Minutes | Board Technical Committee (BTC) Meeting 18 May 2022

Board Member and Liaison Attendees: Harald Alvestrand, Alan Barrett, James Galvin, Akinori Maemura (Acting Chair for 18 May 2022 Meeting), Kaveh Ranjbar (Chair), Patricio Poblete, Katrina Sataki, and Tripti Sinha.

Other Board Members and Liaisons Present: Avri Doria and Manal Ismail

ICANN Organization Attendees: Adiel Akplogan (Vice President for Technical Engagement), Jennifer Bryce (Project Manager), Franco Carrasco (Board Operations Specialist), Steve Conte (Director, IROS Operations), John Crain (SVP and Chief Technology Officer), Kinga Kowalcyzk (Administrative Assistant), Matt Larson (VP, Research), Erika Randall (Associate General Counsel), Samaneh Tajalizadehkhoob (Principal Security, Stability, and Resiliency Specialist), and Sarah Zagha (Counsel)

Invited Guest: Matthew Thomas (Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Working Party (WP) co-chair) – only present for agenda item no. 1

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

1. BTC Update Session with the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) DG Admin Co-Chairs: Progress on Study 2 – The Committee received an update on the NCAP work from Matt Thomas. He noted that Study 2 is progressing well. The case study report for .CORP, .HOME, and .MAIL has been finalized, giving the NCAP Discussion Group critical measurements for doing name collision risk assessments. The study titled "A Perspective Study of DNS Queries for Non-Existent Top-Level Domains" has also been completed.

   The Group continues to work on responding to the Board's questions outlined in Board Resolution 2017.11.02.30, and how to proceed on providing advice for risk assessments for name collisions going forward. The answers to these questions are currently being put into the Study 2 report. Moreover, the contracted technical investigator has provided a root cause report on the ICANN name collision reports that were received during the 2012 application round for new gTLDs. Finally, the Group is making efforts on its workflow for proposing how to progress with managing name collision risk assessments and providing guidance.

2. Approval of Pending Committee Meeting's Report – The Committee Meeting minutes for the 20 April 2022 Committee Meeting were circulated via email.

   • Action Item:
     • Committee members to submit online votes on the 20 April 2022 Committee Meeting minutes.

3. Action Items Review – The Acting Chair established the agenda for the meeting. An update to the previous action item was given as noted below:

   • The action item of contacting IAB and IETF on how ICANN plans to implement SSAC113 is complete. Harald Alvestrand reported that the feedback from the IETF was positive.

4. Follow Up Discussion on Blockchain Based Name Service – The Committee engaged in a discussion about having a standing item on the agenda to address blockchain based name services. As part of the discussion, various Committee members shared views about the scope of what should be included for discussion within this ongoing agenda item and how best to reflect the topic on the agenda. After discussion, the Committee decided to have a standing topic on the agenda to address Blockchain Names.

   • Action Item:
     • OCTO to share the report of alternate naming systems with the Committee once completed.

5. Priority Project Updates – The Committee received an update on the following projects:

   • Domain Name System Security Facilitation Initiative Technical Study Group (DSFI-TSG) Report - Implementation Update: ICANN org members reported that the recommendations from the DSFI-TSG will be processed similar to the approach used to address advice to the Board from the Advisory Committees via the five-phase Action Request Register (ARR) process. ICANN org is currently in Phase 2 of the process, which calls for ICANN org to work with the advice provider to ensure mutual understanding on any actionable items contained in the advice. After this, the report will move towards evaluation for feasibility within the coming weeks, and is anticipated to be given to the ICANN President and CEO in July, along with recommendations for implementation. The community will subsequently be invited to provide input.
   • Root Zone Management Study: It was reported that the public comment period for the Root Zone Management study is completed, and the public comment report was published earlier in the week. Two comments were received. Minor edits will be made to the final study report, which will be published once updated, likely at the end of June.
   • IMRS Strategy: ICANN org members reported that the IMRS strategy, OCTO-16, paper is completed. It is currently in the final review process within ICANN org. It will be published by the end of June. 
   • Root Server System Governance Working Group (RSS-GWG): It was reported that the composition of the GWG has now changed, and that all the root server operators are now members of the GWG. The GWG also conducted its annual election process for the chair role, and Brad Verd of Verisign has been elected to Chair.

6. Updates from Technical Liaisons – The Committee received an update from the following Board Technical Liaisons:

   • SSAC (James Galvin): The Committee was informed that SSAC reached a new milestone and is twenty years old this year.

     James also reported on work in the SSAC to ensure that the outputs of the NCAP passes through the standard SSAC processes, including review by the SSAC NCAP work party and discussion by the full SSAC before sending to the Board.

     It was also noted that certain registries and registrars have invited a few SSAC members to engage in their subgroups to address the question of malicious versus compromised registrations. The SSAC members have agreed, thereby taking an additional step forward towards working on DNS abuse.

   • RSSAC (Kaveh Ranjbar): The Chair noted that he will reach his term limit at this year's Annual General Meeting and the election is ongoing in the RSSAC to identify his replacement.
   •  Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) (Harald Alvestrand): No significant updates to report.
7. Any Other Business – No other business to report.

The Acting Chair called the meeting to a close.

Published on 23 June 2022