ICANN Policy Update | Volume 15, Issue 10 | November 2015
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Volume 15, Issue 10 | November 2015
Community Recognizes Leaders as Work Continues
Community-driven work is at the core of ICANN's mission. Our community members spend countless hours in working groups, on leadership teams, and in a variety of other activities across our Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees. This commitment of time, energy, and brainpower advances important policy development and advisory work. As one simple indicator of this level of activity commitment, community members participated in a total of 185 working sessions at ICANN54 alone.
At ICANN54, 43 community leaders from the At-Large, RSSAC, ASO, ccNSO, and GNSO communities and the Nominating Committee were recognized for their contributions to ICANN's work. The full list and a link to the resolution by the Board of Directors are published in this month's issue.
Of course, we cannot recognize community leaders without acknowledging the ongoing, extraordinary efforts of the IANA Stewardship Transition process and the Enhancing ICANN Accountability effort. Collectively, more than 300 community leaders have contributed substantially to proposals and working groups in the past 20 months.
My colleagues and I are grateful for our community and the opportunities they give us to help support their work. ICANN's growth and evolution as a multistakeholder organization depends on the sustained engagement of you all.
Best regards,
David Olive
Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support
General Manager, Istanbul Hub Office
Contents
Across ICANN
Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
- Nurani Nimpuno Elected to ASO Address Council
- Open, Inclusive RIPE Policy Development Process Works for Governments and Non-ISP Enterprises
- Regional Internet Registries Number Resource Policy Discussions
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)
- GNSO Council Adopts Data and Metrics for Policymaking Working Group Recommendations
- ICANN Learn Course, "Introduction to the GNSO," Launches
- GNSO Organizes 61 Sessions during ICANN54
At-Large/At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)
Publication Information
Policy Update is posted on ICANN's website and is available via online subscription. To receive Policy Update in your inbox each month, please visit our subscriptions page.
Please send questions, comments, and suggestions to: policyinfo@icann.org.
Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees
| Address Supporting Organization | ASO |
| Country Code Names Supporting Organization | ccNSO |
| Generic Names Supporting Organization | GNSO |
| At-Large Advisory Committee | ALAC |
| Governmental Advisory Committee | GAC |
| Root Server System Advisory Committee | RSSAC |
| Security and Stability Advisory Committee | SSAC |
Across ICANN
Issues Currently Open for Public Comment
Several public comment proceedings are currently open on issues of interest to the ICANN community.
Preliminary Issue Report on a GNSO Policy Development Process to Review All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs
The Preliminary Issue Report is published for public comment to obtain community input on the issue of launching a GNSO Policy Development Process to Review all Rights Protection Mechanisms in all gTLDs.
Public Comment Period Closes: 30 November 2015, 23:59 UTCRemoval of Searchable Whois Service from the .MEET Registry Agreement
This public comment period aims at gathering community input on the proposed amendment to the .MEET Registry Agreement to remove Searchable Whois service from the Exhibit A (Approved Services) of the .MEET Registry Agreement. This amendment is intended to implement the request from the registry operator to remove this service from their registry agreement, which is submitted through the Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) process. Also, this public comment period aims at gathering community input on this type of requests submitted for "open gTLDs" in general, so that the public comments can be used to consider similar future requests.
Public Comment Period Closes: 4 December 2015, 23:59 UTCNew gTLD Program Implementation Review Draft Report
This public comment period is being opened to obtain community input on the draft Program Implementation Review Report.
Public Comment Period Closes: 7 December 2015, 23:59 UTCGuidelines for Developing Reference Label Generation Rules (LGRs) for the Second Level
To facilitate and improve consistency of testing and stability of registry operations of new gTLDs, ICANN is developing reference Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) tables in machine readable format, called Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) for the second level, for use in Pre-Delegation Testing (PDT) and the Registry Service Evaluation Process (RSEP).
Public Comment Period Closes: 15 December 2015, 23:59 UTCProposed Implementation of GNSO Policy Development Process Recommendations on Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) Part D
The public comment proceeding seeks to obtain community input on the proposed implementation of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Policy Development Process (PDP) recommendations on the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) Part D.
Public Comment Period Closes: 21 December 2015, 23:59 UTCgTLD Marketplace Health Index Proposal: Call for Comments and Volunteers
ICANN seeks community input to facilitate the creation of a gTLD Marketplace Health Index. This Index will analyze the overall health and diversity of the global gTLD marketplace.
