Registry Systems For .NZ and Afnic’s 20 TLDs
On 1 November New Zealand’s ccTLD launched a brand new registry system for its 750,000 plus .nz domain names, using technology based on Canada’s CIRA Registry Platform, the infrastructure behind the .ca domain name. InternetNZ will continue to manage it and keep all the .nz-related data in New Zealand. “This significant investment into our infrastructure future-proofs .nz for Aotearoa New Zealand,” said InternetNZ Chief Executive, Vivien Maidaborn.
As World Economies Hit Headwinds, Domain Name Growth Stagnates
As economies around the world hit headwinds with rising prices, worker shortages and interest rate rises, it seems domain name registration growth has stagnated. During the second quarter of 2022, the total number of domain names registered across all top-level domains increased by 1.0 million, or 0.3%, in the second quarter of 2022 according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief released this week.
European ccTLD Domain Registrations Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels: CENTR
The COVID-19 pandemic saw registrations for many top-level domains get a welcome boost after some years of limited or no growth. The two years of lockdowns and restrictions saw a sizeable number of businesses that did not have an online presence go online, and new business ideas were started. But now life has largely returned to normal, according to the latest CENTRstats Global TLD Report with European ccTLDs largely returning to registration rates that are consistent with long term averages.
.ORG Gets Some New Siblings As .CHARITY, .FOUNDATION and .GIVES Join The PIR Family
The .org TLD has some new siblings with .charity, .foundation and .gives now officially part of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) family. With the addition of the three new top-level domains (TLDs) acquired from Donuts, now Identity Digital, the PIR portfolio now includes .org, .ngo, .ong, Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs or .ORG in other languages/character sets), .charity, .foundation and .gives. Together, these TLDs make up PIR’s .org family of domains.
EURid Beats Post-Brexit Blues To Record 0.9% Increase in 2021 Registrations
The number of .eu, .ею and .ευ domain names grew by 0.9% in 2021 to 3,713,804 according to EURid’s 2021 Annual Report released this week. It’s the highest total number of .eu domains since 2017 when there were 3,815,055 domains. But this 2017 figure was before the impact of Brexit and included 317,286 .eu domains registered to British registrants, the vast majority of whom became ineligible once Britain left the European Union.
DENIC’s 2021: Doman Registrations Increase 2.75% to Pass 17 Million Mark
The number of .de domain names registered grew by 460,000, or 2.75%, to 17,160,504 in 2021 cementing .de’s position as the world’s largest ccTLD. This was an increase over 2020 when .de domain registrations grew 376,000 or 2.30%. In their annual Domain Statistics report, DENIC publishes a wealth of information on domain registrations for the German country code top-level domain (ccTLD). As of 31 December there were 15.4 million .de domains registered in the 401 cities and districts of Germany.
Registration and Website For ICANN75, In-Person and Virtual, Now Live
Registration for the ICANN75 Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is open and the dedicated meeting website is live. The meeting will be held as a hybrid event from 17 to 22 September 2022 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. All participants must be pre-registered by 14 September to attend the meeting in person. The meeting schedule will be published on the ICANN website on 29 August 2022.
InternetNZ’s Former CEO Jordan Carter Joins auDA as Internet Governance and Policy Director
In a surprise announcement, auDA today announced Jordan Carter, until a few months ago InternetNZ’s Chief Executive, will be crossing the ditch to join auDA in the newly created role of Internet Governance and Policy Director, from 13 July. It’s a welcome sign auDA is beginning to re-engage with the international community after six years of being largely absent from ICANN and internet governance fora. Not that Carter’s role is limited to international issues.
Total Domain Registrations Grow 3.9% in 12 Months Led By New gTLDs: Verisign
Twelve months ago domain name registrations were on the decline, but at the end of the first quarter of 2022 it’s a different story. As of 31 March, there were 350.5 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains, an increase of 8.8 million, or 2.6%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. Over the 12 months to 31 March registrations increased by 13.2 million or 3.9%.
EURid and ICANN Sign MoU Promoting Multilingualism and Inclusion on the Internet
EURid, the .eu registry signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ICANN to strengthen collaboration between the two organisations supporting Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and promoting the Universal Acceptance (UA) of all domain names and email addresses.
Dan.com Becomes Part of GoDaddy’s Aftermarket Team
Dan.com has been acquired by GoDaddy it was announced this week. The acquisition, which appears to have been under discussion for some time brings Dan’s products and engine to the world’s largest domain name registrar and their 21+ million customers. Dan.com claims to have 17 million domains listed and processed over 100,000 secondary market domain transfers and hosts 2.5 million domain name for sale pages.
