While speaking at an ICANN international meeting in Nairobi this week, Rod Beckstrom criticized the security of DNS, saying it “can stop any time.” Furthermore, he went on to state:

The domain name system is under attack today as it has never been before. I have personally consulted with over 20 CEOs of the top registries and the top registrars globally, all of whom are seeing increasing attacks and complexity of attacks and who are extremely concerned,

While Beckstrom is perfectly accurate in his statement, to those with a vested in interest in certain start-up extensions and developing ccTLDs, them is fightin’ words. Specifically, Chris Disspain, chairman of the Country Code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO) council, called the ICANN CEO out on the comment.

As a representative of the various companies that run ccTLDs for many governments, Disspain is worried that Beckstrom “could cause great concern among governments regarding how elements of critical Internet resources are operated and managed in their countries.” In other words, the ccNSO chairman is worried about how this could affect his associate’s for-profit operations running ccTLDs.

Source | Computer World
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Rod Beckstrom draws criticism over DNS security comment

China, which has seen rapid growth on its .cn domain, has made news lately for its attempts to cut down on illicit .cn websites. Recently, new rules were instituted requiring prospective domain owners to submit paper application. Now the People’s Republic has gone even further. Domain applicants will now be required to submit a photo ID and possibly meet in-person with the government.

This is all an attempt to regulate content on the .cn extension, which recently saw rapid growth and virtually became the top ccTLD overnight. The new requirements should cut down on the number of new registrations heavily, however, and it is unlikely that China will keep its #1 spot.

Source | Domain Name Wire

Continue reading: More restrictions placed on .cn registration

After ending last year with 978,000 registrations, Belgium’s .be ccTLD has finally reached 1 million registrations. Despite a sluggish economy, .be has experienced solid growth. Earlier this week, we reported that every year for the last six years it has broken the previous growth record.

Jo Van Gorp, general manager of DNS BE, bragged:

The 1 millionth domain name is the result of the excellent reputation the .be domain has built up over the years, the enthusiasm and dedication of our employees providing DNS BE’s high-quality and innovative services, and our registrars’ strong campaigns.

Out of all the registrations, 70% have an established presence in Belgium. The country should be very proud of its accomplishments.

Source | DNS BE

Continue reading: .Be hits 1 million registrations

For the sixth year in a row, the Belgian .be domain has broken the registration record set the previous year. Last year, 232,746 .be names were registered– a 4.4% increase from 2008.

Given the huge popularity of ccTLDs lately, this news isn’t surprising at all. DNS BE, the operator of the extension, credits the growth with domain registrars. Jo Van Gorp, the agency’s general manager, said:

The Belgian population is perfectly aware of the value and the importance of a .be domain name; the record growth achieved in times of economic crisis is the best proof of it. We have not only all .be domain name holders to thank for their confidence in DNS BE, but also and in the first place, our network of over 450 registrars
It’s thanks to their efforts, day after day, that we’ve achieved these excellent results.

Interestingly, a large number of Belgians seem to be registering names for personal use. In 2008, 30% of names made up this demographic while in 2009, the number grew to 34%.

Continue reading: Registration record for .be ccTLD broken for sixth year in a row

A recent report reveals that although $102 million worth of domain sales were reported last year, this revenue has dropped 12.5% from 2008, when $116.7 million worth of sales occurred. What does this mean for the domain industry?

Keep in mind that this number only represents the gross revenue from reported sales, not the actual number of sales. So it’s not possible to tell if the number of sales went down, the average sale price decreased, or both. It’s also possible that sales increased by average price decreased. In addition, the number does not include private sales.

On a side note, revenue from ccTLD sales jumped 28%. The market is definitely headed away from generic extensions to regional names.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Domain sale revenue falls by 12.5%

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti earlier this week has killed 50,000 people and destroyed much of the capital. Currently, access to the nation is mainly limited to the few relief planes that can get in. Amid this tragedy there is at least some hope for Haiti, as its DNS seems to have made it through the disaster in one piece.

