Back to Asia Pacific

A lot has changed across the registry landscape since my last trip to the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain (APTLD) conference over two years ago in Danang, Vietnam. From the increasing role that AI plays in our businesses through to the ever-expanding abuse conundrum, the threat landscape has shifted in ways that should concern every registry operator, regardless of size and region.

I'm excited to reconnect with the APTLD community at two upcoming events. First, I'll be joining APTLD members for a webinar on 26 August, followed by a session at APTLD90 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia this September, where I'll be sharing how the Brand Safety Alliance and GlobalBlock are helping registries and brands tackle online abuse through collaborative global protection programs.

A Growing, Shared Problem

In the webinar on August 26th, I’ll be sharing the Brand Safety Alliance’s perspectives on what we’re seeing across our now 840+ extensions that form the GlobalBlock product: the types of fraudulent domains being used to exploit brand names, the abuse patters they enable and how AI and automation have fundamentally changed the economics of launching an attack.

The Asia Pacific region is not immune to these trends, and in some cases the risks are more acute than the global average. At the BSA, what concerns us most is the pace of change – bad actors are moving faster and targeting more broadly than ever before, with SMBs increasingly in their sights alongside the major brands they’ve always targeted.

The potential for damage here is even greater, with the .au Domain Administration reporting one in three small businesses feel they are “too small to be targeted” and 47% agreeing “that if larger, well-resourced companies can’t protect against cyber attacks, then they can’t protect their small business.”

In this environment, finding proactive measures to prevent abuse – rather than simply reacting – is more important than ever.

Why The Old Approach Isn’t Holding Up

For a long time, the prevailing model for registries was relatively straightforward: control the registration domains via policy, monitor for abuse, and respond to disputes and reports as they came in.
However, this no longer meets the demands of the industry. By the time a dispute is filed and processed, the damage to end users, brand owners and the registry’s own reputation can already be done. Reactive enforcement isn’t failing because the people doing it aren’t good at their jobs. It’s failing because the threat has outpaced the model.
The approach I’ll be presenting takes a different view: stop the fire before it starts. Using the well-established practice of domain name blocking allows for the prevention of abusive domains at the source, before they can be used to harm anyone. This is not only more effective for the registrars and brand communities we serve, but also better for registries operationally, commercially and reputationaly.

What Domain Blocking Actually Means for Registries

For some registry operators, a proactive blocking model can sound like additional complexity or a constraint on openness. In practice, the registries already participating in GlobalBlock tell a different story. The administrative burden of dispute handling goes down. Staff time is freed up for higher-value work. The trust signal that comes with a cleaner namespace is real and measurable. And perhaps most importantly for some, it’s easy to implement technically with the right support.

GlobalBlock is also designed to work alongside existing ccTLD policy frameworks and local interests rather than against them. That’s something I’m looking forward to discussing in depth, both in the webinar and at APTLD90.

Whether you’re attending the webinar or heading to Mongolia in September, I’m looking forward to the conversation.