PIR Calls for Nominations for 2022 .ORG Impact Awards
To promote the use of .org domain names, Public Interest Registry opened the nomination period for its fourth annual .ORG Impact Awards, to recognise and reward outstanding mission-driven individuals and organisations from the global .ORG Community for their positive contributions to society. There are seven categories plus a “.ORG of the Year” who will vie for a total of $105,000 in donations to their charities.
Your Favourite .EU Website Could Win a €5,000 Marketing Budget in 2022 .EU Web Awards
Your favourite .eu (or .ею, or .ευ) website could win an online marketing budget worth €5,000 in the 2022 .eu Web Awards launched Tuesday. This year’s ninth edition of the .eu Web Awards is looking for nominations of impactful, innovative and simply beautiful websites in the three top-level domains administered by EURid. The 2022 .eu Web Awards nomination and voting period kicks off today and will run until 17 August 2022.
Non-German .DE Registrations Grow 244,000 In 12 Months: DENIC
The international popularity of Germany’s ccTLD .de continues to grow. There were 17,160,504 .de domains at the end of 2021 with 1,695,256 (9.88%) of these domains registered abroad, according to a DENIC report. Within one year, the number of international registrations has increased by 244,000, almost twice as much as in the previous year (2020: 128,000).
Domain Names Registered in China Jump 4.5 Million in 12 Months to 34 Million: CNNIC Annual Report
There were 35.93 million domain names registered within China as of the end of 2021, up more than 4.5 million in 12 months, from 31.36 million, according to the English version of the 49th Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development published in April.
Washington, D.C. and Seattle Added As ICANN Meeting Venues in 2023 and 2025
ICANN last week announced locations for ICANN77 in 2023 (Washington D.C.) and ICANN82 in 2025 (Seattle) for those wishing to attend in person. Washington, D.C. was selected as the location in the North America region to host the ICANN77 Policy Forum. ICANN77 will be held at the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C. from 12-15 June 2023. Seattle, Washington was selected as the location in the North America region to host the ICANN82 Community Forum.
DENIC 2022 General Assembly: Elections Supervisory and Executive Boards
At DENIC’s ordinary General Assembly held Wednesday in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the members of DENIC eG voted on the composition of the Cooperative’s bodies through 2025. There were three new members voted onto the Supervisory Board, while members of the current Executive Board were all returned. The elections of the members to the Supervisory Board and the honorary members to the Executive Board are held every three years in accordance with DENIC’s Statutes.
Goldstein Report
Afilias made the jaw dropping announcement to registrars this week that the .au wholesale, or registry fee, is being reduced by a whopping A$0.05 or 0.63%. With 3,561,394 .au domain names registered today, this means a saving to registrants of around $178,000, assuming registrars pass on the reduction.
Cloudflare Disrupts Largest DDoS Attack Over HTTPS Ever Recorded
Cloudflare’s systems recently automatically detected and mitigated a 15.3 million request-per-second (rps) DDoS attack — one of the largest HTTPS DDoS attacks on record, the cybersecurity company announced in a blog post last week. The attack, which happened in April, was the largest Cloudflare had seen over HTTPS.
April Birthdays for .LU and .UZ
Luxembourg and Uzbekistan’s ccTLDs celebrated birthdays in April, turning 30 and 27 respectively. .LU is 30 In April 1992, the Restena Foundation, then in the form of the RESTENA research project, was delegated the management of the .lu country code top-level domain name (ccTLD). 30 years later, .lu is still managed and operated by the Restena Foundation, but registry services have evolved.
.EU Adds 175,000 New Registrations in Q1 While ‘Ukraine’ Added To Malicious Domain Registration Checks
There were 174,903 new .eu domain name registrations in the first quarter of 2021 taking the overall total registrations in the European ccTLD to 3,724,513, according to EURid’s Q1 2022 Progress Report [pdf] released last week. Three countries led the way with Luxembourg showing an increase in registrations of 7.4% for the quarter, Portugal (4.5%) and Liechtenstein (2.8%). Following Brexit businesses and individuals in the United Kingdom became ineligible to register .eu domain names.
European ccTLDs See Continued Growth While Dominating Home Markets: CENTR
New registrations among European ccTLDs slowed during 2021, but so did deletions and registrar transfers, which meant growth was positive, according to the latest CENTRstats Global TLD Report released this week. The median growth in European ccTLDs to January 2022 was 3.8%, up from the six-month average, while renewal rates are stable with a median of 85%, according to the report prepared by Patrick Myles.
