drawing attention to the project
and to the process, it was actually beneficial in getting support
from just about every member of
the community. It helped everybody see the value of protecting registrant data through an
escrow program.”
With the Registrar Data
Escrow program, ICANN can
facilitate the transfer of the
domains and associated ownership information to another registrar if a problem occurs with
the original registrar. With the data in an escrow account
held by Iron Mountain as a neutral third party, domain name
information is protected and secured.
Security was certainly one of the key criteria in the
vendor selection process. The backed-up registrant data
must be stored safely, yet be easily accessible should the
need arise. “With Iron Mountain, there is almost a presumption of security,” says Zupke. “They’ve got a strong
reputation for handling data, and that was one of the things
that had an impact on our decision.”
“While it wasn’t specified in our RFP for a vendor to
store data 200 feet under the ground, Iron Mountain’s doing
so certainly gives you confidence,” he adds. “Iron Mountain’s proposal, unquestionably, had the strongest implementation in terms of robust capacity and security.”
Iron Mountain sales executive Krista Papac worked
closely with Zupke and Pritz to understand ICANN’s needs,
and led the Iron Mountain team in creating the proposal.
She continues to work closely with ICANN to implement
and test the program, and to get registrars on board.
“One of the things that everybody recognized early on
was, although it’s great that Iron Mountain has such incredible security, we also needed to make sure that we tested
the retrieval process,” Papac explains. “If ICANN needs the
data—say, if there is a failure of a registrar—Iron Mountain
has to be able to access it accurately and immediately.” This
is the first component of quality assurance testing.
The second component is a stress test that tests the
process with high volumes of data. Papac says, “The stress
test goes beyond, ‘Does the process work?’ to ‘Does it work
in a case where registrars may have millions of domain
names?’”
Registrar Acceptance
“The last piece in making this work is getting a large number of registrars on board in a timely manner,” Pritz says.
“Our goal is to have all registrars depositing data by July
1 of 2008. Registrar acceptance is really a key component
of this.”
Papac has been traveling in the United States, Europe
“It’s been really rewarding to get out
there and talk to registrars about the
program,” says Krista Papac, sales
executive, Iron Mountain Digital.
and Asia, reaching out to registrars to explain the program.
“For me, it’s been really
rewarding to get out there and
talk to registrars about the program and assure them,” she
says. “You see them shift from
skepticism to acceptance. Once
they understand the Registrar Data Escrow program, it is
gratifying to see that the registrars I’ve met are happy to
and proud to participate in it, because they can now offer
more security and protection to their customers.”
Based on the anticipation voiced in early meetings,
ICANN believes most of the registrars will be onboard with
the program a full two months ahead of its midyear goal.
“ GoDaddy.com already employs a multifaceted program to secure its customers’ data and to protect registrants’ privacy. This provides yet another important layer
of security,” says Tim Ruiz, GoDaddy.com’s vice president
of corporate development and policy. “As the world’s No.
1 registrar, we believe it is important to be the first to
cooperate with the new ICANN requirements and set an
example for the rest of the registrar community.”
Network Solutions is also getting onboard. “Network
Solutions prides itself on its level of customer service,”
says Jonathon L. Nevett, the company’s vice president of
policy. “Letting our customers know that their registration data is securely protected through ICANN’s Registrar
Data Escrow program is another assurance of customer
satisfaction.”
Looking to the Future
As a private-public partnership, ICANN has dedicated
itself to preserving the operational stability of the Internet,
and the Registrar Data Escrow program goes a long way
toward this goal. Dr. Paul Twomey, ICANN’s president and
CEO, calls the program “a sensible and practical measure to
protect registrants by storing and safeguarding a back-up
copy of domain name registration data in escrow.”
“The Registrar Data Escrow program that we’ve implemented with Iron Mountain is the first significant success,
and a very important part of a multifaceted registrant protection program,” Pritz notes. “We look forward to providing
a full range of programs and procedures that will work to
safeguard registrants and maintain Internet stability.” ▲
Maria Doyle is a freelance technology writer based in Massachusetts.
