Category: Domain names

Municipal elections 2020: buzyn2020.fr and buzyn2020.paris domain names redirect towards Anne Hidalgo’s campaign

Municipal elections 2020: buzyn2020.fr and buzyn2020.paris domain names redirect towards Anne Hidalgo’s campaign
Image source: Sadnos via Pixabay

Following the announcement on Sunday February 16, of Agnès Buzyn’s candidacy to Paris municipal elections, several political journalists discovered on Monday that the domain name buzyn2020.fr was registered but redirected towards “Paris en commun”, the campaign website of another candidate, Anne Hidalgo.

Several other names were registered on Sunday night, also redirecting towards Paris en commun’s homepage like buzyn2020.paris, agnesbuzyn2020.fr and agnesbuzyn2020.com.

If several of these names were anonymously registered, two of them were registered by the association “Montreuil en Commun”, a group of “four municipal councilors” who claims to be “without any political label” and explains to Numerama the fact that these names were available “indicates the improvisation of her candidacy and LREM’s lightness regarding a serious matter such as a candidacy to run for Paris’ mayor”.

Raising awareness to cybersquatting risks

The LREM candidate will not be able to use the domain name buzyn2020.com either, which was registered on Monday by Crisalyde, a risk and crisis management consulting company.

“I took the opportunity to raise awareness. It’s my job, I saw a risk and I took advantage of it”, explains Selim Miled, Crisalyde’s CEO, to the Parisien.

Cybersquatting is a practice that consists in taking a domain name by registering it, using or mentioning a trademark, a business name, a patronym or any name on which the applicant has any right, in order to make material or moral profit from its current or future notoriety.

Thus, Crisalyde registered 6 domain names: buzyn.paris, agnesbuzyn2020.paris, buzynpourparis.com, buzynpourparis.fr, buzyn2020.info and buzyn2020.com. “As soon as Agnès Buzyn’s team contacts me, I will give them the domain name at the purchased price, with a friendly advice” adds Selim Miled.

What strategy to adopt against cybersquatting?

Agnès Buzyn’s team will have to contact the persons who registered these names, who may decide to graciously give them back or resell them at prices they will have set.

However, legal actions exist aiming to retrieve a cybersquatted domain name, like the UDRP procedure (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy). This procedure will allow to suppress or transfer the domain name.

And lastly, in order to prevent any cybersquatting risk, it is recommended to implement a domain names registration monitoring to be immediately alerted of any new domain names registration that can potentially infringe your notoriety or your business.

For more information on our online brand protection expertise and domain names recovery procedures, don’t hesitate to contact a Nameshield consultant.

ICANN67 – COVID19 : 0-1

ICANN67 - COVID19 : 0-1
Image source: geralt via Pixabay

The 67th annual ICANN Summit, a summit dedicated to Internet naming regulations, was to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 7th to 12th March. Often referred to by the acronym ICANN67, it is finally another acronym COVID19 that designates the now famous coronavirus that forced ICANN to reconsider all the logistics of this major event.

Since 1999, ICANN has organised three annual meetings devoted to the regulations applicable to Internet naming and a fourth devoted to more operational aspects, often referred to as the GDD Summit (Global Domain Division Summit). These meetings are an opportunity for participants from some 150 countries to discuss live the hot topics related to the Domain Name System (DNS).

For the past few weeks, however, world attention has focused on a completely different subject: the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, which according to the latest figures available has contaminated some 75,465 people in mainland China and caused the death of 2,236 people since its emergence in December in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. While South Korea also now has more than 150 confirmed cases, the list of countries with confirmed cases keeps growing. More than 30 countries are now in this situation.

Quite logically, in recent weeks, behind the scenes of the ICANN organization, coronavirus has been rising as a major concern for the players in the domain name industry. More and more potential participants were talking about the fact that they would prefer not to travel for this event, which is important to them, while others were asking whether it was appropriate to hold this event in such a context. Recent cancellations of similar events have indeed echoed their concerns. Earlier this month, the GSMA, the organizers of the world’s largest mobile industry exhibition, Mobile World Congress 2020, effectively cancelled the event after more than 30 exhibitors and sponsors withdrew due to the outbreak. The Fintech Festival of India (IFF 2020) organised by the government of Maharashtra, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Fintech Convergence Council also similarly announced this week that it would postpone the event to a “more appropriate time” due to coronavirus-related issues. The event was scheduled to take place on 4-5 March 2020.

