News

The CENTR Guide to ICANN43 is now available. 
The guide contains key topics in the ccNSO, GAC and gNSO spheres as well as relevant sessions to attend.  

Click for the Guide to ICANN43 

Leap day on the Internet: 29 February 2012 is also a special day for the .at-zone. At 11.35 a.m., the local domain registry nic.at activated the security extension DNSSEC for .at-domains. The first Austrian domain with a DNSSEC signature is the tourism portal austria.at.

“Security is the dominant topic on the Internet. With the DNSSEC extension we have now set another milestone for the security of the .at-zone”, says nic.at CEO Robert Schischka. “While the DNSSEC signature of domains is not equally relevant for every domain holder, highly sensitive sectors like banks, insurance companies or online shop providers will definitely welcome DNSSEC as an additional means of protection. This technology increases the safety of sensitive transactions and is another measure to protect the users against misuse on the Internet.”

The first .at-domain with DNSSEC signature goes to… Salzburg!

Great joy in Salzburg: The first .at-domain with a DNSSEC signature in Austria is the tourism platform austria.at. Says CEO Renate Emminger: “This is a double jubilee for us. We registered our domain austria.at in 1997, and on its 15^th birthday its own DNSSEC signature provides even more security.” Co-manager Josef Rehrl adds: “We didn’t have to think twice after being informed by our registrar WORLD4YOU about DNSSEC. As a tourism and booking platform, security is of utmost importance to us. As payment transactions are also performed on our portal, we can say that everything that increases the confidence on the Internet is a boon to our customers.”

Only a few DNSSEC pioneers among Austrian registrars

WORLD4YOU, a company located in Linz, is one of the first registrars to offer this new service for .at-domains to its customers. CEO Johannes Kührerüber told us about his motives: “We believe that this service makes us stand out well. DNSSEC is a useful supplement, especially for customers whose domains are used for financial transactions or the transmission of sensitive data. Thus, we have thoroughly tested the required processes and sequences, as we really wanted to be among the first registrars offering this service in Austria.” More information about DNSSEC from nic.at available here

 

Photo credits:
Photo 1: nic.at CEOs Robert Schischka (far left) and Richard Wein (far right) hand over the certificate for the first Austrian domain with DNSSEC signature to CEOs of austria.at Renate Emminger and Josef Rehrl
© nic.at, Wildbild
Photo 2:
Mood of celebration at nic.at – CEOs Richard Wein (left) and Robert Schischka (right) raise their glasses of “DNSSECco” to the successful launch of DNSSEC for the .at-zone.
© nic.at, Wildbild 

Further inquiry note: 

Mag. Monika Pink-Rank, nic.at PR
Tel: +43(0)662/4669-63
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Go to Original Article via NIC.at site

Liberalization will allow users to more easily register a .pt domain, without having to be associated with a brand or company

Lisbon, February 23 th, 2012 – The Foundation for National Scientific Computing announced, at a press conference, the liberalization of .pt domain registration, from May 1, 2012. At the conference, there were also made ​​public the new rules for registering .pt domain names.

According to Pedro Veiga, president of the Foundation, “This is a goal for which the Foundation has been working long and we finally have the approval of the proposed liberalization from the General Council. We hope that this liberalization will result in an increase in the number of people who choose to have a .pt address instead of registering foreign and generic top domains.”

From May 1^st, anyone can register an address without having to own a brand or company, and the register of the address can then be done by anyone, similar to what happens internationally.

For the . pt registration, the domain only have to be delegated in  the .pt area. and be technically associated with a primary name server, correctly installed and configured.

Additionally, the General Council of the Foundation also decided to create a "Sunrise" period, from March 1st and in force for 60 days, in order to allow public companies, companies, brand names, establishment, logos, copyright and professional names, literary or artistic to register their .pt domain, defending their established rights.

The press conference was also attended by Bruno Carlos, President of APREGI’s General Assembly, which provided its opinion and viewpoint on this liberalization.

In the case of switchplus, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court rejected SWITCH's complaint on 13 February 2012. The Foundation regrets the negative judgement, which restricts its economic freedom and is examining all the possible options.

Click for full article

In the case of switchplus, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court rejected SWITCH's complaint on 13 February 2012. The Foundation regrets the negative judgement, which restricts its economic freedom and is examining all the possible options.

Click for full article

In the case of switchplus, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court rejected SWITCH's complaint on 13 February 2012. The Foundation regrets the negative judgement, which restricts its economic freedom and is examining all the possible options.

Click for full article

Conference day two of Domain pulse 2012 in Hamburg: Why does the planned international copyright convention ACTA cause a stir in the Internet community? Do we really have to fear that net communication will be increasingly controlled? Exciting topics on the second day of the specialist conference Domain pulse in 2012.

For further details please refer to the DENIC press release.

At the recent Annual General Assembly held in Salzburg, CENTR elected 3 new Board members to replace outgoing members Annebeth B. Lange, Mathieu Weill and Juhani Juselius. 

The 3 newly elected Board Members are; Lise Fuhr (.dk), Giovanni Seppia (.eu) and Richard Wein (.at). 

In Salzburg the term of Mathieu Weill as Chair came to and end and Peter Vergote (.be) was elected as new Chairman of the Board. Richard Wein (.at) was appointed as Treasurer. 

CENTR extends a sincere thank-you to the outgoing Board Members for their dedication, time and efforts. CENTR further congratulates the newly elected Board members and wishes them all great success in their new positions.

More on the Board of Directors here

At the recent CENTR Annual General Assembly held in Salzburg, the Estonian Registry (.ee), Estonian Internet Foundation, was unanimously accepted as the 51^st CENTR Full Member. 

“CENTR provides Estonia with an opportunity to participate in the development of the Internet on the international level,” said Marek-Andres Kauts, Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Internet Foundation.

CENTR congratulates and welcomes the new member and looks forward to their contributions and co-operation.

Click to go to Estonian Internet Foundation

EX.ua was one of the most popular websites in Ukraine.

Prosecutors ordered the domain registrar to close access to ex.ua, while police confiscated 200 servers that belong to the company that provides file-sharing service.  The Interior Ministry said the site had been under criminal investigation for copyright violation since July. 

That caused big cyber attack. Since Feb. 1 official websites started going down:

the official websites of President Viktor Yanukovych, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers and the ruling Party of Regions.

Although file-sharing service still doesn't work, Feb 2 the investigation sorted out that placement on the portal of unlicensed products may not be the reason for blocking the domain name. Law enforcers asked the domain registrar to unblock the domain name ex.ua and renew access to the website.

More information is at http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/121754/