[council] Announcement of research Firm to conduct gTLD WHOIS Proxy and Privacy Abuse Study

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

I just wanted to inform you of the following announcement that is being posted 
today on the ICANN blog.  I'm excited to be starting this "final" study at 
last, and I'm happy to provide more information on this or any of the GNSO 
WHOIS studies at your request.

Best regards, Liz

http://blog.icann.org/2012/04/national-physical-laboratory-of-the-uk-selected-to-conduct-a-gtld-whois-privacy-and-proxy-abuse-study/




National Physical Laboratory of the UK Selected to Conduct a gTLD Whois Privacy 
and Proxy Abuse Study

By Liz Gasster on 30 April 2012



I am delighted to report that ICANN has engaged the National Physical 
Laboratory (NPL) of the United Kingdom to conduct a study of Whois Privacy and 
Proxy Abuse.

Guided by Richard Clayton, NPL has established a collaborative study team of 
domain specialists from three universities. Together, this team will examine 
the extent to which gTLD domain names involved in illegal or harmful Internet 
activities are registered via Privacy or Proxy services to obscure the 
perpetrator's identity. Study results are expected in early 2013.

This study is being launched to help the Generic Names Supporting Organization 
(GNSO) and ICANN community better understand how often alleged bad actors 
obscure their identities using several common methods, including (but not 
limited to) Privacy/Proxy registration. By examining a variety of illegal or 
harmful Internet activities, including phishing, malware distribution, money 
laundering, unlicensed pharmacies, typosquatting, child sexual abuse images, 
spam, and cybersquatting, NPL will measure the percentage of associated gTLD 
domain names registered via Privacy or Proxy services, as well as the 
proportion of those registered with inaccurate or incomplete WHOIS details or 
stolen identities.

To determine whether Privacy/Proxy use is significantly greater among domains 
involved in illegal or harmful activities, NPL will compare alleged bad actor 
percentages to the 16-20% overall percentage found by ICANN's 2010 Study on the 
Prevalence of Domain Names Registered Using Privacy or Proxy Services among the 
top 5 gTLDs. Beyond placing bad actor percentages into context, this study will 
not attempt to analyze broader use of Privacy/Proxy services by domains 
registered for entirely lawful purposes.

NPL is one of Europe's leading National Measurement Institutes (NMI). Along 
with other NMI's including the U.S. National Institute of Standards and 
Technology (NIST), NPL works with industry and government to develop the latest 
state-of-the-art measurement techniques for all areas of science and technology.

To learn more about the Whois Privacy and Proxy Abuse Study, visit 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/index.html