Education & Awareness

• Promotion of existing efforts to fight different types of abuse
• Education of policy & decision makers and subject-matter expert groups
• Inclusion of hosting providers and their abuse teams
• Amplification of the messages of the industry

Collaboration & Operationalisation

• Collaboration at eco, a trusted platform in the Internet industry
• Sharing best-practice guidance for abuse handling
• Standardisation of abuse reports, use-cases, statistics & definitions
• Development of a Trusted Notifier Framework

“The DNS is an ecosystem, not just a registration system"

The task to prevent and tackle abuse on the Internet is a complex one. The DNS ecosystem is diverse, given that it includes different stakeholders & intermediaries with different roles and responsibilities, and different options at hand to contribute to this task.

Registries and registrars are often asked to suspend domain names allegedly involved in abusive content or services. If they do, they can only take down an entire domain name, which may cause collateral damage when innocent content is or was also accessible via the same domain name.

Therefore, responses to abuse should always be proportionate in the light of the type of internet infrastructure operator concerned.

eco's diverse membership covers all sectors of the Internet industry. Our goal is to bring all relevant stakeholders & intermediaries to the table and to give visibility to those who are engaged in the fight against DNS abuse - beyond the Domain Name Industry.

Events & Webinars

Nordic Domain Days 2023

eco's topDNS Initiative is again partner of Nordic Domain Days in Stockholm! Join us on Tuesday for the workshop on DNS abuse. eco members benefit from special discounts on tickets.

topDNS Best Practice Series: How to reduce Abuse through Quality

Join the first edition of the topDNS Best Practice Series: How to reduce Abuse through Quality. Brian Cimbolic (.ORG) and Theo Geurts (Realtime Register) will show how incentive programs help to reduce abuse and increase customer satisfaction and renewal rates.

topDNS Best Practice Series: Standards and Frameworks for Evidencing Abuse Online

Jeffrey Bedser, CEO of CleanDNS will explain how standardized evidencing allows for rapid correlation and mitigation of abused domains by the appropriate party, how evidencing thresholds can be established and how online harms can be addressed via standardized evidence packages.

pDNS Best Practice Series: How to investigate Online Abuse with Free Tools

Roundtable Discussion: Germany’s Approach to the Internet and Digital Strategy

ICANN Org, I/P/B Internet Provider Berlin & eco – Association of the Internet Industry invite you on Monday, 15 May, 18:00 – 20:00, for a panel discussion of "Germany's Approach to the Internet and Digital Strategy" followed by an informal reception.

News & Articles

Changes in Cultural Behavior Essential for Gender Equality in the Tech World

Vanda Scartezini, the co-founder of DNS Women, highlights how we need to delve deeply into cultural behavior to see as many women as men employed in tech.

DNS Cookies: The Transaction Mechanism to Protect the Namespace

Although they are not the cure for all name server problems, DNS cookies offer an extra layer of protection and are particularly effective against off-path attacks. Simone Catania, InterNetX, looks at how DNS cookies can make DNS transactions more secure.

ICANN’s Accountability & Transparency

In examining several real-world situations, Keith Drazek from Verisign displays ICANN’s accountability and transparency.

ICANN’s Accountability and Transparency: A Retrospective on the IANA Transition

Keith Drazek from Verisign provides a core review of ICANN’s current governance model, accountability, and transparency.

Fulfilling the Potential of the Domain Name System

The DNS has advanced technologically well beyond its original structure. Lars Steffen from eco looks at how to bridge current gaps in DNS usage.

Secondary Redistribution of the IP Address Space. Can the State Help With This?

Alexey Shkittin from InterLIR looks at a solution for freeing up more than 30% of existing IPv4 address space that is frozen and unused.

Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day: Three Questions for Ronald Schwärzler

How is it possible for special characters or characters of other languages to be universally accepted on the Internet? The Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day, which is organised by eco Association and the geoTLD Group, provides assistance, explains Ronald Schwärzler in an interview.

eco Welcomes New Members to the Steering Committee of the Names & Numbers Forum

The Names & Numbers Forum of the eco Association brings together more than 140 companies from the global domain industry. The Steering Committee of the eco Competence Group is now pleased to welcome three new members.

eco Initiative topDNS is Once Again Partner of the Nordic Domain Days (NDD)

On 8 and 9 May, registries, registrars, resellers as well as service providers and investors from the domains industry will again meet in Stockholm for the Nordic Domain Days 2023.

When the international cloud, hosting and internet industry meets again for Cloudfest at Europapark Rust from 21-23 March, the eco Association will be there on site.

