Board Risk Committee (RC) – Minutes 22 March 2014

RC Members: Steve Crocker, Bill Graham, Ram Mohan, Gonzalo Navarro, Mike Silber – Chair, Jonne Soininen, Suzanne Woolf, Kuo-Wei Wu

Other Board Member Attendees: Bruce Tonkin

ICANN Executive and Staff Attendees: Francisco Arias (Director, Technical Services), Akram Atallah (President – Global Domains Division), Susanna Bennett (Chief Operating Officer), Megan Bishop (Board Support Coordinator), Michelle Bright (Board Support Manager), Xavier Calvez (Chief Financial Officer), John Crain (Chief Security, Stability and Resiliency Officer), John Jeffrey (General Counsel and Secretary), Patrick Jones (Global Stakeholder Engagement Senior Director), Jacks Khawaja (Enterprise Risk Director), Cyrus Namazi (Vice President, DNS Industry Engagement), Erika Randall (Counsel), Ashwin Rangan (Chief Innovation & Information Officer) and Amy Stathos (Deputy General Counsel)

Other Invited Attendees: Representatives from Westlake Governance


The following is a summary of discussions, decisions, and actions identified:

The Meeting was called to order at 17:15 local time Singapore.

  • Agenda: The Chair established the agenda for the meeting and gave an overview of items to be discussed.

  • Approval of Minutes: The RC approved the minutes of the 5 February 2014 RC meeting.

  • DNS Risk Assessment Status Update: Representatives from Westlake Governance provided the RC with a status update on the DNS Risk Assessment. Their presentation focused on the outputs of the Risk Assessment work, next steps, and the timeline, and summarized the discussions from a risk identification workshop held in Los Angeles in February. The presentation included a discussion of the process used to categorize DNS-related risks, and potential outreach to the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) to provide an update on the DNS Risk Assessment and to request input. They discussed the appropriate scope and structure for engagement with the RSSAC and SSAC on the Risk Assessment and how that assessment would feed into ICANN's overall operating and budget plans processes.

    • Actions:
      • Staff to prepare plan for public consultation process associated with the DNS Risk Assessment.

      • Staff to prepare briefing materials discussing existing emergency response, rapid response and contingency plans to address DNS-related risks.

  • New gTLD and IDN Adoption (Universal Acceptance). Staff updated the RC on the activities taking place in the community and in ICANN to address the issue of universal acceptance of New gTLDs and IDNs, and the RC considered potential risk implications. The RC discussed whether the issue had been appropriately considered as part of ICANN's enterprise risk matrix. The RC also discussed ICANN's role in addressing universal acceptance issues, and asked staff to provide an update on communications plans to address the topic. The RC also received an update on the sessions that would be held during the Singapore meeting on the topic of universal acceptance.

    • Actions:
      • Staff to prepare an analysis as to how universal acceptance risks should be addressed by the RC, and whether there are other risks or concerns that should be referred to other Board Committees.

  • Name Collision – Ram Mohan abstained from this discussion, noting conflicts. Staff presented the RC with a status update on name collision, and made note of the ongoing public comment on the proposal to mitigate name collisions, and a recent Internet Engineering Task Force proposal to reserve certain names applied-for in the New gTLD Program.

The Chair called the meeting to a close.

Published on 18 April 2014