Microsoft and a team of companies and law enforcement groups have disabled — at least temporarily — one of the world’s largest hacking operations, an effort run by Russian-speaking cybercriminals that officials feared could disrupt the presidential election in three weeks.
Another component of internet-browsing is about to become criminal in Russia.
On Sept. 21, Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media (Minkomsvyaz) released a draft law that would criminalize the use of internet protocols that, in its words, encrypt a website name. The specific protocols the law is targeting are a jargony alphabet soup: TLS 1.3, ESNI, DNS over HTTPS (DoH), and DNS over TLS (DoT). But they’re important encryption techniques that are already, to varying degrees, deployed online, including in Russia.
China is also growing more adept at targeting campaign workers. But contrary to Trump administration warnings, Beijing is mostly aiming at Biden campaign officials.
Facebook removed a network of fake accounts and pages created by Russian operatives who had recruited U.S. journalists to write articles critical of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris, in an apparent bid to undermine their support among liberal voters.
Today [19 Nov], ICANN announced that the third Eastern European Domain Name System Forum (EEDNSF) will take place from 4-5 December 2018, in Moscow, Russia, following the success of the first edition in Kiev, Ukraine (2016), and the second one in Minsk, Belarus (2017). The event is jointly organized by ICANN and the Coordination Center for National Domains .RU/.РФ (cctld.ru).
This event is part of ICANN‘s regional outreach efforts to raise awareness on issues related to the Domain Name System (DNS), and collaborate with stakeholders on key areas. It comes as a continuation of the earlier engagement efforts to bring global discussions on the DNS to the regional level, and uncover the contexts surrounding the regional perspectives.
Sessions on the first day will cover technical topics. The second day will be devoted to policy-related discussions. The Forum’s topics include:
ICANN‘s Chief Technology Officer David Conrad, and Chief Security, Stability and Resiliency Officer John Crain will be at the event participating in discussions related to the evolution and security of the DNS, and the current challenges faced. Other regional and global actors of the DNS industry will also attend the forum, contributing to the sessions with their experiences and areas of expertise.
Register here and visit the EEDNSF website for more information. You can track the event on social media with the hashtag #EEDNSF.
Remote participation will be available for those interested in participating, but unable to attend in-person.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2018-11-19-en
Brazilâs ccTLD manager, NIC.br, announced [Portuguese only] Monday theyâve reached the 4 million registrations mark after âmore than 25 years of flawless operationâ.
There are over 120 second level domains under which .br domain names can be registered from blog.br and wiki.br for individuals to eng.br and adv.br for liberal professionals, tv.br and tur.br for legal persons, rio.br, sampa.br and curitiba.br for cities those reserved for specific purposes such as gov.br, jus.br, b.br and org.br among others. Some of these have as few as 10 registrations, while the largest, com.br has 3,645,125 accounting for 91.2% of all registrations.
According to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, .br is the seventh largest country code top level domain (ccTLD). Verisign already had .br at 4 million domain name registrations at the end of 30 June, probably through rounding, up in this case, to the nearest hundred thousand. Chinaâs ccTLD was the largest with 22.7 million followed by Tokelauâs free .tk (21.5m), Germanyâs .de (16.3m), the United Kingdomâs .uk (12.0m), Russiaâs .ru (5.9m), the Netherlandsâ .nl (5.8m). Following .br is the European Unionâs .eu (3.8m), Franceâs .fr (3.2m) and rounding out the top 10 is Italyâs .it (3.1m).
Revenues from .br registrations allow NIC.br to, in addition to providing and maintaining the infrastructure behind .br, invest in a series of actions and projects that generate benefits and improvements to the internet infrastructure in Brazil. These include the operation of internet traffic exchange points, which promote the interconnection of networks that form the Internet in Brazil, reducing distances and costs; the handling security incidents and tracking internet statistics.
