ICANN Advisory on Sitefinder
http://icann.org/announcements/advisory-19sep03.htm
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Advisory
19 September 2003
Advisory Concerning VeriSign's Deployment of DNS Wildcard Service
On 15 September 2003, VeriSign deployed a "wildcard" service
into the .com and .net Top Level Domain zones. VeriSign's
wildcard creates a registry-synthesized address record in
response to lookups of domains that are not otherwise present
in the zone (including restricted names, unregistered names,
and registered but inactive names). The VeriSign wildcard
redirects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no
domain" response to a VeriSign-operated website with search
results and links to paid advertisements.
Since the deployment, ICANN has been monitoring community
reaction, including analysis of the technical effects of the
wildcard, and is carefully reviewing the terms of the .com and
.net Registry Agreements.
In response to widespread expressions of concern from the
Internet community about the effects of the introduction of the
wildcard, ICANN has requested advice from its Security and
Stability Advisory Committee, and from the Internet
Architecture Board, on the impact of the changes implemented by
VeriSign. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee is
expected to release an objective expert report concerning the
wildcard later today.
Recognizing the concerns about the wildcard service, ICANN has
called upon VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the service until
the various reviews now underway are completed.
Comments concerning the layout, construction and functionality
of this site
should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxx
Page Updated 19-Sep-2003
© 2003 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
All rights reserved.
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Thomas Roessler <roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
At-Large Advisory Committee: http://alac.info/