CoCCA Software Update Allows Registry Partners to be GDPR-Compliant

CoCCA will be updating its backend registry software to enable its registry partners to be GDPR-compliant in time for the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into effect on 25 May

CoCCA will be updating its backend registry software to enable its registry partners to be GDPR-compliant in time for the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that comes into effect on 25 May.

The principle of data minimisation, where only personal data that is adequate, relevant and necessary is collected, retained and disclosed has been adopted by the ccTLD managers using CoCCA shared infrastructure of the following ccTLDs: .af, .cx, .gs, .gy, .ht, .hn, .ki, .kn, .sb, .tl, .kn, .ms, .nf.

For the above ccTLDs, as of 15 May the only data collected from domain name registrants will be:
only registrant contact details are required, administrative, technical and billing contacts are optional.
existing administrative, technical and billing contacts may be deleted by registrars.
registrars will be able to associate two email addresses directly with a domain (for abuse reports and technical queries), these emails will be publicly disclosed.

Regarding data disclosure:

  • if a data subject is an EU resident or a non-EU resident who uses an EU registrar (or one of their resellers) personal data (name, email, phone and physical address) will be redacted from publicly available interfaces. For the avoidance of confusion, personal data will be redacted based both on the declared address of the contact and the location of the registrar.
  • if a data subject resides outside the EU and uses the services of a registrar outside the EU the personal data disclosure will not be impacted by GDPR.
  • if personal data has been redacted and the data subject would like to disclose it, the data subject will be provided with tools by CoCCA to disclose the redacted data.
  • if personal data has not been redacted and the data subject believes it should be (for example, a citizen of an EU country residing overseas), the data subject will be provided with tools by CoCCA to redact their personal data.

Access to redacted data will be available for:

  • law enforcement and the Secure Domain Foundation will be able to access redacted data via RDAP and port 43 WHOIS.
  • intellectual property owners or other entities who have a legitimate interest in redacted data will be able to order historical abstracts online for a nominal fee (provided they sign an attestation).

An updated version of the CoCCA software containing multiple GDPR configuration options will be released on 20 April with CoCCA able to assist registry operators to upgrade and configure their registry software to align with their GDPR compliance efforts.

CoCCA advise that it should not be assumed that all registry operators using CoCCA Tools will patch and configure the software for GDPR compliance. There are many registry operators who use dated and unsupported versions of CoCCA Tools.

Six More ccTLDs Signed With DNSSEC

They may only be some of the smaller ccTLDs around the world, but six more have been signed with DNSSEC and now have DS records in the root zone, according to a post on the ISOC website

They may only be some of the smaller ccTLDs around the world, but six more have been signed with DNSSEC and now have DS records in the root zone, according to a post on the ISOC website.

This means that people and businesses with domains registered in these ccTLDs can now receive the higher level of security possible with DNSSEC. The ccTLDs are:

The post notes for registrants that have a domain registered in those ccTLDs, their registrar should now be able to pass the required DS record up to the ccTLD registry.

As the ISOC post notes, congratulations to Garth Miller and the teams associated with the various TLDs for making these signed TLDs happen. As per ICANN’s TLD Report, 111 out of 318 TLDs are now signed which is excellent progress.

Iraq Moves .IQ Back Home

Iraq Dot IQ logoIraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) has announced it has migrated the critical technical functions for managing and hosting the country’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) to within the country

Iraq Dot IQ logoIraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) has announced it has migrated the critical technical functions for managing and hosting the country’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) to within the country.

New polices for .IQ will be published online on the CMC website in the upcoming weeks. Registration process for registrars shall then start immediately after approval.

The CMC has deployed the proven (CoCCA) open source Shard Registry System (SRS) developed in New Zealand. The CMC’s best-of-bread SRS technology will facilitate the CMC’s goal of running a shared database that is accessed by accredited Iraqi internet companies (for commercial and resell purposes).

The CMC is an independent authority that is not associated with any other governmental entity and aims to regulate and develop both the media and telecommunication sectors in Iraq under modern international criteria.

