#17. ICANN attempts to add a new top-level domain in spite of security and stability concerns expressed by technical community or other stakeholder groups.
Consequence: DNS security and stability could be undermined, and ICANN actions could impose costs and risks upon external parties.
In 2013-14 the community demonstrated that it could eventually prod ICANN management to attend to risks identified by SSAC (security certificates and name collisions such as .mail, .home, etc.).
NTIA presently gives clerical approval for each delegation to indicate that ICANN has followed its processes. NTIA could delay a delegation if its finds that ICANN has not followed its processes. Not clear if that would/could have been a finding if ICANN attempted to delegate a new TLD such as .mail or .home
One proposed measure is to empower the community to force ICANN’s board to implement a recommendation arising from an AoC Review – namely, 9.2 Review of Security, Stability, and Resiliency.
Another possibility is to empower the community to force ICANN to respond to recommendations from advisory committees like as SSAC.
If the board took a decision to reject or only partially accept SSAC recommendations, the community could be empowered to challenge that board decision and/or refer to IRP.
This threat is partially related to the transition of IANA stewardship
Existing measures were adequate to mitigate the risks of this scenario.
Proposed measures enhance community’s power to mitigate the risks of this scenario.