Public Comment Period Closes: 8 January 2015, 23:59 UTC
At any time, the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment proceedings can be found on the Public Comment web page.
ICANN staff also populates a web page to help preview potential "upcoming" public comment proceedings. The Upcoming Public Comment page provides information about potential future public comment opportunities. The page is updated after every ICANN public meeting to help individuals and the community set priorities and plan future workloads.
ICANN Recognizes 43 Community Leaders
The ICANN community recognized 43 leaders from across the Advisory Committees, Supporting Organizations, and the Nominating Committee at ICANN54. The Board of Directors acknowledged the contributions of these community leaders during its meeting on 22 October 2015.
At-Large Community
- Mr. Garth Bruen, NARALO Chair
- Ms. Fátima Cambronero, ALAC Member
- Mr. Oliver Crépin-Leblond, ALAC Member
- Mr. Eduardo Diaz, ALAC Member
- Mr. Rafid Fatani, ALAC Member
- Ms. Beran Dondeh Gillen, ALAC Member
- Mr. Wolf Ludwig, EURALO Chair
- Mr. Glenn McKnight, ALAC Member
- Ms. Yuliya Morenets, EURALO Secretariat
- Ms. Hadja Ouattara, ALAC Member
Root Server System Advisory Committee
- Mr. Marc Blanchet, Liaison from the Internet Architecture Board
Address Supporting Organization
- Ron da Silva, Address Council Member
Country Code Names Supporting Organization
- Mr. Victor Abboud, Councilor
- Mr. Martin Boyle, Member
- Mr. Keith Davidson, Vice Chair
- Mr. Jordi Iparraguirre, Councilor
- Ms. Dotty Sparks de Blanc, Councilor
Generic Names Supporting Organization
- Mr. Rafik Dammak, Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group Chair
- Ms. Avri Doria, Councilor
- Mr. Keith Drazek, Registries Stakeholder Group Chair
- Mr. Bret Fausett, Councilor
- Mr. Tony Holmes, Councilor
- Mr. Yoav Keren, Councilor
- Mr. Osvaldo Novoa, Councilor
- Mr. Daniel Reed, Councilor
- Mr. Thomas Rickert, Councilor
- Mr. Jonathan Robinson, Chair
- Mr. Brian Winterfeldt, Councilor
Nominating Committee
- Mr. Ron Andruff, Chair-Elect
- Mr. Satish Babu, Member
- Mr. John Berryhill, Member
- Mr. Alain Bidron, Member
- Mr. Don Blumenthal, Member
- Ms. Sarah Deutsch, Member
- Mr. Robert Guerra, Member
- Mr. Louis Houle, Member
- Mr. Juhani Juselius, Member
- Mr. Brenden Kuerbis, Member
- Ms. Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Associate Chair
- Mr. John Levine, Member
- Mr. William Manning, Member
- Ms. Fatimata Seye Sylla, Member
- Mr. Stéphane Van Gelder, Chair
More Information
Staff Contact
Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist
Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
Nurani Nimpuno Elected to ASO Address Council
Nurani Nimpuno, head of outreach and communications at Netnod, was elected to the ASO Address Council to fill the seat being vacated by Dmitry Kohmanyuk during the plenary session at RIPE71. Nimpuno will serve a three-year term from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018. Among her current responsibilities at Netnod, Nimpuno recently served also the vice chair of the Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal Team.
More Information
ICANN Staff Contact
Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist
Open, Inclusive RIPE Policy Development Process Works for Governments and Non-ISP Enterprises
Earlier this year, representatives from the German hypermarket chain Kaufland and the UK Ministry of Defense approached the RIPE NCC to ask if something could be done to help them acquire large IPv6 allocations they needed. At that time, RIPE policies did not take into account organizations such as Kaufland and the UK Ministry of Defense in determining if they could request an allocation.
RIPE policy has traditionally been developed to suit entities that behave like ISPs. This is because volunteers engaged in policy development were usually from an ISP, IT enterprise, or academic network. These entities look the same in the sense that they use network infrastructure to provide connectivity to a set of customers or end users that can easily be quantified. Because of this, it was simple for the RIPE NCC to determine the appropriate size for a network's IPv6 allocation.
