Program Ensures Global Representation at ICANN's Public Meetings 23 May 2012

MARINA DEL REY, California: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is now accepting online applications for the 17th round of the Fellowship program. Successful candidates will participate in the ICANN meeting to be held in Toronto, Canada from 14-18 October 2012.

The Fellowship program is open to applicants who are current residents of developing and least developed nations and interested in participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, constituencies and stakeholder groups. Priority is given to individuals new to the ICANN environment from government and the ccTLD community, as well as those from academic, civil, business and non-profit entities, which are NOT involved in or associated with other ICANN supported travel programs. The program provides the support and opportunity for these participants to gain knowledge on how to have their voices heard in the Internet community and ICANN. More information regarding terms and conditions, as well as eligibility is available online at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/ or email at fellowships@icann.org regarding any questions about this process or program.

The Fellowship program arranges the airfare, hotel and a stipend for those individuals selected to participate in this ICANN meeting. Recipients are expected to actively participate in and contribute to ICANN processes, both at the meeting and in the future. As always, registration for ICANN's meetings is free for anyone wanting to attend.

Applications for the meeting in Toronto will be accepted from 23:00 UTC on 23 May 2012 until 23:59 UTC on 8 July 2012. Successful candidates will be posted on the ICANN Fellowship webpage by 17 August 2012.

What Is ICANN?

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

Statement by Akram Atallah, COO 21 May 2012

The TLD Application System, or TAS, has reopened. All registered applicants can now log in, review and submit their applications.

The system will remain open until 23:59 GMT/UTC on 30 May 2012. Consistent with our previous practice and to allow the application window to open as soon as possible, two-hour maintenance windows have been scheduled as follows: 22 May at 16:30 GMT/UTC, 25 May at 23:00 UTC, and 29 May at 22:00 UTC.

Applicants are encouraged to review "Top Things Users Should Know When TAS Reopens," posted on the new gTLD microsite at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/tas/top-ten. The document provides advice on logging into and completing applications, submitting wire transfers, and contacting customer service with any issues users might encounter.

During the last few weeks, we have fixed the technical glitch that caused us to take the system offline. Also, to address user feedback, we have improved the overall system performance and the HTML preview function.

In our continuing review of the system logs and system traffic, we determined that in two instances, a single file might have been temporarily unavailable to an applicant. Full access to those two files has been restored. ICANN notified the affected users.

We recognize and regret the inconvenience caused by this glitch and the delayed closing of the application window.

18 May 2012

Based upon the Board Resolutions resulting from the recent Special Meeting of the Board of Directors held in Amsterdam on 6 May 2012, the adopted 2012-2015 Strategic Plan [PDF, 864 KB] is now posted.

2012-2015 Strategic Plan

• English [PDF, 864 KB]
• ??????? - coming soon
• ?? - coming soon
• Français - coming soon
• Español - coming soon
• ??????? - coming soon

During the Special Meeting of the Board of Directors held in Amsterdam the Board approved the July 2012-June 2015 Strategic Plan, and directed the President and CEO to move forward with the Internationalization survey and community-based operational planning process based on the strategic objectives as set forth in the plan. The aspects of the 2012-2015 Strategic Plan that cover the expansion of ICANN's international presence and engagement efforts are deferred pending further direction from the Board.

Rationale for Resolution 2012.05.06.06

To remain accountable to the global Internet community, the Board is taking this action to allow for community input on the further planning for ICANN's international presence and engagement. There has been a community survey on these items, and a paper will be produced that will be the subject of public comment and discussion. In addition, continued work towards these efforts as set forth in the 2011-2014 Strategic Plan is not prudent, therefore those portions of the 2011-2014 Strategic Plan are deferred.

After review of these inputs, and as appropriate to respond to inputs, initiatives to expand ICANN's international presence and engagement may be updated within the 2012-2015 Strategic Plan, and included within the 2012-2013 Operating Plan. In order to allow for the 2012-2013 operational planning cycle to proceed, the Board approves the 2012-2015 Strategic Plan.

