Despite the fact that the Internet is an increasingly critical component of the world’s communications infrastructure, its “phone book” -- the Domain Name System (DNS) -- is often considered fundamentally insecure. While opinions sometimes vary, the majority of the Internet’s technical participants believe that a critical part of shoring up DNS security is the deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC is an enhancement to the DNS protocol that enables domain name owners to give themselves and their users a more secure and trustworthy experience by using cryptographic signatures. Simply put, the protocol creates a “chain of trust” that offers users the confidence of knowing that, when they click on a website, their browser will know exactly where to find that website and avoid being hijacked.

“Attacks by Chinese phishers have exploded, as they take advantage of China’s stream of new Internet users,” said Greg Aaron of Afilias, one of the paper’s co-authors. “But the problem is not limited to China—these phishers use hosting and domain names based in the U.S. and Europe. It’s a reminder that e-crime often requires international solutions. Fortunately there is data-sharing and cooperation happening to combat the problem.”

Top level domain registry services and DNS solutions provider Afilias says it does not anticipate any significant problems from the application downtime. “The only issue for Afilias has been a delay in inputting some of our applications. We do not know the state of the data we have already input — and we won’t until we are granted access to the ICANN TAS again — but we don’t expect any significant problems, except for the delay,” Roland A. LaPlante, chief marketing officer of Afilias said in an email to the WHIR. “It is possible that some of our data has been exposed to non-authorized parties, but we understand that ICANN is investigating and will inform us if this has taken place.” “We have had a few applicants come back to us to see if they can still get an application in. And in some cases, it’s possible. These are the handful of customers who already had a spot reserved, but gave up on completing the application due to its complexity and the shortness of time.”

When you think about your company's websites -- whether internal or customer-facing -- you most likely picture the sites rendered on a computer screen, the environment Web development teams typically target. But there are more than four billion mobile phones in use worldwide, more than the total number of TVs and PCs combined, and that doesn't even include tablets. The reality today is your websites are being visited by people using hundreds of kinds of devices, the vast majority of which are mobile. Delivering content for so many devices can be tricky, especially when you don't know the capabilities of each platform, but today's users don't just want the content to be tailored to their mobile device, they expect it to be. Your job, of course, is to deliver on those expectations.

“It will be very interesting to learn which companies had the vision to act on this opportunity and who will be reaping the potential benefits of their own dot Brand,” said Roland LaPlante, chief marketing officer for infrastructure provider Afilias, adding that a gTLD would help potential customers to distinguish real companies from online phonies.

"We certainly expect to see applications from companies in industries plagued by counterfeiting and cybersquatting, as new [suffixes] offer important enhancements to security,” said Roland LaPlante of Afilias, a firm aiming to run suffixes on behalf of organisations.

According to a recent Afilias study, a sizable minority of brands may apply for their own gTLDs, ushering in a new era in which consumers are asked to visit websites ending in .brand, and not .com.

ICANN holds lengthy, in-depth discussions devoted to DNSSEC at each of its three annual meetings. The half-day session held at ICANN 43 in Costa Rica last month was particularly interesting. What became clear is that the industry is quickly moving into the end-user adoption phase of global DNSSEC deployment. DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is the next-generation protocol that enables domain name registrants to give their users a more secure, trustworthy experience. Using cryptographic signatures, DNSSEC prevents man-in-the-middle spoofing attacks, such as the one illustrated by the Kaminsky Bug in 2008.

The Internet's governing body, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, holds three public meetings per year to discuss how ICANN can help make the network more secure and to encourage end-to-end interoperability. The most recent meeting in Costa Rica in March featured two rich information sharing sessions, one on the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) program and the other on Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).

A survey from registry services provider Afilias found that 82 percent of major brands are aware of the opportunity to apply for their own TLD, and 54 percent of those companies intended to apply — totaling 44 percent of all of the companies surveyed. “What’s clear is that awareness of the new TLD program is high, and that brands now understand the potential power of their own TLD and are going for it,” says Afilias chief marketing officer Roland LaPlante. “Unfortunately, many were unaware of the application deadline (April 12, 2012), and this means that some may miss the boat. Given that tight timeline – and no indication from ICANN as to when businesses will be able to again apply for a dot.Brand domain – companies had to act quickly.”

Having your brand name on the right side of the dot delivers distinct benefits, especially to companies in the retail sector. This means brands will possess greater control over their presence online, including the ability to control which partners and suppliers have use of their domain.