At the 19 February session of the ICANN Board, which was extended by one hour, ICANN finally decided :

« Resolved (2020.02.19.01), by virtue of the public health emergency of international concern posed by COVID-19, the daily evolving developments, and the high global risk still identified, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO, or his designees, to take all necessary actions to not hold ICANN67 as an in-person meeting in Cancún, Mexico.

Resolved (2020.02.19.02), as the Board has determined to not proceed to Cancun, Mexico for ICANN67, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO to move ICANN67 to ICANN’s first fully remote public meeting. »

The ICANN Board communiqué confirms that the summit, which is usually held in person, will for the first time be entirely managed remotely with means still to be clarified.

If the holding of such event in a remote mode is unprecedented, it should be noted that in the past ICANN has already changed the organization of its meetings for similar reasons. Indeed in June 2016, for example, ICANN decided to move ICANN56 from Panama City to Helsinki in Finland because of the Zika virus. The only difference is that their decision could have been anticipated earlier.

This is why ICANN has already taken up the subject for the holding of the following events : the GDD Summit planned in Paris in May and then the ICANN68 planned in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in June.

Grandfathering registrations of a .TW in Chinese characters are opened for .TW domain names’ holders

Domain names in .TW in Chinese characters - .台灣
Image source: Yenyu_Chen via Pixabay

The .TW registry (TWNIC) offers grandfathering registrations for holders of existing ASCII.TW domains that wish to register the same ASCII domain under .台灣 (.xn--kpry57d).

Before the official opening, TWNIC provides priority registration for registrants who meet the eligibility requirements.

For example, twnic.tw can be registered for twnic.台灣 in the grandfathering period.

The following eligibility criteria apply and are checked by the registry:

  • The creation date for ACSII.tw should be earlier than the same ASCII name under .台灣 (.xn--kpry57d)
  • The registrant of ASCII.台灣 (.xn--kpry57d) should be the same as ASCII.tw
  • ASCII.tw and ASCII.台灣 (.xn--kpry57d) should be managed under the same registrar when creating ASCII.台灣.

Grandfathering Period : from January 7th, 2020 to February 10th, 2020.

The ASCII.tw Domain Name “.台灣(.xn--kpry57d)” will be starting  on February 18, 2020.

For more information on the conditions for registration of your .台灣, don’t hesitate to contact us.

*An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one language-specific script or alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Hebrew.  It allows the use of domain names in the native language of Internet users using special characters such as Asian, Arab or African users.

BREXIT – The plan of the .EU for UK citizens

Following BREXIT, Eurid (.EU registry) had recently updated its Domain names Registration Policy, by modifying the conditions of attribution of a .EU domain name for the British and Gibraltarians, according to the plan below:

* From 1st November 2019, EURid will NOT allow the registration of any new domain name where the registrant’s residence or establishment country code is either GB or GI, unless the citizenship country code of the registrant corresponds to an EU27 Member State.

* On 24 October 2019, and following explicit confirmation by the Commission, EURid will notify by email both GB and GI registrants and their providers about their forthcoming non-compliance with the .eu regulatory framework.

During this two-month period, the domain names concerned remained active and could continue to be used by their holders.

* As of 1 January 2020, all registrants who did not demonstrate their eligibility will be deemed ineligible and their domain names will be WITHDRAWN. A WITHDRAWN domain name no longer functions, as the domain name is removed from the zone file and can no longer support any active services (such as websites or email).

Twelve months after the UK withdrawal, i.e. on 1 November 2020, all the affected domain names will be REVOKED, and will become AVAILABLE for general registration. Their release will occur in batches from the time they become available.

* No transfer to GB / GI registrants will be possible during the two-month period between 1 November and 1 January, unless they have a citizen country code from an EU27 member state. The transfer to a non GB / GI registered will remain possible.

