Author: Aurélie Tran

Marketing service - Nameshield

Brexit and .EU domain names: EURid’s action plan on hold

Brexit and .EU domain names: EURid’s action plan on hold
Image source : Tumisu via Pixabay

On the article dated from February 22, 2019, we discussed about the Brexit’s consequences on the .EU domain names and the publication of the action plan by EURid, the .EU registry, following two scenarios, in case of no deal or in case of a withdrawal agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

In short, as a result of the Brexit, companies and individuals, holders of a .EU will no longer be able to renew or register names in .EU if they are not residing in the European Union.

In case of no deal, .EU domain names’ holders will have 2 months from March 30, 2019 to demonstrate their eligibility or to transfer their name to an eligible registrant (whose country code isn’t either GB/GI). All registrants who did not demonstrate their eligibility will be deemed ineligible and their domain names will be withdrawn.

In case there is a withdrawal agreement, this plan of actions will be implemented as of January 1, 2021.

Due to ongoing uncertainties over the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, EURid announced on March 22, 2019, that this plan would be placed on hold while waiting for an official update from the European Commission.

To be continued.

The .DEV available to all

The .DEV available to all
Image source: mohamed_hassan via Pixabay

After the launches of the .APP and .PAGE, Google launched .DEV on January 16, its new extension dedicated to developers and technology, following the calendar below:

  • Sunrise period: from 2019/01/16 to 2019/02/19
  • EAP (Early Access Program): from 2019/02/19 to 2019/02/28
  • General availability: from 2019/02/28

Since February 28, 2019, the .DEV is in general availability and already has more than 64 000 domain names’ registrations according to Domain Name Wire.

To promote this new extension and for the Google I/O 2019 , its annual event for developers (which will be held on May 7-9, 2019 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View), Google proposes the free registration for 1 year of a .DEV domain name for all ticket booked. But the registrations resulting of this promotional campaign only represent a small part of the 64 000 .DEV domain names registered.

During the last months, Google itself has launched or relaunched many of its websites in .DEV: web.dev, opensource.dev, flutter.dev…

Other companies have also chosen to register their domain names in .DEV like Mozilla with mdn.dev, Salesforce with crm.dev and Level Access with accessibility.dev.

The HTTPS mandatory for all .DEV domain names

As mentioned in a previous article by Christophe GERARD, Nameshield’s Security Product Manager, as reminder, Google in its goal of a more secure Internet, makes HTTPS encryption mandatory for all its new extensions: .APP, .PAGE, .HOW, .DEV… (More details in this article).

Thus, .DEV extension is included on the HSTS pre-upload list, requiring HTTPS protocol on all .DEV domain names.

Therefore, in order to use a .DEV domain name, you will need to acquire a SSL certificate and deploy HTTPS.

From tools to platforms, programming languages to blogs, this extension will allow you to present your projects. Don’t hesitate to contact a Nameshield’s consultant for any questions regarding the conditions for the registration of your .DEV.

Brexit’s consequences on .eu domain names : EURid’s action plan

Brexit’s consequences on .eu domain names : EURid’s action plan
Image source : Tumisu via Pixabay

In a previous article, we discussed the Brexit’s consequences on .EU domain names, the European Commission announced on 28 March 2018 that companies and individuals, holders of a .EU will no longer be able to renew or register names in .EU if they are not residing in the European Union.

With the Brexit’s date approaching, EURid, .EU registry, has recently published its action plan that has two scenarios depending on the case there is no deal or the case there is a withdrawal agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union. In the second case, it will be the same actions but they will be implemented on different dates (from December 2020).

Scenario 1: The United Kingdom leaves the European Union with no deal on 30 March 2019 

New registrations

  • From 30 March 2019: EURid will not allow the registration of any new domain name from registrant declaring an address in Great Britain (country code GB) or in Gibraltar (country code GI).

