Recent Posts
- TV network rebrands on single-letter domain
- First registry gets breach notice over new abuse rules
- Americans and ICANNers avoid Kigali in droves
- RDRS stats improve a little in June
- Unstoppable Domains goes down after domain hijack
- Four more gTLDs in emergency measures
- New gTLDs and ccTLDs drive domain universe growth
- Eight interesting recent dot-brand registrations
- .me premium sales down
- Pride fails to reverse gay domains decline
- Unstoppable announces another new gTLD bid
- Blockchain naming firm gets ICANN accreditation
- ICANN takes over gTLD after Whois failures
- Verisign: would-be .com contract killers are “wrong”
- Five gTLDs at risk as registry goes AWOL
- Groups make flawed case that .com is a cartel
- RDRS usage hits all-time low
- A dot-brand so unloved they killed it twice
- PorkBun hits two million domain milestone
- Crawford returns to industry to head up Com Laude
- ICANN financial data dump a damp squib?
- Unstoppable plotting manga-themed gTLDs
- Governments call for new gTLD auctions ban
- ICANN names new CEO, and it isn’t Costerton
- ICANN: We will NOT police content
- More sticker shock as new gTLD fees could top $300,000
- ICANN slashes staff and domain prices could rise
- Secret new gTLD application revealed
- WhatsApp now linkifying new gTLDs, but…
- Outrage over ICANN’s new gTLD fees
- Barrett gets second term on ICANN board
- DotMusic delays gTLD launch again
- .tm prices to skyrocket next week
- Bitcoin gTLD gets launch dates
- First metaverse gTLD is announced
- Alibaba off the naughty step
- ICANN to kill auction fund bylaws change
- The people have spoken on RDRS and they said “Meh”
- ICANN restarts work on controversial Whois privacy rules
- GNSO mulls lawyering up over auction fund dispute
- Jury still out on ICANN’s content policing powers
- It now takes TWO WEEKS to get a Whois record with RDRS
- Travel expenses push ICANN into the red again
- ICANN preparing for ONE HUNDRED registry back-ends
- DNS Abuse Institute changes name
- A new way to game the new gTLD program
- .home, .mail and .corp could get unbanned
- Unstoppable to apply for Women in Tech gTLD
- Bob Parsons publishes autobiography
- GoDaddy getting a free pass from porn jail?
- Correction: Sinha’s seat is safe
- Chinese domains plummet again in 2023
- GoDaddy price increases lead to revenue growth
- D3 announces seventh blockchain gTLD client
- Taylor Swift applies for her .post domain
- .ad domains to go global soon
- Single-letter .com case back in court
- ICANN to slash costs as Verisign’s magic money tree dries up
- Community revolts over ICANN’s auction proceeds power grab
- Two seats up for grabs on Nominet board
- War takes steep toll on .ua domains
- .de worst TLD for CSAM — report
- .com still shrinking because of China
- ICANN publishes its Woke Manifesto. Here’s my hot take
- Alibaba, Name.com among new RDRS opt-ins
- .my domains to be sold globally next month
- The Swiss can register .swiss domains from next week
- .ai up to 425,000 domains
- A million “free” .music domains up for grabs
- D3 to get $5 million in crypto to apply for .ape gTLD
- Alibaba hit with ICANN breach notice
- New Vegas conference “Davos for Web3 interoperability”
- ICANN content policing power grab may be dead
- Cable company unplugs its dot-brand after acquisition
- Germany crosses 10,000 dot-brand domains milestone
- Founders out as Com Laude gets equity injection
- PIR’s Diaz to leave domain industry
- Some registrars have already quit ICANN’s Whois experiment
- ICANN opens $217 million Grant Program
- Internet could get one-letter gTLDs (but there’s a catch)
- .ai registry fights deadbeats with tweaked auction rules
- Amazon and Google among .internal TLD ban backers
- .ai registry advises buyers not to use GoDaddy
- .post liberalizes with new sunrise period
- Team Internet spends $41 million on content farm
- Epik backtracks on Kiwi Farms claim after legal threat
- .austin names launch on blockchain
- Freenom shuts down 12.6 million domains — report
- GoDaddy’s next .xxx contract may not be a done deal
- GlobalBlock blocking 2.5 million domains
- Microsoft moving its cloud apps from .com to .microsoft
- ICANN 79: anonymous trolls and undercover lawyers
- ICANN scores win in single-letter .com lawsuit
- Cosmetics brand terminates its gTLD
- Up to 70 jobs on the line at Nominet as .uk regs dwindle
- Governments back down on new gTLD next round delay
- Private auctions could be banned in new gTLD next round
- ICANN meeting venue “insensitive and hurtful”
- GoDaddy to start selling graphic.design domains
- GAC spinning up new gTLD curveball at ICANN 79?
- GoDaddy’s GlobalBlock supports blockchain names
- Police .uk domain takedowns dive in 2023
- GoDaddy wants to cut the bullshit from .xxx
- Dueling domain blocking services to launch at ICANN 79
- Freename tries to bridge DNS and blockchain
- Olive retires from ICANN
- Whois policy published without life-saving disclosure rule
- UK gov takes its lead from ICANN on DNS abuse
- Tucows reports 2023 results
- Twitter “completely unresponsive” on clickable domains
- ICANN spends $5 million more than planned in first fiscal half
- .art takes a million domains off its premium list
- KeyTrap ‘the most devastating vulnerability ever found in DNSSEC’
- Freenom settles $500 million Meta lawsuit and will exit domain business
- New gTLD lottery to return in 2026
- First GlobalBlock prices revealed — they ain’t cheap
- Domain universe grows on new gTLDs despite .com shrinkage
- D3 signs up crypto gTLD client number five
- GoDaddy reports strong domains growth
- How to qualify for a $40,000 gTLD
- Registry service provider evaluation handbook published
- WebUnited inks deal to “mirror” country’s TLD in the blockchain
- GoDaddy project unveils brand-blocking calculator
- Report: Monster “misappropriated” millions from Epik
- .com is shrinking but Verisign raises prices again anyway
First registry gets breach notice over new abuse rules
.TOP Registry allegedly ignored reports about phishing attacks and has become the first ICANN contracted party to get put on the naughty step over DNS abuse rules that came into effect a few months ago.
ICANN has issued a public breach notice claiming that the registry, which runs .top, has also been ignoring the results of Uniform Rapid Suspension cases, enabling cybersquatting to take place.
The notice says that .TOP breached new rules, which came into effect April 2, that require it to act on reports of DNS abuse (such as malware or phishing attacks) by suspending the domains or referring them to the responsible registrar.
The registry didn’t do this with respect to a report of April 18, concerning “multiple .top domain names allegedly used to conduct phishing attacks”. It didn’t even read the report until contacted by ICANN, according to the notice.
As of yesterday, only 33% of the phishing domains have been suspended by their registrars, some three months after the attacks were reported, ICANN says.
Compliance is also concerned that .TOP seems to be ignoring notices from Forum, the company that processes URS cases, requiring domains to be locked within 24 hours when they’ve been hit with a charge of cybersquatting.
The registry “blatantly and repeatedly violated” these rules, according to ICANN.
.TOP has been given until August 15 to get its act together or risk having its Registry Agreement suspended or terminated.
The registry has about three million .top domains under management, having long been one of the most successful new gTLDs of the 2012 round in volume terms. It typically sells domains very cheaply, which of course attracts bad actors.
The whole process still lacks of the definition of penalty.
The penalty is loosing the registry agreement and the TLD.
The effective date of the DNS Abuse amendments was 5 April 2024, not 2 April 2024. See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/global-amendment-2024-en