Nic.br notes that other advantages of registering .br domain names include additional security features, such as token and encryption, that strengthen both the accounts of Registro.br users, and their respective domains. There is another recent feature: a redirection feature that lets you point a .br domain to any URL, whether it’s on a website or the preferred channel on social networks, keeping identities and active tags on the Internet permanently. Servers distributed by Brazil and other regions of the world guarantee speed and reliability in the resolution of .br and a team exclusively dedicated to meet and assist users in their doubts complete the description.
The agenda of the 11th International Conference of ccTLD Registries and Registrars of the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe is now available. The TLDCON 2018 conference will include speeches by domain experts from Russia, Latvia, the US, Canada, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia and others.
The conference, which usually attracts between 100 and 150 attendees and has around 120 attendees for this yearâs meeting listed, will cover topics such as the security of the domain space, interaction between the domain industry and copyright owners, the development of national domains, DNS and new technology. In addition, on the second day of the conference representatives of Russian and foreign registries will gather to discuss the models of registration business.
The Domain VS Content section on information security will be devoted to the work with domains that are used for illegal purposes. The section will bring together registry experts from the CIS countries, Europe, North America, as well as representatives of international organizations and information security experts: ICANN’s Senior Director of Security, Stability and Resiliency John Crain, founder and CEO of iThreat Cyber Group and SSAC member Jeffrey R. Bedser, and head of the Canadian think tank Secure Domain Foundation Norm Ritchie. For the first time, the analysis and forecast for domain name usage will be discussed at TLDCON. The forecasting tools help to detect before the delegation whether it would be used for illegal purposes and thus make this domain name the focus of attention of security experts and lower the risks for the users. In this section, Russia will be represented by Pavel Shepetina from Group-IB and Alexander Venedyukhin from the Technical Center of Internet.
Another section, Legal Issues of Domain Registration, will feature a heated discussion between industry representatives and stakeholders. Yekaterina Kalinicheva, head of the intellectual property protection division at Semenov&Pevzner, will represent the latter group. For the first time in the history of TLDCON, a stakeholder is taking part in a relevant domain event to express their opinion whether registrars should be responsible for content.
The DNS and New Technology section will have speeches by representatives of Rostelecom Group: the Technical Center of Internet, Ngenix and MSK-IX. They will speak about how new technology such as blockchain, CDN and new ways to identify users, are used for the development of the domain space and the benefits for the users and the domain business. John Crain will explain to the audience how to protect DNS while using new technology. Representative of .ART domain Sergei Baukin will present a practical case of the use of DNS in works of art authentication.
At the National Domainsâ New Lease of Life section representatives of national registries of Ukraine and Belarus, on one side, and the registries of the new domains Afilias and .ART on the other side will discuss current marketing approaches to promoting top-level domain names. The section will reveal how the domain role is changing today and what new uses there are. In addition, Andrei Kuzmichev from RU-CENTER will evaluate the current situation from the point of view of a registrar.
TLDCON 2018 will conclude with a meeting of Registrars Club: Welcome or Members Only? where participants will discuss various business models of registrars, accreditation requirements, differences and similarities of work in national and general top-level domains. Representatives of Russian and Armenian registries, ICANN experts and experienced and new registrars will speak about new models. This many-sided view can help understand the nuances of the work of accredited registrars.
The TLDCON 11th International Conference of ccTLD Registries and Registrars of the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe will take place in Jurmala, Latvia, on September 12-13. Participating at the conference is free but registration is obligatory.
The growth in domain names was once upon a time not so many years ago on a sharp upward trajectory. But over the last couple of years that growth has slowed dramatically, with registrations growing 1.0% in the year to the end of the first quarter in 2018, or 3.2 million, to approximately 333.8 million domain name registrations across all top level domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign for the first quarter of 2018. For the quarter, registrations grew approximately 1.4 million, or 0.4%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.
This growth compares to the year to the end of the first quarter of 2010 when domain name registrations grew by 11 million, or 6%, or the year to the end of the first quarter of 2017 when registrations grew 11.8 million, or 3.7%.