ASPI Launches Website and eMail Security Check Tool .auCheck
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) recently launched .auCheck to help internet users check their website, email and internet connections for use of the latest and most secure internet standards. It’s aimed at .au domain names but appears to be able to check domain names in any top-level domain. And the .au policy and regulatory body, auDA, and registry, Afilias, don’t come out well. The free service can check if a website and email are set up correctly.
So Good, Swedish Customer Buys Stake in Norwegian IQ Global
Norwegian-based cybersecurity company IQ Global AS must be good. This week they announced one of their long-term customers, the Swedish Internet Foundation, operator of the Swedish ccTLD .se, has bought a stake in the company, believed to be around 20%. iQ is trusted by some of the world’s leading registries, registrars, hosting companies and SaaS platforms to provide solutions to efficiently mitigate malicious behaviour on the Internet.
ZADNA Consults On Registry and Registrar Requirements
The .ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) has published the draft .za registry and registrar licensing regulations. The draft provide details on the requirements to be met by registries and registrars to be licensed by the Authority, the steps to be taken when applying for the renewal of the license, and how to address contraventions of the license conditions. ZADNA is the not-for-profit organisation that manages and regulates the .za country code top-level domain (ccTLD).
CENTR Critical of EC’s Study on DNS Abuse
DNS Abuse has become an issue the domain name industry is beginning to give the attention it deserves. In February 2021 attention to it was ramped up when the Public Interest Registry, the team behind .org, launched the DNS Abuse Institute. Prior to this the issue was bubbling along being discussed regularly at ICANN meetings and elsewhere.
Goldstein Report
The upcoming ICANN74 to be held both virtually and in-person in The Hague in June has some rather strange legalese when it comes to those attending regarding to COVID-19. There are some of the usual to be expected conditions such as to be vaccinated, wearing face masks and so on. But one that has stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest is the requirement of attendees to sign a liability waiver [pdf].
Verisign Excludes .TK and 4 Other ccTLDs Due to ‘Unexplained Changes’ in Latest Quarterly Report
After total domain name registrations decreased by 2.7 million, or 0.7%, to 364.6 million in the third quarter of 2021, they were back on the up in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter of 2021 closed with 341.7 million domains across all TLDs, an increase of 3.3 million domain name registrations, or 1.0%, compared to the third quarter of 2021 according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. Domain name registrations have increased by 1.6 million, or 0.5%, year over year.
Registration for ICANN74 Policy Forum in The Hague is Now Open
ICANN this week launched the dedicated website for the ICANN74 Policy Forum in The Hague, Netherlands and registration is now open. ICANN74 will be held from 13-16 June 2022 and will take place as a hybrid event to accommodate both in-person and virtual participation. ICANN is committed to ensuring an inclusive Policy Forum that provides equal opportunities for all to engage on important policy matters. ICANN expects to have a reduced program to best serve both in-person and remote participants.
Domain Pulse Is Back In Person In May
After being twice-delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Domain Pulse is back and will take place as a face-to-face event on 17 and 18 May. The conference will be hosted by DENIC at the historical plenary chamber of the German Parliament in Bonn. For two days, there will be discussions on the trends and developments in the domain name industry.
Nordic Domain Days Registration Open
It’s 5 weeks until Nordic Domain Days in Stockholm, and registration is now open. The 2022 event will be held on 9 and 10 May at the Clarion Stockholm and will be, wait for it, in person! Domain Name Abuse and malicious behaviour are hot topics and will be covered on the main stage during day one in a presentation titled Malicious Use of Domain Names, and again in a workshop on day 2.
.TV Goes GoDaddy Registry
It’s official. After being announced in December, GoDaddy Registry is now officially the new backend registry operator for the Tuvaluan ccTLD .TV. This week the contract was officially memorialised in a ceremony held at the Dubai Expo 2020.
Former .AU Registry Operator Calls for Resignations in Light of auDA and Afilias Failures
It’s not been a good week for auDA, the .au policy and regulatory body, and their backend registry provider Afilias. First on Tuesday there was a security incident that auDA claims saw “a small number of domains” disappear for half an hour. Then today with the launch of second level (or .au direct) registrations, there has been another stuff up that sees all new second level/direct registrations having to be manually entered after registration with no timeframe given for a resolution.
As auDA Gears Up for .AU 2LD Launch, a Security Breach. But Will 2LDs Be a Damp Squib?
March 24 is a big day for .au domain names. It’s the day auDA is launching second level .au domain names. It comes on the back of a security outage that reportedly saw around 15,000 (out of 3.4 million) .au domain names out for 30 minutes on 22 March. But when it comes to second level domains, what’s the point? It comes on the back of me pondering various websites around the world setup to highlight issues with Russia’s current war against and invasion of Ukraine.
