If ICANN Can't Even Control Its Own Domain Names...

from the what-hope-do-the-rest-of-us-have dept

Mon, Jul 7th 2008 4:12am — Mike Masnick

ICANN has been something of a joke. Charged with managing top level domain names, the organization has done a lot more to annoy users and force them to keep buying new domain names at high prices than do anything constructive in managing TLDs. And now it turns out that even ICANN can get spoofed. Hoaxers convinced ICANN's own registrar to hand over the controls for two of its main websites: ICANN.com and IANA.com, allowing each to be redirected elsewhere briefly. While ICANN was able to regain control over both domains within 20 minutes, the ease with which both were hijacked suggests that perhaps a more constructive use of ICANN's time, rather than coming up with new TLDs that cost too much money, would be to come up with better ways to prevent such hijackings -- and better ways to deal with such hijackings if you don't happen to be ICANN.

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Filed Under: domain names, hijacking
Companies: icann

5 Comments

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Cassius Seeley, 7 Jul 2008 @ 5:08am

The plumber always has leaky pipes in his own house.
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eleete, 7 Jul 2008 @ 5:18am

Good For Them
"While ICANN was able to regain control over both domains within 20 minutes," I once had a domain, that was a persons Name, had their address and phone number on the whois records, however the webmaster listed his own email address as the administrator. The webmaster disappeared, almost literally. The hell I went through to try to resume control over that domain. They gave me all kinds of legal implications, even though the mans license (matching his address and his full name) Obviously no legal threat to them. Nice to see when It's them, and they FULLY authorized the takeover that they can get it back in 20 mins, yet when it was me, it took over a year. Good for them, wish they had to wait a year.
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Skippy, 7 Jul 2008 @ 7:32am

Not their main sites
Your quoted text has it that these were "two of their main websites", and this is not right. ICANN and IANA are .org sites; the .com sites are just redirects to the correct domains.
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Abdul, 7 Jul 2008 @ 12:08pm

It's Ridiculous!!!
It seems the hackers were trying to send a message here. Just as ICANN annouced the new TLDs, their sites was hijack and re-directed. Whether this was a coincidence remains to be seen but it appears the hackers are telling ICANN that "We are in charge of TLDs, not you". In any case, for the new TLDs, it's a bigger mess ICANN will have to live with for sometime:Now ICANN Must Live With Its Mess(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=157713&F_src=flftwo)
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Henry, 26 Jul 2008 @ 8:06am

The Domain Game
Interesting blog. For a great read on domain names nothing beats David Kesmodel’s The Domain Game (How People Get Rich from Internet Domain Names). Learn how an Oklahoma watermelon farmer wound up owning some of the most valuable web addresses in the world and how a college drop-out turned $200,000 into $100 million plus by scooping up abandoned domains. Available now from www.eurocomdomains.com.
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