While there will likely be a fiscal impact as a result of this work, the fiscal impact of undertaking the survey and review process is minimal. Further, the deferral of current initiatives within the 2011-2012 Operating Plan regarding the further allocation or reallocation of staff and resources that relate to ICANN's international presence and engagement prior to the Prague Meeting will preserve resources from having to be reallocated as necessary after this review is complete.

This action is not expected to have any impact on the security or the stability of the DNS.

This version of the Strategic Plan includes extensive community feedback, including a 45-day Public Comment period (10.3.11 – 11.17.11). Many thanks to the Community for its continued support and input.

ICANN's Strategic Plan is a three-year rolling, annually updated strategic planning process and feeds in to the larger ICANN planning process as the adopted Strategic Plan guides the development of the FY13 Operating Plan and Budget.

18 May 2012 Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 18 May 2012 Categories/Tags: Policy Processes; Transparency/Accountability; Reviews/Improvements; Participation; Events/Conferences Purpose (Brief): ICANN Language Services is submitting for public comment the draft Language Services Policy and Procedures. The purpose of this document, although implicit in its title, is to establish policies and procedures for all services related to languages – translation, simultaneous interpretation, teleconference interpretation, transcription (of recorded sessions) and RTT (real-time-transcription, also known as scribing). Public Comment Box Link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/language-services-policy-18may12-en.htm

18 May 2012

A new instance of L-Root has been installed in Odessa, Ukraine, increasing the Domain Name System's (DNS) overall fault tolerance and its resilience against certain types of cyber threats, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

The launch of the server node is a joint operation between ICANN and Ukrainian domain registry Hostmaster. DNS Root Servers form a key part of the Internet infrastructure that contribute to the global security and stability of the DNS.

"Odessa is one of the largest Ukrainian cities, with one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the country," said Dmitry Kohmanyuk, a Hostmaster official. "Moreover, the Internet provider we opted for has quality connections to Western Ukraine, which is precisely why we decided to deploy the node there."

Hostmaster, the Ukrainian administrator of the .UA domain, supplied the equipment necessary for the installation of the new L-Root node.

"In addition to the newest L-Root server in Odessa, two other L-Root nodes, in Kyiv and Kharkiv, were also deployed through collaboration between ICANN and Hostmaster." said Joe Abley, Director of DNS Operations at ICANN."

17 May 2012

The Following Public Comment periods are approaching their Comment or Reply Period Close dates, May 17-27 2012. As a member of the ICANN community, your timely feedback is critical to our accountability and transparency efforts. For your convenience, we have included direct links below to comments that will soon close.

During the Reply period for Public Comments, participants should only address previous comments submitted and new posts concerning the topic should not be introduced. When constructing Replies, contributors are asked to cite the original poster's name, comment date, and any particular text that is pertinent.

Please note that comments submitted after the posted Close Date/Time are not guaranteed to be considered in any final summary, analysis, reporting, or decision-making that takes place once that period ends.

For more information please refer to the ICANN Public Comments page at: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment

Title Comment Period Close Date [UTC Time] Reply Period Close Date [UTC Time] Second Annual IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process Review 30 April 2012 [23:59] 21 May 2012 [23:59] ICANN Draft FY13 Operating Plan and Budget 24 May 2012 [23:59] 15 June 2012 [23:59] IDN Variant TLD Program - Revised Program Plan 25 May 2012 [23:59] 15 June 2012 [23:59]

Statement by Akram Atallah, COO 17 May 2012

As we announced last week, ICANN is targeting 22 May 2012 as the reopening date for the TLD Application System, or TAS. Specifically, we are targeting 19:00 GMT/UTC on 22 May for the reopening.

When we took the system offline on 12 April, just over twelve hours remained in the application window. We anticipate keeping TAS open for eight full days to allow users to review their applications and complete any remaining activities. We expect to close TAS at 23:59 GMT/UTC on 30 May 2012.

We appreciate the community’s continued interest and feedback on the TAS interruption.

