ICANN invites public comment on first draft report on name collision

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has launched a public consultation on a draft report presenting the findings for Study 1 of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP). Name collision refers to the situation where a name that is defined and used in one namespace may also appear in another. Study 1 concerns name collisions in the context of top-level domains (TLDs), where the conflicting namespaces are (a) the global Internet Domain Name System (DNS) namespace reflected in the root zone overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Function; and (b) any other namespace, regardless of whether that other namespace is intended for use with the DNS or any other protocol. In 2017, the ICANN Board asked the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) to study the impact of name collisions and advise the Board on their effects and possible needed measures. Study 1 is part of the NCAP work carried out by SSAC to respond to the Board request. The draft report placed under public consultation covers, among other elements, a review of previous work on name collission issues, evidence of harm caused by name collisions, and mitigation techniques and their technical impact.