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153 registrars fingered for ICANN security probe
Registrars will be asked to account for abusive domain names found on their services, under a new ICANN security audit.
ICANN says it will soon send requests for information to 153 registrars, asking them to provide documentation showing how they dealt with domains used for distribution of malware or spam.
Registrars will get audited if more than five domains under their sponsorship showed up on a number of block-lists ICANN uses (SpamHaus and the like) during November 2020.
ICANN is spinning the number of affected registrars as a very small percentage of the accredited base, but it really isn’t.
It said that “only” 153 out of 2,380 accredited registrars are affected, apparently willfully ignoring the fact that well over 1,700 of these registrars are shell accreditations used for drop-catching and belonging to just two companies: Web.com and NameBright.
Domains never stick around at drop-catch shells for long, and abusive registrants typically aren’t buying expensive names on the aftermarket, they’re prowling the budget registrars for sub-dollar bargains and bulk-reg tools.
Up to a couple hundred or other accredited registrars have no or negligible domains under management. Several more are corporate registrars with no retail front-end.
So we’re really looking at “only” 153 out of 500 to 600 active retail registrars that saw the required level of abuse, a much higher percentage than would be ideal.
The audit is part of ICANN’s regular Contractual Compliance Audit Program, which seeks to determine whether any registrars or registries are in breach of their contractual obligations.
Under the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement, registrars are obliged to document their responses to abuse reports, keep the data for two years, and hand it over to ICANN on demand.
ICANN hopes to finish the audit by the third quarter this year.
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