How to Reduce Fraud and Prevent Abuse

Our colleagues at the DNS Abuse Institute published a document that aims to demonstrate the opportunities for retail domain registrars to prevent abusive registrations while reducing potential impacts to registrants and anti-abuse teams.

Measuring DNS Abuse

Our colleagues at the DNS Abuse Institute launched their reporting initiative called DNSAI Compass to measure the use of the DNS for phishing and malware. You can find their monthly reports here.

topDNS Picks up Speed

Registries, registrars and hosting providers joined forces in the topDNS initiative at the beginning of 2022. Since then, the stable, reliable and secure operation of the DNS (Domain Name System) has been their common goal. It has been about half a year, so the eco Association as initiator and the initiative members are taking a moment to review what has happened in the first few months.

Developing Domain Name Renewal Rates for Trust & Future Success

Danny Aerts & Rickard Vikstrom from DomainCrawler, on why models for the prediction of domain name renewal rates are key for the industry in assessing trust.

Next Steps in Combatting DNS Abuse

Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen from the eco Association take stock and give an outlook on collaborating in the fight against abuse involving the DNS.

Mitigating DNS Abuse: Taking a firm Position and protecting Employees

On eco´s dotmagazine, Kelly Hardy from CentralNic explains how companies benefit from fighting abuse and from protecting the employees on the front lines.

Control your Digital Brand: On the Interplay of Defensive Domain Registrations, active Monitoring, and Brand Enforcement

On eco´s dotmagazine, Verena Kuthe from LEMARIT outlines the path to retain full control of digital brands through the best brand protection approach.

Not in our Domain: How EURid is using AI and global Cooperation to tackle Cybercrime

On eco´s dotmagazine, EURid takes an innovative approach to help outwit cybercriminals, including helping to identify potentially malicious registrations at source.

QPI: A “Call to Arms” on reponsible Growth

On eco´s dotmagazine, Inma Del Rosal Mendez and Brian Cimbolic from PIR explain how the Quality Performance Index supports a reduction in abusive domain registrations.

Let’s end counter-productive Anti DNS Abuse Reporting

On eco´s dotmagazine, Natasha Pelham-Lacey from CleanDNS, on improving an imperfect system to lower the bar for reporting abuse and increasing takedowns.

Webinar: NetBeacon – A service to standardize abuse reports

24 May 2022 - For those impacted by DNS Abuse, reporting it is difficult, requires technical understanding, and has no standards across the DNS ecosystem. The DNS Abuse Institute is working to simplify the process with the upcoming launch of it’s NetBeacon service. The NetBeacon service is being built by eco member and topDNS sponsor CleanDNS and licensed to the DNS Abuse Institute at no cost. This webinar provides a preview to this new service. Please follow the link to register for free.

DNS Abuse Institute Launches NetBeacon

The DNS Abuse Institute (DNSAI), which was created by Public Interest Registry (PIR) in furtherance of its non-profit mission, announced the launch of NetBeacon, the first centralized DNS Abuse reporting service. As part of its ongoing mission to combat DNS Abuse and bolster Internet safety, the DNSAI is now launching its largest undertaking to date. The DNSAI is launching NetBeacon in collaboration with CleanDNS, an anti-abuse solution developer, which generously donated the development and technology behind NetBeacon. Both, Public Interest Registry (PIR) and CleanDNS, are not only eco members but also supporters and steering committee members of eco´s topDNS Initiative.

topDNS meets... Graeme Bunton

At Nordic Domain Days 2022 in Stockholm we had the opportunity to talk to Graeme Bunton, Executive Director of the DNS Abuse Institute and member of the topDNS Advisory Group about DNS Abuse in general and his work at the Institute in particular.

Why Preventing, Mitigating & Fighting Abuse concerns Everyone

Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen from the eco Association, explain on on eco´s dotmagazine the importance of acting and collaborating in the fight against abuse involving the DNS.

Gaining more Insight into Malicious Domains

Theo Geurts from Realtime Register B.V. describes on eco´s dotmagazine a proactive approach to malicious domains, based on analyzing and sharing data, and responding to incidents.

The Debate around Defining, Preventing and Mitigating DNS Abuse

What is DNS abuse? On eco´s dotmagazine, Simone Catania from InterNetX looks at the definition of DNS abuse and describes scenarios for prevention and mitigation.

Fighting the Good Fight: Preventing the Spread of CSAM with Software

On eco´s dotmagazine, Els de Jong and Wido Potters from BIT, explain about software-based tools for combatting illegal and harmful content.

