Skip to main content
Resources

Internet Identifier System Security, Stability, and Resiliency

IS-SSR in the Office of the CTO (OCTO-SSR)

The overall goal of OCTO-SSR programs is to ensure the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet's Identifier systems. To achieve this goal, ICANN will:

  • Engage actively with security, operations, and public safety communities to gather and process intelligence data that indicate (imminent) threats to DNS or domain registration service operations (the "DNS ecosystem").
  • Facilitate or participate with these same communities in threat preparedness activities to protect against or mitigate threats to DNS ecosystem.
  • Perform studies or analyze data to better understand the health and well-being of the DNS ecosystem.
  • Coordinate DNS vulnerability disclosure reporting https://www.icann.org/vulnerability-disclosure.pdf [PDF, 628 KB]
  • Lend subject matter expertise to build capability among ccTLD and public safety communities in subjects relevant to the DNS ecosystem, including DNSSEC, abuse or misuse of DNS infrastructures or operations.
  • Assist in DNS ecosystem risk management activities.
  • With ICANN's Global Stakeholder Engagements team, participate in a global, multi-stakeholder effort to improve cybersecurity and mitigate cybercrime.

Want to learn more about Identifier Systems SSR?

You can also listen to an audio stream archive of ICANN's Security, Stability, Resiliency Team – Outreach Session (English, Español, Français), read the transcripts (English, Español, Français), or view the presentation (English).

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."