NCC Group and CoCCA Launch Program to Extend Assurance Services to ccTLD registries

[news release] NCC Group, the world’s largest IT assurance and software/data escrow company, and the Council of Country Code Administrators Incorporated (CoCCA), a not-for-profit society of ccTLD managers, today announce a program to provide both registry data escrow and software escrow protection to CoCCA members and users of the CoCCA registry system. Under the terms of this agreement, COCCA Data Escrow (NZ) Limited will escrow both the participating member TLD data, as well as the source code for the registry system required to operate a registry, with NCC Group

[news release] NCC Group, the world’s largest IT assurance and software/data escrow company, and the Council of Country Code Administrators Incorporated (CoCCA), a not-for-profit society of ccTLD managers, today announce a program to provide both registry data escrow and software escrow protection to CoCCA members and users of the CoCCA registry system. Under the terms of this agreement, COCCA Data Escrow (NZ) Limited will escrow both the participating member TLD data, as well as the source code for the registry system required to operate a registry, with NCC Group.

One critical requirement of ICANN’s new gTLD program, and the ccTLD Best Practice advice of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), is to establish transfers of “domain registration data” to a reputable escrow agent such as NCC Group. Data escrow is a critical function and is necessary to ensure continuity of registry operations in the event of a physical, technical, or business failure.

CoCCA Director Garth Miller notes, “CoCCA has always sought to deliver economies of scale in policy development, complaint resolution and technology to both members and other users of our registry software. Partnering with NCC Group is a sensible, cost-effective way to ensure that entities that rely on CoCCA to assist in them in the management of critical Internet infrastructure are able to restore a production registry system in a matter of hours. While others generally escrow data only, CoCCA will be escrowing data, the registry system, and source code. NCC Group presented the best combination of operational flexibility, technical expertise, reasonable terms, and an easy to understand fee schedule.

The initial launch will see the data of 16 TLDs escrowed with NCC, and the project will be extended to other users of our software in Q2 2012”

NCC Group has been active in the domain name community since 2007 when it assisted ICANN with the development of the gTLD Registry Failover Plan. Since then, NCC Group has been the preferred escrow provider for a number of registries and registrars worldwide, and is proud to be the only escrow provider with major operations in Europe and North America. NCC Group’s offering is compliant with both US and EU law, and is designed to meet the needs of all registry operators worldwide.

Tom Scopazzi, Registry Services Manager at NCC Group, added, “CoCCA authors the Internet’s most widely deployed registry software; it has been selected by nearly one in five sovereign states – many of which are developing, small or post-conflict nations. CoCCA members generally desire to run the TLD in-country and not outsource; however, in many cases the operational infrastructure may not be what is available in the highly developed nations. This NCC – CoCCA partnership puts best-of-class escrow within reach of even the smallest TLDs, protecting critical infrastructure and the interests of registrants.”

About NCC GROU

NCC Group provides 45,000 organizations worldwide with IT assurance through escrow, verification, security & software testing, audit and website performance solutions. NCC Group is the only data escrow provider able to draw on this market-leading technical expertise and ensure that your Registry Data Escrow is stored under the highest levels of security at all times.

Through these services NCC Group gives customers the confidence that their business critical information, systems, networks, websites, and software are protected, secure, compliant and effective.

This CoCCA and NCC Group news release was sourced from:
cocca.org.nz/index.php/cocca-news/data-source-ncc.html

Sedari And CoCCA Form Joint Venture For dot Sydney and dot Melbourne bids

Sedari, a consultancy for new gTLD applicants, registry operator Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) along with Sydney-based Cloud Registry have formed a joint venture to bid for the contract to apply for four new top level domain applications for the New South Wales and Victorian Governments.

Sedari, a consultancy for new gTLD applicants, registry operator Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) along with Sydney-based Cloud Registry have formed a joint venture to bid for the contract to apply for four new top level domain applications for the New South Wales and Victorian Governments.

The four gTLDs that the NSW and Victorian governments have announced they are interested in applying for are .SYDNEY, .MELBOURNE, .NSW and .VICTORIA.

“This is a formidable team that not only answers the immediate project management aspects of the RFP but sets up a robust organization for the long term operation of these impressive new domain names,” said Sedari’s CEO Dr. Liz Williams.

