Tom Kleiber, a 53 year old ICT veteran, has been named today to take over as Managing Director of SWITCH, which among other roles manages Switzerland’s ccTLD .ch and Liechtenstein’s .li. Kleiber will succeed Andreas Dudler who is stepping down after nine years as Managing Director and retiring at the end of 2021. Kleiber will take up his new post on 1 January 2021.
The number of incidents of cybercrime on websites using .ch (Switzerland) and .li (Liechtenstein) domains decreased in 2015 while there was an increase in the number of phishing attacks on Swiss companiesâ websites with other domain endings, the SWITCH Foundation, which operates the registry for both ccTLDs, announced.
According to the cybercrime report, âSWITCH took action to remove malware from 698 .ch and .li websites in 2015, down from 1,839 in 2014. The situation as regards phishing was more or less stable: 329 .ch and .li websites were affected, compared with 323 in 2014. Meanwhile, there was an increase in the number of phishing attacks on Swiss companiesâ websites with other domain endings.â
âCybercriminals are driven by money. We are quick in identifying domain misuse and acting to stop it, so attacking Swiss websites is becoming less and less worthwhile,â explains SWITCH security expert Serge Droz.
Droz sees new challenges where phishing is concerned.
âPhishing attacks did not focus solely on banks in Switzerland last year, they were primarily targeted at online shops. Our goal for 2016 is to be even more efficient in dealing with phishing. Since we can only have a direct influence on .ch and .li, we are all the more dependent on cooperation with colleagues in Switzerland and abroad when it comes to other domain endings.â
For more on the SWITCH cybercrime report, see:
http://www.switch.ch/news/cybercrime/
The total number of .eu registrations grew by 4.7 percent in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter last year, according to the progress report released last week by the .eu registry EURid.
The increase for the quarter was 50,132 domain names under management, a net increase of 1.3 percent to 3.88 million. This made .eu the eleventh largest TLD in the world. The largest was .com with 114.576 million registrations followed by .tk (Tokelau) with 26.785m, .de (Germany â 15.794m), .net (15.083m), .cn (China – 1â.907m), .uk (United Kingdom) â 10.514), .org (10.399), .info (5.591m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.506m), .ru (Russian Federation â 4.895m) while .br (Brazil â 3.493m) followed.
âAs the new gTLDs continue jostle for position in the changing TLD landscape, our healthy growth rate has further underlined that .eu has a firm foothold in the domain name market,â commented EURid General Manager Marc Van Wesemael.
Indeed, .eu registrations increased in 24 of the 28 EU member states. Malta, Greece and Luxembourg each saw growth of more than 5 percent.
The countries in the top ten list account for 87.6 percent of all .eu registrations. German residents have by far the most .eu domain name registrations, followed by residents of the Netherlands and France.
Residents in the European Economic Area (EEA) countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway became eligible to register .eu domain names on 8 January 2014. At the end of the third quarter registrants in Norway had registered 5,685 names, in Iceland 177 and Liechtenstein 78.
The survey also found the Netherlands has the highest density of domains registered of any European country, with 328.2 .nl domains registered per 1,000 people. Denmark was next with 226.2 .dk domains per 1,000 people followed by Germany with 196.1, the United Kingdom with 164.5, Iceland with 154.4 .is domains per 1,000 and Luxembourg with 154.0 .lu domains per 1,000.
The countries with the highest densities of .eu domains were Malta with 35.7 per thousand followed by the Netherlands with 30.2 and Luxembourg with 28.7.
The third quarter also saw EURid launch its new registration system. EURid implemented the new system to increase performance and to better meet RFC standards and so provide an improved service to the .eu registrar community and consequently to .eu domain name holders.
The full report is available for download at link.eurid.eu/reports.
The growth rate for the 248 ccTLDs around the world has been higher than that for the 21 legacy gTLDs in the three months to the end of August according to the latest CENTR DomainWire report.
The number of domains registered across all ccTLDs was 129,388,192, an increase of 1.7 percent over the three months, not including internationalised domain ccTLDs, which themselves grew by the even higher rate of 2.9 percent to 1,244,863.
Meanwhile the 21 legacy gTLDs saw growth of 0.3 percent to 148,807,739. Meanwhile, as would be expected, registrations across all the new gTLDs grew significantly across the three months â growing a total of 139.8 percent to 2,070,244.
In total, according to the ZookNIC statistics used by CENTR, there was a total of 282,526,140 domains registered across all TLDs, an increase of 1.3 percent in three months.
