February 2008 - At-Large - lists.icann.org

Fwd: [IDN-WG] Successful Evaluations of .test IDN TLDs
by Hong Xue Feb. 3, 2008

Feb. 3, 2008

Successful Evaluations of .test IDN TLDs http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-31jan08.htm 31 January 2008 In October 2006, ICANN engaged Autonomica AB of Stockholm, Sweden, to develop, conduct, and report on the results of laboratory testing of internationalized top-level domains in a setting corresponding to the public root. On 7 March 2007 the result of the laboratory tests were reported successfully. The laboratory technical test was one of the prerequisites to eventual insert internationalized top level labels in the root zone, which subsequently were done and the associated test facility was launched. Following the project plan, Autonomica then conducted a replication of the laboratory test, live in the DNS. Quoting from their report: "Autonomica AB has, under a contract with ICANN, investigated whether the addition of top level domains containing encoded internationalized characters (so called IDNs) to the public root zone for testing purposes has any impact on the iterative mode resolvers used to look up the information. No impact at all could be detected. All involved systems behaved exactly as expected." Therefore, the Automomica test raised no issue regarding the ability of root-severs and iterative mode resolvers to handle IDN TLD queries. Details of the test result can be found here [PDF, 129K]. http://www.icann.org/topics/idn/idn-report-07jan08.pdf For any questions or request for additional details of the test design and result please contact Tina Dam at tina.dam(a)icann.org. For further information around ICANN's IDN Program please visit http://www.icann.org/topics/idn

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Call for items for the Board's New Delhi Agendas
by Danny Younger Feb. 1, 2008

Feb. 1, 2008

Wendy, We're still awaiting the revisions to the RAA. They should be appearing any minute now (as Staff always seems to wait till the very last moment to post major items). It would be appreciated if Board discussions on the revised Registrar Accreditation Agreement could be added to the agenda. Also, I am expecting that ALAC will be called upon to develop a Registrant Bill of Rights & Responsibilities that will make its way into the RAA at some point. It may be a good idea to start some thinking on the topic. regards, Danny ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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SSAC Releases Advice on Fast-Flux Hosting
by Nick Ashton-Hart Feb. 1, 2008

Feb. 1, 2008

Dear All: The Stability and Security Advisory Committee has just released an updated report on Fast-Flux Hosting and the DNS, which can be accessed here: http://www.icann.org/committees/security/sac025.pdf From the introduction of the report: "Fast flux" is an evasion technique that cyber-criminals and Internet miscreants use to evade identification and to frustrate law enforcement and anticrime efforts aimed at locating and shutting down web sites used for illegal purposes. Fast flux hosting is an application of technology that supports a wide variety of cyber-crime activities (fraud, identity theft, online scams) and is considered one of the most serious threats to online activities today. Basic fast flux hosting uses rapid modification of IP addresses associated with a system that hosts a malicious activity to evade detection and take down efforts. This technique is also used to rapidly modify the IP addresses of the name servers that resolve the domain names of the fluxed malicious hosts (this variant is sometimes called NS fast flux). A particularly troublesome variant of fast flux hosting, "double flux", fluxes addresses of both name servers and malicious (web server) hosts. This Advisory describes the technical aspects of fast flux hosting and fast flux service networks. It explains how the DNS is exploited to abet criminal activities that employ fast flux hosting, identifying the impacts of fast flux hosting, and calling particular attention to the way such attacks extend the malicious or profitable lifetime of the illegal activities conducted using these fast flux techniques. It describes current and possible methods of mitigating fast flux hosting at various points in the Internet. The Advisory discusses the pros and cons of these mitigation methods, identifies those methods that SSAC considers practical and sensible, and recommends that appropriate bodies consider policies that would make the practical mitigation methods universally available to registrants, ISPs, registrars and registries (where applicable for each). -- Regards, Nick Ashton-Hart Director, At-Large ICANN Main Tel: +33 (450) 40 46 88 USA Tel: +1 (202) 657-5460 Fax: +41 (22) 594-85-44 Mobile: +41 (79) 595 54-68 email: nick.ashton-hart(a)icann.org Win IM: ashtonhart(a)hotmail.com / AIM/iSight: nashtonhart(a)mac.com / Skype: nashtonhart Online Bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonhart

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