.EU domain names that have GB/GI as the registrant country code within WHOIS, at the time of UK withdrawal

  • On 23 March 2019: EURid will notify by email both GB/GI registrants and their registrars about the forthcoming non-compliance of the data associated to their domain name within the .EU regulatory framework.
  • On 30 March 2019: EURid will again notify by email both GB/GI registrants and their registrars that their domain name is not in compliance with the .EU regulatory framework.
  • Before 30 May 2019: Registrants will be given the possibility to demonstrate their compliance with the .EU regulatory framework by updating their contact data.

During this two months period, the domain names in question will remain active and the following actions are possible:

-Contact data changes including updates to existing contact details pertaining to phone number, email address, postal address and country code;

-Updating a contact or linking a new contact;

-Name server and DNSSEC changes;

-Transfer the domain name to a non GB/GI registrant.

During this two months period, the following actions are not possible:

-Transfer the domain name to a GB/GI registrant;

-Term extension, unless accompanied by a transfer request to an eligible registrant;

-Automatic renewal for domain names that expire in the period between 30 March 2019 and 30 May 2019.

  • As of 30 May 2019: All registrants who did not demonstrate their eligibility will be deemed ineligible and their domain names will be withdrawn.
  • On 30 March 2020, i.e. twelve months after the UK withdrawal: All the affected domain names will become available for general registration.
  • For. EU domain names that are in the ON-HOLD status at the time of UK withdrawal: They will remain registered until there is an outcome of the court case. However, they will be suspended and will cease to function as of 30 May 2019.

-If a court ruling establishes a transfer to an eligible party, that decision will be implemented in the usual way.

-If the domain name stays with the GB/GI registrant, the domain name will be withdrawn.

  • For .EU domain names that are in the SUSPENDED status at the time of UK withdrawal: Evaluation by the registry on a case-by-case basis, moving forward if appropriate, with the withdrawal of the domain name.
  • For .EU domain names that are in the QUARANTINE status at the time of UK withdrawal:

-No transfer to GB/GI registrants from quarantine will be possible during the two months period.

-Transfer to a non-GB/GI registrant will be possible.

Scenario 2: The United Kingdom leaves the European Union with a planned transitional period on 31 December 2020

It will be the same actions but they will be implemented on different dates.

New registrations

  • From 1 January 2021: EURid will not allow the registration of any new domain name from registrant whose country code is either GB/GI.

 .EU domain names that have GB/GI as the registrant country code within WHOIS, at the time of UK withdrawal

  • 23 December 2020: First email sent about the non-compliance of the data associated to the domain name.
  • 1 January 2021: Second email sent about the non-compliance.
  • Before 2 March 2021: Possibility for the registrants to demonstrate their compliance with the .EU regulatory framework by updating their contact data.
  • As of 2 March 2021: All registrants who did not demonstrate their eligibility will be deemed ineligible and their domain names will be withdrawn.
  • On 1 January 2022: All the affected domain names will become available for general registration.

The actions planned in the first scenario regarding the different status « ON HOLD », « SUSPENDED » and « QUARANTINE », will also be applied in the second scenario.

The Brexit’s consequences thus force the British to rethink their domain names strategy. Indeed, the loss of their .EU domain names will be an opportunity for cybersquatters who reside in the E.U. and meet the eligibility criteria, they would then have the rights to register these .EU domain names. Nameshield’s team is at your disposal to reply to all your questions and to propose you the best recommendations regarding your domain names’ portfolio management.

Cybersecurity overview – CESIN’s barometer

Cybersecurity overview
Image source: TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay

The CESIN (Club of Information and digital security experts) just published the fourth edition of its annual barometer realized with OpinionWay within its 174 members, 84% are CISO (Chief information security officer) of big French companies. This annual study allows to better define the perception and reality of cybersecurity and its issues within the companies which are members of CESIN.

The most common cyberattacks and their impacts

During these twelve last months, although the attacks number tends to stabilize, 80% of the interviewed companies have been the victims of at least one cyberattack, and the consequences on the business (stopping of the production, unavailable website, revenue loss…) are more important than in 2017.

Each year, companies face five kinds of cyberattack on average.

Among the attacks suffered, phishing is the most frequent with 73% of companies affected, followed by the “Fake President” fraud with 50% of the respondents affected, then in third position is the ransomware and the malware infection.