Goldstein Report
Catching up on what’s been happening at EURid is the focus of today’s post.
Goldstein Report
Since I’ve been taking life too easy keeping up to date with domain name news in recent months, let’s get back into action with a roundup of what’s been happening at DENIC, the .de registry, over the last few months.
How Australia’s far right uses cryptocurrencies to monetise hate online
There have never been more ways to ask for money on the internet. For rightwing extremists looking to monetise hate, that can be a big opportunity – and the earning potential of these digital assets hasn’t gone unnoticed in Australia. Earlier this year, I traced funding networks associated with a sample of Australian channels that share rightwing extremist content on the chat app Telegram, and found links to at least 22 online funding tools.
Russia fines Google $100 million, and Meta $27 million, over ‘failure to remove banned content’; Blocks Website of Group That Tracks Political Arrests - Goldstein Report
A Russian court fined Google nearly $100 million Friday for “systematic failure to remove banned content” — the largest such penalty yet in the country as Moscow attempts to rein in Western tech giants. The fine was calculated based on Google’s annual revenue, the court said. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Internet regulator, told the court that Google’s 2020 turnover in the country exceeded 85 billion rubles, or about $1.15 billion.
DomainTools Acquires DNS Cybersecurity Company Farsight Security
One of the leading DNS cybersecurity companies, DomainTools, has announced they have acquired another leading DNS cybersecurity company Farsight Security. The two companies complement one another with DomainTools describing themselves as the leader in domain name and DNS-based cyber threat intelligence, while Farsight Security says they provide the world’s largest real-time actionable threat intelligence on how the Internet is changing observing over 200,000 DNS resolutions per second.
Goldstein Report
The ICANN Board hosted an informational session on Domain Name System (DNS) abuse on 22 October 2021, in advance of ICANN72. They have now made the session materials and recording available here. The malicious use of domain names, often referred to as DNS abuse, has been a topic of significant interest for stakeholders for many years. The ICANN Board held this discussion with a panel of senior Internet security professionals.
2021 .ORG of the Year Goes to Madagascan Organisation Making Energy-Efficient Stoves
Public Interest Registry, the .org manager, announced the 2021 .ORG of the Year winner is ADES, a mission-driven organisation that manufactures energy-efficient stoves in Madagascar and promotes the use of renewable energy. ADES received a $35,000 donation as its prize. The announcement of the third annual .ORG Impact Awards this week continues PIR’s honouring and celebrating mission-driven organisations and individuals working to make the world a better place.
Australia’s IGF Event NetThing Happening Virtually This Thursday and Friday
This week Australia’s Internet Governance Forum event, NetThing, is happening virtually with a host of discussions and presentations covering Australia’s critical infrastructure, internet standards, vaccine passports and digital rights, the internet as an essential service, tech and environmental sustainability, misinformation and disinformation, DNS abuse, trusted digital platforms, blockchain, protecting at risk voices, will technology save the planet, adult content online and mass...
TLD/Registrar Updates: Detecting Fake .BE Web Shops; Afnic Reappointed .FR Registry; .NL COVID Bump Stays; .PY Turns 30; .РФ Photo Contest and Swedish Regulator Ends .SE Supervision plus Tucows Buys UNR - Goldstein Report
DNS Belgium have published an interview with a student whose Master’s thesis was on detecting fake web shops in the .be domain with machine learning. The interview with Senne Batsleer outlines the aim of his thesis: improve the detection of fake web shops in the .be zone. DNS Belgium note they have been tracking fake web shops using artificial intelligence since 2019. In that time they have taken more than 3,900 domain names of fake web shops offline.
COVID Bump Sees .AT Hit 1.4 Million Registrations
The Austrian ccTLD hit a new milestone in September, reaching 1.4 million registrations according to the .at registry nic.at, with just over one million (1,023,492 as of 13 September) or 73.9% registered to Austrian registrants. The 1.4 millionth registration – physio-ruttinger.at – was registered to an Austrian self-employed physiotherapist who already has his own website including a matching .at domain.
CIRA teams up with ScamAdviser to warn online shoppers against potential fraudulent sites
The surge in online purchases seen since the beginning of the pandemic also means Canadians are more exposed to scams popping up online. To help combat the growth in scams CIRA, the .CA registry, announce a partnership with ScamAdviser, a global leader in anti-scam technology, to integrate protection against fraudulent websites into CIRA Canadian Shield. This added layer of protection will safeguard Canadians’ families against online scams and fraudulent websites.
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