The latest Internet innovation that allows business to manage and own their own top-level domain (TLD) officially opened its doors earlier this year. It’s called “dot Brand” and, since January, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been accepting applications from businesses who want to see their brand name of the right side of the dot in an Internet address. This means that we’ll soon be see branded domains. For example “.coke” alongside more familiar TLDs like “.com” and “.info”.

A recent survey by Internet registry services company Afilias, which is applying for about 150 new domains on behalf of clients and already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi, found considerable uncertainty about the process. Of 200 major consumer brands it surveyed in the United States and Britain, 53 percent were either not aware that they could participate in the process at all or did not know that the application window was open and when it would close. Of those who were aware, however, 54 percent of brands were in the process of applying, and only 6 percent said they definitely would not. "There's a buzz about this now," said non-executive Afilias director Jonathan Robinson.

For example, a ".bank" address could be a hallmark of a vetted, authorized provider of financial services. Unlike gTLDs such as .com and .info, which are open to all by design, many new gTLDs will be restricted to manually approved registrants, meaning that cybersquatting and typosquatting in those vertical name spaces would be very difficult. The benefits of dot Brands and dot Industries will require marketing to be fully realized, and will not arrive overnight, but in the longer term they will create a more robust, trustworthy Web.

Ausweislich der Studie, die von Vanson Bourne im Auftrag von Afilias durchgeführt wurde und über 200 verbraucherorientierte Unternehmen mit einer Größe von 3.000 bis mehr als 10.000 Mitarbeitern umfasst hat, ist bei 82 Prozent der Teilnehmer bekannt, dass man sich um eine eigene Domain-Endung bewerben kann. Hiervon gaben wiederum 54 Prozent an, dass sie eine Bewerbung beabsichtigen; in absoluten Zahlen entspricht dies 44 Prozent der befragten Unternehmen. Weitere 40 Prozent der Unternehmen, die über das TLD-Programm von ICANN informiert sind, gaben an, eine Bewerbung in Betracht zu ziehen, wobei hiervon wiederum 71 Prozent das Programm für eine bedeutsame Entwicklung halten. Afilias zieht daher den Schluss, dass die Internetnutzer ab 2013 eine substantielle Anzahl von Marken-Endungen im Internet erwarten dürfen. Wen genau Afilias allerdings zu den "grossen Marken" zählt, ist nicht angegeben.

As many as 82% of major brands are aware of the opportunity to apply for a “dot Brand” top level domain and of those 54% say they plan to apply, according to Afilias. ICANN is now accepting applications for new dot Brand top level domains, but they close the application window on April 12. The infographic shows that web users can expect to see a substantial number of dot Brand domains in 2013 when they go live although it also points to a lack of awareness about the looming closing date.

New research from Afilias and Vanson Bourne has revealed how many major companies are applying for branded TLDs - and how many don't know that this opportunity won't come around again for another 6-10 years.

A recent survey by Internet registry services company Afilias, which is applying for about 150 new domains on behalf of clients and already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi, found considerable uncertainty about the process. Of 200 major consumer brands it surveyed in the United States and Britain, 53 percent were either not aware that they could participate in the process at all or did not know that the application window was open and when it would close. Of those who were aware, however, 54 percent of brands were in the process of applying, and only 6 percent said they definitely would not. "There's a buzz about this now," said non-executive Afilias director Jonathan Robinson.

Unable to resort to a lottery to decide which applications are processed first, ICANN has instead unveiled a complicated ‘timestamp’ system. LaPlante breaks down the process thus: “It has come up with a scheme in which all the applicants – once the list is released in early May - will be asked whether they want to be considered on an early review basis. Anybody that does – and many applicants won’t be in a big hurry as they won’t have a particular plan for their gTLD - will be asked to specify a time in the future in which they will register their desire to be registered early. That timestamp will then be set in ICANN’s computers and applicants will be asked to log in at that precise time. The distance from the time they specified and the time they actually logged in will be used as a way to determine who will go first."

The benefits of a bespoke top-level domain are three-fold: a stronger online identity, new possibilities for customer engagement, and reinforced brand security. From an online identity perspective, no one disputes the power boost of “drink.pepsi” over today’s “pepsi.com/drink.” In terms of customer engagement, the new TLDs allow great promotional benefits; brands now have the possibility of “new.pepsi,” which consumers can remember and hence find more easily.