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US House Hearing Scheduled on Internet Stability, IANA Transition

The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, April 2, 2014 on "Ensuring the Security, Stability, Resilience, and Freedom of the Global Internet." more

ICANN Security Team Reports on Conficker Post-Discovery Analysis

A paper released today by ICANN provides a chronology of events related to the containment of the Conficker worm. The report, "Conficker Summary and Review," is authored by ICANN's Dave Piscitello, Senior Security Technologist on behalf of the organization's security team. more

ICANN Targeted in Spear Phishing Attack

In an announcement on Tuesday, ICANN reports that it is investigating a recent intrusion into its systems. The agency believes a "spear phishing" attack was initiated in late November 2014. It involved email messages that were crafted to appear to come from its own domain being sent to members of its staff. more

Consistency, Urgency, and Transparency Needed for Registrant Data Requests

As we reported in our Post-GDPR Compliance Rate retrospective in January 2020, registrar compliance rates in response to verified requests for redacted registrant information using the Appdetex WHOIS Requestor System was 25 percent. Our most recent report shows the compliance rate has increased to 27 percent, based upon a total of 243 requests for redacted WHOIS information sent to 68 registrars over the period starting January 1, 2020, through February 24, 2020. more

Community New gTLD Applications: The Wrong Choice

Community new gTLD applications were one of the three options offered by version one of ICANN new gTLD applicant guidebook. It was also possible to submit a "generic" or a "geographic application." I dug the ICANN website and found out that, in the end - and according to me only - it was a bad choice to submit such application...
I went through the 52 delegated applications to investigate which ones have lots of domain name registrations and which ones don't. more

ICANN Holding Its First North American Meeting Since 2014 in Puerto Rico

As ICANN wraps up its Annual General Meeting in Abu Dhabi, the organization is inviting participation in its 61st ICANN meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 10–15 March 2018. more

Selecting ICANN’s Next CEO - Letter 2

In November 2011, a group of "friends of ICANN" from various countries sent a letter to the Chair of ICANN's Board, expressing concern about the process used previously, and suggesting improvements. Towards the end of 2011, the ICANN Board set up a Search Committee, chaired by George Sadowsky, and some significant improvements have been integrated into the selection process... more

The EPDP Passed an Important Milestone… Now What?

This isn't the blog post I had hoped to write. When I signed up to participate in ICANN's Expedited Policy Development Process for gTLD Registration Data, I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us, but I was cautiously optimistic that we would, eventually, reach a successful outcome. Today, I find myself looking at things differently. After hundreds of hours and countless meetings and emails, Phase 2 of the EPDP's work has wrapped up with the delivery of our final report to the GNSO Council. more

ICANN Sets the Stage for Next Round of New Generic Top-Level Domains, Anticipates Q2 2026 Launch

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors has green-lighted the next phase of implementing new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), per a resolution approved on July 27, 2023. more

A Look at ICANN’s Creation

My story begins in ancient times when dinosaurs ruled the earth. It was a time when you could download a movie onto your desktop computer through your 56k dial-up connection if you had a few days. It was a time when more people were on the Minitel in France than on the Internet globally and when the Republic of Korea could fit all of its internet users into one small hotel room. I know because I met them all in that room. more

ICANN President, CEO to Step Down July 2012

Rod Beckstrom announced today that he will be ending his work at the the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) by July of next year. Beckstrom, a former U.S. cybersecurity chief, was elected as the President and CEO of ICANN in Jun of 2009 following Paul Twomey who had been serving the position since March 2003. more

ICANN’s Two Decades of Evolution

In the fall of 1998, I was present at the first meeting of the ICANN Board which was then made up of very senior, prominent parties from a broad spectrum of sources. Much to her credit, Esther Dyson accepted the position as the first Chair of the ICANN Board for the newly birthed organization. I was in attendance in support of the nomination of Michael Roberts as the first ICANN CEO. It was a time of uncertainty. more

The Internet Tribe & New gTLDs

Much has already been written about the prospects and challenges associated with the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This post were originally written for my personal blog but a good industry friend has persuaded me to post it (and more) on CircleID. During this series I will attempt to show how the introduction of new gTLDs is ultimately a "win win win" scenario. A win for innovation, a win for commerce and most importantly a win for internet users. So where to begin? more

International Environmental Leaders Call for Community Protection of Dot Eco Domain

More than 50 major environmental groups have called on ICANN to protect the .ECO domain, representing a ground swell of public interest and support. Their letters are included with Big Room's community-priority .ECO application to ICANN... "This is one of the highest-level global mobilizations of the environmental community in history. Over 190 countries, more than 1,000 entities and over 10 million individual members are represented." more

Dot App, Dot Art Among Most Applied-for TLDs According to List Revealed by ICANN

ICANN announced today that it has received 1,930 applications for its new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program. 884 from US based organizations, 40 are from the UK, 303 from the Asia-Pacific region and 17 from Africa. Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's CEO, during the "Reval Day" event that took place in London today said: "The internet is about to change forever -- now a powerful change is coming." more