Among the ccTLDs, growth was highest with the largest, .tk (Tokelau) which saw registrations of its free domains grow 8.6 percent to 26.0 million. No other ccTLD saw growth of over two percent, but five saw registrations of 1.0 percent or more. They were .cn (China) with growth of 1.8 percent to 10.8 million registrations, followed by .eu (European Union â 1.5% – 3.8m), .ch (Switzerland â 1.2% – 1.9m), .br (Brazil â 1.2% – 3.5m) and .au (Australia â 1.0% – 2.9m).
The 20 largest ccTLDs accounted for around 82 percent of all ccTLD domains registered globally and 38 percent of all domains.
Within Europe there were almost 66.5 million ccTLD domains registered at the end of August, a growth rate of 0.3 percent for the quarter and 2.8 percent for the year.
The report also notes the countries with the highest domain name penetration. Liechtenstein tops this list with 176 ccTLD domains registered per 100 people, followed by Montenegro with 117, boosted by their .me ccTLD being promoted as a gTLD. The Netherlands and Switzerland followed with 33 and 24 respectively, then Denmark (23), Germany (19) and the United Kingdom (17).
The report also looked at registrar security and authentication. CENTR asked over 100 registrars, web hosting companies, ISPs and other IT related organisations for their thoughts on some specific areas of security management. The aim of the survey was to gather views on how to increase the security level access to their web portals as well as to evaluate the need for a greater emphasis on two-factor authentication and other security features.
The survey found that 90 percent of respondents are not aware of any situation where leaked credentials have led to an attacker modifying DNS or related data. This left 10% who have experienced this type of incident. Almost 70 percent of all respondents stated an attack of this kind would be a major impact on either the entire or part of the organisation.
To download the CENTR report in full, go to:
https://centr.org/news/09-25-2014/domainwire-sep14-global-tld-report
Residents, companies and organisations based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will be eligible to register .eu domain names from 8 January 2014 at 10:00 CET.
âWe welcome this positive development which has been in the air for some time,â commented the .eu registryâs General Manager Marc Van Wesemael. âThe more countries and businesses that benefit from .euâs unique identity, the stronger its brand becomes.â
âIceland, Liechtenstein and Norway have had close economic ties with the European Union since the Communityâs early years. Granting them access to the .eu top-level domain is a natural step forward in that relationship.â
âOur annual research shows that .eu is seen as a reliable and valuable online label. We are confident that the companies and residents of these countries will soon appreciate the advantages of the .eu TLD, including the strong security procedures for its management and databases.â
The decision by the European Commission to extend the “.eu zone” follows up on the provision contained in the original .eu regulation (EC 733/2002), which foresaw the extension of .eu to the European Economic Area.
SWITCH, the registry for the .li and .ch ccTLDs, is withdrawing the option for .li (the ccTLD for Liechtenstein) registrants to register .li domain names with them directly as of 14 February 2013. The move means that registrants will need to transfer their .li domain names as of this date to its accredited registrars, or as it calls them, âPartners.â
Up until now, it has been possible to register .li domain names directly with SWITCH or with one of more than 60 recognised Partners of SWITCH. The change has no impact on .ch (Switzerland) domains. Whether any similar change occurs to .ch domains is in the hands of OFCOM and the Swiss legislator. However SWITCH note they are not aware of any plans in this respect.
The SWITCH Foundation has taken the decision to discontinue its direct customer business with .li domain names. The current model with SWITCH as a registry and provider is no longer appropriate for the market the organisation believes.
“SWITCH has successfully built up the direct customer market over the past eight years. And more than 60 recognised Partners of SWITCH now ensure properly functioning competition. SWITCH is thus withdrawing from this market,” adds Andreas Dudler, managing director of SWITCH. This move has been coordinated with the Liechtenstein Office of Communication.
Leading up to the change, all registrants of .li domains that use SWITCH as their registrar will be informed of the change in writing and will be invited to transfer their domain names to a partner of their choice by 13 February 2013. If customers fail to do anything, their .li domain names will be automatically transferred to switchplus on 14 February 2013. switchplus is a recognised Partner and subsidiary of SWITCH. A subsequent transfer to a different Partner is possible at any time. SWITCH is making sure that all customers are able to select a new service provider and is ensuring the interruption-free operation of .li domain names.
SWITCH is continuing to act as the registry on behalf of the Office of Communication of the Principality of Liechtenstein and will ensure that .li domain names operate reliably and are available round the clock all over the world. SWITCH will additionally be supporting the more than 60 recognised Partners.
For more information, see:
SWITCH, the registry for Swiss and Liechtenstein domain names, is warning against bogus offers for domain names.
SWITCH has advised anyone receiving an offer of a domain name by phone or e-mail should be on their guard. Their customer service has been receiving an increasing number of enquiries from worried customers who have received phone calls or emails with offers to register one or more domain names for them – generally at an inflated price. Continue reading SWITCH, Swiss & Liechtenstein Registry, Warns Against Bogus Offers