Roughly 800,000 domain names have been blocked since early 2014 because their administrators failed to confirm the e-mail addresses that they submitted during registration and were included in the Whois database. The figure is based on statistics provided by the Registrars Stakeholder Group (RrSG), which covers data from registrars representing about 75 percent of all domain names registered on the Internet. The actual number of blocked domains could thus be around 1 million.
The requirement to verify e-mail addresses is part of the new edition of the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement that entered into force this year. It stipulates that a registrar needs to regularly send verification e-mails to the address of the domain administrator that was provided during registration and included in the Whois database. If there is no response, the domain must be blocked. This measure was taken by ICANN under pressure from law enforcement agencies worldwide as part of their efforts to fight cybercrime domain name abuse. However, RrSG representatives predicted that the measure would do more harm than good.
For now, the results seem to prove them right. Verification messages from registrars often go unanswered simply because registrants have already changed their e-mail addresses. Consequently, since the beginning of this year, the list of blocked domain names includes, for example, the portals of health authorities and public organizations. Meanwhile, no progress in the fight against cybercrime or domain name abuse has been noticed thus far. The data was provided by Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows, a major telecommunications company and registrar.
It should be noted that Noss was supported by ICANN Chairman of the Board Steve Crocker and President Fadi Chehade. However, the Accreditation Agreement is unlikely to be revised. At the same time, observers believe that the present situation could make ICANN less accommodating in further talks with law enforcement agencies and Governmental Advisory Committee representatives.
Sergei Kopylov, the head of the Legal Department of the Coordination Center for TLD RU, said: “An e-mail address is just a means of communication, not a wholly reliable means of identifying a domain administrator. This is why the ICANN requirement for address verifications seems redundant. It impedes the development of the zone in certain situations.”