Vigilance of Society against Illegal Content

On eco´s dotmagazine, Alexandra Koch-Skiba from the eco Complaints Office explains the attentive reporting and take-down of illegal content on the Internet.

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Evidence equals better DNS Abuse Mitigation

On eco´s dotmagazine, Gia Isabella from CleanDNS addresses the creation of standards for evidence of Internet abuse to expedite the handling of abusive content.

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Middle East DNS Forum 2022

ICANN org's eighth Middle East Domain Name System (DNS) Forum has taken place virtually 16 - 18 May 2022 and offered a closer look at the evolving DNS ecosystem from a technical and policy perspective. The topDNS Initiative, the DNS Abuse Institute, and CoCCA Registry Services participated in the Panel on DNS Security Threats, moderated by Patrick Jones, Senior Director Global Stakeholder Engagement at ICANN. Watch the recording here.

Nordic Domain Days 2022

In collaboration with iQ Solutions, eco´s topDNS initiative organized and co-hosted a hands-on workshop at Nordic Domain Days to address DNS Abuse. We will publish the results of the workshop shortly.

Online Training: OSINT – Fighting DNS Abuse (DNS Abuse for LEAs)

This course discusses best practices in handling DNS abuse and various tools to identify such abuses related to DNS. The course also covers how law enforcement authorities can engage with ICANN.

The target audience for this training are Law Enforcement personnel who are involved in handling abuses related to Internet Identifiers. Participants should be able to understand the various aspects of DNS related abuses and to use publicly available tools to identify those.

Recommended prerequisite: Virtual Workshop: DNS 101

Cloudfest: topDNS Campaign for Shared Commitment to DNS Security

With its topDNS initiative, the conference programme was complemented by a well-attended eco panel discussion: Keith Drazek, Vice-President Public Policy & Government Relations at VeriSign and one of the topDNS founding members, introduced the topic with his keynote on the need to regularly work side-by-side in mitigating DNS security threats. The panel discussion that followed involved Hans Seeuws, External Relations Manager at EURid, Carsten Sjoerup, Chief Technology & Product Officer at CentralNic and Jörg Pernfuß, Security Architect at IONOS. The panel was moderated by Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers at eco – Association of the Internet Industry. Read the full news.

Online Training - ICANN's Technical Mission

Beyond the policy development coordination role for the community, ICANN plays a significant role coordinating the technical aspects of the Internet's unique identifier system. eco's topDNS Initiative and its members have set themselves the goal of fighting DNS abuse. To understand ICANN's Technical Mission is key to follow the debate on this important topic. The target audience for this training are the General Public, Newcomers, and Policy Makers.

DNS Abuse: Everyone’s Problem

On eco´s dotmagazine, Lars Forsberg from iQ looks at the need for awareness of DNS abuse, especially of the new gTLDs, because with awareness comes the ability to act.

Online Training - DNS Abuse: Fact or Fiction?

What is DNS abuse actually and why should the issue concern all Internet infrastructure providers? Depending on whom you ask, you get different answers as to the size of the problem and who should take measures to combat it. At it-sa, Europe's largest event for cybersecurity, Thomas Rickert discussed these aspects.

DMARC is here to stay. Now what?

Alex Brotman, Comcast, and Patrick Koetter, Leader of the Competence Groups Email and Anti-Abuse at eco, explain on eco´s dotmagazine how DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can help companies to protect their customers and their brands from abuse.

Email Blocklists for Real-Time Detection and Mitigation

At eco´s dotmagazine, Patrick Ben Koetter from eco Email & Anti-Abuse Competence Groups speaks to Lars Steffen from eco about blocklists, allowlists & the value of reputation.

Borderless Fight against Illegal Content

For over 20 years, the international INHOPE network has been successfully working to combat depictions of the abuse of minors, says Peter-Paul Urlaub from the eco Complaints Office at dotmagazine.

Discussion Paper - DNS over HTTPS (DoH)

Background information and explanations for non-technical readers, and a clear set of recommendations for best practice in line with privacy-enhancing techniques and informed user consent. Download the Discussion Paper here.

Also on eco´s dotmagazine, Patrick Koetter, Leader of the Competence Groups Email and Anti-Abuse at eco, tells the story of the emergence of the DoH protocol as a privacy-enhancing technique, and the diverse reactions to it around the world.

Join the topDNS Initiative

Do you want to learn more about the topDNS Initiative and how to join?
Please contact us!