17 May 2012 Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 17 May 2012 Categories/Tags: Security/Stability Purpose (Brief): ICANN is seeking community feedback on a draft statement of ICANN’s Role and Remit in Security, Stability & Resiliency of the Internet’s Unique Identifier Systems. This is intended to provide a clear and enduring explanation of ICANN’s role and remit in this area, and also will inform ICANN’s consideration of the Security, Stability & Resiliency of the DNS Review Team’s draft Recommendations #1 and #3. Public Comment Box Link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/draft-ssr-role-remit-17may12-en.htm

16 May 2012

ICANN is immediately seeking expressions of interest for the 2012-2013 Nominating Committee (NomCom) Chair-Elect.

In accordance with the Bylaws, "[i]t is anticipated that upon the conclusion of the term of the Chair-Elect, the Chair-Elect will be appointed by the Board to the position of Chair." See Article VII, section 3.4.

The Chair-Elect is a position created within the Bylaws as an outcome of the independent review of the NomCom. The Chair-Elect position is not a replacement of the Advisor to the NomCom Chair, and is not intended to fill an advisory role. Rather, the Chair-Elect will receive the benefit of training while serving alongside the Chair, gaining skills and knowledge to be applied for the Chair-Elect's anticipated succession into the role of the Chair. Candidates for Chair-Elect should possess the same skills as candidates for the Chair.

For more information about the NomCom see: http://nomcom.icann.org/

Position Description – Nominating Committee Chair

This position blends time management and negotiation skills with the practical aspects of conducting a world-wide search for individuals to fill various ICANN leadership positions. The NomCom Chair will be called on to schedule, organize and lead numerous in-person and telephonic meetings with a large committee of community members. The NomCom Chair is also responsible for managing the candidate identification and statement of interest process, with other committee members, and for managing the due diligence to be performed on nominated candidates, in cooperation with ICANN's General Counsel and any retained outside firm(s). Throughout all NomCom activities, the Chair is responsible for ensuring that all NomCom operating rules and procedures are followed, and that all required documentation and reports are prepared in a timely fashion and provided to the proper parties as necessary.

Skills and Experience

To properly serve as the NomCom Chair, the selected individual must have:

(i) adequate time available to undertake the role;

(ii) excellent communication and negotiation skills to manage a committee of 20-21 members;

(iii) a clear understanding of the duties and responsibilities of each position for which the NomCom is selecting candidates;

(iv) experience on or with a Board of Directors of organizations with similar scale, scope and diversity as ICANN;

(v) strong organization and leadership skills;

(vi) ability to remain unbiased;

(vii) no conflicts of interest, and

(viii) a thorough understanding of, and satisfy, all criteria set forth in ICANN Bylaws relating to the NomCom (see http://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/bylaws#VII).

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

1. Plans and schedules NomCom meetings as required, including ensuring posting schedules for public review. Please see attached for a Listing of the NomCom activities.

2. Appoints non-voting Associate Chair if so desired.

3. Reports to ICANN Board and the community on status of the NomCom.

4. Prepares and publishes the NomCom report.

5. Ensures that NomCom operating rules and procedures are followed.

6. Manages NomCom Selection Process, including:

   1. Approves outreach/advertising methods for attracting candidates.

   2. Conducts outreach with ICANN Constituencies, ACs and SOs (with Chairs of those groups), ICANN Board, and others.

   3. With other committee members, reviews and evaluates candidate Statements of Interest (SOIs) and references submitted during NomCom process

   4. Coordinates due diligence on nominated candidates in cooperation with ICANN's General Counsel and any outside firm(s) retained to perform due diligence activities.

7. Approves posting of NomCom announcements and schedules on ICANN website.

8. Ensures NomCom records are properly established, maintained and archived.

Eligibility Exclusion

No person who is an employee of or is a paid consultant to ICANN (including the Ombudsman) shall simultaneously serve as a member of the NomCom, including the post of Chair or Chair-Elect.

Expenses

All reasonable travel expenses and administrative costs incurred as a result of performing the duties as NomCom Chair or Chair-Elect in accordance with ICANN's policies will be reimbursed by ICANN upon the Chair or Chair-Elect's submission to ICANN of valid receipts and invoices.

Expressions of Interest

Expressions of Interest, which will be maintained as confidential, should be sent to NomComChairElect2013@icann.org no later than 20 June 2012.

