ICANN participation

What it is | As noted by some within At-Large (as well as within other segments of the broader ICANN community), issues related to the security and stability of the Internet are of concern to the broadest community of Internet end-users.

A core component of ICANN’s mission is ensuring the stability and security of the domain name system and autonomous number system. There has been much debate concerning where ICANN’s mission begins and ends with respect to issues such as phishing, pharming, and spam.

Members of the ICANN community are exploring how ICANN could work within its remit to help reduce activities that use the DNS in criminal or fraudulent ways.

Two recent ICANN community discussions on security issues relate to Fast Flux Hosting and DNSSEC. Fast Flux Hosting is a practice whereby changes to the DNS entries for Internet sites are made very rapidly in order to “hide” them from attempts to take down sites engaged in fraudulent activity. Implementation of DNSSEC refers to a technical change to certain DNS operations designed to make the DNS more secure from abuse.

The At-Large community has yet to make authoritative statements on these subjects specifically, or to state its views on the dividing line between ICANN’s mission and issues outside that mission. Working Group 5 will take on the challenge and produce a statement for the first time.

Why it is important | The subjects being considered by this working group are of increasing interest for most ICANN stakeholders. Creating an authoritative statement related to these subjects will be an important contribution to the ICANN-wide debates.

Who should attend? | Summit delegates who are members of this working group, any participant in the Mexico City meetings interested in the subject matter.

Interpretation | There will be no simultaneous interpretation for this session.

Remote Participation Options|

1. Telephonic remote participation (English only)
2. Chat between remote participants and those in the room (English, Spanish, and French

   Chatroom: http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/summit-wg5/

Instructions on how to participate remotely may be found at this URL: https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?Remote%20Participation%20WG5

Summit Microsite | The At-Large Summit microsite has complete information at: http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit.

Working Group 5 Microsite | http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit/wg/security-en.htm.

Background on At-Large Summit Working Groups

The At-Large community was surveyed in December 2008 and January 2009 and asked to choose in order of importance from amongst 15 of the most important subjects under consideration in the ICANN community today.

Their top five choices overall are the subjects for five working groups that are tasked with drafting and coming to agreement on five statements on these important subjects during the course of the Summit.

Each Summit participant has been assigned to the working group that they selected as of most interest to them; accommodations were made to ensure regional balance and address language needs.

Background: What is the “At-Large Summit”?

The Mexico City meeting is a landmark for ICANN’s At-Large community (“At-Large” is the name used for the individual Internet user community participating in ICANN).

The whole At-Large community will be meeting together face-to-face in the ‘At-Large Summit’. Approximately 90 representatives of At-Large organisations (called “At-Large Structures”) are already confirmed. You will be able to spot them easily, as each will have a ribbon indicating their status as a Summit delegate attached to their ICANN meeting badges.

The Summit is being held 28 February through 5 March 2009 at the Mexico City Sheraton and also at the nearby Melia Mexico Reforma Hotel. All ICANN meeting attendees are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions, all of which are open to everyone.

As proposed by the At-Large community, the Summit has the following objectives:

• Develop the community’s capacity for engagement in ICANN by increasing its knowledge and understanding of the key issues confronting ICANN and ICANN’s roles and responsibilities;
• Provide an opportunity for the community to finalise and present its advice on some of the most important issues facing the ICANN community today; and last but not least,
• Highlight the successes of the community in recent years and build upon them to ensure that the interests of the world’s more than 1 billion individual Internet users are well represented in the development of Internet name and number policy.