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May/June 2020 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia ora, 

Today I wanted to share some thoughts and guidance on dealing with .nz domain names when a business closes. 

Now more than ever it is important we are on the lookout to support our business community online. Sadly, in these unprecedented times, companies may collapse and businesses will be faced with some difficult decisions. Domain names held for years may be lost.  

That’s why this month we’ve launched a guide targeted at the insolvency industry to give them some information to help them with the domain names of companies placed in liquidation. 

It supplements the work we already do with the New Zealand Treasury when a company is struck off the companies register. We have a process in place that can permit a former Director and shareholder to license a struck off companies domain name. More details on our website.

We are also aware at this time that there is likely to be a higher chance of merger and acquisition activity in the domain name market.

This can bring benefits to the domain name space but it can also lessen competition and involve companies who may not be a .nz authorised registrar and therefore not regulated by the .nz policy and contractual framework.  

Considering that, we’d like to remind any authorised registrars to engage with the Commission early on if there are any changes in directorship or control, or in company structure. Retrospective consent for sales and purchases is not always possible.  

From mid-June, there will also be an urgent amendment to New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Act.  

If the bill passes, all foreign investment that results in a more than 25% ownership interest, or an increase in existing interests to, or greater than, 50%, 75%, or effectively a change of control in the underlying business, will have to be notified to the Overseas Investment Office, starting June. 

Once these changes become law, we will be obtaining advice from the Overseas Investment Office on what the changes may mean for any merger and acquisition activity in the .nz domain namespace.

Guide to liquidators

The Commission’s Guide to liquidators helps explain what happens with domain names associated with a company in liquidation. Read it now and share it with anyone who might be interested.  

Conflicted names

A conflicted name is a shorter .nz name direct at the second level that has equivalents registered in at least two second levels. 

For example, for the conflicted name 'anyname.nz', one registrant may hold 'anyname.co.nz' while others may hold 'anyname.org.nz' and 'anyname.school.nz'. If one of these registrants wants to try and get the shorter version of the name they need to go through the Conflicted Name Process (CNP).

Conflicted names are unable to be registered until all those with rights have agreed on who should be able to register that domain name.

The number of domain names in the conflict set has been getting smaller. There are now 2102 domain names that are conflicted, and the Domain Name Commission is actively working to reduce conflicted names in a number of ways.

One way to help resolve these conflicts is through the DNC’s Conflict Resolution service. Our facilitator is able to work with registrants in the conflict set to seek a suitable resolution. Email us at info@dnc.org.nz to access this free service. 

Another type of conflict is with self-conflicted domains, where the same registrant holds all the second level versions of the domain name. We are actively trying to reduce conflicted names through requiring parties, who are self-conflicted, to resolve the domain name, or else the conflicted name will be made available to register on a first-come, first-served basis. We have asked authorised registrars to pass on our instructions on how to resolve the variants of the self-conflicted name with any of their registrants. 

Our COVID-19 response blogs

We’ve published two blog posts in May on our COVID-19 response. You’ll find some stats about the volume of registrations, typical keywords used to register domains and the number of domain names that were validated. We also covered the steps we took locally and internationally to keep the .nz domain name space safe, trusted and secure. 

• COVID-19, WHOIS and combatting .nz domain name system abuse
• Think globally, act locally - what we do to keep .nz safe

Privacy in focus

This quarter our compliance focus is on privacy. Our full year’s compliance plan is available on our website.

It means that we will be working with registrars on their privacy position. 

We will be reviewing the implementation of the Individual Registrant Privacy Option (IRPO), ensuring that .nz authorised registrars have applied this in line with .nz policy. 

We will be ensuring that any data quality privacy-related issues are identified, notified, and monitored on an on-going basis. 

We will also be surveying .nz registrars on their privacy-related practices and processes in the coming weeks.

UDAI generation

This is a general reminder that domain name providers must not decline or delay a registrant’s request to transfer their domain name to another registrar (by withholding the Unique Domain Authentication ID (UDAI) or otherwise).

Neither the releasing registrar nor the registry is entitled to charge any fees for the transfer of a domain name.
 

Interesting links and stories

• EURID announces collaboration with Ecommerce Foundation to help with identifying fraudulent websites
• Machine learning method identifies brand logos on fake webshops
• New appointments to the Commerce Commission
• Coronavirus: Ventilators, PPE, fake Covid-19 vaccines for sale on dark web

August 2020 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia ora, 

Keeping .nz fair for everyone a key focus for 2019/20

We’ve released our annual report.  Read it now including our year in review visual at page 10. 

