Domain Names

What’s My Name Got to Do With It?

For about 3 years I had been studying graphic design and finally after much searching decided to use bmw-design.com for my domain name. I chose bmw for my initials Bernadette Maria Walker. I searched for availability on Network Solutions and was happy to see that it had not been taken, so I registered my new domain name. This all seemed very innocent to me and I even designed my logo around this name. Then 5 days later I got this letter via FedEx from BMW Motor Company in Germany... more

The Reporting Gap: What Happens Between a DNS Abuse Complaint and a Takedown

DNS abuse enforcement can stop abusive domains and drive systemic registrar reforms, but reporting barriers, inconsistent response times, and poorly documented complaints leave many phishing sites active before actionable cases ever reach enforcement. more

ICANN Sets Guidelines to Advance Universal Acceptance of Internationalized Domains and Email

ICANN's new Universal Acceptance guidelines target persistent interoperability gaps that prevent internationalized domain names and email addresses from working reliably across browsers, identity systems, applications and other Internet infrastructure. more

15th Registration Operations Workshop, September 29, 2026, 13:00 - 17:00 UTC

The 15th Registration Operations Workshop convenes domain name and DNS professionals September 29 for technical sessions on mTLS, RPKI, DNS resilience, delegations, DNSSEC, registrar concentration, dispute proceedings and alternative naming systems. more

Thirty-Five Years Later, Moscow Comes Looking for the Soviet Union’s Domain

Russia is imposing state identity verification on .su, the Soviet Union's surviving domain, as researchers uncover criminal infrastructure across the namespace and ICANN pursues a retirement process that could eventually remove it from the global root. more

ICANN Terminates Two Registrars as DNS Abuse and Compliance Failures Escalate

ICANN has terminated two registrar accreditation agreements after unresolved compliance failures, citing Trustname's handling of DNS abuse and IPIP's failures involving RDAP, registration data escrow, accreditation fees, and access to non-public registration data. more

ICANN to Shut Down Open Data Platform and API September 1

ICANN will retire its Open Data Platform and API on September 1, shifting datasets to downloadable CSV files and forcing researchers, registries and domain-industry organizations to update automated workflows that rely on programmatic data access. more

After the Close: What the 2026 gTLD Round Has Already Revealed

ICANN's 2026 gTLD round drew more than 1,600 applications, led by ambitious portfolio investors. But scant brand disclosures and new rules banning private settlements could make contention costlier and reshape the economics of domain ownership. more

ICANN Draws More Than 1,600 Applications in New gTLD Round

ICANN has received more than 1,600 applications for new generic top-level domains, setting the stage for administrative checks, public disclosure and potentially fierce competition over sought-after additions to the internet's expanding domain-name system. more

Now That You’ve Applied for a New gTLD, Should You Reveal?

With applications closed, new gTLD hopefuls face a changed calculation: revealing strings early could expose contention while information remains financially valuable, helping applicants make better decisions before fees are paid and withdrawal becomes increasingly costly. more

ICANN’s New gTLD Application Window Set to Close, Capping a Landmark Expansion Round

ICANN's second major domain expansion round closes August 12, with costly applications, support for 27 non-Latin scripts and stricter technical vetting setting the stage for a broader, more multilingual internet naming system. more

Beyond DUMs: The Case for Tracking What a Namespace Is Made Of

Domains Under Management (DUM) measures a namespace's size, but not its character. Structural composition could reveal whether growth reflects durable adoption, speculative holdings or noise, giving registries a richer view of namespace health and strategy. more

Phantom Squatting: When LLMs’ Hallucination Becomes an Attacker’s Best Friend

As AI reshapes cybersecurity, attackers are exploiting a fundamental weakness in large language models. Phantom squatting turns hallucinated domain names into trusted attack vectors, creating a new class of DNS abuse that defenders cannot solve by eliminating hallucinations alone. more

Same Shape at Every Scale: What a Larger Domnain Namespace Confirmed - and What It Didn’t

A larger namespace confirms the same four-layer structural pattern found across nTLDs, while revealing wider operator-to-investor variation and distinctive noise signatures that expose different registration dynamics hidden behind headline registration totals. more

Call for Participation: DNSSEC and Security Workshop at ICANN87 (21 October 2026)

ICANN is inviting proposals for its DNSSEC and Security Workshop at ICANN 87, offering experts and practitioners a platform to share insights on DNS security, routing security, browser security, and emerging Internet infrastructure challenges. more