Total country-code top level domain (ccTLD) registrations were approximately 146.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 0.2 million domain name registrations, or 0.1%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.2 million domain name registrations, or 2.2%, year over year. This is a noticeable improvement on 12 months ago when the growth was 1.7% year over year. In the year to the end of the first quarter 2010 growth was 3.2%.
The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 148.3 million domain name registrations in the domain name base at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 1.9 million domain name registrations, or 1.3%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.
The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.2%, year over year. As of 31 March, the .com domain name base totalled approximately 133.9 million domain name registrations, up from 128.4 million 12 months ago, while the .net domain name base totalled approximately 14.4 , down from 15.2 million 12 months ago.
New .com and .net domain name registrations totalled approximately 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, compared to 9.5 million domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2017.
Total new generic top level domain (new gTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 20.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with a decrease of 0.4 million domain name registrations, or 2.0%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. New gTLDs decreased by approximately 5.3 million domain name registrations, or 20.7%, year over year.
Among the top 10 TLDs, the first 7 are the same as one year ago – .com is the largest followed by .cn (China – 21.4 million), .tk (Tokelau – 19.9m), .de (Germany – 16.3m), .net (14.4m), .uk (United Kingdom – 12.0m) and .org (10.3m). In eighth place was .info (6.2m) followed by .ru (Russian Federation – 6.1m) and .nl (Netherlands – 5.8m). In 2017 places 8 to 10 consisted of .ru, .nl and .xyz.
In their report Verisign note that their figures include domain names in the .tk ccTLD. .tk is a free ccTLD that provides free domain names to individuals and businesses. Revenue is generated by monetising expired domain names. Domain names no longer in use by the registrant or expired are taken back by the registry and the residual traffic is sold to advertising networks. As such, there are no deleted .tk domain names.
This article can be read with images at:
http://www.domainpulse.com/2018/06/15/new-gtlds-plummet-net-slides-while-com-and-cctlds-continue-to-grow-verisign-dnib/
It was only a few years ago that the growth in the number of domain names registered around the world was in the 5 to 10% range every year, sometimes even higher. Today however that growth has slowed to a crawl as many markets around the world reach maturity, even saturation.
In the 12 months to the end of June domain name registrations grew by 6.7 million, or 2.1%, year over year, to a total of 331.9 million domain names across all top level domains according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign. For the second quarter of 2017, registrations grew approximately 1.3 million equating to a growth rate of 0.4% over the first quarter.
The .com and .net top level domains had a combined total of approximately 144.3 million domain name registrations as of the end of June. This represents a 0.8% increase year-on-year. There were 129.2 million .com registrations and 15.1 million .net registrations.
New .com and .net domain name registrations totalled 9.2 million during the second quarter of 2017. In the second quarter of 2016, new .com and .net domain name registrations totalled 8.6 million.
Compared to previous years, the global year-on-year growth across all TLDs for the 12 months to 30 June in 2009 was 9%, to 30 June 2012 it was 11.9%, 5.9% to 30 June 2015 and 12.9% to 30 June 2016.
The top 10 TLDs as of the end of June for selected years with total registrations where published in Verisign’s DNIB were:
| June 2017 | June 2016 | June 2015 | June 2012 | June 2009 | |
| 1. | .com – 129.2million | .com – 127.5m | .com – 118.5m | .com – 103.7m | .com |
| 2. | .cn (China) – 21.4m | .tk | .tk | .de | .cn |
| 3. | .tk (Tokelau) – 19.1m | .cn | .de | .net – 14.8m | .de |
| 4. | .de (Germany) – 16.2m | .de | .net – 15m | .tk | .net |
| 5. | .net – 15.1m | .net – 15.8m | .cn | .uk | .org |
| 6. | .uk (United Kingdom) – 10.7m | .org | .uk | .org | .uk |
| 7. | .org – 10.4m | .uk | .org | .info | .info |
| 8. | .ru (Russian Federation) – 6.4m | .xyz | .ru | .nl | .nl |
| 9. | .info – 5.9m | .ru | .nl | .ru | .eu (European Union) |
| 10. | .nl (Netherlands) – 5.7m | .nl | .info | .cn | .biz |
Total ccTLD registrations were approximately 144.2 million in the second quarter of 2017, with an increase of 1.1 million, or a 0.8% increase compared to the first quarter of 2017. ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.7 million registrations, or 2.6%, year over year. Without including .tk who gives away its domain names for free, ccTLD domain name registrations increased approximately 603,000 in the second quarter of 2017, a 0.5% increase compared to the first quarter of 2017 and ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.8 million registrations, or 3.1%, year over year.