Dr. Williams has been involved in the .AU space since the early days of the formation of the auDA as an elected Board Director and active participant in policy working groups to introduce competition into Australia’s internet.

“This is the next exciting step for the expansion of the domain name system in Australia using the best technology, the most innovative business models and the intellectual capacity of a global team of recognized experts,” commented Williams.

“We approached the Sedari team to complement our technical expertise with strong project management skills and detailed ICANN knowledge. Together, we will work with the stakeholders and governments to pave the way for a flourishing digital economy,” added Andrew Douglas, the consortium’s project manager and Chief Operations Officer at Cloud Registry.  Cloud Registry has a strong foothold in the Asia Pacific new gTLD market, and has worked with Sedari on all the technical aspects of the ICANN requirements.

CoCCA’s CEO Garth Miller provided the important name distribution and long term operational experience for the consortium.

“CoCCA’s experience working with governments, public administrations and country code administrators is invaluable to the consortium, said Miller. “CoCCA has developed, over more than a decade of operations, robust systems that work all over the world.”

CoCCA Registry System Now Used By One in Seven ccTLDs

The Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) is rapidly picking up new clients with the announcement that .ZM (Zambia) and .BW (Botswana) have selected the CoCCA registry system for managing their ccTLDs. With the addition of the two ccTLDs and .GY (Guyana) recently completing a migration to the CoCCA NOC, meaning that close to one in seven country code Top Level Domains now use CoCCA registry services

The Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) is rapidly picking up new clients with the announcement that .ZM (Zambia) and .BW (Botswana) have selected the CoCCA registry system for managing their ccTLDs. With the addition of the two ccTLDs and .GY (Guyana) recently completing a migration to the CoCCA NOC, meaning that close to one in seven country code Top Level Domains now use CoCCA registry services.

The announcement of .ZM and .BW by the Zambia Information Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) and the Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) respectively was taken with the view that the ccTLDs are critical infrastructure.

“Deploying CoCCA’s Registry System was the logical choice as ZICTA does not wish to outsource or deploy a propriety registry system,” said ZICTA project Manager Choolwe Nalubamba. “CoCCA’s success has been in its approach – they treat a TLD registry as a “shrink-wrapped” standards based database application – not a complex system requiring foreign expertise.”

The addition of .ZM and .BW brings the total number of ccTLDs that have deployed the CoCCA solution in Africa and the Middle East to 14 (including three Arabic IDN TLDs) while 35 ccTLDs have deployed it globally. CoCCA’s Technology is used to run twice as many TLD s as our closest competitor, Affilias. Several more ccTLDs are currently evaluating CoCCA and additional announcements are expected soon.

In addition to the .ZM and .BW TLDs, the University of Guyana has completed a migration of the .GY ccTLD to the CoCCA NOC, while continuing to operate a mirror registry system for failover and escrow in country, something that is easy when using CoCCA’s registry system.

“The reason for our success is our philosophy, at CoCCA we view a TLD registry as a database application, our software application can be downloaded and installed in minutes on Linux / OSX or WIN7 operating systems in the same way one would install an office suite” said Garth Miller, CEO, CoCCA Registry Services (NZ) Limited. “We provide users with a commercial subscription option with automated updates and security patches, we constantly modify the software to comply with IETF and ICANN requirements and the demands of the market”

Version four, to be released in June will comply fully with ICANN’s evolving gTLD requirements.

For more information on CoCCA Registry Services, see cocca.org.nz.

Egyptian IDN Registry (dotMASR) Tenth African TLD to Deploy CoCCA Registry Software

The small registry services provider CoCCA (Council of Country Code Administrators) has added the Egyptian internationalised domain name (IDN) registry (dotMasr) to its stable of registry operators who have deployed their own registry software

The small registry services provider CoCCA (Council of Country Code Administrators) has added the Egyptian internationalised domain name (IDN) registry (dotMasr) to its stable of registry operators who have deployed their own registry software.

DotMASR becomes the tenth top level domain on the African continent to deploy CoCCA’s EPP registry software and the fifth ccTLD – Greenland, Guernsey, Jersey, Palestine and American Samoa –who migrated to CoCCA in the second quarter of 2010.

