<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta name=Title content=""><meta name=Keywords content=""><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:Calibri;
color:windowtext;}
span.apple-converted-space
{mso-style-name:apple-converted-space;}
span.EmailStyle21
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:Calibri;
color:windowtext;}
span.msoIns
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-style-name:"";
text-decoration:underline;
color:teal;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:1870096607;
mso-list-template-ids:202306920;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:1.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:2.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:3.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:;
mso-level-tab-stop:4.5in;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol;}
ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}
ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}
--></style></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Dear all, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The RZMA can be found here: <a href="https://www.icann.org/iana_imp_docs/63-root-zone-maintainer-agreement-v-1-0">https://www.icann.org/iana_imp_docs/63-root-zone-maintainer-agreement-v-1-0</a>. This agreement is posted for a <b>30-day public review</b> period before it will be signed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>In addition, ICANN has published the Proposed Amendment to .COM Registry Agreement for a <b>43-day public comment period. </b>The public comment page is here: <a href="https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-2016-06-30-en">https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-2016-06-30-en</a> and the public comment will run through 12 August 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>The blog below is a starting point should you have any questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Best, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Grace<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='color:black'>From: </span></b><span style='color:black'><cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org> on behalf of Grace Abuhamad <grace.abuhamad@icann.org><br><b>Date: </b>Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 4:04 PM<br><b>To: </b>"cwg-stewardship@icann.org" <cwg-stewardship@icann.org><br><b>Subject: </b>[CWG-Stewardship] Root Zone Management Transition Update: Preservation of Security, Stability and Resiliency<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>Original link: <a href="https://www.icann.org/news/blog/root-zone-management-transition-update-preservation-of-security-stability-and-resiliency">https://www.icann.org/news/blog/root-zone-management-transition-update-preservation-of-security-stability-and-resiliency</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid #CFCFCF 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:7.5pt;background:white'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Root Zone Management Transition Update: Preservation of Security, Stability and Resiliency</span></b><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>On March 4, 2015, the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) officially requested that ICANN and Verisign work together to develop a proposal on how best to transition theNTIA administrative role associated with root zone management in a manner that maintains the security and stability of the Internet’s domain name system. NTIA previously announced that the transition of this aspect of its administrative role was a process separate from but parallel to the IANA stewardship transition.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Verisign and ICANN submitted a proposal to NTIA that contained two primary elements. First, the teams would build and test a parallel root zone management system that would simulate root zone management functions without NTIA’s current authorization role. That system is now approaching the completion of its 90-day defect free testing phase. Second, in anticipation of the release of Verisign from root zone management obligations by NTIA under the Cooperative Agreement, the teams began work on a commercial agreement between ICANN and Verisign for the continued performance of root zone management functions.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>We are pleased to announce that ICANN and Verisign have completed the discussions and negotiations for the root zone maintainer services agreement (RZMA).</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Since the early days of the Internet, Verisign has been providing “registration services” under its Cooperative Agreement with NTIA, which was broadly defined to include root zone management functions and Top Level Domain registry services. NTIA recognized that root zone management aspects of the IANA functions contract are “inextricably intertwined” with the Cooperative Agreement. Given the unified nature of the present Cooperative Agreement, much of the root zone infrastructure itself is “inextricably intertwined” with Verisign’s TLD operations for .com: the servers that provide root services are hosted at every .com resolution site (over 100 locations). These servers share bandwidth, routing and monitoring with the .com operations, and the servers use the same code base as the .com TLDname servers and are operated and maintained by the same operation and engineering group. On the provisioning side, the root zone’s provisioning system is derived from the .com Shared Registration System (SRS), using the structure, schema, and software used for .com provisioning operations. Verisign builds and signs the root zone today using the same cryptographic facilities used for .com as well as signing software derived from that used for signing .com. Importantly, Verisign’s root zone operations are also within the .com’s Denial of Service attack detection and mitigation framework including independent internal and external monitoring and packet filtering at all layers. A key component of ensuring security of the root operations was making sure that those operations continued to benefit from its historic association with the .com operations.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>The RZMA is intended to maintain stable, secure, and reliable operations of the root zone not only for direct root zone management service customers (Registry Operators, Registrars and Root Server Operators), but also to maintain the security and stability of the Internet’s domain name system. This was achieved by a simple extension of the .com Registry Agreement to coincide with the term of the new RZMA.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Regarding the RZMA, some of the key features include:</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Requiring Verisign and ICANN to work together in good faith to preserve the security, stability and resiliency of the root zone and root zone management system consistent with the security and stability of the Internet.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Detailing ICANN’s responsibility to authenticate, verify, and submit to Verisign changes to the service data comprised in the Root Zone File.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Establishing service level requirements for Verisign to process, edit, generate and publish the Root Zone File, including an accelerated path to update the service data in the Root Zone File in cases of emergency.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Describing ICANN and Verisign’s key-signing obligations, which are to be performed in a secure, transparent and accountable manner.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Providing that the integrity of the service data of the Root Zone File and the Verisign systems performing the root zone maintainer function will be operated under a business continuity plan with the same product support level as maintained by the .com DNS resolution service and .com SRS, respectively.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Setting forth that Verisign will participate as a member of the future Root Zone Evolution Review Committee.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Providing for continuity of the security and stability of the root zone through a one-year transition process which may be initiated by a community driven process under which Verisign continues to perform the root zone maintainer function while ICANN implements a public RFP process to identify and onboard a new provider.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Setting out the development of an emergency transition process for extraordinary events.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;margin-left:51.0pt;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;background:white'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>Requiring ICANN and Verisign to meet quarterly to prioritize potential changes and updates to the services, including service levels and to prioritize a roadmap for implementation of such changes that may be effected through a built in change control process.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-family:Helvetica;color:#333333'>What’s left to be done? Soon, we will post the RZMA for public review and the .com registry agreement amendment for public comment, after which our respective boards of directors will be asked to approve the agreements. The .com extension will be sent to NTIA for review and approval according to their processes.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;color:black'>-- </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Grace Abuhamad</span></b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;color:black'>Manager, Public Policy</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;color:black'>ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers</span></b><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black'>801 17th Street NW, Suite 400 | Washington, DC 20006</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;color:black'>Direct: +1 202 249 7545 | Mobile: +1 310 200 7638</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Interested in the IANA Stewardship Transition? </span></b><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'><a href="https://www.icann.org/stewardship-accountability"><span style='color:blue'>LEARN MORE</span></a>. <a href="https://www.icann.org/stewardship-accountability#status"><span style='color:blue'>STAY UPDATED</span></a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/icann"><span style='color:blue'>FOLLOW</span></a>. <a href="https://www.icann.org/stewardship-accountability#involved"><span style='color:blue'>ENGAGE</span></a>. </span></b><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>