ICANN Issues Advice to IT Professionals on Name Collision Identification and Mitigation
ICANN, the international body responsible for oversight of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), has issued comprehensive advice to IT professionals worldwide on how to proactively identify and manage an issue known as “domain name collision”.
In a report titled Name Collision Identification and Mitigation for IT Professionals, ICANN explains the nature and causes of name collision and proposes a range of possible solutions.
A name collision occurs when an attempt to resolve a name that is used in a private name space (e.g., under a non-delegated Top Level Domain, or a short, unqualified name) results in a query to the public DNS. To explain the issue using an analogy, consider calling for “Mary” in your office where you’ve assumed there’s only one “Mary”, and then calling out “Mary” in a shopping mall and expecting that “office Mary” will respond.
Domain name collisions are not new. However, with up to 1,300 new generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) being introduced over the next year, there is an increased level of concern and ICANN is ensuring that IT professionals are aware of the issue. The ICANN report addresses some concerns that a number of applied-for new TLDs may be identical to names used in private name spaces.
The report explains how DNS queries leak into the global DNS from private name spaces and how these leaks can have unintended consequences. It shows that private networks will consistently, stably, and reliably perform name resolution when they use Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and resolve them from the global DNS, and proposes methods to migrate to FQDNs.
The report recommends that every organization that is not already using FQDNs from the public DNS should consider the following strategy:
- Monitor name services, compile a list of private TLDs or short unqualified names you use internally, and compare the list you create against the list of new TLD strings.
- Formulate a plan to mitigate causes of leakage.
- Prepare users for the impending change in name usage by notifying them in advance or providing training
- Implement your plan to mitigate the potential collision
The release of this advice to IT professionals is the result of several months of diligent work by ICANN’s staff, subject matter experts, the ICANN Executive Team and the Board of Directors.
The report, along with additional useful information and resources, can be found at: http://www.icann.org/en/help/name-collision.