The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ has begun to implement data escrow. Escrow agent services are provided by MSK-IX (Moscow Center for Interaction of Computer Networks Internet eXchange), the only ICANN-accredited company for Data Escrow in Russia. Technical support is provided by the Technical Center of the Internet, the operator of the .RU and .РФ registries.
Data Escrow is designed to provide additional information security for data contained in registrar databases, to protect the stability and security of the DNS and additionally protect registrants’ rights in case the main registry operator’s system malfunctions. Data Escrow is mandatory for generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries, but not for country code domains.
“Depositing a copy of the registrar’s electronic database in Russia’s country-code TLDs .RU and .РФ will increase the reliability of the information storage contained in their registries, and will provide additional guarantees for stable operation. The decision to use this tool for national domains was made by the Coordination Center in 2019. We teamed up with our partners, MSK-IX and TCI, and have been systematically working on this since then. I would like to emphasize that .RU and .РФ data are deposited in compliance with all international standards and on a Russian platform,” said Irina Danelia, Deputy Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
“Our specialists have been working for a long time on the Data Escrow project that involves depositing and storing data from the registries of national domains, because this is the most important aspect affecting several areas of support for the reliable functioning of the internet. We are equally committed to the reliability and protection of all services that we provide, but the data escrow project has always been a priority, and we plan to continue developing and supporting it. Today MSK-IX is the only ICANN-accredited company for Data Escrow in Russia, which increases the level of trust in the international community,” said Yevgeny Morozov, Commercial Director at MSK-IX.
“Greater stability and security in the Russian segment of the internet is our priority. The introduction of new mechanisms to ensure the protection and stability of the .RU and .РФ domains that are the national domain zone is another step towards achieving this goal. As the operator of .RU and .РФ domains registries, TCI, in agreement with the Coordination Center, now performs technical functions for downloading information from registries and the secure transfer to MSK-IX. At the same time, TCI implements similar functions for registries of general top-level domains, as part of technical support services,” TCI General Director Alexei Rogdev said.
As a reminder, MSK-IX began to provide data escrow agent services to .RU and .РФ domains registries, in pilot mode, in October 2020. In 2019, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media initiated a project to introduce additional organizational and technical measures aimed at ensuring the integrity of the DNS, as well as to provide additional protection of registrant and domain name user rights by introducing mechanisms on a Russian platform, to provide additional DNS data security guarantees and ensure the smooth operation of the DNS as a whole.
