March 2019

Kia Kaha Christchurch

All staff of the DNCL would like to acknowledge the tragic events in Christchurch. Our thoughts and sympathies are with all those affected.

Our current focus is to assist DIA and CertNZ with appropriate levels of support. DNCL will actively join the national conversation and seek to understand when and how to best deal with terrorism related events online.

We look forward to working closely with our community on the policy response to such issues in the coming weeks and months.

I have outlined further details of our response on the DNC website, including a change to .nz policy involving domain name suspensions related to the attacks.

Brent Carey
Domain Name Commissioner

Reviewing .nz - have your say

Next week, InternetNZ will advertising for a panel of smart, engaged and thoughtful people to help review the .nz domain name system. We are thrilled to announce that the review will be lead by Sue Chetwin. We would like a panel of up to 12 people to Join Sue to undertake the review. We are looking for a balance of people who understand .nz, and people who bring a new and fresh perspective. The review will be looking at a range of issues and then trying to find ways we can solves them together. Questions like how do we minimise abuse on .nz? What do we want .nz to say about us as a nation? And how do we ensure tikanga values of openness, compassion, respect, and integrity are incorporated into .nz?

To be involved you will need to be available for 12 months starting from May 2019. More information can be found on InternetNZ's website next week.

ICANN 64: Kobe

Domain Name Commissioner Brent Carey attended the most recent ICANN conference, held in Kobe, Japan from 9-14 March.
The Policy Session focussed on the retirement of ccTLDs, a piece of work that is slated to finish in 2020. The outcome will be a detailed guidance policy for retiring a ccTLD from the root zone.

Discussion also focussed on the issue of content, with our Norway counterpart Norid reaffirming its stance of avoiding issues of this nature. A 2009 Supreme Court decision upholds this positioning, by clearly stating that Norid does not have control for content. Globally, content abuse is an issue at the forefront of policymakers’ work, and one that requires careful consideration.

DNS Belgium presented on how they collaborate with the Belgian government to combat e-commerce fraud. Key to the Belgian model is the layered approach: domain names are not immediately cancelled, instead going through a process that protects consumers, while allowing the domain name holder to fix any issue should they choose to.

Another session shone a spotlight on ICANN’s Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR) project. It is an ICANN initiative that aims to develop a system for reporting on domain registration and abuse data across TLD registries and registrars. The cross-jurisdiction collaboration involved could greatly enhance outcomes, but some stakeholders are concerned that the exercise strays too far into content monitoring territory.

The next ICANN will be held in Marrakesh – for more information visit the ICANN website.

Update on the .vu delegation

The ICANN board meeting in Kobe included the announcement that the .vu delegation would be transferred from Telecom Vanuatu Limited (TVL) to the Telecommunications Radiocommunications and Broadcasting Regulator (TRBR). This is the first change to the delegation since the .vu space was created in 1995. TRBR will now be required to manage .vu, and attend to the process of splitting Registry and Registrar functions.

TRBR are in the process of negotiating with their preferred Registry Provider, having gone through a competitive tender process first. An announcement on this is expected shortly.

The Domain Name Commission and InternetNZ have long held a strong collaborative relationship with TRBR, a relationship formalised by an MOU between DNC and TRBR in 2017. The Domain Name Commission wishes to congratulate TRBR and looks forward to continuing the supportive and collegial relationship going forward.

Farewell to Caleb

Caleb has been working as a Support Analyst at the Domain Name Commission since mid-2017, but is moving on, with a new role at the Department of Internal Affairs. Over the past couple of years, Caleb has contributed to a range of DNCL projects, and has written several DNC publications (including this newsletter). While we are sorry to see him go, we wish him all the best in his future endeavours, and hope he enjoys working with our friends at DIA.

Useful links

CERT NZ publishes advisory on Christchurch related phishing scams.

Netsafe’s advisory on the Christchurch attack video and what to do if you’ve seen it.