Unified Domain Blocking Service Protecting Brands Online | GlobalBlock
Tony Kirsch
ICANN’s 87th public meeting in Bali, Indonesia brought a refreshing mix of new and returning faces to a beautiful venue for a week of discussion and knowledge sharing.
The recent Reveal Day publication of new gTLD applications drove an influx of new attendees to ICANN. Many discussions centered on how gTLD contention will play out over the next 12 months, as well as ongoing uncertainties around auction processes and timelines for applicants.
The BSA conducted more than 45 meetings across four days, providing an excellent opportunity to connect with registries and agents as well as new contacts and prospective partners. This included applicants from the second new gTLD round, eager to understand the benefits of proactive abuse prevention in their registries.
Abuse was high on the agenda across many discussions at ICANN87, covering issues and opportunities such as associated domains checks for DNS abuse mitigation, preparations for new policy development on registrations at scale, enforcement of existing contractual requirements, and proactive detection.
Sessions on proactive measures explored how automated monitoring and domain clustering, combined with analyst review, can target malicious infrastructure early, rather than waiting for individual abuse reports. However, the BSA continues to push for options that reduce namespace abuse before it can occur in the first place.
In our meetings, registries across both ccTLDs and gTLDs showed significant interest in this approach. This is a key focus area for the BSA moving into 2027, and we were pleased to share some of our upcoming product and service plans with namespace operators.
Overall, this was a well-attended meeting and the BSA was once again grateful to connect with our GlobalBlock community and the wider domain industry to discuss trending issues and opportunities.
Leona Chen-Birkner
APTLD90 brought the Asia Pacific domain name community to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia last month, with ccTLD registries, technical operators, policy specialists and other members of the regional internet community coming together to discuss the challenges shaping the future of the domain name system.
Tony Kirsch
When the domain name industry meets in Bali this October, it will mark a time of significant change and opportunity for the ICANN community. Following the application period for the second round of new gTLDs, ICANN will publish its full list of prospective TLDs and their applicants, likely just prior to its Annual General Meeting from October 17-22.
Jason Loyer
When the BSA team attended INTA’s TMAP meeting in Berlin last year, much of the conversation around new TLDs and AI-driven domain abuse was anticipatory. The threat was real, but for many trademark professionals, it still felt like something on the horizon.
Tony Kirsch
From the early days of the Brand Safety Alliance, response to our mission from registries, registrars and brands in the Asia Pacific region has been strong. Many registries have chosen to participate in GlobalBlock and are recognizing the benefits of stronger brand and IP defenses in improving registry health and protecting internet users by proactively stopping abuse before it occurs. In the coming months, our commitment to this community ramps up through several events in partnership with the Asia Pacific Top-Level Domain Association (APTLD). The BSA’s Leona Chen-Birkner will present a webinar to APTLD members, before giving a presentation at the upcoming APTLD90 meeting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in September.