Following the UK’s official leave from the European Union on January 31, the United Kingdom and the EU will enter into the so-called “transition period” until December 31, 2020.

During this “transition period”, residents and citizens of the United Kingdom will continue to be able to own and register .eu domain names. The plan described above will apply from the end of the transition period and will soon be updated accordingly.

Nameshield will keep you informed as soon as Eurid will update the rules.

For its part, the British register (NOMINET) has no plans currently to restrict .uk domain names – they can be registered irrespective of nationality or place of residence. All are eligible.

The launch of .GAY is close

The launch of .GAY - New gTLDs - dotgay - Nameshield Blog
Image source : Top Level Design website

On June 1970, one year after the Stonewall Riots, which marked the birth of the LGBTQ rights movements, the first Gay Pride parades took place in many US cities to claim liberty, equality and denounce prejudice, persecution, bigotry and hate.

Fifty years later, with the launch of the new extension .GAY by the registry TOP LEVEL DESIGN, a new digital space is created for the LGBTQ community. This extension is thus intended for individuals, organizations, businesses supporting the LGBTQ community. It will increase their visibility and create a safe online space.

The launch of .GAY will follow the calendar below.

.GAY Launching Calendar

  • Sunrise period: from 10/02/2020 to 06/05/2020
  • EAP (Early Access Period): from 11/05/2020 to 18/05/2020
  • General availability: from 20/05/2020

.GAY donations to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations

Note that for each new domain name registered, the .GAY donates 20% of registration revenue to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations like GLAAD and CenterLink which are currently the inaugural beneficiaries.

A .GAY domain name registration will become a way to express support to the LGBTQ community.

.GAY rights protections policy

The .GAY will give the possibility to create a safer space online for LGBTQ community. Indeed, the extension will be subject to a .GAY rights protections policy, which will allow to report any content that is harmful or harassing LGBTQ people, and to act against them by removing the content or suspending the site itself.

“The use of .gay for anti-LGBTQ content or to malign or harm LGBTQ individuals or groups is strictly prohibited and can result in immediate server-hold. Prohibited behavior includes harassment, threats, and hate speech” highlights the registry.

.GAY domain name registrations will be prohibited to parties that are, or are associated with, recognized hate groups inciting violence against the LGBTQ community.

For more information on the conditions for registration of your .GAY, don’t hesitate to contact a Nameshield’s consultant.

Why is the sale of .ORG registry a source of debate?

Sale of .ORG registry - PIR Public Interest Registry - dot ORG - Nameshield

In November 2019, a press release announced that .ORG registry, Public Interest Registry (PIR), a non-profit organization managed by Internet Society, is going to be sold off to Ethos Capital, a private equity firm.

.ORG is the extension for non-profit organizations. The acquisition of PIR by Ethos has quickly concerned the organizations using .ORG, on the basis of the potential misuse of the extension by its new owner, which has, by its very nature, profit motives.

The concern? That the registrations and renewals fees for .ORG domain names increase.

Yet, key figures of the Internet’s world, like Andrew Sullivan (Internet Society CEO) are exited, seeing in this a strong strategic partnership and a significant financial contribution allowing Internet Society to advance its mission of a “more open, accessible and secure Internet for everyone”, as he wrote in the press release about the acquisition of November 13, 2019.

It would seem that the fears created find their origin in the “surprise” and lack of transparency around the deal, since the transaction amount has not been disclosed.

These fears are, of course, the corollary of the removal on June 30, 2019, of the price caps imposed until now to .ORG fees (historically low) by ICANN, despite many reservations expressed by the community. Finally, the fact that Ethos has directly or indirectly a number of close connections to former ICANN members raises concerns to several voices of the industry.

The fear to see the increase of .ORG prices led Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to launch the SaveDotOrg campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the potential impact of a .ORG price increase on the NGO’s budget constraints.

Also the possibility that Ethos Capital later implements a principle of rights protections that could lead to a form of censorship, as currently practiced in some countries wishing to silence NGOs.

In front of these protests, ICANN suspended the acquisition operation last December and requests clarification from the Internet Society.

More recently, in January 2020, a new candidate of the .ORG extension acquisition has appeared. It is a cooperative corporation (Cooperative Corporation of .ORG Registrants), gathering some web pioneer and former members of ICANN.

