Domain Names

Governance Theater: Why the gTLD Expansion Program Is a Lose-Lose Proposition

ICANN's gTLD expansion program is structured to collect fees regardless of outcomes, leaving brand, portfolio and single-string applicants bearing financial risk while accountability mechanisms offer little meaningful remedy when the process fails.

A Domain Is Registered. But Is It Really Unavailable?

RFC 10023 standardizes a DNS TXT record that lets domain holders signal a registered name is for sale, giving registrars, marketplaces, brokers and search tools a machine-readable way to distinguish registration from purchase availability.

How CZDS Zone Data Helps Detect Domain Abuse

Daily CZDS zone data can help brand owners and investigators detect suspicious domain registrations earlier, trace related infrastructure, monitor expired names, and shift enforcement from reactive disputes toward faster, evidence-based intervention.

Two Years After His Arrest, Pavel Durov Wants to Run His Own Registry

Telegram says it has applied for .gram, potentially giving a billion users DNS addresses while putting its governance, abuse controls, legal exposure and infrastructure under scrutiny as ICANN prepares to reveal applications.

auDA Moves to Tighten .com.au and .net.au Eligibility: What the Coming Changes Mean for Registrants

auDA has approved in principle tighter .com.au and .net.au eligibility rules that would limit registrations to domains matching a registrant's business name or Australian trademark, with implementation details and timing still pending.

Project Jake: A New Model for Domain Registration Data Disclosure

Project Jake proposes a voluntary, group-based framework for domain registration data disclosure, giving registrars and registries control over access while establishing standardized agreements, requester validation and sensitivity levels to balance privacy with legitimate data needs.

How Domain Abuse, Social Media, and AI Fuel Brand Attacks

CISOs expect social media impersonation to become their leading cybersecurity threat as attackers increasingly combine AI-enabled deception, executive impersonation, and domain abuse across multiple channels to conduct fraud and steal sensitive information.

The Reporting Gap: What Happens Between a DNS Abuse Complaint and a Takedown

DNS abuse enforcement can stop abusive domains and drive systemic registrar reforms, but reporting barriers, inconsistent response times, and poorly documented complaints leave many phishing sites active before actionable cases ever reach enforcement.

15th Registration Operations Workshop, September 29, 2026, 13:00 - 17:00 UTC

The 15th Registration Operations Workshop convenes domain name and DNS professionals September 29 for technical sessions on mTLS, RPKI, DNS resilience, delegations, DNSSEC, registrar concentration, dispute proceedings and alternative naming systems.

Proposed New DNS Resource Record Types for AI Agent Discovery

For more than three decades, domain names have served as a foundational identity layer for internet applications. Initially used to identify early network services such as TELNET, FTP, and email, they later became essential to web browsing and a growing range of online services.

Thirty-Five Years Later, Moscow Comes Looking for the Soviet Union’s Domain

Russia is imposing state identity verification on .su, the Soviet Union's surviving domain, as researchers uncover criminal infrastructure across the namespace and ICANN pursues a retirement process that could eventually remove it from the global root.

The Last gTLD Round Taught Us the Wrong Lessons

Fourteen years after ICANN's last gTLD expansion, registration figures offer an incomplete verdict. The next round will test whether applicants can build namespaces with enduring relevance, rather than merely generating impressive launch volumes and revenues.

DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists

Research suggests criminals may control a striking share of newly registered gTLD domains, raising questions about whether ICANN's definitions, contractual safeguards and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with the industrial scale of technology-facilitated harm.

DNSSEC Doesn’t Need a Better Story - It Needs a Better Tuesday

DNSSEC adoption is stronger than headline figures suggest, yet uneven across industries. New data indicate the bigger obstacle is not reputation but operational friction, especially key rollovers, registrar coordination and automation still missing across major domains.

Whose Precedent Gets Remembered? Selective Amplification Has Its Own Amnesia

DotConnectAfrica's landmark .AFRICA IRP victory established an ICANN accountability precedent later expressly invoked by Amazon. Selective amplification has since detached that precedent from its origins, distorting the historical record.