Here is what we know, according to ICANN:

• The administrators of the .HT ccTLD survived unharmed.
• Haiti’s IT infrastructure is heavily damaged, but the domain system is still working for most.
• Work is underway to reroute the country’s Internet traffic through the Dominican Republic.

A working telecommunications system is vital to relief crews in a natural disaster. If the domain system and other important communication links had been destroyed, thousands of additional lives would probably have been lost.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: .HT domain still operational after earthquake

Topping all other domain sales this week is credit.fr, which has sold for €587,500 ($851,875 USD). It is the highest sale ever recorded on the .fr ccTLD. The previous domain to hold this spot, mutelle.com, sold for $116,221 in October of 2009.

Other recent ccTLD sales include Südtirol.eu for $14,355 and Möbel.eu for $13,195. The names mean “Tyrol” and “furniture” in German respectively. Tyrol is a state in Austria.

Introducing IDNs was a great move for the .eu registry. A lot of the top sales on that extension as of late have been IDNs. Expect to see many more domain sales as other extensions adopt the new system.

Continue reading: Credit.fr sells for $851,875

From generic domain extensions like .com and .aero to ccTLDs like .fr, there are a lot of domain extensions out there. Making things even more complicated, new ones are introduced every year. But just how many are there right now?

According to ICANN, the answer is 280. Of these, 248 are country-code names, 11 are in testing, and 20 are generic TLDs. Finally, there’s one extension, .arpa, that is used exclusively to run the Internet’s DNS system.

With the introduction of the new gTLD system next year, expect to see a large increase in the number of extensions.

Photo | ICANN

Continue reading: How many domain extensions are there?

Most people have heard of Greenland, but few ever think about it’s .gl domain extension. Apparently Google does, however, because the Mountain View firm just launched a URL shortener under the ccTLD called goo.gl.

The tool is not intended for direct public use, but is instead only available via Google Toolbar or Feedburner. If all goes well Google could broaden its availability in the future.

This news is probably the only attention .gl has ever received. The only recorded sale at domain database dnsaleprice.com is sex.gl. It sold on a popular auction site in February for a show-stopping $1,281 USD.

Photo | oskar73

Continue reading: Google launches URL shortener on .gl domain

.Asia is a regional TLD intended for Asia, Australia, and the Pacific region. Considering it only became available last year in 2008, is it an extension worth registering?

First off, it’s important to note that the TLD can technically only be registered by Austro-Asians, but this restriction is easy to bypass. All one simply has to do is find an agent in the region to handle the registration, which most registrars will do free of charge.

Personally, I would only recommend a .asia name to someone with business interests in the region. Targeting such a linguistically diverse continent with one website would be a challenge unto itself. You would be much better off picking an Asian country and a ccTLD to target, even if it means creating multiple websites. But if you already have an active business in the area, register one now to protect your brand.

Continue reading: .Asia domain registration

In its yearly Mapping the Mal Web report, computer security firm McAfee rated Cameroon’s .cm domain as the “Most Dangerous Country Domain.” How could what was once a relatively unknown extension obtain such a ranking?

A year ago, very few domainers cared about .cm because the government restricted public registration to citizens only. This changed several months ago, however, when Cameroon started accepting global public registrations.

Because of its close resemblance to .com, .cm quickly grew in popularity. A name on the ccTLD can gain a great deal of type-in traffic from poor spellers trying to get to a .com. Thus cyber criminals can register a popular .com domain as a .cm and take advantage of unsuspecting users.

Last year, the most dangerous country domain was .hk.

Source | Domain Name News

Continue reading: McAfee: .CM is "“Most dangerous country domain”

Austria’s .at domain has reached 900,000 registrations. Over the last ten years, the ccTLD has grown at a steady rate of 10% per year.

Many Austrians prefer .at over TLDs like .com because of its local affiliation. Firms in the country believe building a site on the .at domain will help in better reaching Austrians.

Registrants can buy a name on both the first and second level. Available options are gv.at, .ac.at, .co.at, and .or.at. The extension is expected to hit 1 million registrations by 2011.

Source | Domain News

Continue reading: 900,000th .at domain registered