However, there have always been entities that do not fit this mold. An example would be a large multinational organization that operates in different countries and wants to create separate segments in its network. In the case of the UK Ministry of Defense, it wanted to introduce layers of hierarchy into its network for security reasons. The only problem was that RIPE policy, with its focus on the number of users and extent of infrastructure, made it impossible to use hierarchy as the justification for an IPv6 allocation.
The RIPE NCC helped with the development of new policy text, introduced the representatives from Kaufland and the UK Ministry of Defense to the RIPE community, and explained how the policy development process works. Once the proposal was ready, the pair presented their ideas to the community at RIPE70.
After further discussion on the RIPE Address Policy Working Group mailing list, including first-time participation from other governments and non-ISPs, consensus was reached and the policy proposal was accepted in October 2015.
More Information
ICANN Staff Contact
Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist
Regional Internet Registries Number Resource Policy Discussions
At a Glance
Each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) has a web page that lists all the Internet number resource policy proposals that are under discussion. Policy discussions take place on open policy mailing lists and at Public Policy Meetings (list and meeting information is provided below).
These are some examples of Internet number resource policy and other discussions that took place recently on the RIR policy mailing lists and/or at meetings.
AFRINIC | Proposal page
AFRINIC23 will be held 28 November-4 December in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo. This is a week later and in a different location than previously scheduled. The initial meeting dates were delayed by a week in order to allow community members to attend both RIPE71 meeting and AFRINIC23. An extraordinary Annual General Members Meeting (AGMM) will be held during the AFRINIC23 plenary sessions that will take place 2-4 December. AFRINIC members called for this AGMM during AFRINIC22 in Tunis, Tunisia.
The Call for Hosting AFRINIC's 25th Public Policy Meeting, AFRINIC25, is open. Potential organizations are invited to submit a proposal to host this event, which will tentatively take place from 26 November-2 December 2016. All hosting requirements can be found here [PDF, 579 KB]. The deadline for submission of Country Host Proposals is 14 January 2016. For more information or queries on hosting requirements, please contact: meeting@afrinic.net.
The "Out-of-Region Use of AFRINIC Internet Number Resources" policy is still under discussion.
APNIC | Proposal page
The final comment period ended for the following two proposals, which were sent to the APNIC Executive Council for endorsement:
- prop-113: Modification in the IPv4 eligibility criteria
- prop-114: Modification in the ASN eligibility criteria
These proposals reached consensus at the APNIC40 Open Policy Meeting. The proposals alter the criteria applicants must meet to be delegated IPv4 and Autonomous System resources in the APNIC region.
- prop-115: Registration of detailed assignment information in Whois Database is still under discussion.
The deadline for proposals to be discussed at APNIC41 is Friday, 15 January 2016.
ARIN | Proposal page
After ARIN36 the following two proposals were posted for last call:
- Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2015-1: Modification to Criteria for IPv6 Initial End-User Assignments
- Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2015-4: Modify 8.2 section to better reflect how ARIN handles reorganizations
The following proposal appears to be gaining support and is moving forward in the ARIN Policy Development Process:
- Recommended Draft Policy ARIN-2015-5: Out of region use
The ARIN Advisory Council stated, "ARIN-2015-5 enables fair and impartial number resource administration by allowing any ARIN Organization with a real and substantial connection to the ARIN region to use number resources out of region without prejudice. This proposal is technically sound, as it addresses the key concerns related to the unlimited openness of out of region use and enables ARIN staff to implement the policy efficiently. The policy received a unanimous show of support at the ARIN Public Policy Meeting in Montreal. However, the AC encourages further discussion of ARIN-2015-5 on the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List to ensure we also have support from the ARIN community at-large."
LACNIC | Proposal page
The following proposals were posted for last call for comments:
- LAC-2015-1: Trigger 2.3.2.18 when a justified request larger than /22 is received which cannot be allocated from any remaining pool of addresses at LACNIC
- LAC-2015-4: Resource Recovery Timeline
- LAC-2015-5: Increase the minimum period of time required before a block can be transferred under section 2.3.2.18
RIPE NCC | Proposal page
A new proposal has generated a lot of discussion on the RIPE Address Policy Working Group mailing list. Proposal 2015-05, "Revision of Last /8 Allocation Criteria" aims to allow networks to access additional IPv4 allocations from the last /8. Members would be able to request an additional /22 allocation every 18 months, provided they had not transferred any address space from their registry in the past.
Upcoming RIR Meetings
- AFRINIC23 will be held 28 November-4 December 2015 in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.
