DUBLIN, IRELAND – 11 February 2010 - Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services and the registry operator for .INFO, today announced that it has acquired mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd., the sponsoring organization and registry operator for the .mobi top-level domain. Under terms of the private deal, Afilias Limited, an Irish Limited company, has acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd. (known publicly as dotMobi), and plans to continue operating dotMobi as a wholly owned subsidiary.

“Afilias has long been a leader in launching new TLDs and now supports over 50 percent of the entire universe of registrations in TLDs launched since 2001,” said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. “Our acquisition of dotMobi reflects our long term commitment to the success of the TLDs we support and the communities they serve.  We are particularly proud of the global success of the .mobi domain, and look forward to working with the dotMobi team and the mobile community to build on this solid base.”

Afilias and dotMobi have worked closely together since the Mobi JV (predecessor to dotMobi) was started by Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft to apply to ICANN for the .mobi TLD in 2004.  Upon approval, Afilias provided registry services in support of the successful launch in 2006, and today there are nearly one million .mobi registrations.  Now more established, dotMobi will benefit from the increased focus that a seasoned registry expert like Afilias will provide.  

“The mobile Web continues to evolve and expand, and Afilias’ strategic domain expertise combined with mobile industry support will be a powerful accelerant for .mobi growth,” said Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “Afilias’ strategies for growing top-level domains have directly resulted in several of the world’s largest domains, and we are excited to work closely with Afilias’ management to achieve dotMobi’s full potential.”

“With its excellent registry and DNS support, Afilias has been a close partner since the beginning,” said Jerry Easom, Chairman of the Board of dotMobi. “This partnership, coupled with the success of dotMobi in furthering acceptance of the mobile web, makes moving the ownership of dotMobi to Afilias a natural progression.  dotMobi founders, who include some of the largest companies in the mobile space, are looking forward to supporting dotMobi and the .mobi domain with involvement in both the MAG (.mobi Advisory Group) and the PAB (dotMobi Policy Advisory Board)."

Afilias provides registry and DNS services for more than 15 million domains, including more than 950,000 .mobi domains registered worldwide. In addition, Afilias supports .INFO, .ORG,  .aero, .ASIA, .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .LC (St. Lucia), .ME (Montenegro), .MN (Mongolia), .SC (the Seychelles), .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

For more information on the details of this agreement please visit www.afilias.info/mobi .

About mTLD Top-Level Domain Ltd. (dotMobi)
Headquartered in Dublin, dotMobi is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile content through innovative services, helping businesses and individuals reach the world’s billions of mobile phone users. dotMobi spurs mobile industry innovation by giving content providers the tools they need to ensure the Web will work on mobile phones with speed, accuracy and relevant content.

dotMobi, a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias Limited, was founded by 14 visionary mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, Telecom Italia, Visa and Vodafone.

For information on .mobi domains and all dotMobi services, visit http://mobiDomain.com, and on mobile devices, visit http://mobiDomain.mobi.

About Afilias Limited
Afilias is an Irish Limited company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services to over 15 million domain names, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.
###

NOTE TO EDITORS: High resolution digital photography of key executives as well as additional quotes from dotMobi founding investors is available at www.afilias.info/mobi

Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, malware, denial-of-service attacks, and other online exploitation. Greg Aaron, Afilias’s Director of Domain Security, will speak about domain industry security practices, including attack vectors that hackers use against registrants, registrars, and registries. 

 

• ‹ previous
• 47 of 58
• next ›

Afilias will be exhibiting at this year's DNSSEC Pavilion at the FOSE show.  Stop by booth #2012 to learn about DNSSEC implementation from our experts!

Afilias is a sponsor of ICANN no. 37

CENTR's 10th Anniversary Seminar "Who Should Govern the Internet?" includes a session lead by Afilias' Desiree Miloshevic entitled " Internet Governance in the New Economic Context and Recent Trends."

 

Afilias is a sponsor of the 4th Future of the Internet Conference which presents the innovations and challenges that will effect the future of the Internet.  The conference is organized by CABASE and ICANN.

Dublin, Ireland - 29 October 2009 - Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that Matt Pounsett, a lead member of the Afilias Content Propagation and Resolution Services team, has been selected as a board member of the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center (OARC). 

The DNS-OARC is an organization that provides a platform for the DNS operations community to share information and data.  It also measures performance and traffic load data to provide short and long-term analysis in order to learn and develop remedies to attacks and other problems affecting the DNS.

“Ensuring the stability of the DNS is essential to continuing the communication, e-commerce, and business channels that have become imperative to today’s societies,” said Mr. Pounsett.  “I am excited to be able to provide my expertise from Afilias to ensure that the DNS remains reliable, secure, and resilient.”

Mr. Pounsett recently joined Afilias in 2009 and helps manage Afilias’ DNS infrastructure which supports nearly 10% of the Internet, including 15 Top Level Domains as well as Afilias’ Managed DNS Services customers.

About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Service.

###

 Avalanche eCrime Gang Driving Increasingly Larger Share of Phishing Scams 

 

TACOMA, Wash. Oct 21, 2009 – A new phishing survey released by the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) reveals that the longevity of phishing Web sites dropped by 25 percent over the last year.  