16 May 2012

ICANN is issuing today a Request for Proposal [PDF, 183 KB] to identify a provider capable of providing an open source reference implementation of a Domain Name RESTful Whois server.

On 15 May 2012, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) chartered a new working group to standardize a RESTful-based Registration Data Access Protocol. In order to facilitate the evaluation and adoption of the replacement protocol for domain registries and registrars, ICANN is seeking proposals for an open source reference implementation.

Whois services, and their effectiveness in the case of Internationalized registration data, are important issues for ICANN. ICANN has been working to make advances in this area, appreciating the technical community's past and present contributions, and committed to collaborating with the technical and policy community to improve the Whois service.

Beginning in 2002, ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) published various advisories describing the needs for improvement related to the Whois protocol, service and data schema, most recently SAC 051 [PDF, 237 KB]: SSAC Report on Domain Name Whois Terminology and Structure. SAC 051 summarizes the previous advisories, and among other things, recommends that the ICANN community evaluate and adopt a replacement protocol that supports the query and display of Internationalized registration data as well as addressing the relevant recommendations in past SSAC advisories on this topic.

Respondents are requested to respond to this RFP by replying to: rws-opensource@icann.org. The period to submit questions about the RFP will close on 5 June 2012. ICANN will provide answers to all questions submitted to all respondents by 7 June 2012. The final response to the RFP is due on 15 June 2012.

16 May 2012

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat
(gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details.

Whether you plan to participate in the upcoming ICANN meeting in Prague remotely or in person, you're invited to an update on the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion in ICANN.

The ICANN Policy Staff will provide a briefing on Thursday 14 June at 12.00 UTC and Thursday 14 June at 19.00 UTC, summarizing policy issues across the different ICANN Supporting Organizations, namely the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and Address Supporting Organization (ASO). Amongst other topics, updates will be provided on:

• Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy
• WHOIS
• RAA Improvements
• Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation
• Study Group on Use of Names for Countries and Territories
• Framework of Interpretation Working Group for the delegation and re-delegation of ccTLDs
• Joint DNS Security and Stability Analysis Working Group
• Participation and Engagement activities in Prague

In addition, staff will provide a briefing on the ALAC's activities related to current policy development issues of the Supporting Organizations.

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Each session, scheduled to run for 90 minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session. During the course of the webinar, questions may be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in either of the live sessions, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting. The policy staff is always available to answer any questions that you email to policy-staff@icann.org.

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details. Please indicate which call you would like to join, Thursday at 12.00 UTC or Thursday at 19.00 UTC (to convert those times into your local time, see: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html). We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff members e-mail address.

16 May 2012 Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 16 May 2012 Categories/Tags:

Contracted Party Agreements

Purpose (Brief):

ICANN is posting a proposed revision to the process that allows existing registry operators to request removal of cross-ownership restrictions for the gTLDs that they operate. The revision will allow existing gTLD registries to own or control registrars that sell domain names in their own, existing registry. (More detail is provided below.)

Commencing a public comment period on the proposed revised process at this time is intended to solicit community input for Board consideration of the revised process.

Public Comment Box Link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/revised-cross-ownership-restrictions-16may12-en.htm

15 May 2012

As part of ICANN's review of its conflicts of interest and ethics practices, on 6 May 2012 the ICANN Board approved revisions to the Board Conflicts of Interest Policy, the Code of Conduct and Expected Standards of Behavior. The Board also approved new Corporate Governance Guidelines, a flexible framework document that collects the sources of corporate governance requirements that ICANN follows. For more information on how each of these documents applies within ICANN, please refer to this explanatory memo [PDF, 128 KB].

These four documents were prepared after a review of ICANN's corporate governance documents, and the resulting recommendations as to how the documents could be improved in light of best practices in corporate governance, while still reflecting the needs of ICANN. Each of the documents were posted for public comment in March 2011. They represent just the first stage of ICANN's approach to the Conflicts of Interest and Ethics review. The ongoing work within ICANN on conflicts of interest and ethics practices may result in identification of additional changes to these exact documents. Further, in approving these revised or newly created documents, the Board has recognized that further modifications may be necessary – these are living documents that should be reviewed and amended from time to time to reflect changes within ICANN, as well as to best practices in corporate governance.

