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Enhancing its commitment to a higher standard of social responsibility and ethical behavior on the web, domain extension .US.ORG today enters general availability with two unprecedented security and environmental measures from Registry Service Provider, CentralNic.

• To coincide with the launch of .US.ORG, CentralNic has succeeded in attaining CarbonNeutral® company certification by reducing its carbon footprint to net zero, taking the lead on environmental commitment within the domain name industry.
• CentralNic's .US.ORG is the world's first domain to be launched with DNSSEC enabled. Introduced by ICANN as a requirement for new top-level domains, DNSSEC is an added security feature which CentralNic pioneered, introducing the measure across 25 domain extensions during 2010 and 2011.

To achieve CarbonNeutral® status, CentralNic worked with The CarbonNeutral Company, one of the world's leading carbon offset and carbon management businesses. All the emissions relating to the company, including energy consumption, waste and business travel, are quantified and then reduced through combining internal changes (for example, using virtualization technology and more efficient servers to reduce power consumption in its data centers, increasing recycling and implementing low carbon vehicles) with carbon offsetting. Through offsetting, every tonne of CO2 is matched by an equivalent amount saved by a significant renewable energy or resource conservation project.

"We are thrilled to work with CentralNic, whose dedication to environmental sustainability was evident in its desire to be a pioneer for carbon neutral operations in the domain name industry," said Rebecca Fay, Marketing Director, The CarbonNeutral Company.

Working with Xelerance Corporation, .US.ORG offers the highest level of security with DNSSEC, a new technology that secures the link between domain names and IP addresses — a previously insecure connection could be intercepted by hackers to divert Internet users to malicious websites.

"Obviously if CentralNic was one of those carbon-billowing Registry Service Providers without full DNSSEC implementation across all its domains, we could not hold true to .US.ORG's socially-responsible philosophy," said Ben Crawford, CEO, CentralNic. "Now with the launch of .US.ORG as the first DNSSEC-enabled and carbon neutral domain, domain owners and the public can feel confident that they are using the most secure and environmentally-conscious space that the Internet has to offer today."

"And new TLD applicants from government, not-for-profits or business will enjoy these same security and environmental benefits when using CentralNic's technical services," Crawford added.

CentralNic announced .US.ORG in March 2011 with a ground-breaking intellectual property protection program that provided brand and trademark owners with six years of free registration. .us.org domain names can be registered through such leading registrars as eNom and Gandi.

About the Carbonneutral Company

The CarbonNeutral Company is a world leading provider of carbon reduction solutions. It works with more than 500 businesses in 32 countries to develop offset inclusive carbon reduction programmes which enable companies to increase revenue, manage costs and engage stakeholders. Since 1997, it has purchased carbon credits from more than 200 projects in 24 countries.

About .US.ORG

.US.ORG is a new domain extension for organizations, projects, websites and people with a higher purpose than simply maximizing profits. As a leader in the ethical and responsible use of domain names, .US.ORG will be announcing continued innovations in such areas as: trademark protection, security and stability, environmental responsibility and bridging the "digital divide".

About CentralNic

DotBrand Solutions ("DBS") is the world's first consultancy dedicated to obtaining Top-Level Domains for brands and trademark holders, with clients across three continents including The Ooredoo Group, Kuwait Finance House, Etisalat, Saudi Telecom and The Guardian, among others. DotBrand Solutions is a service of CentralNic. (Learn More)

Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Registry Services, Top-Level Domains