Uptimes are a vital measure of how damaging phishing attacks are -- the longer a phishing attack remains active, the more victims there can be. The decrease indicates collective progress is being made by the parties that fight phishing, and may be attributable to improved policies and operations at Internet infrastructure providers, brandholders, domain name registrars and registries, and private Internet security providers. 

The “Global Phishing Survey: Trends and Domain Name Use in 1H2009” study found that phishing Web site longevity dropped to an average 39 hours in the first half of 2009, down from an average of 52 hours recorded in the second half of 2008. 

The survey also revealed that a single criminal syndicate dubbed "Avalanche" was responsible for nearly one quarter of all phishing attacks in the first half of 2009. Indications are that the gang is continuing to claim a larger proportion of all detected phishing attacks.  

“We’re pleased to see that phishing site lifetimes are being positively affected,” said Rod Rasmussen, co-author of the study and CTO of Internet Identity. “In particular, the survey demonstrates how anti-abuse programs at domain registries can have an immediate impact on the problem.”   

“The results also show that on the Internet, action and involvement by responsible parties can really help Internet users,” said Greg Aaron, co-author and Director of Domain Security at Afilias. “When everyone takes responsibility and does their part to make it a safer place, good things happen.  We think that is what we are seeing in the results of this study, and we’d all like to see more.” 

Other highlights from the report include: 

• The amount of Internet domain names and numbers used for phishing has remained fairly steady over the past two years. 
• Phishing attack and uptime statistics for all top-level domains (TLDs).   
• Statistics for phishing perpetrated on hacked Web servers  The study is available here.  

About the APWG 

The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is a global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing, email spoofing, and crimeware. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law enforcement community and solutions providers. There are more than 1,800 companies, government agencies and NGOs participating in the APWG and more than 3,300 members. The APWG's Web site offers the public and industry information about phishing and email fraud, including dentification and promotion of pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection.  

APWG's corporate sponsors are as follows:   AT&T(T), Able NV, Afilias Ltd., AhnLab, AVG Technologies, BillMeLater, BBN Technologies, Blue Coat, BlueStreak, BrandMail, BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco (CSCO), Clear Search, Cloudmark, Cyveillance, DigiCert, DigitalEnvoy, DigitalResolve, Digital River, Easy Solutions, eBay/PayPal (EBAY), Entrust (ENTU), eEye, Fortinet, FraudWatch International, FrontPorch, F-Secure, Goodmail Systems, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Goodmail Systems, GuardID Systems, HomeAway, IronPort, HitachiJoHo, ING Bank, Iconix, Internet Identity, Internet Security Systems, Intuit, IOvation, IronPort, IS3, IT Matrix, Kaspersky Labs, Kindsight, Lenos Software, LightSpeed Systems, MailFrontier, MailShell, MarkMonitor, Marshall8e6, McAfee (MFE), MasterCard, MessageLevel, Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mirapoint, MySpace (NWS), MyPW, MX Logic, NameProtect, National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) Netcraft, NetStar, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominum, Panda Software, Phoenix Technologies Inc. (PTEC), Phishme.com, Phorm, Prevx, The Planet, SIDN, SalesForce, Radialpoint, RSA Security (EMC), RuleSpace, SecureBrain, Secure Computing (SCUR), S21sec, Sigaba, SoftForum, SOPHOS, SquareTrade, SurfControl, SunTrust, Symantec (SYMC), TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), Trend Micro (TMIC), Tricerion, TriCipher, TrustedID, Tumbleweed Communications (TMWD), Vasco (VDSI), VeriSign (VRSN), Visa, Wal-Mart (WMT), Websense Inc. (WBSN) and Yahoo! (YHOO). 

 ###

APWG

Peter Cassidy, +1 617 669 1123 pcassidy@antiphishing.org

http://www.antiphishing.org

Afilias

Heather D. Read, +1 215 706 5777 hread@afilias.info

http://www.afilias.info

Internet Identity

pr@internetidentity.com +1 253 590 4100

http://www.internetidentity.com

Afilias will be attending the Anti-Phishing Working Group's Members Meeting and eCrime Researchers Summit in Tacoma, WA.

Afilias' Greg Aaron will be speaking about Trends and Domain Name Use in 1H2009 on Monday the 19th at 2:30 PM.

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 6 October 2009 – Today Afilias President & CEO Hal Lubsen released the following statement concerning ICANN’s new Affirmation of Commitments with the US Department of Commerce:

Afilias commends ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce on over a decade of work in supporting the Domain Name System and in taking an important step in promoting the private sector led, bottom up consensus model for the DNS. We appreciate the special efforts by Rod Beckstrom, the ICANN staff, Peter Dengate Thrush, the entire ICANN board, and the U.S. Department of Commerce in reaching this new commitment. We are encouraged by the Affirmation of Commitments which provides a framework to ensure ICANN’s accountability and transparency to the global community.  This new framework promises a commitment to a bottom-up, multi-stakeholder development process that will review the positive and negative effects of ICANN’s decisions, including any impact on the public, as well as the systemic security, stability and resiliency of the DNS. The additional focus on consumer protection and internationalization is also most welcome.  Executing on these promises will require the full attention of ICANN and the entire ICANN community.  We look forward to working toward this shared vision.