Other Work on Conflicts of Interest and Ethics

As reported by ICANN, there are two other portions of its review of conflicts of interest and ethics practices. One of those portions was asking Cooley LLC, a law firm with expertise in corporate governance issues and that is new to ICANN, to perform a review of ICANN's corporate governance practices. Cooley produced two reports:

• First Report on Corporate Governance [PDF, 401 KB] (3 October 2011, revised on 27 April 2012) and
• Second Report on Corporate Governance [PDF, 767 KB] (17 April 2012)

The action items arising out of the first report, including compiling ICANN's corporate governance document in one section of the ICANN website, providing dates of amendment for documents such as the Code of Conduct, have been adopted. In addition, ICANN asked Cooley to undertake recommended research, which resulted in the Second Report.

In the Second Report, Cooley conduced a comparative review of ICANN's documentation to the governance documentation of leading institutions. While Cooley noted that ICANN's policies are aligned with essential governance principles, it also noted that there may be room for improvement. Two specific recommendations for improvement followed: ICANN should consider revising its guidebook for employees to ensure that policies covering unethical behavior and complaints are satisfactorily covered; and ICANN should consider adopting a policy to deal with repeat offenders of its ethical and governance standards. ICANN has already begun work with outside counsel to review its employee policies and procedures, which will take Cooley's recommendation into account, and work is ongoing to determine how the recommendation to address "repeat offenders" can be implemented.

15 May 2012

The ICANN Board has ratified the Global Policy Proposal for Post Exhaustion IPv4 Allocation Mechanisms by the IANA as sent by the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) Council to the ICANN Board on 13 March 2012. The proposal was posted for public comment from 14 March 2012 through 4 April 2012, during which time no comments were submitted. The Global Policy allows the Regional Internet Registries to return IPv4 address space to an IANA-managed pool from which equal parts will be allocated to all five RIRs in a deterministic manner on a regular schedule, once triggered. http://www.icann.org/en/news/in-focus/global-addressing/allocation-ipv4-post-exhaustion. ICANN staff will be taking all necessary steps to implement the Global Policy.

14 May 2012

ICANN is delighted to announce that Professor Alain Pellet has agreed to serve as the Independent Objector for the New Generic Top-level domain program. The Independent Objector will act solely in the interests of the public who use the global Internet.

Professor Pellet's credentials and experience are an ideal fit for this key role. He is a highly regarded professor and practitioner of law and has represented governments as Counsel and Advocate in the International Court of Justice in many significant and well-known cases. He is widely published and holds several significant honors.

ICANN's formal search for an Independent Objector began with the posting of a Request for Proposals in November 2011. We also advertised, utilized the services of a global recruiting firm and welcomed word-of-mouth recommendations. Numerous candidates were interviewed and considered throughout the search process.

Acting solely in the best interests of global Internet users, the Independent Objector may lodge Limited Public Interest and Community objections in cases where no other objection is made to an application that the Independent Objector deems to be objectionable.

More information about the Independent Objector role can be found in the new gTLD Applicant Guidebook.

More information about Professor Pellet, including his curriculum vitae, can be found at: http://www.alainpellet.eu

We are honored by Professor's Pellet's agreement to participate in ICANN and this program.

11 May 2012

The Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), in cooperation with ICANN has completed an improvement to the Internet infrastructure that increases the resilience to potential abuse or attacks on Domain Name Service (DNS) by boosting name resolution capacity.

NIC.br has installed 14 new anycast copies of ICANN's L-Root server, which were originally installed in California.

"This new infrastructure reduces response time in Brazil for domains from all over the world," said Frederico Neves, director of technology services at the NIC.br. "But its most relevant impact is greatly increasing security, by distributing international connectivity to the name resolution service independently and at the root of the Internet in the country."

As of today, L-Root copies operate together with .br servers at Internet Exchange Points (PTTMetro) across Brazil. Of the 20 current locations for those points, 14 will reap benefits from this latest infrastructure improvement.

