ICANN issues breach notice to .top registry operator

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is threatening to cancel its contract with the company that’s responsible for the .top registry top-level domain name.

ICANN, a nonprofit organization responsible for the issuance and maintenance of IP addresses and top-level domain names (TLDs), received five separate complaints over the last few months regarding .top TLD.

The company says in a breach notice that the .top registry operator didn’t respond to malicious conduct in the top-level domain, including DNS abuse reports. Research showed that the operator doesn’t have a process in place to “promptly, comprehensively, and reasonably” investigate and act on reports of DNS abuse.

In addition, .top registry “blatantly and repeatedly” failed to respond to multiple requests submitted by the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) provider prior to contacting ICANN.

Lastly, ICANN complains about the operator’s failure to pay fees on a timely basis.

ICANN demands that the .top registry operator delivers a detailed description on how it will act on requests of URS providers within a timely manner in the future. The registry’s operator also has to provide information related to malicious conduct in the TLD on its website.

Furthermore, the .top registry operator must formulate a procedure on how it will receive, assess, and act on reports of DNS abuse. Finally, the company has to pay all past and current bills that are due.

The .top registry operator has til August 15 to take action and solve these issues. If not, then ICANN will commence the termination process that will kill all websites with a .top TLD.

Spamhaus, an organization that combats spammers, points out that .top TLDs are associated with all sorts of criminal activities, including spamming, phishing, spreading malware, and hosting botnet command and control servers.

“Cleary having waited for years, this wasn’t a .TOP priority for ICANN until non-payment became an issue,” Spamhaus says in a statement on X.

With over 3.2 million domain name registrations, .top is one of the most popular TLDs in the world.