Our contact centre resolved more than 1400 enquiries in the 2019-2020 financial year. Typical enquiries were from frustrated consumers who haven’t been able to reach their service provider or have lost control of their domain name.

Our real-time feedback from our customer interactions over the year had a satisfaction rating of 84%. 

Together with the industry we suspended or cancelled more than 5000 domain names for invalid details.

And we had 24 complainants access our free mediation and determination services for domain name disputes.

.iwi policy consultation

The Domain Name Commission together with the moderator of the .iwi domain name space Mr Karaitiana Taiuru are consulting with the 103 .iwi registrants throughout August to have input into a new criteria for the .iwi moderation policy.  

We welcome the opportunity to work closely with Mr Taiuru on these important changes. 

Come join our team (applications close 12 August) 

We’re on the look out for a Business Analyst to help us with our current and future state processes. This is an exciting new role which will help us embed changes arising from our regulatory review, infrastructure and policy reviews.          

Customer service update

Enquiries have spiked in July. July numbers (totalling 174) are higher than May and June. Any’s (our chatbot) conversational score for July has jumped up to 3.5 / 5 and Any managed to answer 182 queries this month. Our knowledge base is handling 55% of incoming inquiries now. This helps us be more accessible to consumers after hours and manages demand into our contact centre. Contact staff can leave Any to handle the basics and focus on resolving more complex issues. 

Ongoing fight with fake web shops and phishing attacks

Registering domain names and associating them with fake webshops is a global and local problem. We don't therefore expect the fake webshop problem to be resolved any time soon and are committed to working with law enforcement and consumer protection agencies to tackle the problem. 

In July, we suspended 38 domain names for fake registration details associated with fake webshops. 

Post COVID-19 we’ve seen scammers up to their usual tricks of registering new domain names or using expired brand names domain names and associating them with a website offering goods and services unrelated to the domain name. 

We are keeping a close watch on the supply chain industry, in particular with parcel delivery services. 

We have seen an increase in malicious domain name registrations against various organisations that deliver online goods and are working with these organisations and CERTNZ to guard against phishing attacks.

Self conflicted names

We continue to work on resolving self conflicted domain names between the shorter .nz version of registrants domain names.  Our outreach efforts to registrars and registrants has led to a reduction in the number of self conflicted domain names.

Next month the Commission will be resolving a number of self conflicts if the current registrant has not done so. 

The registrant will then have two months to register the short domain and if not it will be openly available for anyone on a first come first served basis. 

This will mean self conflicted domain names will no longer be a feature of the conflicted domain name set.

Overseas Investment Office consent needed for registrar changes

We have had it confirmed by the Overseas Investment Office that sales and change in control activity at registrars within the .nz domain name industry will require the consent of the Overseas Investment Office. This new requirement was triggered by a law change in late June 2020. 

We have incorporated this new requirement into our change of control processes. The Land Information New Zealand website has details of the law change and process to follow to gain their consent for overseas investment in New Zealand companies. 

Domain names in the name of democracy

We’ve published a new election themed blog post about domain name registration shenanigans at this time of year.  

You’ll find an overview of what election related enquiries we’ve been fielding these past few months. We’ve also included some tips for candidates and political parties on how to manage their domain name during this election cycle.

New website coming

Take our 4 question website survey and help us build our new website. It should only take a couple of minutes of your time.  

Answer anonymously or if you’d like a chance at winning one $100 prezzy card for your efforts, leave us your first name and contact details. We'll delete your personal information after the prize giving.  

Interesting links and media 

• InternetNZ seeks to reimagine .nz’s future
• Consulting on Expiring Domains
• Coronavirus and cybercrime in Switzerland
• The state of DNS abuse: moving backward, not forward
• European Union Update: The Digital Services Act
• WHOIS+, a new service of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.??
• US Court authorises Microsoft to seize control of key domains in COVID-19 cyberattacks
• UNITED STATES: ‘generic.com’ Eligible for Protection

September 2020 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia ora, 

Spring greetings!

Most of the submissions to the .nz policy review are now online and we’ve submitted along with many others. It will now be up to the Panel to synthesise the views and prepare their final report to InternetNZ Council on the future of the policies for .nz. 
  