"Root name servers are a critical part of the Internet's infrastructure," said Joe Abley, Director of ICANN's DNS Group. "These new servers distributed across Brazil are part of a global effort to improve DNS response time, security and general stability for all users."

11 May 2012 Forum Announcement: Comment Period Opens on Date: 11 May 2012 Categories/Tags:

Reviews/Improvements
WHOIS Policy
Transparency/Accountability

Purpose (Brief): The WHOIS Policy Review Team, constituted under ICANN's Affirmation of Commitments (AoC) agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, submitted its Final Report and Recommendations [PDF, 1.44 MB] to the ICANN Board and this document has been posted for public comment. Public Comment Box Link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/whois-rt-final-report-11may12-en.htm

10 May 2012

The Following Public Comment periods are approaching their Comment or Reply Period Close dates, May 10-20 2012. As a member of the ICANN community, your timely feedback is critical to our accountability and transparency efforts. For your convenience, we have included direct links below to comments that will soon close.

During the Reply period for Public Comments, participants should only address previous comments submitted and new posts concerning the topic should not be introduced. When constructing Replies, contributors are asked to cite the original poster's name, comment date, and any particular text that is pertinent.

Please note that comments submitted after the posted Close Date/Time are not guaranteed to be considered in any final summary, analysis, reporting, or decision-making that takes place once that period ends.

For more information please refer to the ICANN Public Comments page at: http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment

Title Comment Period Close Date [UTC Time] Reply Period Close Date [UTC Time] Security, Stability & Resiliency of the DNS Review Team (SSR RT) - Draft Report 8 April 2012 Extended to 15 April 2012 [23:59] 7 May 2012 [23:59] Extended to 14 May 2012 [23:59] Fake Renewal Notices Report 20 April 2012 [23:59] 11 May 2012 [23:59] .com Registry Agreement Renewal 26 April 2012 [23:59] 17 May 2012 [23:59] .post Agreement Amendment 9 May 2012 [23:59] 30 May 2012 [23:59]

Statement by Akram Atallah, COO 9 May 2012

As we announced yesterday, ICANN has provided notice to all users to let them know whether they may have been affected by the technical glitch in the TLD application system, or TAS.

We sent an email [PDF, 41 KB] to each TAS user asking them to log in to the notification system and view whether they may have been affected. Notifications were delivered to the 1,275 registered TAS users in four categories.

The categories, along with links to the corresponding notification template, break down as follows:

1. Users who did not have file names or usernames viewed [PDF, 72 KB]: 1,163
2. Users who had one or more file names and/or user names that may have been viewed by another user [PDF, 73 KB]: 72.
3. Users who may have seen the file names and/or usernames of one or more other users [PDF, 73 KB]: 30.
4. Users who had one or more file names and/or user names that may have been viewed, and who also may have been able to see file name and/or username information of other users [PDF, 75 KB]: 10.

Users whose file names and/or user names may have been viewed were provided with the details of the relevant information.

As we announced yesterday, we are targeting 22 May 2012 as the intended reopening date for TAS, and anticipate a 30 May closing.

We understand and regret the inconvenience that the glitch has caused.

Statement by Akram Atallah, COO 8 May 2012

ICANN is targeting 22 May 2012 as the intended reopening date for the TLD Application System. It is anticipated that the system would remain open for five business days and close on 30 May. This takes account of the 28 May Memorial Day holiday in the United States.

We took TAS offline following a technical glitch that may have allowed some users to see some file names and user names of other users. We have seen no evidence that any TAS user intentionally did anything wrong in order to be able to see other users' information.

We have met our commitment to provide notice to all users on or before 8 May 2012 by sending out notifications today.

The large majority of users are unaffected by the glitch. We continue to review the extensive database of system logs and system traffic, and any new and relevant information that emerges from this analysis will be shared with applicants in a timely way.

Even as late as yesterday, 7 May 2012, our packet-level research uncovered a new set of instances (in addition to those previously announced) where another applicant might have viewed a set of system-generated file names. It is possible that further analysis will also show that some of the parties that we have notified were not affected, but notice was provided out of an abundance of caution.

We thank everyone for your patience and apologize for the inconvenience the delay has caused.