Iron Mountain Digital Authority

In the latest version of the agreement between ICANN and the registrars, a program to protect registration data through technology escrow has been written into the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Technology escrow, or data escrow, allows a neutral third party to securely hold intellectual property assets as a safeguard against business disruptions. These assets are then released according to certain predetermined “trigger” conditions, such as if a registrar’s accreditation agreement is terminated or expires without renewal.

In early 2006, ICANN started making a registrar data escrow program a reality.

“A key factor in making this program work was to select a partner that had the competency to handle a large amount of data, and that also could interact with an internationally diverse group of stakeholder depositors,” explains Mike Zupke, ICANN’s registrar liaison manager. “We needed to know that we had a partner that we could trust to interact with the registrars in the same way that ICANN would.”

A project of this size and scope was a major undertaking. ICANN solicited input from all corners of the DNS and data security communities, and worked with the registrars that would be required to participate in the data escrow program. Its Security and Stability Advisory Committee contributed to the program’s technical specifications, as

[ ABOUT ICANN ]
ICANN IS A NONPROFIT CORPORATION BASED IN CALI-

fornia that was created in 1998 to oversee a number of Domain Name System-related tasks previously performed by the U.S. Government and other entities. Although based in the U.S., ICANN has offices in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and holds public meetings three times a year, rotating among continents, to encourage global participation in its processes.

Today, ICANN provides technical coordination for the DNS, and specifically for Generic Top Level Domains (g TLDs), which include all domain names ending in .com, .net, .org and .mobi—more than 90 million domain names. With nearly every major corporation in the world having registered a domain name extension, ICANN supports billions of interactions every day.

Although many individuals or corporations setting up a Web site may not even know that ICANN exists, ICANN plays an active role behind the scenes, ensuring the security and stability of the Internet’s domain name system. Web users cannot register and manage their domain name information directly with g TLD registries. Instead, they must go through one of some 900 companies known as domain name registrars, which have been accredited by ICANN to register Internet domain names for consumers and businesses.

did board members and a working group of nine registrar volunteers.

“I think an important part of the process was Mike’s and ICANN’s work with the gTLD [generic top level domain] registrars,” notes Kurt Pritz, senior vice president of ICANN. “The registrars recognized the importance of the project and formed a working group to work with the ICANN project team. Together, they jointly developed the specifications for the transfer of data to the escrow agent. So the registrars themselves had quite a key role in developing the data escrow’s technical specifications and the program itself.”

The Search for a Solution

As the plan for a Registrar Data Escrow program was being formulated, ICANN reached out to several prospective vendors. Since the program requirements were unique, the team wanted to know each vendor’s thoughts on how such a program could work as well as how it would be implemented.

The goal of the data escrow program was to solidify the security and stability of the DNS by protecting the data associated with registered domain names in a secure escrow account managed by a neutral third party. Vendors approached the problem differently, each bringing their own skill sets. “We received a unique set of proposals, demonstrating different levels of competencies and different levels of price,” says Pritz. “Many were technically competent, and we saw several interesting business models and technical models.”

In evaluating the different proposals, ICANN took into account input from all of the various constituencies, as well as the experience of the vendors. One of ICANN’s board members shared her knowledge of Iron Mountain as the “gold standard” of providers of escrow services. “From a competency standpoint, and a guarantor of success standpoint, there was a lot of support for Iron Mountain,” Zupke says.

Iron Mountain’s proposed implementation was the strongest in terms of its robust capacity and security, as well as its knowledge of the registrar business. “Iron Mountain had really put a lot of thought into their proposal, and in trying to create a program that would be acceptable to the registrars involved. That was one of the things that put them ahead.”

The Registrar Data Escrow Program

Under the terms of the accreditation agreement, ICANN-accredited registrars must participate in the data escrow program. Still, Iron Mountain and ICANN sought to demonstrate the benefits of the program to the registrars as well as their customers.