ICANN is seeking volunteers to participate in the Input Group: Law Enforcement Agency Authentication Mechanisms (Input Group), a community effort that will help inform the development of a proof of concept for authenticating law enforcement requestors using the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) or its successor system.
The proof of concept will explore how existing law enforcement authentication systems can interoperate with RDRS and help support the secure handling of urgent requests for nonpublic generic top-level domain registration data. As part of this work, ICANN is collaborating with law enforcement stakeholders, including Interpol and the FBI, in order to better understand existing authentication approaches and evaluate potential technical integration options.
This effort builds on discussions among the contracted parties, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council, the Governmental Advisory Committee Public Safety Working Group, and the ICANN Board regarding the implementation of authentication mechanisms for urgent requests. It also responds to community input calling for greater transparency and broader participation in the development and testing of authentication approaches.
The Input Group is a focused, volunteer-based effort that will provide structured feedback to the ICANN organization throughout the proof of concept. The group's role is advisory and implementation-focused. It will not develop policy, or revisit existing Registration Data Policy requirements.
Participants will be invited to provide input on a range of operational and technical topics, including:
- Technical requirements for integrating authentication mechanisms with RDRS or its successor system
- Information used to validate authenticated law enforcement requestors
- Workflow design and operational processes
- Privacy, security, and data minimization considerations
- Transparency, accountability, auditability, and logging requirements
- Usability and workflow efficiency
The Input Group will meet roughly every three weeks from July 2026 through February 2027. Meetings will be recorded, and materials, recordings, and updates will be publicly available through the group's webpage.
ICANN welcomes participation from individuals and organizations with relevant expertise and perspectives. This includes representatives from law enforcement agencies, current and future RDRS users, registrars, and interested participants from the ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees. Participants will help inform the proof of concept by contributing practical operational, technical, and implementation-focused input.
A key objective of this work is to support the implementation of the Registration Data Policy's requirements for urgent requests. Urgent requests are a specific category of disclosure requests involving circumstances that pose an imminent threat to life, of serious bodily injury, to critical infrastructure, or of child exploitation, where timely access to registration data may be necessary. Additional information about urgent requests is available in the Input Group FAQ.
Community discussions have consistently identified authentication as a significant operational challenge in meeting the policy's 24-hour response timeline for urgent requests. The proof of concept will help evaluate the feasibility, usability, and technical interoperability of potential authentication approaches and identify implementation considerations for future work.
The Input Group will work in parallel to the GNSO's Supplemental Recommendations Team (SRT), which is considering adjustments to existing policy recommendations on the accreditation of requestors in a future System for Standardized Access/Disclosure. ICANN is seeking a member of the GNSO Council to serve as a liaison between the SRT and the input group to support the coordination of these two efforts and help ensure awareness of relevant developments and dependencies.
Key milestones for the project include a July 2026 inaugural meeting, the presentation of wireframes in October 2026, a testing period beginning in December 2026, and the publication of findings in March 2027.
To learn more, review the FAQs and participation information on the Input Group webpage. Interested volunteers should email [email protected] to join the group.
