ICANN Acronyms and Terms

ICANN has hundreds of acronyms and terms, which can be confusing. We created this multilingual tool to help explain what these terms mean and facilitate your work within the ICANN community.

ICANN Acronyms and Terms

Type in the acronym or term you are looking for in the Search bar below.
In addition to English, translated versions of acronyms and terms are also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Links for each language are located in the top right of the page.
Click the first letter of the term you are looking for to search alphabetically.

F

1-4 of 4 results

fast flux

A technique that attackers use to make it difficult for investigators to identify the devices that the attackers use to conduct a cyberattack.

With fast flux, attackers take advantage of the time-to-live (TTL) value associated with Domain Name System resource records. First, the attackers host proxy websites at multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Then, they use short TTL values in the zone data for their domain name, so they can quickly change its IP address. The continuously changing IP address effectively thwarts investigative efforts to locate the attacker's malicious content.

Attackers also use the fast-flux technique to quickly change the IP addresses of their criminal name servers. When attackers apply fast flux to their fraudulent websites and their criminal name servers in tandem, the technique is called double flux.

Formal Resolution Process

A process that ICANN Contractual Compliance uses to enforce contractual obligations when a contracted party fails to collaborate effectively during the Informal Resolution Process or remains noncompliant after attempts at informal resolution.

Enforcement notices are published on the ICANN website.

Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams(FIRST)

An international confederation of trusted computer incident response teams who cooperatively handle computer security incidents and promote incident prevention programs. FIRST enables incident response teams to more effectively respond to security incidents by providing access to best practices, tools, and trusted communication with member teams.

Fully-Qualified Domain Name(FQDN)

A complete domain name that includes a full path of labels up to the Domain Name System (DNS) root zone and specifies its exact location in the DNS hierarchy, e.g., www.icann.org.