Are hosting and cloud service providers the secret heroes in the fight against DNS abuse? On 23 March, industry leaders will discuss best practices to enhance DNS security.
The stable, secure operation of the DNS (Domain Name System) forms the foundation for the worldwide success of the Internet. However, attempts at misuse by means of malware, botnets, phishing, pharming or spam threaten the DNS. Registries, registrars and hosting providers have therefore joined forces in the eco initiative topDNS and their common goal is to better protect the DNS from abusive activities.
Founding member of topDNS, Keith Drazek, Vice President, Public Policy & Government Relations at Verisign, is aware of how complex this task is. At Cloudfest on 23 March  from 2:30 to 3:30pm, he will speak on-site at the API Main Forum with industry leaders about effective measures to combat DNS abuse. The panel discussion will include Hans Seeuws, External Relations Manager at EURid, Carsten Sjoerup, Chief Technology & Product Officer at CentralNic and Jörg Pernfuß, Security Architect at IONOS. The panel will be moderated by Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers at eco – Association of the Internet Industry.
The goal of the topDNS initiative is to address hosting and cloud service providers at Cloudfest. The discussion about DNS abuse in the ICANN community is mainly between registries, registrars, rights holders, law enforcement agencies, and governments. Many hosting and cloud service providers are already active in the fight against abusive activities in the DNS. The members of topDNS are willing to include these providers in the discussion and give them a voice.
An important agenda item of the panel discussion is the position of topDNS members not to consider domain blocking lightly and use it always only as a last resort to combat illegal content. The initiative therefore promotes the exchange of best practices, the standardisation of abuse reports, and awareness campaigns for policy makers, decision makers and experts. In this regard, topDNS works closely with the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network and the DNS Abuse Institute.
More information on the English-language panel discussion