- APNIC41 will be held 15-26 February 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand in conjunction with APRICOT 2016.
- ARIN37 will be held 17-20 April 2016 in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
- LACNIC25 will be held 2-6 May 2016 in Havana, Cuba.
- RIPE72 will be held 23-27 May 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Subscribe to RIR Policy Development Mailing Lists
- AFRINIC Resource Policy Discussion
- APNIC Policy Special Interest Group
- ARIN Public Policy
- LACNIC Políticas
- RIPE NCC Address Policy Working Group
ICANN Staff Contact
Carlos Reyes, Policy Specialist
Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)
GNSO Council Adopts Data and Metrics for Policymaking Working Group Recommendations
At a Glance
The GNSO Council unanimously approved the Data and Metrics for Policy Making Working Group's (DMPM-WG) consensus recommendations.
Recent Developments
The DMPM-WG developed final recommendations and submitted them to the GNSO Council for consideration, which are documented in its Final Report [PDF, 590 KB] after a review of public comments. With an already clear understanding of the DMPM-WG's recommendations, the GNSO Council adopted the DMPM-WG's recommendations unanimously. Key elements of the WG's effort are outlined below.
Opportunities discovered by the DMPM-WG include:
- Improve the way in which consensus policies are developed and help ensure that the most critical registrant, registry, and registrar issues are addressed
- Evolve culture to better informed, fact-based policy development and decision making
- Base deliberations and decisions on tangible evidence as opposed to "gut feeling" or anecdotal evidence
- Instill a notion of continuous improvement to the policy process and effectiveness consensus policy implementations
Key Definitions:
- Data: Individual facts, a set of values, statistics, or items of information
- Metrics: A set of measurements that help quantify results, which allows for better determination of the level of success against a set of goals
The DMPM-WG's recommendations include:
- Initiation of a pilot effort whereby the GNSO community, at the early stages of the policy process (issue identification or working groups), can submit tactical-sized requests for data and metrics to assist in validation of issues or to better inform policy deliberations
- Creation of working group work product templates (charter, final report) including updates to the GNSO's Operating Procedures and Working Group Guidelines (WGG)
- Update to the charter template to assist drafting teams in determining key metrics to be used to meet the goals of resolving issues
- Updates to the final report template with a standard but modifiable recommendation forcing a review of the policies implemented at a future date to determine if it met the stated intent
- Creation of a Metrics Request Decision Tree and Request Form to formalize the request process, including inclusion into the WGG.
Next Steps
ICANN policy staff is now directed to begin implementation of the adopted recommendations. Implementation status can be viewed on the Projects List.
Background
The Registration Abuse Policies Working Group (RAPWG) identified a meta issue: Uniformity of Reporting, which it described as the "need for more uniformity in the mechanisms to initiate, track, and analyze policy-violation reports." The RAPWG recommended in its Final Report that "the GNSO and the larger ICANN community in general, create and support uniform problem-reporting and report-tracking processes."
The GNSO Council recommended the creation of an issue report to further research metrics and reporting needs in hopes to improve the policy development process. The report created by ICANN staff outlined accomplishments regarding reporting and metrics by the Contractual Compliance function and it also reviewed other reporting sources that may be of relevance. The GNSO Council subsequently adopted the recommendation to form this non-PDP Working Group tasked with exploring opportunities for developing reporting and metrics processes and/or appropriate standardized methodologies that could better inform fact-based policy development and decision making.
More Information
Staff Contact
Steve Chan, Senior Policy Manager
ICANN Learn Course, "Introduction to the GNSO," Launches
The GNSO is a complex structure consisting of a number of constituencies and stakeholder groups that deals with important issues, often through its policy development process. To understand what the GNSO is and what it does is not always easy, especially to ICANN newcomers. Following community suggestions that more material for newcomers be made available, support staff developed the "Introduction to the GNSO" course on the ICANN Learn platform. This online course explains what the GNSO is, who its members represent, what groups it contains, and how a policy development process is conducted. The course is free and available to everyone.
Staff Contact
Lars Hoffmann, Policy Manager
GNSO Organizes 61 Sessions during ICANN54
At a Glance
In addition to participating in a number of cross-community working group efforts during ICANN54, the GNSO organized 61 sessions.
