Simon Johnson Appointed To auDA Names Policy Panel

A few minutes ago we received confirmation from auDA that Simon Johnson had been appointed to the Names Policy Panel.

The purpose of the panel is to:

1. Review the policy framework underlying the allocation and use of domain names in the .au domain space
2. Provide recommendations to the auDA board about what changes should be made to the policy framework.

The Panel is expected to commence work in September 2010. If you have any specifics that you would like Simon to raise, feel free to leave a comment on contact us directly. Please also note that there will be a public consultation in December 2010.

DNSSEC – A False Sense Of Security?

Its just been announced that Australia will plan to deploy DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions) in .au. Given that there is an election on in Australia, its received very little media coverage.

Here is an extract from an auDA Announcement: (DNSSEC) “facilitates the digital signing of internet communications, helping to ensure the integrity and authenticity of transmitted data.”

Wow – sounds good eh? To the average person on the street (think of your parents here), they might look at this and say – “Wow I’m protected”. That’s great news. But the REAL story is very different. Ask any Senior IT Security person three questions about DNSSEC:

1. How does it protect me from having my $$$ (say in Internet Banking) being siphoned off by malicious software such as Zeus? The answer is that it doesn’t. This malicious activity occurs in a persons web browser.

2. Does DNSSEC ensure my data is kept confidential when its transmitted over the Internet? Again, the answer is no. What DNSSEC does do, is ensure that when you look up a domain name, the request coming back to your computer hasn’t been tampered with. Of course, once it arrives at your computer it can be tampered with there!

3. What is the likelihood that I am going to fall victim to a man-in-the-middle attack or cache poisoning attack? These are things that DNSSEC allegedly prevents. The answer is that is almost nil. Having said that, some people see man-in-the-middle attacks on the the DNS, as a sleeping timebomb waiting to go off. Given the inherently insecure nature of the Internet, I have to agree.

So why are we doing this? Its just one layer of defense against DNS vulnerabilities. Its not the great “silver bullet” that people make it out to be. Don’t get me wrong, its great that people are doing something (better than nothing) – but this is like putting a bandaid over a wound that needs major surgery. You are not addressing the CAUSE of the problem.

What Does DNSSEC Mean For Domain Investors

At the moment, not a lot. There is no “mandate” for people or companies to start digitally signing anything. What we will see is pressure put on registries, registrars and large corporates to start getting the infrastructure in place to faciliate DNSSEC.

Its something to keep an eye on.

GM Holden Wins Domains

What makes this interesting is that its not just some dodgy cybersquatter who is registering domains, its a car servicing company! They decided to register holdenplatinumservice.com.au, holdenservice.net.au and servicingholden.com.au. You can guess what happens next

Holden claims the domains are misleading and deceptive and WIPO finds that all the domains were:

1. Registered in bad faith.

2. Confusingly similar to GM Holden’s trademarks.

and the list goes on…. This is a lesson for Domainers and SEO companies who think they can “own an industry”. Here is one particular quote I like:

“the multiple registrations of domain names, not only including the Complainant’s trade mark but those of many other motor car manufacturers, strongly leads to a conclusion that the Respondent is seeking to divert the business of Internet users away from the authorised service centres of the Complainant and other manufacturers.”

Good decision WIPO.

.au Dispute Resolution Goes Electronic

It might come as a shock to everyone (particularly those people who are not in Australia) that .au requires paper-based document submission.That’s right, if you sell a domain, get out the pen and fax machine, or start lickin those stamps!

The times are changing, even down-under, as “auDA will introduce changes to the .au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP) in August 2010, to require electronic filing of documents for auDRP proceedings. The changes mirror those introduced to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) earlier this year.”

Why .au has its own auDRP is beyond me. I just dont get “why we have to reinvent the wheel”. The good news out of this, is that it might save a few trees.

Document Shows Government Plans To Snoop On Internet Access

The Australian government has censored approximately 90% of a secret document outlining its controversial plans to snoop on Australians’ web surfing.

Obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald under Freedom of Information, the document was heavily censored due to the possibility of “premature and unnecessary debate“.

