The Keystone Kops of the Internet

Yesterday was ICANN’s big “reveal” of all the applicants and gTLD’s they applied for under ICANN’s program to explode the DNS with more than a thousand new top level domains. You will recall that the reveal was postponed when the security of ICANN’s website was compromised. ICANN’s excuse was lame at best and demands for an independent investigation ignored.

Now, just one day after the reveal, applicants received the following email:

“Dear Applicant,

It has come to our attention that we have published the postal addresses of some primary and secondary contacts for new generic top-level domain applications. This information was not intended for publication. The addresses appeared as responses to portions of questions six and seven on the application.

We have temporarily disabled viewing of the application details and will provide more information on this matter as it becomes available.

Regards,

New gTLD Team”

Unbelievable. One would think that having just received in excess of $300 million, their staff could do a better job of guarding confidential information. It’s deja vu all over again. Can ICANN not trip on itself? For an organization entrusted with some of the key security issues on the most important communications platform in history, we deserve better than Keystone Kops. I can’t wait to see ICANN’s next mistake. Or maybe not. Because sooner or later, unless someone asserts proper oversight over ICANN, the next mistake could cost the Internet community far more than it can afford. It is time for the independent investigation concerned stakeholders have demanded. Without it, we cannot be expected to trust ICANN’s competence or integrity.