To be continued!

Cyprus: Registrations of first level .CY domain name are opened

Cyprus: Registrations of first level .CY domain name are opened
Image source : dimitrisvetsikas1969 via Pixabay

The .CY registry announces the registration of first level .cy domain names, i.e.domainname.cy

The owners of second level registered domain names, can also apply for the same domain names with a first level extension .CY.

Please note that the 2019 Decree does not provide for commitment on any domain names and thus, all requests will be examined on First Come First Served basis.

To submit a request, don’t hesitate to contact our customer support.

General availability of .MADRID as of December 17, 2019

.MADRID domain name
Image source: Stan89 via Pixabay

The general availability of .MADRID, the geographical extension of Madrid, the capital city of Spain is near. Managed by the Comunidad de Madrid registry, this extension was launched last April following the calendar below:

Launching schedule

  • APL period (Approved Launch Program): from 11/04/2019 to 06/06/2019
  • Sunrise and LRP (Limited Registration Period) period: from 16/07/2019 to 10/12/2019
  • General availability: from 17/12/2019

Some requirements must be respected to register a .MADRID domain name. A .MADRID name’s registration is reserved to individuals or legal entities possessing a link with the Madrid Community:

  • Local presence;
  • Professional, personal, cultural or commercial activity in the Madrid Community;
  • Direct or indirect link with the Madrid Community.

The date of the general availability planned for December 17 2019, is approaching, if you wish more information on your .MADRID registration, don’t hesitate to contact your Nameshield’s consultant.

ICANN66 at Montreal – A contrasting summit

During the first half of November, the 66th ICANN Summit was held in Montreal, Canada. This third and final annual summit devoted to policies applicable to Internet naming was eagerly awaited as the topics under discussion are numerous. At its closing, however, it left many participants a little bit disappointed.

A preview of the topics and postures during the weekend before the official launch of the Summit

The weekend before the official opening of the Summit is usually an opportunity to get an overview of the topics and postures involved. Not surprisingly, the expedited Policy Development Process (ePDP) which aims to develop a consensus rule to specify future conditions of access to personal data that are no longer published in the WHOIS, the domain name search directory, due to GDPR, is one of the major topics.

Among other related topics, the replacement of the same WHOIS by the RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) probably next year for generic domain names. This replacement is not insignificant when we know that WHOIS has been in use for nearly 35 years.

The body representing governments, the GAC, has weighed up the issue of domain name abuse, which has taken off considerably on the new generic extensions launched in 2012. When we know the rise of Internet practices aimed at weighing on elections in certain countries and the economic impact of computer attacks and hacking, we understand that this subject is being pushed by the GAC. While one of ICANN’s topics is to clarify in their texts the notion of malicious uses, this term refers to domains registered for phishing, malware, botnets and spam, the other part concerns the means to stem them. The existence of abusive domains indeed threatens the DNS infrastructure, impacts consumer safety and threatens the critical assets of public and commercial entities. Finally, and not surprisingly, the subject of a future round of new generic extensions has also been on many lips.

ICANN66 at Montreal - A contrasting summit
Cherine Chalaby at the ICANN Summit held in Montreal

“The best ICANN summit”, really?

During the traditional opening ceremony, which brings together all the guests for one hour (2500 according to Goran Marby, ICANN CEO) in a huge room to listen to various speakers, including Martin Aubé of the Quebec Government’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation, Cherine Chalaby, one of the ICANN Board members whose term ends at the end of the year, told his audience that ICANN66 would be the “Best ICANN summit”. It must be said, however, that at the end of the week of debates and meetings, which followed one another at a sustained pace, while the subjects under discussion are really numerous, the feeling regarding this assertion was more than mixed for many participants.

First, the expeditious process for access to WHOIS non-public data is progressing with a framework constrained by ICANN and the Personal Data Protection Authorities. The outcome of this process is envisaged between April and June 2020 and it is currently a centralized model where ICANN would allow the future lifting of anonymity of data that are now masked due to GDPR which holds the line.