We, at the Commission, have read the submissions with interest and are looking forward to seeing how the next 6 months shape up when it comes to implementing suggested changes to .nz policies. 

This month also sees us partner with some businesses to bring a new website and a pilot of an online negotiation service. Watch this space.

These changes should bring about positive consumer experiences when it comes to getting support, accessing information and resolving disputes.  

We hope you are looking forward to more daylight hours that Spring brings and a change in the weather.

Nga mihi,
Brent Carey

Policy consultation

Together with the moderator for .iwi.nz, Karaitiana Taiuru, we have completed our consultation with Iwi on changes to the moderation policy. The consultation included two zoom hui throughout August. 

The changes have slightly expanded the criteria of being able to register a .iwi.nz domain name, whilst not excluding any current registrants. As a result of the consultation process changes will be made to the moderation policy. The changes have been accepted by the .iwi.nz community. It will soon be available to read on our website. 

We would like to thank Karaitiana for his assistance in this process, as well as everyone who has engaged with the process.
 

Domain name transfers, market changes

Did you know between January and August 2020 we assisted registrants with more than 40,000 domain name transfers between .nz authorised registrars? 

The transfers have been triggered as a result of planned consolidations in the .nz domain name market. The changes have resulted in 11 .nz authorised registrars exiting the market. You can access the full list of current .nz authorised registrars on our website.


Compliance 

How to keep your .nz domain name safe

Are you a small business who is online but maybe not in control of your domain name details? 

Our latest blog is full of tips about where to find details about your current registration, when it expires, who it is registered to and why you should care about your contact details. 
 

Top tip 

Getting random emails or phone numbers asking why you haven’t delivered that latest pair of designer shoes, handbags or jeans? 

Your details may have been used inappropriately to register a .nz domain name. If you get these contacts or calls report them to our partners CERT NZ, Netsafe or NZ Police. 

You can also contact us at info@dnc.org.nz  so that we can follow up with who has registered the domain name. We will take steps to correct your details associated with that domain name.


Outreach and engagement 

Local 

The 2020 General Election, and voting on two referenda will now take place on 17 October 2020. We have been working with all political parties about their domain name portfolios and election-related domain names. We will be continuing to monitor election related domain names over the next couple of months.  

International 

As part of our ongoing commitment to the Asia-Pacific region and sharing of information with our counter-parts internationally, Ann Ibrahim, was recently invited by the Pacific Cyber Security Operational Network to talk about the .nz domain name space and ways to combat threats. Ann’s domain name abuse and incident response presentation is available on our website.

Ann will also be moderating a session on technical passive dns at the upcoming Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Name Association meeting September 3-4.

Get in touch if you would like any of the team to deliver a presentation online or at your place of work. 

Interesting links and media 

• Global TLD Market Report
• Rules of safe use for IDNs
• CIRA opposes blocking order in Canadian piracy case, warning of dangers
• FBI sees rise in online shopping scams using new GTLDS and WHOIS privacy 
• Which information is obligatory on your company website? 

September 2020 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia ora, 

InternetNZ has been exploring the introduction of a .nz Registry Lock to improve security in the .nz namespace. A Registry Lock offers improved security for registrants who choose to apply it to their .nz domain names.

To be able to offer a Registry Lock, they would need to make some adjustments to wording in current .nz policy. 

Today is the first day of a public consultation on the proposed .nz policy wording. The consultation closes on 7 October 2020. 

This current consultation is separate from the full .nz policy review due to timing impacts on business processes, product design, and product build. There will be another chance to have your say on the Registry Lock as part of the full .nz policy review in the next phase of the full review. 

If you wish to contact InternetNZ regarding the consultation, please email registrylock@internetnz.net.nz.


Nga mihi,
Brent Carey


We are emailing you because you subscribed to the Domain Name Commission’s newsletter and updates. This email is not aligned with our usual schedule because the consultation closes soon and we wanted to give you as much lead time as possible in case you want to submit your feedback. 
 

October 2020 

Message from the Commissioner

Kia ora, 

Awareness and education are some of the best tools in the desire to keep .nz fair for everyone.

Unfortunately in the last few months of the year we often see a spike in instances of people reporting fake webshops to us and people looking to abuse kindness by posing as charities online and soliciting donations.

We will again be running our annual #ShopSafeNZ campaign in the lead up to Christmas focused on our custom built Fake Webshop website. 