As of 30 June there were 302 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 64.8% of all ccTLD registrations.
Registrations among the new generic top level domains totalled 24.3 million, which represents 7.3% of total domain name registrations. The top 10 new gTLDs represented 61.5% of all new gTLD registrations.
To read this story with images, see:
http://www.domainpulse.com/2017/09/15/global-domain-name-growth-a-crawl-second-quarter/
Once upon a time not that many years ago, the growth in domain name registrations each year was like growth in the Chinese economy – well over 10%. These days the growth rate overall is nothing to be sneezed. In the year to the end of March, registrations around the world grew by 3.7% (11.8 million) to 330.6 million across all top level domains (TLDs) according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief. It was only in the preceding year, to the end of March 2016, that registrations had grown 11%.
OK, Verisign add a proviso when looking back on registrations for registrations to the end of March 2016 for the .tk (Tokelau) country code top level domain (ccTLD) with a significant re-estimation downwards of its zone file size. As a result total global domain name registrations were changed from 326.4 million to 318.8 million. However these 10%+ annual registration increases were standard for several years.
The change in of annual registration increases of below 5% though are likely to be standard for some years to come as the significant growth is coming from ccTLDs in developing countries and within new gTLDs, although even here due to some new gTLDs such as .xyz having hugely discounted promotions, renewal rates are very low and even declining. However in total new gTLD registrations have stabilised around the 27 million mark for the last 6 weeks according to nTLDstats.com. As of 31 March new gTLD registrations were near their peak of 29.1 million. They peak at 29.4 million in mid-April.
For the quarter, registrations grew only 0.4% (1.3 million) to 31 March, which indicated an even greater slowdown in registration growth.
The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 143.6 million domain name registrations in the domain name base in the first quarter of 2017 – 128.4 million for .com and 15.2 million for .net. This represents a 0.8% increase year over year, almost entirely due to increase in .com.
Among ccTLDs, .cn (China) has regained the crown of the largest and now has 21.4 million registrations to be the second largest of all TLDs while .tk has 18.6 million with .de (Germany) next with 16.2 million. Following in the top ten TLDs is .net then .uk (United Kingdom – 10.6m), .org (10.4m), .ru (Russian Federation – 6.4m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.7m) and then the largest of the new gTLDs, .xyz (5.6m).
Growth in ccTLDs was only 0.3% for the quarter, or 408,242 registrations, and 1.7% (2.4 million) for the year. Without including .tk, ccTLD domain name registrations increased approximately 568,242 in the first quarter of 2017, a 0.5 percent increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2016 and ccTLDs increased by approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.9 percent, year over year.
At the end of the first quarter there were 294 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 64.7 percent of all ccTLD domain name registrations.
For the new gTLDs registrations totalled 25.4 million as of 31 March, 7.7% of total domain name registrations. The top 10 new gTLDs represented 64.1% of all new gTLD domain name registrations.
Volume 14, Issue 2, of the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief is available for download from:
http://www.verisign.com/assets/domain-name-report-Q12017.pdf
An archive of recent reports is available from:
http://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/dnib/domain-name-industry-brief-reports/index.xhtml