Re: Icann Hires Former Cybersecurity Chief as New C.E.O. [with comments]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: June 30, 2009 10:44:04 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    Icann Hires Former Cybersecurity Chief as New  
C.E.O. [with  comments]

On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 09:13:42AM -0400, James Seng wrote:
> While there are certain room for improvement for ICANN in various
> areas, the opening of new gTLD is an area that was a slated goal from
> ICANN from its early days of formation of introducing competition to
> back-then Network Solution and now Verisign.
>
> Competition and choice for consumer is good.

First, Lauren is, if anything, far too mild in his criticism of ICANN.
This is an organization which has, for instance, allowed registrars
run by long-time, world-famous, career spammers; see for example:

        http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/06/anonymous_domain_sales_a_spamm_1.html

Second, "more gTLDs" does NOT equal competition and choice for  
consumers.
It equals a cash cow for registrars with absolutely no benefit for  
consumers.
We have seen the same pattern repeat itself over and over again: a new  
gTLD,
say, ".foo" is announced; when registrations are available in it,  
spammers,
phishers, and scammers rush to register well-known domain names in it,
such as "ibm.foo".  Simultaneously, holders of well-known domain names
rush to register the same domains in order to pre-empt the scammers.
The cash register rings and rings at registrars, toting up sale after
sale of useless, pointless domains, and provide grist for their PR mill
which proclaims this process "a success" and cites "high demand" for
domain in the .foo gTLD.  Meanwhile, many observers, having seen this
movie before and knowing that it always ends the same way, pre-emptively
(or eventually) blacklist the entire gTLD because it's an excellent  
defense
against the inevitable spam/phishers/scams.

And in the end, lots of money gets spent with zero benefit to  
consumers --
AND, should abusers be successful in snagging well-known domain names,
which they often are: a corresponding uptick in abuse and accompanying
risk to Internet users.

---Rsk




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