On February 11, the 87th conference of the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD87) officially commenced in Hong Kong. Over 160 participants, including representatives from national registries, expert organizations, and international companies, have registered for the event, with more than 120 attending in person. During the conference, regional specialists are discussing technical, legal, and marketing aspects of managing country code top level domains, domain space security, and sharing experiences and best practices. Experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ are actively participating in the discussions.
Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center, shared with association members the key achievements and future prospects of the Cyrillic domain .РФ, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. He noted that the .РФ domain was delegated to Russia in May 2010, and the idea of introducing a Cyrillic namespace received strong support from the internet community and the Russian government at the time. Today, over 755,000 domain names are registered under .РФ, with 95 percent of them actively in use. Interestingly, approximately 10 percent of these second level domain names are as old as the TLD itself.
“The Cyrillic domain space was envisioned as a tool to create a user-friendly online environment for Russian-speaking users and to embed national identity into the digital realm. The past 15 years have confirmed the validity of this approach. The new Cyrillic IDN broke down barriers to the online world for millions of people, enabling them to enter addresses in their native language. The .РФ domain has become a symbol of Russia’s digital identity. Our goal is not only to ensure its continued growth and development but also to actively promote universal acceptance, making the Russian-language internet accessible to all who need it,” added Andrey Vorobyev.
Concluding his remarks, Andrey Vorobyev invited attendees to join the Universal Acceptance Day events for non-Latin domains and email addresses, which will take place on March 28 in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Universal Acceptance Day is being organized by ISOC Armenia with the support of the Regional Coordination Group for Universal Acceptance in the CIS and Eastern Europe.
Additionally, on the first day of APTLD87, several sessions were held featuring presentations by Coordination Center experts. Vadim Mikhailov, Infrastructure Consultant at the Coordination Center, participated in a session dedicated to technical protection against fraud and anti-fraud techniques on the internet. He discussed threats related to visual similarity in domain and email addresses and methods to mitigate them. He noted that homoglyph attacks on corporate mailboxes (BEC attacks) account for 99 percent of financial losses. Among the key countermeasures, he highlighted strengthening registration rules, creating protective services, implementing automated notifications in software, proactively detecting phishing domains, and raising user awareness through educational initiatives.
Irina Danelia, Deputy Director of the Coordination Center, took part in a session focused on ensuring the uninterrupted operation of registries. Participants discussed the steps registries should take in emergency situations and emphasized the importance of not only technical coordination but also reputation management, including engagement with media and users. Irina Danelia presented the Russian registry’s approach to ensuring the continuity of national domain zones and shared insights on incident response. She stressed the need for a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, including risk assessment, prioritization, and resource availability, as well as the importance of crisis communications.
The conference continues – stay tuned for our updates!