Regarding cyber risks, Shadow IT is the most frequently encountered risk, 64% of the interviewed CISO estimate that this is a threat to deal with. Indeed, the implementation and use of non-approved and often free applications can escape the control of the Information systems department.

Cloud and IoT: the impact of the digital transformation on the security of Information systems

For 98% of the companies, digital transformation has a real impact on the security of Information and data systems and increases the cyberattacks’ perimeter. Particularly through the important use of Cloud, used by 87% of the companies, of which 52% store their data in public Clouds.

This use of Cloud represents an important risk because of the lack of control from the hosting provider regarding the company’s data (through administrators or others), or regarding the subcontracting chain used by the hosting provider, or even regarding the data not deleted. For 89% of the CISO, these issues imply the use of complementary securing tools to the ones proposed by the service provider in order to secure the data stored in the Cloud.

Concerning IoT (Internet of Things), the race for innovation and the increasingly common use of connected things lead to the apparition of new cybersecurity threats, notably due to security flaws in these devices.

A cyber resilience to develop

To face these cyber risks, the CISO develop many technical solutions.

However, despite all these solutions, the CISO are less confident comparing to last year regarding the company’s capacity to face these cyber risks, and less than one out of two estimates that their company is prepared to manage a large scale cyberattack. And yet, only 12% have implemented a real cyber resilience program, it is in process for 33% and 34% are planning to implement one.

Three essentially human issues for the future of the cybersecurity

  • Awareness of the user

According to 61% of the interviewed CISO, the main issue for the future of the cybersecurity is the training and the awareness of the users to the cybersecurity issue. According to the respondents, “even if the employees are aware, they are still not involved enough and do not necessarily follow the recommendations. An important education work remains.”

  • Governance of the cybersecurity

For 60% of the respondents, the governance of the cybersecurity needs to be placed at the right level. Although the compliance to the GDPR allowed the companies to be aware of the data protection issues, the confidence in the ability of the executive committee to take into account the cybersecurity issues stays uneven depending on the activity sectors.

  • Human resources

The lack of Information system security profiles observed by 91% of the CISO, is a real challenge for the companies while 50% of these companies plan to increase the workforce allocated to cybersecurity.

Global risks 2019: Climate and cyber risks at the heart of concerns

Global risks 2019
Image source: PIRO4D via Pixabay

Upstream to the Annual Meeting in Davos that took place on January 22 to 25 in Switzerland, the World Economic Forum presented its Global Risks Report, a report which highlights the main global risks and issues, based on a survey of 1000 international decision-makers from the public sector, private sector, academia and civil society. So what are the main risks that the World is facing?

Cyber risks in the top 5

For the third year in a row, environment-related risks are at the top of the decision-makers’ concerns. They hold the top three of the risks likely to occur in 2019, followed by technology risks which are Data fraud or theft in 4th place, and cyberattacks in 5th.

Thus in 2019, 82% of the interviewed experts expect data and money theft, and 80% expect services and infrastructures disruptions resulting from cyberattacks.

The 5 risks most likely to occur according to experts

  1. Extreme weather events
  2. Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation
  3. Natural disasters
  4. Data fraud or theft
  5. Cyberattacks

The top 10 risks in terms of impact

  1. Weapons of mass destruction
  2. Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation
  3. Extreme weather events
  4. Water crisis
  5. Natural disasters
  6. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
  7. Cyberattacks
  8. Critical information infrastructure breakdown
  9. Man-made environmental disasters
  10. Spread of infectious diseases

Cyberattacks take the 7th place, and the critical information infrastructure breakdown the 8th place of the ranking, hence making it into the top 10.

Regarding technology, Børge Brende, the World Economic Forum’s President highlights that “Technology continues to play a profound role in shaping the global risks landscape. Concerns about data fraud and cyber-attacks were prominent again in the GRPS, which also highlighted a number of other technological vulnerabilities: around two-thirds of respondents expect the risks associated with fake news and identity theft to increase in 2019”. These concerns result from 2018 being traumatized by the increase of massive cyberattacks, breaches in IT security systems of States, massive data theft and the increase of artificial intelligence’s use for carrying out cyberattacks always more powerful.