New Zealand’s ccTLD got a pandemic bump in domain name registrations in the year to 31 March, with registrations up almost 2% to what was then an all-time high to 723,451, according to the Domain Name Commission’s latest annual report released last week. Since then, registrations jumped another 1,002 to the end of June.
Most New Zealanders have been exposed to misinformation and are increasingly concerned about it, according to a survey by the Classification Office. The internet and social media are identified as key sources – while experts and government are trusted more than news media. The Chief Censor says it shows the need for urgent action but that call could also prompt pushback.
InternetNZ Thursday publicly disclosed a vulnerability against authoritative DNS servers such as the ones run by top-level domain (TLD) operators, like .nz. This vulnerability could be exploited to carry out Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks across the world.
InternetNZ Tuesday announced it is cementing its relationship further with their Canadian counterpart the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) through customising and deploying the CIRA Registry Platform for .nz. The new .nz registry will be fully operational by late 2022 and InternetNZ will continue to run and maintain it on-shore.
Used sporadically in pre-Covid times, the term “doomscrolling” has become instantly relatable in a year dominated by the pandemic, lockdowns and Trump tweets. And now it has won the seal of approval of New Zealand.
Consolidation in the domain name industry is continuing at a great pace, the latest being the Web.com Group announcing they acquired Freeparking, New Zealand’s number one domain name registrar and web hosting provider last week. The announcement, according to Web.com, rounds out their strategic expansion into the Australian, New Zealand, and Southeast Asian markets with its acquisition of Dreamscape Networks last year. They also failed in their takeover of the Australian-based Webcentral Group in September.
In tune with meetings and conferences around the world, InternetNZ’s annual NetHui is going virtual, a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, even though New Zealand has been less affected than most other countries. Safety first.