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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 sto
ck 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.
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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

Afilias team members will be attending the 48th North American Network Operators' Group Conference in Austin, Texas.

Afilias is a sponsor of ICANN no. 37
.INFO remains the market leader for new TLDs
DUBLIN, IRELAND - December 21, 2009 - Afilias, a global provider of internet infrastructure services and registry for the .INFO domain, has released the 2009 .INFO Annual Report illustrating .INFO's rise over the past eight years. .INFO currently ranks seventh among all 270+ Top Level Domains (TLD's) worldwide and first among all new TLDs introduced on the Internet since 2001.
"After 8 years of concerted effort, .INFO is the undisputed most successful new TLD launched to date, accounting for over 40 percent of all new TLD registrations," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias ".INFO's experience provides many lessons applicable to the launch of new domains to come. As an organization, Afilias has been able to use our experiences with .INFO as a benchmark for successfully gaining approval for, launching and growing more new TLDs than any other registry services provider."
.INFO, which now boasts over 5.3 million domains, continues to deliver on its mission to provide Internet users with a fast and intuitive way to access information online, with over 70 percent of domains resolving to real content and over 1 million unique Web sites. The top regions for registrations continue to be North America (61 percent) and Europe (23 percent). However, Asian markets are growing and the region now holds 11 percent of .INFO registrations.
.INFO also continues to gain penetration into the registrar marketplace which offers domain names for retail sale. .INFO is now available with over 330 distributors that support over 90% of sales volume in the worldwide domain name industry.
In addition to statistics on the health of .INFO, the report also addresses important news and initiatives that .INFO has undertaken over the last year. This includes .INFO's efforts to reach new audiences via Facebook, Twitter, the recent .INFO Awards and the release of an interactive .INFO domain directory at www.info.info/directory . The report also highlights Afilias' continued efforts and accomplishments at keeping the .INFO domain space and Internet users secure through its Domain Anti-Abuse Policy and supporting initiatives.
".INFO's market leadership has been driven by a combination of its value as an intuitive string with broad appeal, near universal registrar support, effective registry management, reliable technology, and an experienced team with a track record of success in the ICANN community," added LaPlante.
About .INFO
.INFO was the first generic, unrestricted TLD to be launched since .com. Registrations in .INFO first became available in 2001. Since then, .INFO has grown to become the fourth largest gTLD in the world with over 5 million registrations. .INFO websites have a large international audience that is looking for information on every topic from blogs to businesses. Domains are currently available in ten IDN scripts. For more information please visit http://www.info.info/
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 Services. For more information on Afilias please visit http://www.afilias.info/.
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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."
"The .INFO domain is the global home for anyone with information to share. The submissions for this year's awards program reflect .INFO's global appeal and the inherent usefulness of an Internet domain entirely devoted to information," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias.
The 2009 program garnered more than 50 entries. The most popular categories for site submissions included special interest Web sites (28 percent), private Web sites (23 percent) and business/corporate Web sites (17 percent).
In addition, interest in the .INFO awards was truly global with submissions being entered from 18 countries. 31 percent of submissions came from Germany, followed by the United States at 19 percent and Russia at 12 percent. Notably, the UK accounted for 6 percent of submissions, while India and France both had 4 percent.
The 2009 panel of judges included: Dominik Grollman - Editor in Chief of Internet World Business (Germany), Peter Prestipino - Editor in Chief of Website Magazine , Gautam Chatur - Senior Director at Qorvis Communications , Michael Stephanblome - Managing Director AdJug UK , Katy Tafoya - Editor ConstantChatter.com , and Philipp Grabensee - Chairman of the Afilias Board of Directors.
This panel selected the following Web sites as the top 10 submissions:
Members of the public can vote for their favorite of these top 10 sites at www.info-award.info Public voting will remain open until 11:59 p.m. November 6. Public votes will be combined with the judges scores to select the top three Award winners. Prizes for the awards are allocated as: US$7,500 for the winner, US$5,000 for second place, and US$3,000 for third place. The winners of the .INFO Awards will be announced on November 9.
.INFO was the first generic, unrestricted TLD to be launched since .com and is the largest new TLD launched in over 25 years. Registrations in .INFO first became available in 2001. Since then, .INFO has grown to become the fourth largest gTLD in the world with over 5 million domain names registered. Domains are currently available in ten Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) scripts. A directory of great .INFO sites is available at http://www.info.info/directory . For more information on .INFO please visit www.info.info
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 Services. For more information on Afilias please visit www.afilias.info.
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.
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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:
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).
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APWG
Peter Cassidy, +1 617 669 1123 pcassidy@antiphishing.org
Afilias
Heather D. Read, +1 215 706 5777 hread@afilias.info
Internet Identity
pr@internetidentity.com +1 253 590 4100
"The international nature of our judging panel reflects the truly global appeal of the .INFO domain," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. "We are pleased to have such a high caliber of judges representing the online and media industries."
The judging panel will review all eligible sites submitted for consideration based on five criteria: presentation of content, functionality of the website, design, usability, and originality. Their scores will determine a shortlist of the top ten submissions, which will be published at www.info-award.info on November 2nd. From November 2-6, the public will be invited to vote on the sites selected by the judges. Public votes will be combined with the judges scores to select the top three Award winners.
.INFO was the first generic, unrestricted TLD to be launched since .com and is the largest new TLD launched in over 25 years. Registrations in .INFO first became available in 2001. Since then, .INFO has grown to become the fourth largest gTLD in the world with over 5 million domain names registered. Domains are currently available in ten Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) scripts. A directory of great .INFO sites is available at http://www.info.info/directory . For more information on .INFO please visit www.info.info
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 Services.
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