Domain name hijacking is serious, Ram Mohan, CTO of domain registrar Afilias told CIO, because it puts sensitive corporate information at risk. It compromises all of the normal ways by which confidential information is shared by giving the hacker access to all of the company's incoming email.

Domain hijacking is also serious because it puts sensitive corporate information at risk. It compromises all of the normal ways by which confidential information is shared by giving the hacker access to all of the company's incoming email, says Ram Mohan, CTO of domain registrar Afilias. Mohan says he knows of a company that had its domain hijacked for nearly five months without even knowing it. The company didn't realize its domain had been taken over because the hackers were so subtle: Instead of redirecting visitors to another website, they sent users to the intended domain, but they "listened" to all the traffic, he says. During that time, all of the company's website traffic and emails were routed through a set of servers that the hackers had set up. "It was a major compromise," says Mohan, who is also a member of ICANN's board of directors and co-authored an article on domain hijacking for the organization in 2005.

Domain registrar Afilias announced on Tuesday it has acquired .PRO TLD operator Registry Services from hosting provider Hostway. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed in the press release. With this acquisition, Afilias now supports 17 top-level domains, including seven generic TLDs operating under ICANN contracts and seven new TLDs launched since 2001. Under the terms of the deal, Karim Jiwani will be the president of RegistryPRO and continue to lead .PRO growth initiatives using Afilias’ technology.

Work with a services provider with experience in both new TLDs and ICANN-contracted gTLDs if you want to pursue a new TLD. While I’m proud to say that I believe my company, Afilias, is the best one, I’m honest enough to say that we’re not the only one. Also, keep in mind the level of experience your registry services partner has — both in length of time servicing domains and the number and kinds of domains serviced. For example, the needs of a ccTLD are different from those of a gTLD. If your partner hasn’t had experience with gTLDs, ICANN will take that into consideration when you apply. ICANN-contracted gTLDs operate under more stringent requirements than other TLDs, and they must provide monthly reports to ICANN on performance. ccTLDs operate independently from ICANN and do not have the same requirements as gTLDs.

Roland LaPlante, from advisory firm Afilias, urges: "While the applicants may apply for a dot brand by themselves, we recommend that interested parties consult an experienced technical domain services provider to help with the application and implementation process."

Roland LaPlante, chief marketing officer at Afilias, talks about internet domain names. He speaks from New York with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television's "Last Word."

"It's a fascinating new chapter in the Internet's history," says Jonathan Robinson, non-executive director of Afilias, which is helping with applications and already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi.

Roland LaPlante CMO of Internet Infrastructure services company Afilias believes the key advantage it gives companies is a global footprint. "dot Brands allow companies to expand their global footprint, giving companies more control over their brand presence and enhancing customer loyalty online, something that is particularly relevant within today's tough economic climate," he said.

Nobody is sure how many new domains will result from the new applications, but some experts anticipate thousands. It could mean a significant learning curve for Internet users. "I'm thinking that the number of new domains will be in the 1,000 range...So we're talking about a 5X increase in the number of available domains," LaPlante said. "I think the biggest change is in adjusting consumer behavior and generating trust in these new TLDs."

Roland LaPlante CMO of Internet Infrastructure services company Afilias believes the key advantage it gives companies is a global footprint. "dot Brands allow companies to expand their global footprint, giving companies more control over their brand presence and enhancing customer loyalty online, something that is particularly relevant within today's tough economic climate," he said.

Roland LaPlante, CMO of global registry services provider Afilias which supports 60% of all new TLD registrations, said: “Today represents a significant milestone for the Internet, with dot Brand domains opening tremendous opportunities for many businesses and sectors. Because businesses who become dot Brand registry operators will have complete control over who gets a name and how they use it, they will be able to more effectively leverage their brand properties online and better secure both the brand and brand transactions.

"It's a fascinating new chapter in the Internet's history," says Jonathan Robinson, non-executive director of Afilias, which is helping with applications and already provides key infrastructure for .org, .info and .mobi."It's opening up new fronts of Internet real estate and that brings opportunity and threat."

The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act or PIPA) contain provisions that, if enacted, would threaten to break the end-to-end functionality of DNSSEC. These pieces of legislation require ISPs to intercept and redirect DNS queries for websites that are believed to be involved in piracy. In the context of DNSSEC, this is like requiring ISPs to behave like attackers, deliberately hijacking otherwise legitimate DNS queries. In short, SOPA and PIPA raise substantial barriers to DNSSEC adoption, which will lead to a less secure Internet.

"The innovation is going to be in the name itself and the way it gets used from a marketing standpoint," LaPlante says. "Most of the applications are pretty plain vanilla technically. There will be some eligibility verification that will be interesting and useful. There will be some registry services that will be offered that aren't available today. But most of the new registries will operate the way they do today." The biggest innovation in the new gTLDs is likely to be internationalized domain names, which can support non-English language characters such as Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic in the domain name extension. This means that U.S. companies selling their products overseas will be able to purchase domain names for their brands that are 100% in native language character sets such as simplified Chinese.

Roland LaPlante, CMO of global registry service provider Afilias, also believes that there will be branding benefits. "There are marketing benefits for having dot brand. Dot com or dot net does not evoke brand imagery of brand benefits," he explains, "they are just added clutter in a URL. Imagine seeing "Drink.pepsi", as opposed to Pepsi.com." The second benefit he sees is security: "Everyone knows there is a lot of fraud online and it's very difficult for the normal internet users to know when you are visiting a fraudulent site, particularly for luxury brands, pharmaceutical companies or financial services."

Roland LaPlante from Afilias said, "Brands need to start their dot Brand domain applications as soon as possible. And given the short preparation time remaining, it’s more important than ever for potential dot Brands to team with an experienced provider." Mr. LaPlante commented that unique domain names can make URLs more memorable.

“We are seeing a steady response from the Indian corporate market. While many anticipate that ICANN will receive as many as 1,000 applications, I expect that much of the volume will come from the U.S. and Europe. However, we are seeing a strong pickup in China and India in the new economies,” says Ram Mohan, security and stability committee liaison to the ICANN Board and executive vice-president of Afilias, a domain name registry services company.

At present there are about 22 types of top-level domains such as .com or .gov; and country codes such as .uk for the United Kingdom. Roland LaPlante, chief marketing officer of domain registry Afilias, said he expects up to 4,000 applications.

Afilias, the domain name registry operations company behind .info, .mobi, and other TLDs encourages brands to apply as early as possible, given the limited timeframe. "The launch of dot brand is an exciting time in the history of the Internet," says Roland LaPlante, Afilias CMO. "However, given the short window for applying, plus the comprehensive and technical nature of the application process, businesses need to consider their applications as early as possible. Experienced providers like Afilias are available to assist interested companies with their applications and to make a smooth transition to dot brand.”

Roland LaPlante of Afilias on how changes to top-level domain names (TLDs) in 2012 will impact on brands and marketers: We are about to enter a .brand new world where businesses can see their names on the right side of the dot: a brand name instead of .com or .net. This represents a historic change, allowing businesses to manage their own top-level domain (TLD), giving them more control than ever before over their online presence. The benefits to brands are three-fold: a .brand extension strengthens online identity, opens new possibilities for customer engagement, and reinforces brand security by decreasing the likelihood of cybersquatters and online fraudsters.