<h2>Cyber cops and domain name registrars meet to tackle net crooks</h2>
<p class="standfirst"><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/25/cyber_cops_meet_domain_name_registrars/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/25/cyber_cops_meet_domain_name_registrars/</a></p><p class="standfirst">
Tackling criminal activity on a borderless internet</p>
<p class="byline">By <a href="http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2011/02/25/cyber_cops_meet_domain_name_registrars/" title="Send email to the author">Kevin Murphy</a> • <a href="http://search.theregister.co.uk/?author=Kevin%20Murphy" class="more-by-author" title="More stories on this site by Kevin Murphy">Get more from this author</a></p>
<p class="dateline">Posted in <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/public_sector/government/">Government</a>, <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/25/" title="More stories published on this date">25th February 2011 16:41 GMT</a></p>
<p class="wptl top"><a href="http://go.theregister.com/tl/434/-1534/wp-hidden-cost-ent-apj-jun2010.pdf?td=wptl434"><br></a></p>
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<p>Cyber cops from both sides of the Atlantic are meeting with domain
name registrars in Brussels today to try to figure out ways to crack
down on internet crime.</p>
<p>This second meeting of the "EU-US working group on cyber security and
cybercrime" is dedicated to increasing cooperation between law
enforcement agencies and the companies that unwittingly sell web
addresses to online crooks, according to attendees.</p>
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<p>"We're trying to get both sides to communicate, so that we on our
side have some idea what they're trying to achieve, and they on their
side understand what we're able to do technically," said Michele Neylon,
managing director of the Irish registrar Blacknight Solutions.</p>
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<p>The two-day consultation comes as police in the US and UK are
increasingly turning their attention to domain names as an internet
choke-point that can be used to shut down web sites selling counterfeit
goods and enabling the trading of pirated movies and child pornography.</p>
<p>The controversial Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act
(COICA), currently being discussed in the US, would codify the
government's domain seizure powers. In the UK, the Serious Organised
Crime Agency is pushing for a Nominet policy that would make it easier
for police to shut down sites selling bogus goods.</p>
<p>But the last two days of meetings in Brussels have focused on
discussing ways to help law enforcement crack down on all types on
cybercrime, and on ways the domain name industry can self-regulate
through policies overseen by ICANN, according to Go Daddy general
counsel Christine Jones and other attendees.</p>
<p>Specifically, registrars are responding to recommendations made in
October 2009 by the FBI, the Mounties, SOCA, and law enforcement
agencies from Australia and New Zealand. The recommendations call on
ICANN to conduct more rigorous due diligence before accrediting
registrars, and to more aggressively police their conduct thereafter.</p>
<p>Law enforcement is particularly interested in the Whois services that
registrars have to provide, which enables anyone to quickly uncover the
name, address and phone number of any domain name registrant.</p>
<p>Cops don't like the proxy/privacy add-on services that many
registrars offer to shield their customers' personal data from prying
eyes.</p>
<p>They want these services either banned or regulated through ICANN,
using an accreditation program similar to the one used to approve
registrars. Only private individuals engaged in non-commercial
activities would be allowed to use privacy services, under these
proposals.</p>
<p>They also want ICANN to force registrars to collect more validated
data about their customers, and to more effectively control their
reseller networks.</p>
<p>Registrars have pushed back to an extent, partly because many of law
enforcement's demands could be tricky and/or expensive to implement.</p>
<p>"We take a pretty aggressive approach to these issues already, so it
would not be particularly burdensome for Go Daddy, but it could be for
some of the smaller registrars that perhaps don't have the resources,"
said Jones.</p>
<p>A major issue is that obtaining an ICANN registrar accreditation is
fairly easy, quite cheap, and as a result there are almost 1,000
approved registrars. Many of these are simply shell companies, and some
do not make even basic efforts to comply with ICANN's existing rules.</p>
<p>Complicating matters, some registrars have thousands of resellers,
which are not directly bound by ICANN contracts. As it stands, ICANN's
compliance department barely has the resources to police its existing
registrars; it has been without a senior director of compliance since
July last year.</p>
<p>In addition, the aftermath of recent US domain seizures has shown
that when law enforcement grabs a .com domain, criminals quickly
relocate their websites to country-code domains, which are not subject
to ICANN oversight or US jurisdiction.</p>
<p>With all this in mind, registrars have been discussing the best ways
to help tackle the very real problem of criminal activity on a
borderless internet. It's tricky.</p>
<p>"There's no disagreement about the intent," Jean-Christophe Vignes,
CEO of OpenRegistry, said from Brussels. "No self-respecting registrar,
and certainly no registrar in the room, would say we don't want to fight
crime. The question is: how do we get there?"</p>
<p>The Brussels meeting is reportedly very well attended. Delegates
include registrars representing a majority of the world's registered
domain names, as well as law enforcement agencies from several European
and North American countries. ®</p>
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