Today's Guest: Krista Papic
Today's Host: John Bentley
January 2008
Listen to this Show
Publish this Show on Your Website
Show Sponsor www.traverselegal.com
ICANN ESCROW PROGRAM
Krista Papic Transcript Page
Krista Papic Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to VTalk Radio Tech Spotlight, with your host, Damien Allen. This program is sponsored by Traverse Legal, PLC, a law firm specializing in internet law, domain disputes, and technology company representation. That's Traverse Legal, www.traverselegal.com.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Tech Spotlight we have sales executive of Iron Mountain Digital of Southborough, Massachusetts, Krista Pappick, in the studio with us. Welcome to the program, Krista.
KRISTA: Thank you. Good morning.
JOHN: Now our subject matter today is the ICANN Registrar Escrow Program. Let's start from the top. Tell us about Iron Mountain and what does the company do, and what is it's relationship with ICANN?
KRISTA: Sure. Iron Mountain is in the records management and storage business, and we have been for over 55 years, and the company is...it started off in the paper business and has certainly migrated into digital storage and all of the things that go along with that, and a few years ago, ICANN saw a need to start storing the records that are really the contact records for people that own domain names across the internet, and they started off with requiring registrees to deposit this data with a third party provider in the even that there was a registry failure. So the relationship that Iron Mountain Digital has with ICANN is that we have, for a number of years now, been providing digital storage services for them where we store the records for the registrees that are under the GTLD program at ICANN, and there's been a need to start storing the registrar data records and so ICANN, you know, put out a request for proposal. They've actually been crafting this program for a number of years trying to put something together and had requested proposals from a number of bidders looking for an agent that could actually receive the data and store the records for them and partner with them in an effort to make sure that these valuable domain name contact ownership details are being stored somewhere in the event that there's some sort of failure of a registrar and so through the RP process, Iron Mountain was selected to be their agent, and we are working very closely with them to help roll out this program and ensure that it's going to bring a lot of value to the community.
JOHN: Ok, now Krista, what is the escrow service which was the subject of your recent press release?
KRISTA: Sure. Essentially what it is is there are over 900 registrars in the GTLD domain name space, and these registrars are providing registration services to domain name owners around the globe and one of the things that has come up is that, well it hasn't come up, it's actually been around for a long time, is some of the registries out there don't store all of the details as to who owns the domain name records and so the data is being stored at over 900 businesses and so what the escrow service is it's a vehicle by which those records can be backed up to a third party provider, Iron Mountain digital, and stored here in the event that something were to happen to one of those registrars, those records would be retrievable. We would know who owns the domain name, well not we, but ICANN would know who owns the domain name, and they would be in a position to stand up that data all over again, and contact those people so that they don't lose their domain name, their website don't go down, those kinds of things.
JOHN: So that was why the escrow service was put in place then, for kind of a backup.
KRISTA: Exactly, as a back up and ICANN is one of the things that they're charged with...or one of the sort of the core penances of their business is that they're responsible for protecting the stability and security of the DNS, and, I mean, and part of that is knowing who owns domain name records and so this is something that's been rolled out because it's the right thing for the community. It's important and it helps them to stay on target and focus on their goal of ensuring the security and stability of the DNS.
JOHN: So what other problems does this solve by having a backup like this?
KRISTA: Really the true main problem and it is a big one is for the records that the data is not already stored somewhere else or contained in some other file, it solves the problem of, again, if there's a registrar failure who owns XYZ. com or you know, whatever the domain name may be, and being able to contact that person and allow them to move their records to somewhere else. So the core problem that it solves for the registrars they certainly have their own disaster recovery and continuity programs, but certainly knowing that there is a secondary or even a third or fourth place that their data is being stored, I mean, I would think that there's quite a bit of value that comes from that or a little bit of value I should say that comes from that. And again, I mean, I think it just helps ICANN to stay focused and on target with one of their core missions.
JOHN: And how does this work?
