Domain registrar VeriSign has defended its now-suspended
Site Finder search tool, saying that concerns about its effect on
the stability of the internet are overblown.
VeriSign, which controls the main database of .com and .net
domain names, shut down the Site Finder service last week after the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann)
demanded the company suspend the service.
However, VeriSign claimed it could find no evidence that the
service, intended to direct internet users to a correct website
when they mistype a URL, is causing security problems. VeriSign is
resolving more than 10 billion domain name queries a day, and
claimed its record of providing 100% availability continued after
Site Finder launched.
But both Icann's Srecurity and Stability Advisory Committee and
the Internet Architecture Board have found stability problems
caused by the way Site Finder was implemented, said Icann director
of communications Mary Hewitt.
While VeriSign officials questioned if Icann was overstepping
its boundaries by halting the Site Finder service, Hewitt said
Icann will go ahead with a meeting today to examine the complaints
about Site Finder.
The service may cause a problem for a small number of spam
filters that check to see if inbound e-mail is coming from a
legitimate web address, said Matt Larson, principal engineer with
VeriSign's Naming and Directory Services.
But the domain name check is not used by most popular spam
filters, and it is just one of many checks a spam filter company
should use to check for spam, he added.
Just 3% of spam comes from non-existent domains. "This is
really a limited issue that we believe some people have made more
of than is really there," Larson said.
VeriSign launched Site Finder in mid-September. Critics almost
immediately voiced several concerns about internet stability and
spam, and the site's hijacking other website search services by
exploiting its control over the .com and .net domains.
Two US companies, Go Daddy Software and Popular Enterprises,
filed lawsuits against VeriSign within days of Site Finder's
launch.
After Site Finder launched, internet service providers such as
America Online could reconfigure their services so subscribers were
directed to other internet search pages when they mistyped an
address, VeriSign officials said.
VeriSign officials declined to comment on the lawsuits, but they
questioned whether Icann had the authority to ask the company to
suspend the service pending hearings about Site Finder.
"We believe the debate is much more about philosophy and
approach than it is about security and stability," said Russell
Lewis, executive vice president and general manager of VeriSign's
Naming and Directory Services. "We do not believe that Icann ...
really should be micro-managing these kinds of new services."
Hewitt said she had no comment on VeriSign questioning the
organisation's authority to stop VeriSign from offering Site
Finder. But she added that Icann's request that VeriSign suspend
the service came after many objections from internet users.
Eleven other domain name registries have launched similar
services without Icann stepping in, Lewis said, but he declined to
comment on what legal action VeriSign could take if Icann tries to
stop VeriSign from offering Site Finder permanently.
Icann officials have accused VeriSign of giving them little
notice before launching the service. Lewis said VeriSign had
notified Icann a "few days" before Site Finder launched.
Grant Gross writes for IDG News Service