Yesterday ICANN started accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). "The world of .com, .gov, .org and 19 other gTLDs will soon be expanded to include all types of words in many different languages. For the first time generic TLDs can include words in non-Latin languages, such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic." [1]

Last month, the US Federal Trade Commission indicated it has concerns with this change, they are concerned that consumer protection safeguard against bad actors that could lead to potential risk of abuse through existing scams such as phishing sites. [2]

Do you see these changes have a potential for concern and abuse or just business as usual?

[1] http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-11jan12-en.htm
[2] http://www.ftc.gov/os/closings/publicltrs/111216letter-to-icann.pdf
[3] http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/
 

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Guy Bruneau IPSS Inc. gbruneau at isc dot sans dot edu