Then the subject that was probably most often mentioned during this new summit week concerned abuses with domain names. For ICANN, the subject is central because it is directly correlated to its totem: the stability of the Internet for which they are the responsible. Since February 2019, ICANN has been publishing some metrics on malicious practices identified through DAAR, their Domain Abuse Activity Reporting.

Their latest report presented in Montreal shows that 364 extensions (mainly new generic extensions from the 2012 round) revealed at least one threat posed by one of the domain names activated on these extensions. More worryingly, new generic extensions would still account for nearly 40% of malicious uses, compared to 60% for historical generic extensions. This figure should be highlighted with the volume of these two categories of extensions. Indeed, out of just over 200 million generic names, new generic domains represent only 15% of the total number of registered names. ICANN therefore wants this subject to be taken up by the entire community present in Montreal.

Proposals were made by the various bodies present, some of which went so far as to request a policy development process (PDP). This last proposal, if it were to obtain ICANN’s approval, would have the unfortunate consequence of postponing the hypothetical schedule for a next round of new extensions, a subject that interested many of the guests present in Montreal. Indeed, for ICANN, the problem of the concentration of malicious practices in the new generic extensions must be solved before any future round, so that the PDP still in progress on the review of the last round of 2012 has gone almost unnoticed.  

If the rules are slow to evolve on malicious uses, your Nameshield consultant can already provide you with adapted solutions to your needs on this key matter.

Nameshield signs up the Paris Call in order to actively contribute to the Internet’s stability

Paris Call - Nameshield

Just one year ago, in the context of the first Paris Peace Forum, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, launched the Paris Call for trust and security in cyberspace. This call is a political declaration aiming to express a mobilization on the stability in the cyberspace and strengthens the efforts of the international community and many actors involved in the digital security issues. This text reminds some principles that we think are fundamental, like the application of the international rights and the Human rights in the cyberspace. It also highlights the need of a multi actors’ approach, to create standards which will allow us to fully benefit, i.e. in a reliable and secure way, from opportunities provided by the digital revolution.

Lastly, the Paris Call promotes the strengthening of the digital products and services’ security that we use for example, in our daily lives. The text aims in that sense, to prevent cyberattacks perpetrated by malicious actors, which threaten all the users of the cyberspace.

Aware that our Society’s development, on the economic, cultural and democratic fronts, requires a strengthened trust of the information that flows through the Internet, Nameshield, which has worked for 25 years to protect the digital identity of its clients; companies, local collectivities and administrations through the use of their domain names, wished to join this initiative and sign the Paris Call.

Its job consists in ensuring the integrity and resilience of the identity of individuals and organizations on the Internet, represented today by the domain name. By highly protecting data on domain name identity cards (Whois) and by providing a high availability and high performance service through the associated Domain Name System (DNS), Nameshield contributes to a large extent to the second principle of the Paris Call: Protecting the Internet. To prevent activity that intentionally and substantially damages the general availability or integrity of the public core of the Internet.

Cornerstone of the Web, the Domain Name System (DNS) serves as the Internet directory. This protocol translates a domain name into an IP address, based on a database distributed on thousands of machines. If the DNS falls because of data corruption or a denial of service attack, all your websites and emails would become inaccessible, which is completely unthinkable nowadays! The DNS must be protected and must stay highly available.

Protocol created in the 1980’s, security flaws regarding the usual functioning of the DNS have been identified since its creation. That is why, a new secured protocol, DNSSEC, has thus been developed to ensure the authenticity of the exchanges through a certified signature. Other solutions can complete the resilience of your identity on the Internet: the registry lock, SSL certificates…

The security solutions proposed by Nameshield, an independent French company that stores its data in France and possesses its own anycast and resilient DNS infrastructure, certified ISO 27001 on all its domain names activity, are compliant with the ANSSI recommendations on the good practices regarding the domain names’ acquisition and exploitation.

In the context of the 2nd Paris Peace Forum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wished to illustrate the second principle of the Paris Call: Protect the Internet by highlighting the services proposed by Nameshield. The company is proud to be able to collaborate, at its level, with the actors implicated in digital security issues in order to make the Internet more reliable and thus contribute to the security of the cyberspace.

https://pariscall.international/en/principles