Blogs

The 38th ICANN Conference, held in Brussels last month, was an eventful one for .ORG The Public Interest Registry. We got world-wide press coverage for our announcement that we implemented DNSSEC for the entire .ORG top-level domain. Among the many nice compliments we got were these words from Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society. "Implementing DNSSEC for the .ORG top-level domain is an important step in ensuring the global Internet serves as a trusted channel for communication and collaboration and we applaud the Public Interest Registry's efforts in this area". While at the Conference, the Internet Society was the first user of a .ORG domain name to deploy DNSSEC.

For months, our community has been abuzz with one word: DNSSEC. Now, it’s trickling into the White House.

Just yesterday, U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced, as part of a larger cybersecurity policy review, that the Commerce Department is one step closer to making “significant progress is helping the Internet become more robust and secure” by deploying DNSSEC at the root of the Domain Name System (DNS). “This action will essentially give a ‘tamper proof seal’ to the address book of the Internet – a seal that gives Internet users confidence in their online experience,” he stated.

Today, we are in full production with DNSSEC, accepting second level signings from registrars.  This means that all registrars can offer added security protection to their customers by enabling .ORG web site owners to sign his or her domain name with DNSSEC.

The days of viral phishing are over. Since its inception, phishing, has always been a criminal magnet.  It has a low start-up cost and few barriers to entry.  At .ORG, Public Interest Registry, we work hard to combat phishing attacks.  So much so, phishers have largely stopped registering domains on both .ORG and .INFO.  In 2009, phishing reached an all time peak with a shocking number of attacks.   In a new report by Boston-based APWG , called the Global Phishing Report, authors Greg Aaron and Rod Rasmussen delve into the attacks of 2009 and highlight the dangers of “phishing gangs.” 

The Webby Awards “celebrates sites that pave important paths to the Internet's next phase,” according to the Wall Street Journal.  If so, .ORG sites are doing their part by winning 14 of 69 categories, beating last year’s number by 3.  This means that 20% of Webby Award winners are .ORG sites.