KRISTA: Sure. Right now, registrars are being asked to elect an escrow provider. They have the ability, you know, they have the option of electing Iron Mountain, ICANN's agent, or they can go with the third party provider of their choice and there's a process for that that's been established; however, we're finding that registrars are really embracing the program and are very excited about it and you know so far have just had nothing but positive response which is nice, but once they elect Iron Mountain and then contract with us, they're being asked to submit their data through a secure file transfer protocol process and the data is encrypted and compressed and gets transmitted to us and then once we receive the data, we run some analysis on it in a temporary environment and just make sure that the data doesn't appear to be corrupt or invalid and then once that's been completed we're storing the data for one year and there's two different buckets, if you will, of registrar transmission. One is for registrars that, you know, they're regulating the space on the number of transactions and so one of...registrars with a certain level of transactions are being required to transmit their data one time per week and registrars that have certainly a higher volume of transactions are transmitting a full deposit once a week or a full transmission once a week and then daily incremental transmissions cause certainly if they're affecting that many domain names every day we don't want to go six days without the data. And then like I said, we're storing the data for a year, and it's in very secure environment that's located a couple hundred feet below the earth and has a security level for rate A.
JOHN: Now, how does all this improve the security of this information?
KRISTA: The fact that the data is going to be stored with a neutral third party and in an extremely secure environment that's redundant and, you know, has all of the things it's supposed to have and then some, and that in the event of a registrar failure, ICANN is entitled to collect that data and either stand it up themselves or give it to another registrar to stand up. It's improving the security from the prospective of domain name owners, and even if you could imagine, you know, somebody who's got a website which often times is the case that is a commerce site, if that data is not accessible, the domain name eventually just gets deleted, because there's nobody to...if it...we don't have the contact data, you know, nobody can contact that person and say you need to renew the domain name please pay us. So it's protecting registrant security.
JOHN: And what problems does this solve for the registrars?
KRISTA: For the registrars, you know, I mean for them, the majority of registrars, it's not all of them, I mean, I don't really know them personally, so it's not for me to say, but they're running great businesses, and they're taking good care of their customers, and for them to be able to say to their customers not only are we a great option for you and, you know, this is the place to have your domain names, and whatever their sales pitch may be, they can also assure their registrants that the data is being protected and stored in a place with a third party provider that's neutral, you now, it stays there privately unless something happens and in the event something happens, your data is not going to be lost, and I think that's important. Especially in the internet space where, how all this works is pretty foreign to a lot of these domain name owners, and so if they get that additional security from the registrar and the registrar can put that out there, I think that that is a great marketing tool and value add that they can offer to their customers.
JOHN: Ok now have you tested the system? Is there a way to test the system?
KRISTA: Yeah, one of the things that ICANN feels is really important, and of course, Iron Mountain agrees is we've been storing data like this Iron Mountain Digital for a long time and we've been doing it for the registrees for 6 coming on 7 years now, but a registry has never failed which is great news for everybody, by the way. So we've never had to release the data, and that's a good thing, but it's important especially in the registrar community where you have a lot of smaller businesses and it's a different type of community, it's important that we do test the data and that we do make sure that if in the event of a registrar failure that the data can be released and it can be done effectively and that something can be done with it and so part of our implementation process and really our project plan includes there's a big piece of it is included testing...simulating a release and testing a release of the data and sending it to ICANN and then ICANN, you know, working with that. So it absolutely worked out to make sure that it would work, and we're approaching first from a process perspective so just testing the process to make sure it works and going through the different steps because you know, certainly we don't really stay at it just because somebody calls up, there's multiple levels of security so, you know, going through that process and then sending a file to ICANN and going from there. And then the next step in the testing is going to be a stress test which is stealing lists, a large data release. Making sure that as great as the process works when there is, you know, 1,000 records, but does it work if there's, you know, 500,000 records or a million records or whatever it may be. So the testing...there is a way to test it and that's what we're doing.
JOHN: Any closing thoughts you want to share with our listening audience today, Krista?
KRISTA: The Register Data Escrow Program is a really important program and it is going to bring great value, I think, to the internet community and Iron Mountain Digital is thrilled to have been chosen as the provider, and we feel very strongly that we're the right company for the job. We have the expertise and the experience and the relationship that we have with ICANN and the community continues to grow, of course, but is one of a partnership, and we feel very privileged to be in this position and to be offering this valuable service to the internet community, because we understand the importance of it.
JOHN: Well, I want to thank you, Krista Pappick, for joining us today on VTalk Radio Tech Spotlight.
KRISTA: Thank you.
JOHN: We have been in the studio today with sales executive of Iron Mountain Digital of Southborough, Massachusetts, Krista Pappick, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Tech Spotlight. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great afternoon everyone.
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to VTalk Radio Tech Spotlight, with your host, Damien Allen. This program is sponsored by Traverse Legal, PLC, a law firm specializing in internet law, domain disputes, and technology company representation. That's Traverse Legal, www.traverselegal.com.
ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio Tech Spotlight. Only on vtalkradio.com; radio for the 21st century.
go to top of the page
