[UA-discuss] Blue Coat's Web's Shadiest Neighborhoods and implications on TLD acceptance

[Edward Lewis]

On 9/18/15, 5:16, "ua-discuss-bounces at icann.org on behalf of Jothan Frakes"
<ua-discuss-bounces at icann.org on behalf of jothan at gmail.com> wrote:

> The anecdotal stories about evolutionary resistance and response scenarios
> typically carry an intensity, derived from tactical events that create a fire
> to put out at unforeseen times.  If you take a long view, rolling the calendar
> forward a few years to where the changes are more mainstream though, the
> benefits of the changes start to manifest themselves, and the sentiment
> changes.

To bolster Jothan's point, without writing as elegantly, here's another
angle on this that I have observed.

A particular gTLD was opened up with a paticular advantage over the legacy
ones - namely the timeliness from registration to delegation.  (I.e.,
instead of waiting a day ot two, a name would be active in less than an
hour.)  This would seem like a "good" improvement.

The first movers were the black hats.  They'd steal a credit card number,
register and before anyone could build a judgement about the name they'd use
it for badness.   Sending spam, as a start.

What followed was a bad reputation was given to the TLD.

The reaction by the TLD was to institute a takedown service under the banner
of "brand protection."

The moral of the story is that innovation many times is adopted more quickly
by those willing to take on the risk, and if you want to apply the name,
criminals very much accept risk.  That's not the end of the story, just
something that needs to be expected and handled.  (Rarely can it be
anticipated, white hats don't think like black hats.)

Whether this lends any creedence to the BlueCat report, I don't know.  But
as Jothan says, people fear change and often the excuse is because the new
stuff is a bad neighborhood.



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