On a personal note; given that I cofounded one of Australias first ISPs and literally “wrote the book” on Internet safety, I feel an obligation to speak out about such measures.

I’ve made a copy of the document available here: Secret-Document.pdf and a letter from the Australian government (on the reason for censoring it) available here: Decision_Letter.pdf

While the Attorney-General’s Legal Department has redacted (blacked out) large portions of the document, it does mention retaining data in a dataset.

If you combine that with the Appendix, it gives us some insight into what is going on. Definitions such as ADSL, IMEI (a unique number for your mobile telephone itself), SIP (a VOIP standard), VOIP, VPN and Wi-Fi jump out at you.

Given that we are having an election next month, I’m sure the media will jump all over this. Feel free to check out the document and draw your own conclusions.

Supreme Court Rules On Australian Style vs auDA

The Surpreme Court of Victoria – Court of Appeal has heard the case Australian Style Pty Ltd vs .au Domain Administration (auDA).

Last night I received this document. It was just past midnight and made for some interesting bedtime reading (yes I should get a life). For those following the case, 36 pages and 104 paragraphs later, I can tell you “For all the reasons set out in this judgment, the appeal must be dismissed.”

What is very interesting is how it details the security breaches. Paragraphs 17 and 18 include:

“the Australian Federal Police had notified auDA of another, and undoubted, security breach in which the database of Australian Style, including domain name passwords and credit card details of its registrants, had been offered for sale on the internet.

It also covers another security breach in 2009 with a detailed discussion on what transpired at the time. There is a lot of information here to digest.

Domainer Income Goes Public – What It Means For Domainers

About 3 years ago I made one decision that dramatically changed my life for the better. Just like the butterfly effect, that decision is going to change other peoples lives for the better too. Before I tell you what happened, let me give you some context.

As some of you know, I’ve been using the Internet for a long time (I started in 1989), before Mosaic, Netscape or the even the web. For the technical people, back then it was all about Bitnet, ftp and gopher, but that’s another story…. The fact is, I didn’t buy my first domain until the mid 90′s and I didn’t sell a domain until 2002! Why? There was simply no way of monetizing domains like there is now.

When I first began investing in domains, I tried and tested everything I could get my hands on. If there was:

A product – I’d buy it
A service – I’d subscribe to it
A forum post – I’d read it.

To cut a long story short, there wasn’t anything on the market that did what I wanted, so I developed my own system to help me find and buy, the RIGHT KIND of domains, but on a massive scale! It ended up being so big, we built a farm of dedicated servers at a top US Datacenter just to run it! It was a system that “plucked needles from haystacks” over, and over again!

But that led to another problem….

I was buying great domains and hording (stock piling) them. My behaviour was like Gollum from Lord of the Rings – my precious domains yesss….owww dot com….so beautiful. They were mine, mine MINE! In what seems a complete contradiction to many domainers, ego wasn’t a big a part of it. Why? I simply didn’t talk about it. I didn’t go to conferences. I didn’t have a blog back then either. It was “head down” and a hell of a lot of hard work! Then something changed. From a personal standpoint, this was the “tipping point” that changed everything for me….

One afternoon I was talking with my wife, Anna; I’ll never forget this conversation. Our system had identified a lot of high quality domains the week prior and I’d purchased all of them. Ok, I admit, I was actually complaining about the number of domains – there were too many good ones! Of course – I wasn’t going to let them drop or go to someone else for THAT price! If you buy at auction, you’ll know what I mean. Anyway, Anna said “Well why don’t you give this system to other people then?” I burst out laughing and said “Are you crazy? This is making us $$$$ – I’m not telling ANYONE about it”. Lets also not forget that domainers are a very secretive bunch. After a very long, somewhat heated discussion, Anna convinced me to release our domain investment platform to the public. I ended up showing a few domainers what we had done (under strict, non-disclosure agreements of course) and they were completely blown away. There was, and still is – nothing like it.