Overview of GNSO Sessions
The GNSO held 61 sessions during ICANN54 that included the GNSO Weekend Session with updates from all ongoing PDP and non-PDP work projects, the GNSO Review Working Party, the SSAC, GAC, and ICANN Board as well as senior ICANN staff. All GNSO working groups also met to present and discuss their progress and gather feedback from the community.
Following the public meetings of all GNSO stakeholder groups and constituencies on 20 October 2015, the GNSO Council met on 21 October 2015. During this meeting, the GNSO Council adopted the final report and recommendations of the Data and Metrics for Policy Making Working Group and a statement on the Process and Participation in CCWG-Accountability.
During the second part of the meeting, the new GNSO Council members formally began their service, and the GNSO Council conducted a chair election. After two rounds of voting, none of the candidates received sufficient support. A new round of nominations and an election will take place during the month of November.
Staff Contact
Lars Hoffmann, Policy Manager
At-Large / At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
ALAC/At-Large Achievements at ICANN54
ALAC Activities
The ALAC and At-Large community held 30 meetings at ICANN54. The ALAC held a new strategy session on 17 October 2015 as well as a very successful first development session on 23 October 2015.
ALAC Members at the first ALAC Development Session – 23 October 2015
The ALAC withdrew its support for the single membership model previously proposed by the CCWG-Accountability. The ALAC also unanimously passed a statement on the Use of Country and Territory Names as Top-Level Domains and a statement on the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Discussion Paper for communication to the relevant parties. The ALAC and At-Large New Meeting Strategy Working Party made significant progress toward agreement on the At-Large Schedule for Meetings A, B, and C. Leaders of the working party met with members of the ICANN Meetings team to discuss the schedule.
New ALAC Members
The ALAC welcomed seven new members at ICANN54 (* denotes new ALAC members selected to represent their respective region by the Nominating Committee):
- Seun Ojedeji (AFRALO)
- Wafa Dahmani Zaafouri*
- Dr. Kaili Kan*
- Sebastien Bachollet (EURALO)
- Harold Arcos (LACRALO)
- Garth Bruen (NARALO)
- Timothy Denton*
New ALAC Leadership Team
After considerable deliberation, the ALAC selected its new leadership team for the year:
- Alan Greenberg – ALAC Chair (NARALO)
- Leon Sanchez – ALAC Vice Chair (LACRALO)
- Tijani Ben Jemaa – ALAC Vice Chair (AFRALO)
- Holly Raiche (APRALO)
- Sandra Hoferichter (EURALO)
More Information
Staff Contact
Heidi Ullrich, Senior Director for At-Large
RALO Activities at ICANN54
AFRALO
AFRALO held its monthly meeting on 21 October 2015. The meeting focused on the analysis and debate of the AFRALO-AfrICANN statement, "The IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability—Africa Perspective." The debate brought the perspective of the African ICANN community into this important issue.
In the statement AFRALO "congratulates the ICG on continuing its progress towards finalizing the final IANA transition proposal. We are pleased to note that the ICG has taken into consideration most of the issues raised in the AFRALO comments on the draft final proposal. Nevertheless, we still have important concerns related to the coordination among the operational communities when making critical decisions like the separation of related IANA operations from the current IANA function operator; we believe such decisions, if not well coordinated, could have major impact on the security and stability of the Internet. Though we understand that some informal relationships exist between the operational communities, we believe it will be helpful if the three communities formerly commit to coordinating with each other whenever the need arises." The final version of the statement has been published here [DOCX, 15 KB].
APRALO
APRALO held its monthly meeting on 21 October 2015. Highlights of this meeting included a review of the implementation, progress, and achievements of the APAC Hub-APRALO Framework, specifically capacity building activities.
APRALO has held four capacity building webinars, which are gaining popularity among ALSes. ALSes discuss how to improve participation within ICANN. The APAC Hub and At-Large staff will continue to work together with APRALO to organize future webinars.
The issue of individual membership was also discussed; all members are invited to comment on the workspace. Finally, the APRALO leadership team prepared a new outreach promotional video.
EURALO
EURALO held its General Assembly on 21 October 2015. Part of the General Assembly focused on a substantive discussion on the theme of ICANN's "public interest." As a result of this debate, a paper will be circulated among all other RALOs with the aim to start a wider discussion on this topic.
A successful EURALO and European Coordination Networking Event included a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ICANN and EuroDIG as well as a special recognition of Wolf Ludwig for his exceptional service to EURALO, At-Large, and ICANN.
