Dear colleagues, During the recent Contracted Parties Summit in Manchester, we presented on the topic of updating the URS Technical Requirements to switch from using OpenPGP to S/MIME to provide authenticity and non-repudiation of communications between URS providers and registries and registrars. You may review the recording of the session at the following URL (skip to 24:05): https://icann.zoom.us/rec/share/edZd2ugiFPsRtSXIg7KtacuCVGwUhUPmXwrFQ0HUIBDe... Some in the community have also observed that S/MIME may also provide a solution with similar cryptographic protection to UDRP communications. While ICANN Org’s research suggests that S/MIME is at least as effective as OpenPGP, we are acting upon feedback received from the CPH TechOps group, and are inviting interested parties to volunteer to participate in a short-term informal testbed. Participation would involve obtaining a S/MIME certificate from a Certificate Authority, and conducting tests by sending and receiving S/MIME-signed messages using a variety of devices, operating systems and mail clients. If you are interested in participating, please reply privately to this email to let me know. Regards, -- Gavin Brown Principal Engineer, Global Domains & Strategy Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) https://www.icann.org