But that was 3 years ago! What happened I hear you ask? Well, I’m a perfectionist. If I was going to put my name to something, then it better be “the best in the industry”. Those that know me personally, know that I have a professional / corporate background, and have a firm belief in customer support. As such, we spent a lot of time and money making the interface more user friendly. We produced “how to video”s, created detailed online help, a customer support desk, we added all the trimmings a professional investor would expect. Of course, redesigning the site three times with a team of designers doesn’t help either. The fact is, we have been working day and night, making this happen. Its consumed late nights, weekends, kids school holidays – even Christmas afternoon (I should have been sleeping off lunch).

Now its done.

Would I change anything? No way! I still believe that there are MORE than enough domain names for everyone.

I also know this – Domainer Income will:

a) Help many people to generate passive income – making a HUGE difference to peoples lives from a financial standpoint.
b) Take the Domaining industry to a new level.
c) Create a level playing field, by making information available to everyone.

Today, YOU have an opportunity to be a part of that.

So – here is the result of many years of hard work – an enterprise grade, Domain Investment Platform. You now have everything you need to Find, Buy and PROFIT from domain names. Where do you start? I’ve created many FREE videos that explain Domainer Income in more detail. There is also a FREE Membership too – so nobody misses out on an opportunity to start making money with domains.

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts….. remember – this has been my baby for many years. I’d love to hear what you think.

Simon

Australian Government To Consider Public Comments On ICANNs gTLD’s.

The Australian Government has released a Fact Sheet on ICANN’s new gTLD process. The purpose is to raise community awareness and allow interested people the opportunity to feed comments back to the Government.

A spokesperson from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) told Domainer Income that the Australian Government “is not conducting a formal consultation with a set time frame“, however DBCDE “will consider any comments received“.

Its known that many Governments, including Australia, provide advice to ICANN on matters of interest or concern through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). However, final decision making authority ultimately rests with the ICANN Board.

The Australian Government is an active member of the GAC, and has been since its inception in 1999. Officers from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy represent the Australian Government in the GAC. Note that ICANN meets three times a year and right now, the GAC is meeting in Brussels.

This presents many Domain Investors with a unique opportunity to provide feedback directly to the Australian government, without going through auDA. The reason I mention that, is because auDA holds the “delegation of authority for administration of the au ccTLD” on behalf of the Commonwealth (of Australia).

As such, I’d STRONGLY encourage everyone to submit questions, comments and/or concerns – about ICANN’s proposal to the following:

Via Email: newgTLDs at DBCDE.gov.au

In Writing:

The Director
Internet Governance, IPND and Numbering Team
Department of Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy
GPO Box 2154
Canberra ACT 2601

Feel free to post a comment and let everyone know you made a submission.

auDA Puts Domain In Pending Delete & Goes On Holidays

On the afternoon of Thu 17th, 2009 SAPIA Pty Ltd registered the domain name “stephenconroy.com.au” as a satirical platform on which to air grievances and promote debate about the Australian governments proposed mandatory Internet filtering scheme. By 5pm the next day, the website was forcibly taken offline by auDA.

SAPIA was given merely 3 hours to issue a response which is an unusually short period of time for domain eligibility complaints to be arbitrated. A request for additional time was denied personally by auDA’s CEO shortly before the domain was taken offline.

The domain name stephenconroy.com.au is now in PendingDelete and the auDA office is closed for the holiday season – Merry Christmas.

Meanwhile, Electronic Frontiers Australia has expressed its surprise and concern:

“This incident reflects worrying concerns about the power that private domain
name regulators have to silence critical political speech without going
through legitimate legal channels.”

SAPIA Pty Ltd appears to have re-established the site (out of the range of auDA’s jurisdiction / claws) at stephen-conroy.com (no more .au).

Just in case you don’t know what the fuss is all about regarding Internet censorship in Australia, have a look at this video:

More information is available at: PRWeb, Open Letters & EFA.

Horse Race Stops Expired Domains In Australia

It appears that AusRegistry didn’t release .au expired domains today. This would normally happen on National Public Holidays, but its not a National Public holiday….

It just so happens that in Melbourne, Victoria (where AusRegistry is based) its the running of the Melbourne Cup.

In February, 2009 auDA announced that it had extended its .au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry until 2014. They have a few more Melbourne Cups to get it right.