NARALO
The NARALO monthly meeting was held on 19 October 2015. Issues discussed included the NARALO Outreach and Engagement strategy with a lively discussion on how to encourage participation of more ALses and implementation of the Community Regional Outreach Program.
More Information
Staff Contact
Silvia Vivanco, Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs
Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
GAC Public Safety Working Group Gains Traction
At a Glance
The meeting of the recently formed GAC Public Safety Working Group (PSWG) at ICANN54 attracted an audience of nearly 80 participants. Members discussed key topics for public safety, notably Whois accuracy, consumer safeguards for new gTLDs, and related contract provisions for registrars and registries.
Recent Developments
Whois accuracy was a major focus area during the GAC Public Safety Working Group meeting. While noting conflicting objectives between law enforcement and privacy protection, public safety officials all agreed that accuracy of Whois data is a shared goal. The European Union data protection framework was also brought up as an aspect that could inform the current Whois system and the Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Service.
The importance of accurate and reliable Whois data for law enforcement was illustrated with examples of criminal use cases that have been solved with the help of valid email addresses as needed for billing purposes to register websites.
Next Steps
Upcoming priorities for the PSWG are to contribute to ICANN's new gTLD Competition, Consumer Choice and Consumer Trust Review as well as to the GNSO PDP on Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Service.
The PSWG is actively encouraging participation from more countries, notably developing countries, and from additional experts on data protection, consumer protection and other relevant specialties, to represent a full range of governmental public safety actors worldwide. The PSWG will next meet in Brussels, Belgium in January 2016, at a meeting hosted by the European Commission.
More Information
Staff Contact
Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations
Karine Perset, GAC Relations Advisor
Julia Charvolen, Senior Coordinator, GAC Services
GAC Concludes Meeting at ICANN54
At a Glance
ICANN54 was a positive and productive meeting for the GAC. In addition to CCWG-Accountability matters, the GAC focused on implementation issues for GAC safeguard advice, noted progress in GAC working groups, and prepared for the next High Level Governmental Meeting at ICANN55.
Recent Developments
The GAC agenda at ICANN54 featured multiple sessions for CCWG-Accountability matters, including a well-attended discussion with the CCWG Co-Chairs.Notably, "stress test 18" was the most debated topic for the GAC.
Implementation issues related to previous GAC advice were also considered at ICAN54, in particular, advice regarding safeguards for new gTLDs. The GAC further discussed preparations and a draft agenda for the next High Level Governmental Meeting to be hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco during ICANN55.
All GAC working groups reported on status and progress of their work. The Public Safety Working Group and Geographic Names Working Group both held information sessions for the community. In addition, the GAC was briefed on the issue of how to facilitate universal acceptance of new top-level domains, in particular with regard to IDNs.
The GAC welcomed three new members and two new observers, bringing the total number of members to 155, plus 34 IGOs as observers.
Next Steps
Interested GAC Members, the GAC secretariat, and ICANN staff are working closely with Morocco in order to best prepare for the High Level Governmental Meeting at ICANN55.
More Information
- GAC Dublin Communiqué [PDF, 164 KB]
- GAC website
Staff Contact
Olof Nordling, Senior Director, GAC Relations
Karine Perset, GAC Relations Advisor
Julia Charvolen, Senior Coordinator, GAC Services
Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)
SSAC Publishes Advisory on Registrant Protection: Best Practices for Preserving Security and Stability in the Credential Management Lifecycle
At a Glance
On 4 November 2015 the SSAC published SAC074 SSAC Advisory on Registrant Protection: Best Practices for Preserving Security and Stability in the Credential Management Lifecycle [PDF, 653 KB].
Overview
The SAC 074 advisory provides specific best practice guidelines that will help registrars and registries enhance the security of domain names and the systems that support them. Section 6 of the advisory contains these best practices, addressing the entire credential management lifecycle. Section 7 describes four recommendations from the SSAC to ICANN.
Background
In its advisory, the SSAC notes that attacks that compromise registrant data and/or the Domain Name System (DNS) settings of domain names continue to be a significant problem for registrars and registries, as well as for the registrants themselves and the users of their sites. The advisory provides background about this problem, including numerous examples, and explains the credential management lifecycle and related terminology for the ICANN community.
More Information
Staff Contact
Steve Sheng, Director, SSAC and RSSAC Advisories Development Support
Julie Hedlund, Director, SSAC Support
policy-update-nov15-en.pdf [619 KB]