I would agree with that, David. People who don't think too much about it tend to think that any attempt to sell a domain name is some kind of con. Reporter laziness probably played a role too. This was a prepackaged story from a well-known vendor, the kind of thing that can easily be repurposed into something for publication in 20 minutes or less. Perhaps ICANN should put out a press release ranking security vendors by how many of their research reports are garbage. Borrowing Blue Coat's methodology, it would be quite easy to say with confidence the company has a "100% garbage" rating. Just restrict your sample to research reports you have actually read (ie, only this one). Kevin Murphy Domain Incite

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [UA-discuss] Blue Coat's Web's Shadiest Neighborhoods and implications on TLD acceptance From: David Conrad <david.conrad@icann.org> Date: Thu, September 17, 2015 4:00 pm To: Kevin Murphy <kevin@domainincite.com>, Jordyn Buchanan <jordyn@google.com>, Ram Mohan <rmohan@afilias.info> Cc: "UA-discuss@icann.org" <UA-discuss@icann.org>

Hi,

From my perspective, the interesting part of the Bluecoat report was how widely it was picked up in the press. This suggests to me that it played into a particular mindset/agenda, one that is not particularly supportive of new TLDs.

Regards, -drc

On 9/16/15, 3:49 PM, "ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org on behalf of Kevin Murphy" <ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org on behalf of kevin@domainincite.com> wrote:

...

The Blue Coat report was pure PR.

It had no value.

http://domainincite.com/19211-laughable-security-report-labels-google-regi stry-shady

...

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [UA-discuss] Blue Coat's Web's Shadiest Neighborhoods and implications on TLD acceptance From: Jordyn Buchanan <jordyn@google.com> Date: Wed, September 16, 2015 9:41 pm To: Ram Mohan <rmohan@afilias.info> Cc: "UA-discuss@icann.org" <UA-discuss@icann.org>

Relevant follow-up coverage (which doesn't exactly make sense):

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/04/us-internet-security-domains-id USKCN0R41U320150904

Jordyn

On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 1:37 PM, Ram Mohan <rmohan@afilias.info> wrote:

...

BlueCoat¹s methodology is discussed in some security group mailing lists.

My understanding is that in the case of .zip, there were instances of <file>.pdf.zip which allowed for drive-bys, malware etc. regardless of the state of name registration.

-ram

*From:* Jennifer Gore Standiford [mailto:JStandiford@web.com] *Sent:* Wednesday, September 16, 2015 4:32 PM *To:* Ram Mohan <rmohan@afilias.info> *Cc:* UA-discuss@icann.org *Subject:* RE: [UA-discuss] Blue Coat's Web's Shadiest Neighborhoods and implications on TLD acceptance

Ram and UA Members,

Have we requested or received any of the underlying data that supports the stats outlined in the BlueCoat report? I wonder why the .zip extension was referenced as a Œshady¹ considering it hasn¹t launched yet.

Thanks, Jennifer

*Jennifer Gore Standiford*

Policy Director

Web.com

12808 Gran Bay Parkway, West | Jacksonville, FL 32258

Office: 904. 680-6919| Cell: 904. 401-4347

[image: cid:image003.png@01CFD6B5.902BADC0]

*From:* ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org [mailto:ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org <ua-discuss-bounces@icann.org>] *On Behalf Of *Ram Mohan *Sent:* Wednesday, September 16, 2015 1:43 PM *To:* UA-discuss@icann.org *Subject:* [UA-discuss] Blue Coat's Web's Shadiest Neighborhoods and implications on TLD acceptance

Folks,

BlueCoat <https://www.bluecoat.com/company-overview>, a security vendor used by most of the Fortune 500, released a report on the Web¹s shadiest TLDs

<https://www.bluecoat.com/company/press-releases/blue-coat-reveals-webs-s hadiest-neighborhoods>

...

on Sep 1, 2015. They recommend to their 15,000+ customers to block all listed TLDs (report attached). Most of these are new gTLDs.

There are implications for universal acceptance. This will result in some discussion at the upcoming UA Coordination Summit in Horsham tomorrow and Friday. The summit will have a conference bridge for anyone interesting in participating. Don Hollander will provide details.

-Ram

Chair, UASG

o: +1.215.706.5700 x103; m: +1.215.431.0958; f: +1.215.706.5701

Skype: gliderpilot30

------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------

...

*The Web¹s Top 10 "TLDs with Shady Sites*"*

*Rank * *Top-Level Domain Name * *Percentage of Shady Sites*

*#1 .zip 100.00%*

*#2 .review 100.00%

*

...

*#3 .country 99.97%*

*#4 .kim 99.74%

*

...

*#5 .cricket 99.57%

*

...

*#6 .science 99.35%

*

...

*#7 .work 98.20%*

*#8 .party 98.07%

*

...

*#9 .gq (Equatorial Guinea) 97.68%*

*#10 .link 96.98%*