The demand for .fi domain names has soared since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March, with registrations recently passing the half million milestone, Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, reported last week.
Finns are avid internet users. The coronavirus pandemic has seen the creation of new online stores, and many services have become internet-based. As a result, the demand for .fi domain names has surged, with a total of 500,000 registered as of 4 November 2020. .Fi domain names serve as addresses for and enable the provision of Finnish digital services on the internet.
The .fi domain name service was established in 1986 with the addition of the .fi Domain Name System (DNS) to the internet’s root DNS. Following its introduction, the number of .fi domain names increased only moderately until the early years of this century, when deregulation and automation started spurring strong and steady growth. The previous quarter-million milestone was reached in late 2010.
As services become increasingly digital, reliable internet services play an essential role for many businesses.
“From the very beginning, Traficom has paid careful attention to the information security of the .fi domain name service. We have, as an example, adopted the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which protect DNS queries from ending up in the wrong hands”, explains Chief Specialist Juhani Juselius.
Traficom has expanded its arsenal of information security measures by offering .fi domain name registrars free-of-charge anycast DNS, which provides the best protection against denial-of-service attacks targeting the domain name system.
“Our hope is that a substantial share of .fi domain name registrars help us improve the reliability and fault tolerance of .fi domain names by adopting the anycast service”, Juselius adds. Anycast technology allows a single name server to be placed in multiple locations around the world.
.fi is managed by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) and has been developed constantly since its inception. Additions include the possibility to use Finnish internationalised domain name characters as well as characters used by the Sami languages. Meanwhile, work has been undertaken in partnership with .fi registrars to further cut regulation and improve cost-efficiency.