A new year, new things to look forward to

2021 has finally arrived. A lot of you will be happy that the new year has started and it’s looking to be a great year. We are eager to get going and have already been working hard to give you the best promotion deals and offer you the greatest service. Keep on reading and learn about upcoming price changes, gTLD updates, and a decision to postpone updates to a popular Scandinavian extension.

Quarterly update Membership prices

One of our promises with our unique subscription based Membership model is that we forward any financial advantage, related to the included extensions, to our customers. Not partly, but completely. Every quarter we re-investigate our cost prices and adjust them if necessary.
For the first quarter of 2021 we will change prices of four of our extensions. The new prices are effective from the 13th of January 2021:

The .bank- and .insurance-registry fTLD periodically reviews their security requirements to ensure they are in line with best practices for the financial services sector and continue to protect against evolving security threats. This year the majority of changes to the requirements reflect clarifications and do not materially alter them.

• There are two exceptions for requirement #2 (DNSSEC) that DNSSEC must be implemented with strong cryptographic algorithms, and regarding requirement #5 (email authentication), as described below.
  
• For requirement #4 (encryption), fTLD has included additional information available here to specify the ports for web services they have always tested and this will continue for the encryption settings as required.
• For requirement #5 (email authentication): fTLD is clarifying that while publishing a DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) record is not required. Publishing both SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM creates additional security for email channels.

Who is impacted by these changes?

For registrants who have published DMARC and only DKIM, but not SPF, they will need to add an SPF policy for their .BANK/.INSURANCE domain(s). Registrants who have implemented DNSSEC for their .BANK/.INSURANCE domain(s) should ensure they use strong cryptographic algorithms.

fTLD will automatically notify registrants impacted by these changes.

How will I know if my customer needs to take action?

The deadline for registrants, if applicable, to make all necessary modifications to comply with requirement #2 (DNSSEC) and requirement #5 (email authentication) the 12th of February, 2021.

Starting from the 15th of February, 2021 the registry will turn on automated, direct notifications to registrants via a monthly email with a .CSV attachment with findings from their compliance security monitoring for their .BANK/.INSURANCE domain(s) and a warning report (if applicable); the registry will only provide a notification if there are any compliance and/or warning items.

Changes to .dk postponed

The Danish registry has postponed the improvements to the .dk domain registration platform about which we informed you in our October newsletter until further notice. The registry expects to be ready for it in the second quarter of 2021, but an exact date will follow at a later moment.

.nl registrant in control of his own personal data

.nl registry SIDN has taken the next step in protecting the domain holder’s personal data. At this moment, the whois is already restricted, but registrars and few other instances still can request full data for a limited number of domains using the “registrar whois”.

Although there are situations in which this is allowed under GDPR, SIDN decided to restrict personal data sharing as much as possible. For that reason, they completely close the registrar whois. Instead, they implemented the opportunity for the domain registrant to retrieve and share its own data:

The domain holder can request those data, or you can do so for the domain holder:

•  Visit SIDN’s website in English or Dutch
•  Fill in the domain name, the domain holder’s e-mail address and zip code
•  SIDN will now send two links to the domain holder and administrative contact:
  • one link for the domain holder himself
  • and one link that can be shared with others
•  Do not open the second link (as it can be opened only once!), but send it to the organization that you want to share the personal data with

In the day to day business with Openprovider, not many resellers will be affected. There are, however, a few situations in which we are required to confirm the registrant’s identity: when transferring a .nl domain from quarantine, and when starting an escalation to get the domain’s authorization code.

Updates to the new gTLDs

•  .moscow and .москва have extended their trademark claims period until the 4th of January 2022 (instead of the 4th of January 2021).