ICANN has recently announced that in order to mitigate the potential for malicious conduct in new gTLDs,they formed the Zone File Access Advisory Group and the High Security Top-Level Domain Advisory Group.
ICANN sought the participation of a diverse and knowledgeable set of volunteers to discuss alternatives for Zone File Access. The group was charged with discussing benefits and exploring methods to effectively and efficiently enhance access to zone file information in an environment with many gTLDs. The Anti-Phishing Working Group and others have described access to zone data as an effective tool for combating DNS abuse.
On behalf of the ZFA Advisory Group, ICANN is opening a public comment forum on the ZFA Concept Paper that describes standardized forms of access to zone file information. The Paper proposes four alternative implementation models for community consideration.
The HSTLD Advisory Group meets regularly to build upon the concept of a security verification program for Top-Level Domains (TLD’s). Work on this concept was originally published for ICANN’s meeting in Seoul.
For more information on the original concept paper, please refer to the following link: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/high-security-zone-verification-04oct09-en.pdf .
The HSTLD Advisory Group currently consists of members of ICANN staff and members of the community that have expressed an interest in assisting with the program as well as individuals who are subject matter experts in disciplines related to the program.
For more details check out www.icann.com