In the coming weeks we’ll be reaching out to previous partners to get behind the campaign. 

If you're an agency with online harm minimisation and safety followers we’d love you to register your interest in supporting our campaign with a simple count me in email to info@dnc.org.nz. We’ll then reach out to you to add your logo to our supporters page and send you a communications supporters pack.

We’re also putting our support behind our MOU partner CERT NZ’s CyberSmart week (19-23 October) and a number of fraud awareness activities in October and November. 

We’re all at risk over the coming months of being taken advantage of with many more of us working at home and online and opportunists out there in the community. 

We’re looking forward to joining with our supporters and other online safety agencies to help keep the .nz domain name space safer for everyone. 

Nga? mihi maioha 

Brent Carey 
 

Did you know thousands of domain names associated with websites people visit every day were saved from stopping working because of outreach work with .nz registrars and technical contacts? 

This past month, the Commission and InternetNZ staff have notified affected parties to fix domains at risk of failing today because of global changes to the domain name system.  

We’d like to thank all the .nz registrars and registrants who worked with us to keep their domain names up and running.

Unique Domain authentication ID (UDAI) 
Over the coming months, we will be increasing our focus on invalid UDAIs being provided to registrants , as these are causing customer complaints.

UDAI’s are required to transfer a domain name between .nz authorised registrars.

A registrar must not decline or delay a registrant’s request to transfer its domain name to another registrar (by withholding the UDAI or otherwise).

UDAI’s also expire 30 days after generation. 

Disputes
New online negotiation service 

Are you concerned that someone has registered a domain name which you want or consider you have more rights to than them?

A new online negotiation service will soon be available to pilot as part of an overhaul of our dispute resolution service in the coming months. There are six software as a service providers competing to provide the new service.  

For those interested in online dispute resolution you can read our newly issued request for proposal.

The new service was one of the options discussed as part of our consultation with the community late last year about improvements to be made to the dispute resolution service. 

The proposals are due later this month. We will announce who we will be partnering with at the conclusion of the request for proposal process. 

.nz policy consultation
Registry lock submission

We have submitted to InternetNZ on its latest policy consultation regarding a registry lock service. Some of the key points we raised in our brief submission were:

• Whether resellers should be able to offer the service?
• Processes for handling Lost credentials and  
• Issues with authorising third parties to act on behalf of registrants 

Our registry lock submission is available on our website.

The consultation is open until Wednesday 7 October.  You can use InternetNZ’s online form to submit on the two questions posed in the consultation.

Outreach and engagement 
APTLD 78 Taiwan 

The Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Name Association held its 78th members meeting online hosted by TWNIC Taiwan. There were 8 sessions and over 40 panellists and presenters. More than 190 member delegates and guests attended representing organisations from the Asia Pacific and around the world. 

.nz was represented by Ann Ibrahaim, our Business Analyst / Implementation Manager,  who facilitated a panel of DNS abuse experts. The experts gave insights into both the security, technical and policy challenges of tackling domain name infrastrure, registration and content abuse.  

More and more CCTLDs in the Asia Pacific region are exploring with one another ways to co-operate and share instances of DNS abuse in an effort to make online domain name spaces a safer place for the Asia Pacific region. 
 

NetHui 2020 13-14 October - free ticket giveaway 

Have you got your NetHui 2020 ticket? It's just a couple of weeks away, and it’s online this year packed full of useful presentations. There will be various panels followed by breakout sessions to discuss various topics.  

This year we will be supplying a 5 minute lightning talk about Any our digital employee and the difference Any has been making in our contact centre. Available on demand, think Westworld meets the online world.  

One lucky twitter follower has already nabbed a ticket and we have one more ticket to give away.  Help us with our ticket giveaway by emailing us info@dnc.org.nz the name of a community group you think would benefit from a free ticket. We’ll make it happen for one lucky agency. 

New blog posts 



You’ll find our latest blog post online about Any our chatbot and the customer experience Any has been delivering around the clock  24/7 hours a day. 

As part of our participation in Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori 2020 last month we also published a .iwi.nz and .maori.nz blog post about these spaces. 
 

Interesting links and media 

• au: Don't abandon your internet domain name to cybercriminals
• .za announces a registry lock service
• .nl: 'Homoglyph' , visually similar characters, is the new buzzword in phishing
• Digital Citizen Alliance sounds alarm on ease of registering COVID-19 related scam domains