October 2019 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia Ora,

This month the DNCL was active in our support of our two trusted MOU partners the Digital Safety Office of the Department of Internal Affairs and CERT NZ. 

We’ve been involved in the work with the Department of Internal Affairs Digital Safety Office developing a domestic online crisis response protocol with other like-minded agencies. That protocol had its first test with the online events that unfolded in the Halle attack this month. At DNCL, we consider this important compliance and operational response work, and we are doing our part to keep .nz a safe and secure domain namespace.

We were proud to support CERT NZ to promote being cyber smart this Cyber Smart. Through our social media campaign, cybersecurity video tips and presentations to different groups, we were able to raise awareness of spotting fake webshops and scams in the .nz domain namespace. 

Further afield, we’ve finalised our contributions as the Australasian representative on the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association’s Transparency and Accountability Framework Working Group. We’re also preparing for the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers,  the last meeting of the year. We’re also preparing for the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers,  the last meeting of the year. We are involved in workstreams as diverse as the retirement of CcTLDs through to stopping the spread of child sexual explicit imagery through the domain name system. We are also there to talk about the .nz end to end policy review as well as to incorporate best global practices for combatting domain name abuse. 

Ngā Mihi,

Brent 

Cyber security awareness month 

Two paid DNCL board vacancies

Are you interested in helping to regulate New Zealand’s internet domain names? InternetNZ is currently recruiting for two independent directors to join the DNCL’s Board.  Details of these opportunities are available from the Appoint Better Boards jobs board listed at http://bit.ly/boardrolesnz Applications close 22 November 2019. 

In focus - the ac.nz domain namespace

This month we contacted a number of registrants in the .ac.nz domain namespace to validate their registration details. 

Under .nz policy, registrants are required to be contactable at the details that they provide. We found that some of registrants had either forgotten about the domain name that they had registered or had outdated registration information. 

It’s important to make sure that your registration information is up to date for different reasons, especially when it comes to the renewal of your domain name.

The Domain Name Commission will be continuing this approach of engagement with registrants about having correct and up to date registration contact details. 
 

Domain name cancellations

In the last quarter, the Domain Name Commission cancelled 271 domain names for having fake registration details. You can help keep the .nz domain name space safe and secure by reporting fake .nz contact details to [email protected] 

Safer online shopping new awareness campaign launching

Starting next month in the lead up to the holiday period, DNCL will be increasing its messaging around safer online shopping and our enforcement efforts. With online sales frenzies and 25 December around the corner, there is an added need for registrant protection messages. Look out for our campaign next month and running through to 1 January 2020.

ODR forum  

The Domain Name Commissioner is attending the 2019 ODR Forum ahead of ICANN66 and will be sharing our experience in innovation when it comes to handling domain name disputes. The presentation is available at via the Domain Name Commission website

ITx event attendance

This year was the first time the Domain Name Commission attended the ITx 2019 in Nelson. Sessions covered many in-depth topics in a great and condensed way. The main points that were covered included; identifying work bottlenecks, artificial intelligence (AI), the next wave of technology,  and machine learning. 

Media and articles that caught our attention 

IRD email scams and how to spot them 
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12277981 

Blacknight, GoDaddy, PIR, Tucows, Nominet, Neustar, Donuts, Afilias & Amazon Take Stand on Domain Abuse.
https://blacknight.blog/blacknight-godaddy-pir-donuts-amazon-take-stand-on-domain-abuse.html

uk: Nominet appoints nine new experts for its award-winning Dispute Resolution Service

Nominet announced the appointment of nine new independent Experts for its award-winning Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). This brings the total number of DRS Experts available to deliberate over domain name disputes to 47.
https://www.nominet.uk/nominet-appoints-nine-new-experts-for-its-award-winning-dispute-resolution-service/

Big changes coming to .uk
http://domainincite.com/24826-three-big-changes-could-be-coming-to-uk