The CoCCA registry is the most widely deployed domain name registry system in use and is becoming increasingly used by small registry operators around the world.

To read the CoCCA news release on the announcement, see below:

Egypt’s IDN Registry (dotMasr) becomes Tenth TLD on African Continent to Deploy CoCCA Registry Software
The National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt (NTRA) has deployed its production domain name registry system for Egypt’s Internationalized Domain Name country code Top Level Domain (IDN ccTLD). The NTRA’s registry system is based on the Council of Country Code Administrators’ (CoCCA) EPP registry system.

Egypt joins Kenya (.ke), Madagascar (.mg), Mauritius (.mu), Nigeria (.ng), Cameroon (.cm), Mozambique (.mz) , Namibia (.na), Egypt ASCII (.eg) and several other African countries in deploying the CoCCA registry system in-country. After evaluating numerous options, Egypt made the decision to base their IDN registry on the EPP software developed by CoCCA. The dotMasr project has proven to be an interesting intellectual and technical challenge for both NTRA and CoCCA developers.

Christine Arida, Director for Telecom Services and Planning at the NTRA, noted “access to CoCCA’s widely-deployed open source solution, straightforward advice, and skilled engineers made the deployment of a dotMasr registry system by our in-house engineers a considerably less daunting task than it might otherwise have been. The NTRA was able to configure CoCCA’s flexible system to meet our specific requirements, avoiding a both a lengthy development cycle and reinventing the wheel.”

CoCCA project manager Garth Miller further advised “the next release of CoCCA registry software will include the IDN tools and security enhancements developed jointly with the NTRA; it represents a significant milestone in the maturation of the CoCCA software – the software is almost a decade old and is in use by over 30 ccTLDs. While CoCCA remains the most widely deployed TLD registry system, the dotMasr project was an opportunity for our engineers to prove that our flexible architecture and Java based open-source technology can compete head-to-head with the most expensive proprietary registry systems.”

Mr. Miller explains further, “One consideration of the joint project was to ensure that IDN and security enhancements made for dotMasr were made available to all CoCCA registry software users. As a result, a proven IDN-capable registry is now available to ccTLD operators, even those with very limited resources. By way of example, Palestine, which has recently migrated to the CoCCA system for their ASCII TLD, also plans to utilize CoCCA for their proposed IDN ccTLD.”

CoCCA’s commercial model successfully delivers economies of scale to its members. Traditionally, “outsourcing” or “in-house development” of back-end registry services were the only two options available to TLD managers. CoCCA’s hybrid model puts TLD managers in full control and develops local capacity while giving users access to an established and proven technical platform. Providing a viable third option for countries intending to automate and deploy a standards-based TLD registry has lead to CoCCA’s sweeping success.

In order to provide the highest level of support in Africa, CoCCA has partnered with DEWCIS (the same consulting firm that assisted the Kenya NIC in CoCCA registry deployment) in a joint initiative to make CoCCA a continental standard. Adopting a common registry interface, set of technical tools, and common policies will facilitate the promotion of African ccTLDs, simplify accreditation of registrars, ease dispute resolution proceedings, and effectively address cyber-crime.

Egypt joined five other ccTLDs – Greenland, Guernsey, Jersey, Palestine and American Samoa in migrating to CoCCA in the second quarter of 2010.

CoCCA registry is the most widely deployed domain name registry system in use. The source code is open to CoCCA members and used by ccTLD operators royalty-free under a perpetual license. CoCCA is user-funded and has adopted the successful open source model of “free software” with optional commercial support.

About CoCCA

CoCCA is a not-for-profit incorporated society with offices in New Zealand and Christmas Island (an external territory of Australia). CoCCA provides to its members a variety of technical and policy tools to efficiently manage their respective ccTLDs. Expenses related to development and maintenance of the “core” EPP engine (registry software) is shared between CoCCA members and software users.

For Information or assistance in deploying the CoCCA software contact:
Garth Miller | Director
Email | garth.miller@cocca.org.nz
Council of Country Code Administrators
http://cocca.org.nz